Getting battered with the latest COD

Released on 13 November 2012, and amassing a whopping $500 million in sales within the first 24 hours of release, Treyarch re-emerge from the recesses of their first instalment of Call of Duty: Black Ops to give fans what they hope is the ‘next gen’ of COD gaming: Black Ops 2.

Subsequently, the campaign is nothing less than impressive. Written by famed screenwriter David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, Blade), the story flits between the 1980s and 2025, where the player steps into the shoes of Black Ops war-hero Alex Mason, and his son, David Mason. With intel from estranged war veteran Woods, David learns of his father’s operations concerning Raul Menendez – an emotionally-torn Nicaraguan terrorist on the verge of developing the ultimate destructive weapon – and is thrown into the deep end of a modern Cold War brewing between China and the US. State-of-the-art cyber warfare and artificial intelligence define the outcome of a volatile era in international relations.

The depth of characters explored in the form of a new, non-linear storyline brings the Call of Duty model into a new light of cinematic refinement. Custom load-outs within campaign missions and the all new ‘Strike force’ pathway prove exceptional additions to the standard COD campaign. If the new-age stuff gets too much, however, you can always try blowing a fully-loaded Russian apache out of the sky on good old horseback in the middle of an Afghan desert – not something much of us get up to enough these days, unfortunately.

In addition, the multiplayer experience is highly enjoyable. A total revamp of the class customisation system, selection of guns and kill-streaks, gives Black Ops 2 the space-age zeitgeist it intends to capture. Black Ops 2 also uses a point system to achieve ‘kill streaks’, as opposed to the previous ‘one man army’ method, which encourages movement and teamwork amongst players. Illustrious maps can see you calling in an airstrike on the hills of southern Yemen, or signalling for an ‘invisible’ attack chopper in the midst of a dense Myanmar jungle.

Ultimately, the multiplayer mode does not fail to give (junkies, newbies and those weird ones in between alike) the legendary online multiplayer experience that essentially defines Call of Duty. If you are like me, you will definitely find yourself screaming through your headset at the amount of hit-markers you get on opponents. But it is equally satisfying when you finally radio in a VTOL Warship and let loose dual ballistic missiles and a fountain of mini-gun bullets into that exact guy who has killed you about ten times before, and continually does so afterwards.

Now, for those who have already experienced the Zombies mode in the previous title, you will know what pleasures are felt when players spend a mind-numbing amount of hours immersed in a post-apocalyptic world, battling endless hordes of nightmarish zombies only to face inevitable death as zombie-food. The Zombie experience in Black Ops 2 furthers on Treyarch’s ambitious projects and introduces major expansions. Zombies now includes the ‘transit’ game mode, in which four players survive for as long as possible with the aid of a bus, driven by a ‘puppet’ that delivers you to different parts of an enormous map. It also allows you to appreciate how important punctuality is in life, and elicits a number of pesky gremlins jumping onto your head and scratching your face off if you don’t make it to the bus on time – or even fall off. Similarly, ‘Grief’ mode incorporates a team challenge, giving players the option to work alongside the enemy team and survive, or selfishly steal power ups and leave them to be devoured with the hopes of emerging victorious.

Conclusively, Black Ops 2 has taken what Modern Warfare 3 tried to accomplish, and succeeded. The additions, expansions and daring changes have paid off and Treyarch have finally produced a game that Call of Duty fans everywhere will be proud to have displayed in their collections.