Black Ops 2: New Beginning Or Death Rattle

Whilst Call Of Duty€™s Modern Warfare series is often accused, and with good reason, of being where originality in the genre died after raising the bar and then deciding that the raised bar is a perfect place to stay and cash in on; the original Black Ops flouted the new types by being an interesting and engaging story to play. This crashed back down to earth with 2011€™s repetition of impending nuclear doom (MW3) and the stylish but dull and un-engaging Battlefield 3 which did little but look nice (did you hear it had a new engine? YES! A new engine. Wow) but 2012 has brought with it Treyarch€™s Black Ops sequel which, so far, looks to be giving this tired genre a leap forward in to a world of borderline interesting story telling; brace yourselves. So far it looks like a very intriguing prospect, keeping the story alive with characters from the original whilst also adding a future reality where remote controlled warbots and a cult leader-esc man ascends to power to unleash his ascension attempt on the world. Melodramatic? Sure. Interesting? And then some. Promising to show the ideology and rise to power of the man in a historical setting whilst also adding a futuristic warfare aspect this allows a stretching of the genres imagination to previously unseen levels with historically incorporated storytelling, world over throwing cults and a continuation of the characters we€™ve already been involved with this could be a giant re-invigoration for a genre spluttering in to a monotonous death. There are drawbacks, if the game gets too involved in its futuristic weapons and setting it could become a slightly more variety filled rendition of half thought out storyline and a slightly more interesting online game play. This is also ties in with the fact that the Black Ops story line was too short, whilst not a game that demands the expansion of an RPG, something that can engage for longer than 5 hours would be very appreciated. 2012 is as big a year for the future of the First Person Shooter as 2011 was for typifying what had become dull about it. Black Ops 2 promises to reinvigorate or hit the final nail in to the genres coffin.