- “"They'll always need men like us. Those who are willing to do... what others cannot."”
- ―Frank Woods in the Reveal Trailer
Call of Duty: Black Ops II (also known as BO2 and CoD 9) is the ninth major installment to the Call of Duty series. It is developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It is set (initially) in the 1980's, but turns to the near future in 2025. Black Ops II sees the return of Zombies after the events of Moon in Call of Duty: Black Ops.Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a first-person shooter developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. This is the ninth main installment for the Call of Duty franchise, and was released on November 13th, 2012. It is the sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops and was announced on May 1st, 2012, during the NBA basketball game. It is the first game made by Treyarch to be set in the future, and also the first direct sequel produced for the series by the studio. The game is also the first Call of Duty game for Nintendo's Wii U console, and it was available for the Wii U's launch day in North America, Europe, and Australia, whilst it will be available on December 20th, 2012 in Japan, which is 12 days after the console's Japanese launch day.
The link to the Call of Duty: Black Ops II website was also granted access to the public to coincide with the world reveal during the NBA basketball playoffs.
Story[]
Taking place in the 1980's and 2025, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 mainly features drones and sophisticated electrical weapons that are built to keep the populations safe are hacked and turned against their own countries when the main antagonist of this game, Raul Menendez, the leader of Cordis Die, steals the "keys" and sparking a "Second Cold War" mainly in Los Angeles. The People's Republic of China later invaded Los Angeles due to a global struggle involving rare earth minerals from a cyberattack that were tearing apart the Chinese Stock Exchange.
Alex Mason returns on this game during the 1980s section, fighting through the proxy wars for the U.S. but were still having a disorder from his brainwash on Call of Duty: Black Ops. Woods, also returning to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, is now turning old and is inside a secret place called The Vault. It turns out that Woods were survived his near-lethal encounter with Kravchenko and escaped from Hanoi. Numerous characters from Call of Duty: Black Ops, such as Jason Hudson will be returning. However, it is currently unknown if Grigori Weaver will return on Black Ops 2 or Operation Charybdis will take part in the Cold War. In the 2025 section, the player controls as Alex Mason's son, David Mason, who joined the Navy.
Gameplay[]
Departing from the notorious linear campaign style of past Call of Duty games, Treyarch has decided to take a non-linear and sandbox approach to Call of Duty: Black Ops II, (meaning no back-to-back missions with the same outcome every time replayed) instead the old linear style has been dropped in favor of "a more open ended campaign that relies heavily on player choice."
There will be significant points within the single-player campaign where the player is essentially given control over the course the game will take. It won't be a simple "A, B or C" choice either, it will be more expansive than that, for example, not protecting a certain character won't lead to a mission failure, instead it will change the course the game will take.
To help with the departure from a linear campaign are a set of special missions dubbed Strike Force. These missions are sandbox, and play similarly to a Real Time Strategy game. The player can assume the role of a commander, command ground forces, and on top of this, there will be the ability to go back to the traditional first-person and take part in the action themselves. The player gets to have a chance of taking control of many different warfare technology such as unmanned vehicles, jets and robotic automobiles. If the player dies in a Strike Force mission, the story will go on, keeping the record of deaths rather than loading to the last saved checkpoint. The missions will go on to change the story, even change Menendez's plans. By the time the cold war ends the player will see that they have made the results different.
Zombies[]
Treyarch confirmed that Zombies would return in Black Ops II along with many enhancements. It is also confirmed to take place in the "current era" as opposed to the near future setting of campaign. This means that Zombies takes place in the 2010's rather than the 2020's.
Maps[]
- Green Run - A huge open world map and mode. It will broken apart into several smaller maps for the other game modes.
- Nuketown Zombies - A zombies map set in Nuketown available exclusively in the Hardened and Care Package editions of the game.
- Die Rise - "Watch your step! Fight for survival atop the towers of doom, where dizzying heights and the relentless undead make a deadly combination."
- Mob of the Dead - Description to be added
- Buried
- Origins
Modes[]
- Tranzit - Classic Zombies.
- Survival - A mode similar to Grief in which the players are stuck in a small section of the map with limited equipment to survive.
- Grief - A new mode with eight players. Two teams of four is attempting to out-live the other team and have various means of hindering their enemy team's progress.
General Enhancements[]
- Custom Game modes
- Modified engine so now there will be two times as many zombies spawned at once
- Theater mode
Editions of the Game[]
Regular Edition[]
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Hardened Edition[]
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II
- Special Box Packaging
- Special Steel Case
- Nuketown Zombies
- Nuketown 2025
- Exclusive Themes (PS3 only)
- Exclusive Avatar Prop (Xbox 360 only)
- Exclusive Avatar Costume (Xbox 360 only)
- Exclusive Weapon Camo
- Two Exclusive Player Card Backgrounds
- A Free Digital Copy of the Game's Soundtrack
Care Package Edition[]
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II: Hardened Edition
- Special Packaging Designed to Look Exactly Like the Care Packages in the Game
- Remote Controlled MQ-27 Dragonfire Drone
Digital Deluxe Edition (Steam only)[]
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II
- All digital content in the Hardened Edition excluding the Xbox/PS3 exclusives
- Free download token for Call of Duty: World at War
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II is the third installment to the World at War series, and the third major Call of Duty installment to include Zombies.
- This is the first installment in the Call of Duty series to be set in a futuristic universe.
- There is now a death animation for players in zombies. It only appears when the last player is downed in zombies and it sees the player desperately trying to grab onto something before the screen turns back to the game menu.
- There are now starting animations in multiplayer. It can vary between cocking the gun or pulling the gun out or knife out before the game starts.
- Also there are now complete animations for reloading most of the guns. Instead of putting the magazine in after the magazine "disappeared", the character now pulls out the emptied magazine and replaces it with a new one.
- This is the first Call of Duty game to be featured on the WiiU and the second game to not have a Wii counterpart (first being Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2).
- This is the first game in the Call of Duty franchise that contains mountable horses for transport.
- This is the first Call of Duty that Treyarch has produced with a futuristic time setting.
- The game box cover has the character sitting in the exact position as the character on the first Black Opsgame box cover, with both characters resting their arms on their knees in the same spots, the only difference being that the right arm is pointed upwards.
- This is the second Call of Duty game to feature hitmarkers in campaign mode, the first being Call of Duty: Roads to Victory.