Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a first-person shooter game featured on S.A.G.N.U.T., Gamer Nation, and Smosh Games Review, and played on Backseat Gaming, Dope! or Nope, Raging Bonus, Smosh Games VS, and Smosh Game Bang.
Game Information[]
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a first-person shooter developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It is the ninth game in the Call of Duty franchise and sequel to 2010's Call of Duty: Black Ops. It is the first game in the franchise to feature future warfare technology and the first to present branching storylines driven by player choice as well as selecting weapons before starting story mode missions.
Black Ops II is also the first in the series to feature significant elements of nonlinear gameplay, most notably multiple endings. A sequel, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, was released in 2015.
Setting[]
The single-player campaign features two connected storylines, the first set during the final years of the First Cold War, and the other set in 2025 during a Second Cold War. The protagonist of Black Ops, Alex Mason, returns as the protagonist in the first Cold War section and chronicles the rise to infamy of the game's primary antagonist, Raul Menendez.
The 2025 section of the game features Mason's son David (codenamed "Section") as the protagonist, in which Menendez is plotting against the US and China with one of his ultimate goals being to see the US locked in a new Cold War with China, in revenge for many of his misfortunes. In this era, wars are defined by robotics, cyberwarfare, unmanned vehicles, and other futuristic technology.
Gameplay[]
Black Ops II is the first Call of Duty game to feature branching storylines called Strike Force missions, which are set in the 2025 storyline and feature permanent death. They allow the player to control a number of different war assets, such as UAVs, jet fighters, and robots. In the main story missions, there are certain points where the player is given different choices and paths to progress.
One of the biggest additions to multiplayer is Pick 10, a new system within the Create-a-Class menu that gives the player ten allocation slots in a class, used for guns, perks, grenades, etc. that players can choose to allocate however they like. Killstreaks, renamed Scorestreaks, are now earned by gaining points instead of kills. Weapons now have a progression system that, after maxing out a weapon's level, the player can choose to "prestige" it, similar to how they can prestige the player level, and reset their attachment progress. In exchange, the player can customize their weapons with custom clan tags and emblems. Black Ops II includes a competitive mode called League Play, which allows players of similar skill level to be matched together and play according to the rules of Major League Gaming.
Zombies mode returns in Black Ops II and is now playable on multiplayer (along with other numerous additions and changes), allowing for twice as many zombies and players as before, as well as multiplayer-exclusive game modes. Zombies takes place throughout various time periods, mostly focused during a modern time post-apocalyptic world, created as a result of the missile launch from the moon striking the Earth. The majority of the story follows four new characters: Samuel Stuhlinger, Marlton Johnson, Abigail "Misty" Briarton and Russman. Dr. Edward Richtofen, one of the playable characters from the previous game, returns as the demonic announcer overseeing the four characters. Players can choose whether to help Maxis or Richtofen, which will have different results once the story ends.
Reception[]
- "Overall, Black Ops II is an excellent game that expands on the series' single player in a lot of great ways. The campaign is engaging and exciting the whole way through, minus the Strike Force missions, and thought it didn't seem to change much throughout and it was still a bit scripted, your decisions did pay off in a very meaningful way in the end. The multiplayer remains largely the same, with a few minor improvements, and though a lot of people love to hate it, it's still pretty addicting and fun (though they really need to get their shit together with the spawn system thing). I give Call of Duty: Black Ops II 8.5 glowy zombie heads out of ten."
- —Matthew Sohinki[src]
Black Ops II received generally positive reviews from critics. Activision reported sales figures for Black Ops II in the U.S. were more than 7.5 million copies sold on launch day and grossed over $500 million in the US alone in its first 24 hours, making it the biggest entertainment launch of all time until the record was surpassed by Grand Theft Auto V in September 2013. It is the fourth year in a row that the Call Of Duty series has broken the same record. Black Ops II went on to gross $1 billion in the first 15 days of availability. In November 2013, IGN confirmed that the game sold 24.2 million copies, making it the third highest selling game in the series.
In July 2014, former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega sued Activision for lost profits from the use of his likeness in the game. That October, the Los Angeles court dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that Noriega's inclusion was protected under free speech laws.