Product Description:
Pushing the boundaries of what fans have come to expect from the record-setting entertainment franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops II propels players into a near future, 21st Century Cold War, where technology and weapons have converged to create a new generation of warfare.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II Gamescom Accolades
- "The most ambitious Call of Duty to date" - USA Today
- "Poised to blow you away" - G4
- "Treyarch has just vaulted Black Ops II to a new level" - Joystiq
- "Black Ops II is changing multiplayer. A lot." - Kotaku
- "A bold departure" - IGN
- "A whole new level of competitive gaming" - MTV
- "Brilliant visuals and adrenaline-inducing gameplay" - Forbes
- "Best of Gamescom" - Gamespot
Product Details:
- An all-new Call of Duty - Black Ops storyline featuring new characters and returning characters
- Unique single-player campaign that contains two time periods linked by characters and their actions
- Special Strike Force missions, in which the players action affect the outcome of gameplay and the overall campaign
- Variety of multiplayer modes and play options
Customer Reviews:
Call of Duty is losing its luster. Long in depth review By C. Boeshaar
I've played every Call of Duty ever made, pretty extensively I might add, and in addition I've put in over +50 hours to date into Black Ops 2 to give it as fair a review as possible.
Make no mistake, Black Ops 2 is just about the same as the previous iterations of Call of Duty with a futuristic paintjob. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, Call of Duty has gotten a lot of things right, but you can't help but feel "been there, done that" for much of the experience.
SINGLEPLAYER:
The campaign is what you've come to expect, killing hundreds of respawning enemies with a pretty dismal D movie action flick script and a villain who refuses to ever die. The introduction of choices and consequences add some intrigue, and the strike missions can be amusing, but I can't say that it was very memorable. I didn't bother beating it again after one playthrough, which took roughly 6 hours on Veteran difficulty.
MULTIPLAYER:
The weapons and killstreaks are basically the same as they have been in previous Call of Duties. Many of the older weapons are available (An-94, 870 MCS, MTAR) whereas the newer fictional weapons are just remakes of older guns like the M8A1 which is an updated M16 or the KAP-40 pistol which is a remake of the G18. Many of the familiar killstreaks are still here as well, the usual suspects of UAVs, Care packages, sentry guns, RC XDs are still here along with a few new faces like the AGR and Dragonfire drones.
One of my biggest complaints of Black Ops 2, as of 11/27/12, is how poor the weapon balance is in the game. Call of Duty has always been very SMG and Hip-fire friendly, but the amount of prevalence of both in Black Ops is really disheartening.
Hipfiring with an SMG is the way to go in Black Ops 2 if you want to dominate, and I feel I can say this with a an overall combat record KD ratio of +2.0 (I don't say this to brag, I state this so people don't assume I'm bad at the game and that's why I'm complaining). People who take Assault Rifles are punished and will almost always lose a 1v1 engagement in close to mid range against an SMG user. Shotguns have awful range, and without attachments will literally not reach a target further than a few feet away.
The game actually encourages hipfiring in my opinion, which almost always guarantees a kill against a close range target. The nature of weapon recoil in Black Ops 2 is very random and makes it difficult to properly ADS against a moving target, hence why most people avoid this and hipfire which will almost always net a kill if it is within the general vicinity of an enemy. The poor weapon balance will often force you into an SMG class if you want to perform well and punishes players for experimenting.
But this is only a miniscule problem to the elephant in the room of Black Ops 2, Treyarch have abandoned the perfectly functioning server browser of Black Ops 1 and World at War and have replaced it with, you guessed it, matchmaking. The matchmaking is identitical to the one implemented in Modern Warfare 2-3 with the difference being that rather than player hosted it's on Treyarch servers.
With matchmaking you can't choose your own settings, you're forced into games with whateverTreyarch decides. For example Team Deathmatch (my favorite mode personally) is limited to 6v6 and a 75 kill limit, meaning that many times when I got high level streaks like Warthog or Lodestar (which require +10 kills in a row) the game ended 15 seconds afterwards.
Another problem with matchmaking is that I have friends who don't live nearby me, and as a result when we queue as a party we get into a server that is not perfect latency for any of us. We're forced to play with 2-3 bars when playing together (yes, they've also removed latency numbers and replaced them with bars so you never actually know what your ping is).
