Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 review

Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Genre: First Person Shooter

Campaign

Since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare came out, Call of Duty or COD has been known for it's multiplayer. And rightfully so because it gave us some of the best and most simple multiplayer ever. As a pure videogame fan i've always thought the lack of attention the campaign modes get is criminal because there have been some truly brilliant stories told. In black ops 2 you play as David Mason who is the son of black ops 1 star Alex Mason. Your constantly going back and forth between missions that take place in 1980's (you play as Alex Mason) and missions that take place modern day (2025). This is meant to better tell the story of the relationship between Alex Mason's bestfriend Frank Woods and the main antagonist Raul Menendez but really the way it's done makes it tough to follow. In the middle of the campaign they give you extra missions, more like challenges where u play as a navy seal defending a base. I hate this. It belongs in a spec ops like menu not in the campaign. It kills any momentum the campaign manages to pick up. Black ops 2 is unique in the way of player choice. It's the first COD campaign to rely on player choice actions and gives different endings based on those choices. COD campaigns often tease the one big, "leaving you speechless" moment, whether it be a nuke going off or the eiffel tower falling. Black ops 2 doesn't deliver on this being there is no big moment. The character Frank Woods (voiced by James C Burns) is the sole character that stands out. The rest of the voice acting is bad,dull and stiff along with poor character development. Honestly, it hurts me to say this because i had high hopes but this campaign is just tough to get through. Not because of the difficulty but because it's just poorly done and fails to grasp my attention.


Multiplayer

Now for the reason everybody buys call of duty games, the multiplayer. Much like the campaign, black ops 2 fails to deliver on expectations. You know what your going to get with a cod multiplayer but they always add little things that make it better. The 2 main things that disappoint me are the kill streaks and the maps. The killstreaks are either too similar or just stupid and the maps fail to impress compared to maps from the modern warfare trilogy. Even the customization of titles and emblems fails to be as satisfying as say Modern warfare 2's. The one thing i really do enjoy is the party game modes. These modes consist of games that are just fun to play with a group of friends rather then worrying about leveling up. Modes such as "The gun game" where everybody starts with the same pistol and every kill you get, you get a new better gun or "1 in the chamber" where everybody has a pistol with 1 bullet, instant kill is on and you only get 3 lives. If you play with friends, these can be very entertaining.


Final Thoughts

I'm glad i didn't pay for this and it was a gift because there's better games out there. If you want to spend $60 on a game for multiplayer, it's best to stick with either modern warfare 3 or battlefield. Call of duty has set a standard so high that maybe it's just impossible to keep reaching but it is what it is. Black Ops 2 is the weakest cod since world at war with a poorly put together campaign and lack of development in the multiplayer. It's not a horrible game but it just doesn't match the Call of Duty standards.

Rating: 6/10