Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 - First Reactions

Sgt. Frank Woods may not have been surprised to see the futuristic war-zone we got a glimpse of last night, but for two straight minutes. I was taken on an unexpected thrill ride through a desolate and war ridden, futuristic haven of all things deadly. Being surprised is not something generally accustomed to most Call Of Duty fans. For the past few years, Infinity Ward has fed us a steady diet of generally well polished but overall very familiar game play. From the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward proved indefinitely that It could change from the somewhat overdone aspects of european 20th century warfare, into what has today become the norm for the developer. Treyarch on the other hand seems to be going above an beyond to surprise us yet again. If we include the upcoming release of Black Ops 2; set more than 10 years in the future, Treyarch€™s last 3 titles span over 70 years. With the success of Call of Duty: Black Ops, a large portion of the community (including myself) assumed that the developer would continue to polish and expand upon the exciting cold war era gameplay, and in a way, they are.

CAMPAIGN

In an interview with Machinima€™s Mr. Sark, Mark Lamia Studio Head for Treyarch, cleared up a few things with the time frame:

€œThis game is gonna span two time periods, the first cold war in the 80's as well as the second cold war. And that's really important for us, because we are going to be telling a story where you're going to be playing the characters from the first Black Ops, and through their eyes you€™re going to see how our villain is created during our first cold war during the 80€™s and you€™ll learn about his motivations and then what he€™s truly capable of in the year 2025 when technology is truly advanced.€

When I watched the initial trailer I was confused as to how this story would tie in with the first game. Of course we have Frank Woods, (someone many of us had presumed dead) who has come back to set the tone of this conflict in the trailer€™s opening. But don€™t think that€™s where the character ties stop. With this immense span of time, it would be entirely possible for a descendant of the original cast to take the stage as our protagonist. Personally, I€™m thinking Mason, with girl who reads the numbers and has the ridiculous red lipstick. After all there weren't many female characters to speak of. With the trailer taking most of the headlines, it€™s easy to overlook some of the other information released from yesterday, and the Machinima Campaign interview is loaded with new campaign information. Here are a few key pieces of information that should help entice your curiosity: Strike Force Overwatch Mode QuadRotors Cognitive Land Assault Weapon AKA the C.L.A.W Choices Non Linear Gameplay Tactical Overviews New Gameplay Mechanics As soon as more information has dropped on the campaign, I will be sure to discuss it and included it further in upcoming pieces.

Multiplayer

Whilst no major specifics to the Multiplayer have been revealed, the small snippets of information we have to interoperate seem to suggest a key focus on communities.. Plural! With two very separate developers, it can become a real problem when one developer doesn€™t learn from the other€™s mistakes. Modern Warfare 3 was very much a sequel. It resembled the previous game too much, and was almost ignorant to many of the mistakes and successes of Black ops. Taking lag compensation to a whole new level even when Black Ops was a victim of atrocious lag in its infancy, and keeping a focus on Death Streaks and rewarding the dead. Not only does Treyarch seem to learn from the other more efficiently, Mark Lamia has already spoken about emphasizing the focus on the professional or highly skilled players, without detracting from the experience of the casual gamer. Something I think will prove to be extremely beneficial to the franchise.

Zombies

€œIt€™s coming, It€™s there.. It€™s a Treyarch game. Those guys have never been afraid to push the boundaries of Call of Duty, but they really are doing it this time, like in a really big way€

http://youtu.be/tyDFDHHRBMo Some of the things that really stick out are the Zombies details toward the end. This time round, Zombies is being based of the Multiplayer engine structure, instead of the campaign. This is huge for a number of different reasons: Stability With Zombies being based from the Multiplayer engine, some of the most annoying features thus far might be eradicated. If you think back to COD 4, (or more appropriately World at War) if the host disconnected from a multiplayer lobby, the game ended. MW2, and all game since, have had features to eliminate these problems. Could this mean that host Migration and join session in progress may be arriving on the Zombies portion of the disc? Variety It might be only one small piece of information, but the change in engine could allow for so much more. Lamia may have let too much information leave his fleshy mortal tongue, but the fact is that Zombies is in for a massive overhaul.

€œThere€™s a ton of new creativity being pumped into that . It is its own game, Zombies is its own game, it ships on this platform called Call of duty Black Ops 2."

If you think how popular some of Treyarch€™s new game modes and playlists have become, on the multiplayer side.. Gun Game, One in the Chamber.. it€™s easy to imagine a world of zombies like no other before it. Of course the traditional wave based survival zombies mode is making an official return, but given this information I would expect tat we€™re in for a far more intensive lesson in killing zombies.

My Own Input

So given that we could potentially see half a dozen separate game modes for Zombies, there is one in particular I would like to see. I haven€™t given it a whole lot of thought, but imagine a competitive zombies mode. Not just point whoring, but the overall objective to be the last man surviving, at all costs. Each player spawns in a different room of a selected Zombies survival map. All the doors are closed, and are more expensive to ensure that surviving is a challenge in itself. Your primary objective is to hunt down the other players, whilst evading and destroying the incoming horde. The other players have significantly more health than the zombies, and are much more cleverer.. Probably. The zombies you kill all add towards your damage multiplier whilst traditionally giving you points for weapons, and unlocks etc. The more Zombies you kill, the more health you have, and damage you deal. It would be a case of balancing offense and defense. This is the kind of creativity this game inspires. Black Ops 2 will be the 9th game in the series, and based on what we€™ve seen so far - between multiplayer being built from the ground up, the campaign designed with non linear events and choices and an all new Zombies experience - I can safely say I€™m on board. But have you ever really looked at the Treyarch logo? Three equal parts, connected as one. It would seem they are growing ever closer to making this game a success in balance. The Campaign, Zombies, and Multiplayer components. All with equal passion and attention, coming together on the same disc. Bad Ass!