Black Ops II – Get Ready for a Gory Ride

I have a confession to make. I did not – in their entirety – play the other Call of Duty games. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy good shooter games as much as the next girl (or guy) but I didn’t follow the story line as I would some other games.
In the case of Black Ops II, the story line was far more interesting than ever expected! In fact, it’s pretty fantastic.

There are a lot of people who may disagree and even those who will praise Halo 4 as being the superior game and normally I may agree with you, but I think you would be pleasantly surprised by Black Ops II.

Here’s Why…

The single player campaign mode has definite re-playability which is something that wasn’t present in previous games of this type. You beat the game and – unless there was an online multi-player mode – that was it.
This single player mode features two connected storylines; one set in the 1970’s into1980’s and the other in the year 2025. The manner in which the stories are connected is very cool but I’m not giving that bit away. 😉

They have re-introduced zombie mode and revamped it to make it even greater. Zombie mode has it’s own campaign along with the main story line. Does it get better? Yes, it does. There is also an eight player co-op mode. That means, you and seven of your friends get in on the zombie killing action! Four players vs four players vs zombies. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Before each single player mission, there is the option to customise…well, everything; from skins on your guns to projectiles and other gear. Though you must unlock nearly everything through mission completion and fulfilling objectives. If you’re a veteran player (pun intended) this will be nothing new.
I’ve always enjoyed the thrill of receiving new items and gear through mission completion so this is not a down-fall in my opinion.

Multi-player is not something I’ve explored fully but as far as I can tell, it’s the only aspect of the game that leaves something to be desired. Some people may see the new options as a plus but I feel it may take away from the multi-player aspect.
You have a limited number of equipment pieces you can bring to battle with you so I suppose if you fancy one weapon over others, this may work well for you as you will be able to take a perk with you rather than an item you rarely use.
Players must now earn tokens to unlock new items in place of the older system of items being unlocked automatically. That may take some getting used to but I will have to play a bit more before I say I dislike it completely.

All in all, Black Ops II has a great story line, gratuitous gore and some new aspects that make the game even better than before. It will certainly give Halo 4 a run for it’s money, as they say. I suggest giving it a go – if you haven’t done so already!

One final note: Treyarch and Activision did a very good job of keeping their promise on the ESRB rating of Mature. It gets pretty intense even in earlier scenes of the campaign so if you have small children, I suggest skipping this one for a game with a bit less gore.

Here’s a trailer I particularly enjoyed. I hope you will too.