20. Righting The Wrongs of MW3
More than anything, Black Ops 2 offers an opportunity for Treyarch to fix some of the problems brought to the Call of Duty legacy by Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 3 - though widely heralded as a fine game, there were some avoidable problems with it, mostly in the balance between presentation and gameplay. In short, the game was a triumph of slick presentation, but which over-balanced that story-telling to the detriment of the gameplay experience. What resulted when you picked away the surface gloss was an ultimately oddly hollow experience, divertingly entertaining for some portions when you were allowed to engage the enemy and take your fate into your own hands. For too much of that game, the levels felt like on-rails shoot-em-ups, guided by characters that the script prioritised as more interesting than yourself, which is pretty much as degrading an experience as can happen in a FIRST person shooter. Yes, it sold millions, and made Activision enough money that they probably didn't need to be overly concerned with the negative reviews that appeared, but Modern Warfare 3 was too much of a step towards the problems that the vocal haters of the series had always regurgitated whenever a new title hit shelves. It was tired, unprogressive and painfully lacking in innovation - the ultimate realisation of the old adage that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Hopefully, Black Ops 2 will change all of that, offering a new experience (or at least a comparatively new one), and reigniting the faith that some of us lost in Call of Duty when MW3 was released. Fingers firmly crossed on that one.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be released on 13th November. So what do you think? Are you excited for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2? Share your thoughts below.