Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 Review

Released in 2010, Call Of Duty: Black Ops managed to shake up the entire series, not so much with its story, but with its exciting missions, gameplay, and graphics. In the sequel, Treyarch tried to outdo themselves, but ended up turning Black Ops 2 into more of a zoo of absurd situations than a serious shooter about future wars.

The first thing that strikes you about the gameplay is the genocide the main character inflicts on his enemies. They offer absolutely no resistance, fall at the protagonist’s feet by the hundreds, and are ready to die from the first bullet that whistles past. There are so many of them that after five minutes, the player gets tired of reloading, and the index finger cramps up. Considering you can change your equipment before a mission, I recommend taking a machine gun with you: you can completely forget about cover, just hold down the left mouse button and turn in time to kill enemies popping out of the next alley.

If earlier Call Of Duty still resembled a shooting gallery, with the release of Black Ops 2 it turned into a dull shooter with hordes of enemies, like "Chernobyl 2: Terrorist Attack," only widely advertised and under the banner of a famous series.

The complete lack of realism in the gameplay is also striking, and the developers clearly knew they were turning the shooter into an arcade game. For example, hip-firing is more accurate than aiming down sights, weapons have no recoil at all, and the sniper rifle fires almost like a machine gun. After the realistic Medal Of Honor: Warfighter, these archaic mechanics are at least bewildering. The equipment of the soldiers of the future is also surprising. Such a quantity of high-tech weapons and other gadgets simply wouldn’t withstand pressure drops, heavy rain, mud, and dust. Realism? No, that’s not about Call Of Duty once again.

When evaluating the structure of the story missions, you realize that the developers experienced a serious creative crisis. Deciding not to strain themselves, they simply made a hodgepodge of successful ideas borrowed from recent shooters. This is evident in the air gliding on a paraglider, invisible suits, rides through ruined settlements, and of course, drone control. Naturally, these borrowings didn’t make the game any better.

And just look at the American cowboys on horseback in Afghanistan, who destroy Soviet tanks on the move, and the line, “The Russians want to show brute force again. Well, let’s show them some courage!” right before that.

The main feature of Black Ops 2’s story is its “variable gameplay” — a term Treyarch apparently borrowed from the Mass Effect box. In every mission, there’s a moment that will affect the unfolding story, but the final scene is still up to the player. It all sounds fair enough, you might say, but the impact of these moments is so minor that you’ll only notice the most significant changes.

As for the rest of the story, it can be summed up in a single sentence. Drug lord Raul Menendez is planning to start World War III by pitting the superpowers against each other after orchestrating attacks on Russia and China using a US drone army under his control. You’ll spend almost the entire game struggling to understand his motives, only to stop the villain just minutes before the apocalypse. Along the way, you’ll drop into Africa, Afghanistan, and Panama, playing as a young Mason and Woods, mow down hundreds of poorly armed, half-starved rebels as Mason’s son, and encounter elite squads of future soldiers more than once.

Some of the developers’ efforts went into the “Zombies” mode, which was once again slapped together in a rush, but now you’re required not just to survive, but also to collect various elements needed to progress through the map—whether it’s parts for assembling turrets, generators, upgrades for the bus, and so on. They created just one or two maps for each of the three zombie modes. Players will memorize them in a couple of weeks, after which they’ll abandon the mode until new maps appear or return to fan-made Modern Warfare mods.

What definitely wasn’t worth the effort, though, are the side missions called “Strike Force,” which were tacked onto the single-player campaign for laughs. The idea is simple: your squad needs to capture (or hold) key points on the map. Helping you, of course, is the AI, whose abilities are limited to using its body to shield you from enemy fire while you, like Agent 007, capture another objective. The challenge is made harder by the fact that there are even more enemies than in the legendary Brazil level from Modern Warfare 2, and the computer-controlled allies are useless at defending key points. You’ll spend ages trying to complete the “Strike Force” missions—if you can finish them at all. Unfortunately, their successful completion is required to get the happiest ending in the game.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s the motto of Black Ops 2’s multiplayer, which has barely changed since the original Modern Warfare. The main innovations are a revamped class editor, a wide arsenal of weapons and equipment, and a large set of perks. Calling in support like UAVs or airstrikes is now based on points earned rather than the number of kills.

As for the maps, they’re way too big for 16 players and far too “corridor-like” (just move forward, don’t use your brain). Even Battlefield 3: Close Quarters looks more dynamic, and it can have up to 64 players. As for cheaters, there are plenty in multiplayer; if you don’t run into them in your first match, you definitely will in your second. On the other hand, Treyarch has legalized some of them with new perks, so it all makes sense.

The in-game graphics have gotten even worse, and there’s still no improvement in environmental physics. In other words, nothing has changed in the year since Modern Warfare 3 came out, so it looks just like Modern Warfare 2, which was released four years ago. Apparently, Treyarch couldn’t be bothered to catch up with their competitors, which is surprising, since the developers had their own pretty decent engine.

The weak technical implementation also shows that the developers were dealing with unfamiliar technologies. Right after Black Ops 2 was released, many gamers started complaining about bugs, low ping in multiplayer, and problems activating add-ons. Treyarch has already released three patches and doesn’t seem to be stopping there.

By churning out Call Of Duty games year after year, Activision has started to lose quality. Since the release of the successful Modern Warfare, no Call Of Duty has managed to come close to that standard, and Black Ops 2 is among these failures. It seems that only with the release of the next generation of consoles will Activision deliver a hit that can compete not only within the series, but also with serious rivals like Battlefield 3.