![]() ![]() ![]() That’s truly commendable, considering the developers could have just coasted by on brand recognition, not changing a single part of the established formula, and still watched as the money rolled in. At its core, Black Ops 2 is another cover-shoot-push-repeat shooter, just like all the games in the series before it, but at least Treyarch is stretching its legs to deliver moments that feature actual choice and consequence. The original Black Ops managed it – or at least tricked me into believing it did – while Black Ops 2 walks right into the same pitfalls Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare series has fallen into with its last two iterations.īut where I will toss Treyarch heaps of praise is with the game’s dynamic branching story moments. However, the developer’s goal should not be to just throw money at a game to create cool moments, but instead figure out what story you want to tell and use that as your foundation to build your set pieces around. Yet, make no mistake, the missions, taken by themselves, are damn cool, both the ones set in the ‘80s following the cast from the original Black Ops and the stages set in 2025. There are also some intriguing subplots that are unfortunately never explored, like why Alex Mason's son decides to join the military even though he resented his father for it as a child. The campaign of the game feels more like a bunch of cool, blockbuster-esque moments – par for the course these days with Call of Duty – than an intricately woven mosaic. It also doesn’t help that, like previous entries in the CoD line, Black Ops 2’s narrative jumps around way too much – in time and in perspective – to deliver a story that flows naturally from one moment to the next. But then again, the developers tackling the Call of Duty games have never been able to toe the line to build a character you have a white-hot passion to kill, yet somehow empathize with. Finding empathy for the character is also hard to come by when you’re put in Raul’s shoes for a few brief moments, handed a machete, and let loose to slaughter hundreds. Sadly, try as they might, Raul comes off as exactly the type of enemy Treyarch attemped to avoid, parading around as just another stereotypical terrorist pissed off by the unforunate death of his sister and our nation’s decadence. Developer Treyarch, along with screenwriter David Goyer ( The Dark Knight), set out to create a sympathetic villain in Black Ops 2, something this series has sorely lacked, instead going with the run-the-mill extremist variety. In fact, the true story of this game is Raul’s story. The campaign jumps back and forth through time with these two characters – among others – to detail the rise of power of the game’s main antagonist, Raul Menendez. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is the tale of two Masons – Alex, from the original game, and his son, David.
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