Screenshot provided by Activision
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is an interesting change of stride for Treyarch. In stark contrast from the rigid and short story mode of the first game, Black Ops II promises to take the franchise in new direction with a sand-box style game play, complete with branching storylines, alternate endings, and plenty of moral dilemmas for the gamer. I foresee at numerous passes through the game just to see the different stories and endings.
Starting off where the last story left off, Black Ops II starts in the 1980s with Alex Mason fighting proxy wars for the USA. During this part of the story we see the emergence of the new antagonist, Raul Menendez. While most of the world views Menendez as evil, it sounds like we’ll get a close look at his back story, and perhaps even play a level or two from his perspective. Alex’s friend Frank Wood, who isn’t as dead as we thought, also makes an appearance to narrate the story as we jump 40 years into the future to the year 2025.
The 2025 portrayed in Black Ops II is quite a bit different from today but is a very plausible future. War is fought mostly with unmanned and autonomous vehicles, oil in the Middle East has been replaced by rare earth elements in China, and one madman, Menendez, has plans to simultaneously destroy the Chinese economy and steal the keys to the largest war system on the planet. What follows promises to be an adrenaline-pumping ride.
So far I haven’t heard anything about multiplayer modes, but we can assume they will be there. Zombies will be back, but details are scarce other than it will have new, yet-to-be-revealed multiplayer modes.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be available for Xbox360, Playstation 3, and Windows PC for about $60. The ESRB has not yet rated the game, but you can be sure it will be M (Mature) rating.
