Black Ops II, Surprisingly good

Communities Blog
1

Introduction

I've never been a real Call of Duty fan. I've never really liked the series as a whole. It's mostly just about shooting the things that are non-American. The stories were mostly like: Some foreigners stole a missile, either highly explosive, or highly explosive and nuclear, and the Americans want it back (to save the world, o' course). Now the multiplayer of these games has always been alright (as long as you make sure you've muted in-game voice chat...), but personally, I prefer the Counter Strike appeal of muliplayer way more.

 

Storyline & Singleplayer

But surprisingly (that word will be used quite a few times in this review) Black Ops II changes this routine... The story is nicely written (for a CoD story anyway), and there are even moral choise aspects wich will change the ending of missions, and result in one of six different endings, making it more replayable then any CoD game ever made by either Infinity Ward or TreyArch. For the first time in CoD history, the singleplayer storyline is actually worth a good look. That's something really, really suprising.

 

Gameplay

The gameplay hasn't changed much. It is still quite similar to other CoD games, but not in a bad way. It is still that game with an overload of action, explosions and chases, but that's what Black Ops II is all about, so there is nothing wrong with it; unless you prefer Kirby games on the Wii (you little girl). The horse and Strike Force sessions in the game are a nice touch, but aren't something that should change your opinion on the game as a whole. But something they've done quite nicely is the colourfullness in the game. Most of the CoD games are mostly dark and brown etc., but in Black Ops II there is a large amount of missions completely in day time, so the art design is way better visible then in other CoD games.

 

Graphics

This is one of the things Black Ops II doesn't score well on. The graphics are indeed better then previous CoD games, but are far from impressive. This, however, is not a really big deal, because most of the game isn't really aimed at people with Quad SLI or CrossFireX configurations. Also, the game seems to have some trouble with more screens, especially if they use different resolutions.

 

Multiplayer & Zombies

The multiplayer in Black Ops II is still a CoD multiplayer, but it changed slightly. For example, kill streaks are replaced with score streaks, which make the game a little more fair, and make sure players play a little bit more by the rules.

The Zombie mode has changed however. This involves way more tactical approach, and there are more fun things to do other than 'shooting the undead'. The new 'Tranzit' mode is really, really nice, but a for some reason the graphics here seem to be way worse then in the singleplayer.

 

Conclusion

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is certainly one of the best CoD games, with the nice storyline and the great zombie modes. However, there are still a few in game problems and the graphics are not really up to date. This does not take away that Black Ops II is worth a look, and may be even replayed, which has never happened to any other CoD game before.

Score: 8

 

2

I think you meant Infinity Ward where you said Activision.  Infinity Ward made all of the non-Treyarch Call of Duty games

3

I do know that, and I'll correct it, but most of the people are more familiar with Activision as publisher.

4

i know graphics isnt everything but to me teh game looks and feels like a two year old game, i think it is because they are still using that old game engine (i am not completly sure about that) but to me it surely feels and looks like it, i liked modern warfare 1 & 2 but i think black ops 2 feel like those semi-old games with nothing new to offer exept for new locations to play and other weapons but since (i think) its the same game engine its kinda like a old woman, no matter how much makeup you put on her she dosent get prettier :> that my oppion, sorry for the bad spelling and grammar... Lars from Denmark

5

yeah the game does look pretty good i really want to play it for zombies. 

6

The game looks like an improvement from the previous games but still not enough appeal for me, at this current time I have bigger priorities I want to spend my money on like Borderlands 2, Guildwars 2 etc...

7

I've really liked the game so far and as far as graphics go I believe Treyarch is trying to stick their style they have established, especially in Zombies, instead of going for over the top HD

8

they REALLY need to update the COD franchise, lately I've been converted to Battlefield just because of the prettyness of the thing (yes EA may lock up their developers and whip them but something nice came out the other end). AND THERE ARE NO HACKERS (well not as blatantly retarded as in MW3 anyways) which is a VERY nice change. not going back to cod unless they make it pretty and piss off all the hacker bastards!

9

I agree with you that after MW3 I switched to BF3, because it's just way better imo. But the storyline and singleplayer as a whole in BOII are just very good, so if you care about a singleplayer you definitely shouldn't skip BOII.

10

I honestly thought the graphics for this game were good. It's supposed to be slim and easy to scale on many hardware configs, and i feel like theyve done that. peoples faces look pretty damn detailed, and the facial animations for speaking and such were good as well, especially when considering its position as a genre. I honestly thought this was a damn fun game, and i havent played multiplayer yet.

11

As good as it may sound now, I'm still waiting my usual 2-3 months before (considering) buying. Normally that's when all the BS kicks in (camp spots found, glithces abused, etc.).

12

Once it drops from the $100 Australian (which will probably be never), it might actually be worth buying, for a change.

13

Wow, even in Europe it isn't that bad: 60 Eur -> 77.79 USD,

100 AUD -> 104.49 USD?! That's ridiculous!