English
Gamereactor
previews
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

"I've been stuck here all day."

Subscribe to our newsletter here!

* Required field
HQ

We're talking to Jay Puryear, and Treyarch's development director isn't joking. "I haven't seen the light of day. I still don't know what's out there."

"Here" is Madrid, as the juggernaut that is Black Ops 2's latest press tour rumbles onward across Europe and beyond. And, you imagine, much like every other date on the tour, presentations have swallowed up Jay's time. He's readying for his presentation duties. The fourth time he'll have done so today.

Sightseeing will have to wait for another time though, because there's a lot to get through. The reason he's not had a chance to breath the outside Spanish air is due to the game's multiplayer, solo campaign and the first news on its zombie mode, all of which are covered in each session.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
This is an ad:

Campaign

As a direct continuation of the events in Call of Duty: Black Ops, the sequel splits its solo story campaign across two time frames. A third of the game will take place in the 80s, while the remaining two snap forward to the near future of 2025.

Given the plot of the first was heavily praised by press and players, it's little surprise that this release is being given even more careful attention. Screenwriter David S. Goyer (Batman Begins) is focusing on the development of villain Raul Menendez, generating empathy with the character and discovering "how he became a monster."

But the "near" part of the near-future setting means the military technology must be as credible as the story. Treyarch insists they're seeking a "plausible reality", an issue that's gained the support of P.W Singer (author of Wired for War) in assistant technology.

This is an ad:

The intention is to guess how far technology advances in the next thirteen years, what makes sense to draw upon for the design of weapons and devices. Some of which are seen, and tested in the multiplayer, but the presentation showcases new gadgets utilised on a new level of the campaign.

Also new to the campaign, reminds Puryear, are levels that are non-linear, and built-in is the possibility of failure that can influence future events in the game. There's also a new class system that's not limited to just multiplayer - letting you build your custom killing machine in the solo experience as well.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

The level we see is called Celerium, which occurs in the 2025 era of the campaign.

In this war-torn future, a squad can approach an enemy's secret base in ways much more discreet and almost unthinkable than today's options. Special gloves allow them to climb cliff-faces, winged suits to leap from the cliff's top and soar silently under radar. You're in control of your descent into enemy territory, though the perfect 10 landing's pre-scripted.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

On the ground and the new technology deployment continues. Camouflage systems remind heavily of Predator, hacking tools allow you to break into a combat helicopter sitting on a nearby helipad. Worth doing so as well, as it can clean the yard with a powerful machine gun with thermal sight engaged.

Another weapon, and one that'll sees triumph in multiplayer hands-on, spits a shower of adhesive mini-mines like a buckshot, perfect for setting up doors as traps. There's the usual smattering of traditional arsenal, all given a slight futuristic twist.

Multiplayer

We get an overview of Call of Duty's new multiplayer standing. You're given a free kit with a pick of ten slots that you can fill with guns, attachments, grenades, perks and wildcards (the latter allowing, for example, to carry two primary weapons instead of one). Medals and XP are awarded for doing cool stuff. The studio touch on the tools for the eSports additions as well, with replays and livecasts of combat.

The new game modes appear in the various sections, labelled Core, Party, Combat Training and Custom.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

CORE: Team Deathmatch, Robin, Demolition, Kill confirmed, Hardpoint, Headquarters, Capture the flag, Search and Destroy. Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed and Hardpoint all all multi-team modes.

PARTY: Gun Game, One in the Chamber, Sharpshooter, Sticks and Stones. These games gain you XP earns as well.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

COMBAT TRAINING: Training is the best way to learn and gradually enter the competition online.

As you progress, aids are subtracted, much like taking the training wheels off a bicycle. In Bootcamp, available between levels 1 and 10, rookies play three humans and three bots against another team of three humans and three bots, to get to know the map (and you keep all the XP earned).

Objective, which becomes available from level 10, includes the objective-based modes such as CTF, Domination, Hardpoint), and offers the same team setup from Bootcamp, but you don't earn XP. Bot Stomp offers six humans versus six bots.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

CUSTOM: Now you can tinker and adjust all modes and classes, restrict content, modify the settings of the new pick ten system (you can go down to only 3 items or up to 17) and alter competitive rules.

In addition, there are over a thousand challenges, which this time are the only way to unlock cosmetic modifications for your character (plus bonus XP). Everything is reflected in the modernized Playercard, which offers a near-Photoshop level of customisation: emblem, background, layer blend, rotation, color, transparency, shape library ...

Theatre mode incorporates Black Ops 2's new social features with facilities such as bookmarks, metadata and votes. Play a good game and you can bookmark it so you can easily find it for editing, and the system will auto-geernate a highlight reel of your best frags.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Veterans will be pleased time will be pleased that Prestige is no longer reset, meaning you can keep all your guns and the like. If you want however, there's an option to refund all your unlock tokens, so you can buy new weapons, attachments, perks and the like to replace those you originally had. Hit Master Prestige (prestiging ten times) and you'll unlock everything.

Zombies

Watch: The Zombie Reveal Trailer

HQ

Much like the main campaign, the new Zombies continues the story from the first game.

It expands the cast of characters and zombies, offers new weapons and ways to send the hordes back into the grave (remember the bus that appears in the trailer?)

The game modes are a zombified three. In Transit there's a plot in which four players cooperate in undead-infested environments. Survival mode (carried over from previous entries) generates custom playable areas, while in Grief mode its humans vs zombies vs humans, (offering two to eight players in custom modes).

Technically, Treyarch says they've tinkered with the system to improve the online zombie modes, and items are much better this time round. A level customiser lets you decide over a multitude of rules.

And this feels just like the tip of the iceberg. Modernising the multiplayer and bringing in all-new adjustments to the campaign, and player customisation is grooming this to be the biggest Call of Duty to date.

Our final verdict on the game comes in a month's time. We can't wait. In the meantime, check out our GRTV interview with the studio from the press tour, as well as a GRTV preview that expands on what we've seen during our time with the game.

GRTV Interview with Treyarch

Treyarch's Jay Puryear talks to Rasmus Lund-Hansen about the new and improved zombies mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and more.

HQ

GRTV Black Ops 2 Preview

Rasmus Lund-Hansen talks us through the action at a recent Black Ops 2 multiplayer demo session in Copenhagen.

HQ

Related texts

0
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2Score

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

REVIEW. Written by Mathias Holmberg

"It's made up of some of the most boring missions in the history of the franchise...at times this feels like a pastiche - a parody."



Loading next content