And of course the worst problem is that no one can ban the racists, the flamers (thank god for the mute botton), and of course the cheaters and the hackers. Yes the cheaters and hackers that plagued MW2 and MW3 are back in full force, I'm talking about people who aim at you behind walls when you have Ghost/Cold blooded and players who go 40-2 headshotting everyone with an LSAT. I would especially not recommend League play to anyone, a mode which Treyarch introduced to be "competitive" but it is already filled with obvious aimbotters and wallhackers. It's not so bad so far in normal mode, but it's getting progressively worse and the game has only been out a few weeks. VAC and the report system are extremely ineffective at getting rid of cheaters, as anyone who has played MW2 and 3 can tell you (I have over 200 hours logged on Modern Warfare 2 and had to quit because of the prevalence of cheaters).
SUMMARY:
Keep in mind that despite all these flaws, Black Ops 2 is a fun game. I wouldn't have logged over 50 hours if I didn't think so. It's basic formula is very addictive and the controls and gameplay are very smooth. The pick 10 class creation system is cool and the scorestreak system is the best in the series in my opinion. But truth be told I doubt I will be playing much longer, and I will definitely NOT be buying any of their DLC thanks to the issues I've listed above.
Black Ops 2 is a decent game, but it's not a great game. I cannot wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone, and would suggest that you either A) Wait for the price to drop B) Buy it on Xbox 360 or PS3 C) Avoid it all together. You won't be missing out on much.
Hope this helps if you're on the fence about Black Ops 2.Black Ops II: Better than expected By J. Sichel
To help put this review in persepctive, I have been playing Call of Duty since its PC roots with COD 1 and have played every COD besides the portable spin offs. Before this game I had become incredibly bored of the "COD forumula", and MW3 left me feeling very unsure about the future of this series. This game was going to be my last go at buying COD on release day. I'll break this review down into categories for the sake of readability.
Graphics: As someone who used to play these games on Xbox 360, the jump to my higher end PC really presents almost no difference visually from MW3 on Xbox. That's not to say the game looks bad, the characters gear and facial expressions look detailed and the environent and weather effects are excellent. But it is clear the engine has changed little in the last two years and doesn't hold up graphically to the higher end PC games. The plus side is it runs at the consistant frame rate that COD is known for and never slows down no matter what's on screen (your millage will vary depending on PC). GRAPHICS RATING 8/10
Sound: The audio in COD games has been a mixed bag for me since the WWII days of this series ended. I was very impressed with the voice acting in the campaign so far, the dialogue is another story. My biggest gripe remains, and that is that the weapons just sound kind of "soft" when fired, like they lack any real punch compared to the rest of the fighting in the background. Since this is a game where you fire thousands of bullets I consider this to be a major issue. Explosions and background effects from radio chatter and soliders yelling are about par for the course. SOUND RATING 6/10
Campaign: I really enjoyed the Black Ops I campaign a lot more than the MW2 and MW3, and this one has impressed me so far. The future setting works well for a game that badly needed a change of pace. The campaign jumps between past, present, and "future" (2025 where the game takes place)through cutscenes and dialogue. The cutscenes are a new addition to the game and nice for moving the story along, but unlike most games they look much worse visually than the actual game play. The future setting allows for some new gameplay elements like hacking, optical camo, and cool gadgets that are somewhat beleivable. I haven't played far enough in to experiance the new strike missions, but I've read they are a mixed bag. The core gameplay is largly unchanged and will be very familiar to COD vets. Go here, kill these guys, get on that turret, pick up that missile launcher, etc. But in the future setting I must admit I was actually having fun again instead of just going through the motions like MW3. The set pieces (rail scenes) are classic COD, and it's a lot of fun jumping off a cliff in a windsuit in the pouring rain. One other notable change is the addition of a loadout screen, so that pre mission you can choose your weapons and gear. This is a great addition. So far so good on the campaign. CAMPAIGN RATING: 8/10
