Call of Duty (CoD) games are like a box of chocolates as Forrest Gump would say. You never truly know what you’re gonna get until you begin. Even after whole days of playing, the long-term function and enjoy-ability of the game won’t be known until after Christmas when the online community has learned the game and has decided how it wants to play it. Is this the perfect Call of Duty game that gamers have been wanting? No. Will it be considered the best or one of the best? Perhaps it will; but only time will tell. This is what I have gathered so far:
Company Treyarch, who created the first Black Ops, is clearly trying to be its inferior Infinity Ward counterpart, who created Modern Warfare 3. This game, in a nutshell, is what Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) should have been and does not feel like a true descendant of Black Ops.
Guns
The guns in this game kill quickly with sparse amounts of recoil. While that is the favored style by most gamers, it requires less skill to manage recoil and creates a first-shot-wins sort of game where gunfights are too quick to be enjoyed. Snipers have gone to a fully useful state as they are in MW3 and CoD 4, and that change is welcome. Less recoil on most guns, however, makes the sniper rifles less useful because they have less of an advantage in long range gunfights. Shotguns are functional in the correct short-range situation for them and are worthy guns to use as they were in MW2. Light machine guns, however, are laughably terrible with increased muzzle flash and worse handling than ever before. How some guns are just not useful is a pattern that unfortunately remains constant throughout CoD titles. The knife is again a one-hit-kill and the lunge has been completely removed where the character no longer teleports slightly to achieve the kill. However, the knife range has been increased to create a similar effective kill radius to previous CoD games. When not electing to have a secondary weapon, the game equips the player with a knife at the ready instead and the knife is always selectable at any time no matter which weapon the player is holding. Gamers knifing in a state of panic are less effective, but knifing overall remains a strong- if not an overly strong choice.
Pick 10
As all additions to the guns performance are attachments, this restricts the player’s ability to use less functional attachments in lieu of attachments that used to be perks such as Stalker, Sleight of Hand, and Quickdraw. The pick 10 system in which customization of the character equipment before battle allows for 10 choices creates a vacuum of certain options. Secondary weapons (except for launchers), secondary attachments, and tactical grenades cannot compete with other items and will only be used for classes that intend to utilize them fully in their selected play-style. Customization has reached a new pinnacle, and it will lead to more specialization. While that is good for some players wanting to break out of the norm, it leads to certain specializations that the game will be better left without. With so many ways to find and destroy the enemy, it will be difficult to protect yourself from and death without making a mistake. CoD players worry that the pick 10 system will break the game to become unplayable, but that is not the case. What is unfortunate about it is that less powerful perks and items will go the way of extinction and less of the spectrum will be seen in the game.
Scorestreaks
The addition of rewarding gamers for objective play expands upon the first version of this idea seen in MW3. It is more than welcome a change. However, the player must keep in mind that merely playing the objective such as capturing a point of interest will not help. Only successfully completing objectives and disrupting opponents will lead to any reward. The game is merciless and only the best players will be able to gain scorestreak rewards. In my opinion, the bar for earning the rewards is set way too high and is only reachable through using the Hardline Perk –or else forget about scorestreaks. Additionally, the middle earnable rewards such as the Death Machine and Dragonfire are too weak for the amount of effort required to get them. This will lead to a surplus of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) radar spam, leaving players exposed all too often. This combined with the inability to choose which scorestreak to unlock next will leave players using the first one available, the UAV. However, Treyarch delivers on the promise to make shooting down UAVs easier than ever. UAVs are always visible if the player has an open sky above their head as most UAVs are directally vertical and they do not blend into the sky as they do in MW3. The Ghost Perk hiding players from the radar when moving is unlocked at a very high rank, and with the extra incentives to go Prestige and restart from rank 1, Ghost will be less used than the previous two Call of Duty games. The result should be high action with players finding each other often and some frustration with constantly being exposed.
Maps
Designed for fast combat, the spawn points and the maps are closer together than the previous Black Ops game. Proposed to not lead to a quick death but not leave the player too far from the action, the first ends up happening. The maps and spawns in BO2 are far worse than in the previous Black Ops though a slight improvement over MW3. The spawn points clearly need adjusting from Treyarch. The maps, however, cannot be adjusted and will persist as one of the worst things about BO2. With such promise in the map design of Black Ops, the Treyarch team decided to mimic MW2 style maps with multiple stories and increased complexity. It results in more camper friendly maps where players can stay still longer and gather easy kills cheaply. The map design works better than objective play than Infinity Ward games, but leaves the gamer wanting Black Ops maps back.
Playlists
The new playlists of Multi-Team and Hardpoint work surprisingly well in BO2. Multi-Team plays similar to a Free-For-All match with constant threat on any side with some objective play and teamwork involved. Hardpoint was done very well except for the fact that the player does not continue to earn score while occupying the objective while it is absolutely necessary for the team to gain points. That, like many things, needs to be adjusted when it comes to the worth of score for certain actions. All of the other playlists seem to function well like the original Black Ops when taking into account map design flaws.
Functionality
The game even before public launch (with more available players) has a good connection between players. Lag is still present but more hidden and jumping location is less common. Hosts who quit the game still interrupt the game like any other Call of Duty with the lack of dedicated servers. While not MW2 quality in connection properties, it is better than the last two games and perhaps can be improved upon. It still utilizes the same Quake III engine for player mechanics that has been in use since 2005. While heavily improved upon and tweaked, it means that “head-glitching”, where players can shoot behind cover with only the top of their heads exposed, is back in full force.
Presentation
The game’s sound is equipped with extraordinary brilliance. A sound test shows the true extent of the game’s capabilities. However, player footsteps are too quiet and ambient noise is increased. While the original Black Ops had difficulty with direction of footsteps and sounds, BO2 intentionally makes the option of hearing the enemy a less viable one and leaves players more susceptible to surprise. The graphics are a step up and prove that Treyarch put effort into this game, but still lag considerably behind other series like Halo and Assassin’s Creed. Colors are extremely vivid and make it easier to pick out enemy players from the background than previous titles. The presentation of the maps in more dramatic and the voice acting is as boring as they come. Layout of the game is intuitive and easy to navigate.
Extras
When searching through the select screens, players will see more extra features than any other CoD game by far. All stats are instantly searchable, theater mode (recorded games) is back, and there is a league option of play that will supposedly match players on skill as well. Additionally, the CoD Elite application is easily accessible and there is an all new COD TV application that will highlight popular videos, screenshots, and clips of BO2. Customization of emblems and guns has more variety than ever just like the classes and ways to play the game.
Overall
Black Ops 2 will not be bring back anyone jaded about Call of Duty games from being bored, but it will serve as a functional and fair game. It gets a lot of things right, but will require some adjustments. It does not feel like a Treyarch game and instead a spiritual melding of Modern Warfare 2, objective rewards, and balance. That may be what many are looking for, but I personally disagree.
Leather Wing Media 