Alex Sunier
This month saw the release of the latest edition of the biggest gaming franchise to ever exist and yes, it’s brilliant.
Some of the sceptics thought this new edition, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, would be more of the same from previous games that every chump would mindlessly buy just because everyone else was.
Not a bad assumption, considering what we have seen with Call of Duty (COD) in the past, and the successful franchise, FIFA.
However, fortunately for us mindless chumps, the sceptics are wrong.
Treyarch, widely considered the second string studio since Infinity Wards modern warfare, have set the bench mark for all first-person shooters (FPS) which has resulted with them producing the fastest selling video game ever.
Unfortunately I don’t have the space to give this game the review it deserves, so I’ll briefly touch on the main talking points.
What sets Black Ops II apart from all FPSs is the fluidity and freedom that the player has when completing the campaign.
As you battle through the intense fire fights, different characters can live or die depending on your actions, leading to one of a possible six different endings.
This new gaming style will surely set the minimum requirement for any FPS that comes after it.
There is also the optional Strike Force missions, a nice way of changing up the campaign experience.
The online multiplayer, the real reason for COD’s phenomenal success, has clever new load out options and some great new game modes.
The talking points for the load out options would be ‘Pick 10’ and ‘Wild card’. Pick 10 ranks all items/gun/perks as one point and gives you the option to pick up to 10 as you see fit in the ultimate custom load out.
Wild Card allows you to break the rules, such as having three attachments on a gun.
There are intense new game modes including ‘Multi team death watch’, involving up to four teams of four on one map battling for victory.
What ensues is an intensely competitive strategic teamwork play that COD had been lacking due to high numbers of Rambo in each lobby.
Finally, the new Zombies mode. You and your team commandeer a bus moving around a large map. At each location you discover new areas, guns, perks etc. and are at the same time leaving behind a pile of dead zombies in your wake.
Just to make things more interesting, there is now the possibility to have two teams of four surviving the same chaos.