Multiplayer: This is what I buy COD for. I was massivly dissapointed with MW3, just felt like I was buying a map pack for an older COD game. BLOPS II changes the formula and hits a suprising homerun here. The biggest change is to the create a class. Instead of the old "pick one perk/attachemnt from each slot" now there is a 10 point system. Any combination of attachments, weapons, perks, etc can be selected as long as their value adds up to 10 or less. This allows for nearly unlimited possibilites. Maybe you want two perks from "perk 1" slot, go for it, just ditch that extra grenade. Want 3 weapon attachments? Sure maybe ditch that "perk 3" slot you didn't care much for. This will allow players plenty of options for creating their ultimate killing machine. The killstreaks are now pointstreaks, so teamwork is slightly more encouraged (of course no one cares anyways, its all about the K/D for most players). The airstrike/support options are all a lot of fun, and nothing seems rediculously overpowered compared to older games (chopper gunner!!!). There is a new e-sports league mode where you are matched based on skill and all unlocks are made available. COD TV is built in, but I haven't tried it yet. There is a fully customizable mode with bots. These features make the whole multiplayer feel complete and well rounded. The maps are mostly of the smaller variety, but each has a unique visual style and I find them more enjoyable than MW3 maps. I'm sure DLC maps will show up in no time as well. The core gameplay modes are all there with a few new ones, and well nothing is radically different here, the future weapons and new customization options make for a great kill fest online. My major gripe here is the lack of dedicated servers, which unfortunatly makes this closer to the Xbox Live experiance. MULTIPLAYER RATING: 9/10
Zombies: Haven't played this much yet. From my limited exposure it looks to be completly overhauled. The map is much larger and full of secrets and choices. There is an armored bus that will transport you between sections while zombies give chase. A few new game modes here including a fully customizable experiance (headshots only for example) should keep zombie fans busy for quite some time. Compared to the old zombie modes this one is a big step forward. ZOMBIES RATING: 10/10
Issues: The game must be installed in Steam, and is close to a 20gb install. Keep that in mind if you're considering a digital download. The DVD set comes with two install disks and it still took close to 30 min before I was up and playing. Also for some reason each mode (single player, multi, zombies) must be launched seperatly. Switching between them DOES NOT keep your video/control settings from the previous one, so you will have to configure each mode seperatly (just once). The controls are akward, I did some rebinding and now I'm good to go (speciifcally crouch/prone and melee).
The verdict: I bought this almost expecting to be dissapointed, instead I've been pleasantly suprised. Activision has pulled an upset here, and for the first time in over a year this game will sell well not just because of the franchise name. A change in scenery, well balanced and refined multiplayer, zombies 2.0, and lots of customization options will keep you busy for a long time. If you're an old COD fan who's grown bored of these games lately, or a new player looking to jump on the late bandwagon I recommend Call of Duty Black Ops II. VERDICT: 8.5/1044 of 53 Great entry in the series - download through Steam By J. Grant
Another great entry in the Call of Duty series. If you're a fan of the military FPS genre, you won't be disappointed.
This time around the single player game focuses a story told across two cold wars - the 20th century US vs. USSR cold war, and a 21st century cold war with the US vs. China. As is traditional in this series, the story is told as you play multiple characters. And as in the previous Black Ops game, flashbacks are used to move the plot forward. The story takes place in locales across the globe, from the 1980s to 2025. For the first time in a COD game, you are now allowed to choose your weapons before the start of each mission. The main adversary is very well developed this time around, making for a great story. And the decisions you make along the way will affect how the story unfolds. This branching narrative affects the ending of your game and adds to the replay value.
But the multiplayer experience is what many of us buy these games for, and on this front, the standard of this franchise looks to be upheld as well. The graphics are detailed, crisp and smooth (of course your mileage may vary depending on your PC setup - make sure to pay attention to the recommended specs). There are new customization tools available, adding some new RPG elements into the mix. There are new game modes as well. "Hardpoint" pits multiple (more than 2) teams against each other to take command of a randomly changing control point. And "League Play" acts as matchmaker to bring teams of equal skill together. Also, "Zombie Mode" is back.
In case you were wondering how the download process works (for those buying the download version):
1. When you first purchase the game on Amazon, if by chance it prompts you to download it, decline. All you will need from Amazon is the Product Code generated when you purchase the game.
2. I already had an existing Steam account, so if you don't, create one first and download the client software from their site. You will need a Steam account regardless of how you choose to install this product.
3. Go to the "Your Games and Software Library" page of the "My Account" section in your Amazon account.
4. Copy the "Product Code" listed under your game.
5. Open up Steam, and click "Add a Game".
6. Choose "Activate a Product on Steam".
7. You will need to click though a couple of prompts, then will be asked for the Product Code. Paste the code your copied from Amazon in step 4.
8. This game will then be added to your Steam Library, and you can download and play the game.
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