Black Ops II is a perfect cocktail of everything that makes Call of Duty one of the most iconic franchises in gaming, with an iconic, jaw-dropping campaign co-written by David S. Goyer (co-writer on Batman Begins), a fast-paced multiplayer mode that was perfectly tuned, and an innovative expansion of the Zombies mode.
Black Ops II’s campaign took the series into the future for the first time, in the then-far-off year of 2025. After Black Ops put brainwashing and sleeper agents at the center of its story, Black Ops II focused on the dangers of militarized technology. What happens when the enemies steal the keys to all of the drones and computers meant to protect the world? Combine all of that with an extremist revolutionary who rallies a personal army of everyday citizens via social media, and it results in absolute chaos. For the first time, the franchise also empowered the player to make choices that could dictate the direction of the story, opening the campaign up to a wide array of different endings and mission variations. It added replayability and a remarkably complex amount of layers to a previously restrictive and linear experience.
Black Ops II’s multiplayer was a massive highlight as well, thanks to a diverse map roster, individual weapon progression, the introduction of scorestreaks that incentivize playing for more than just kills, and the Pick 10 system. The Pick 10 system forced players to choose just 10 items for their loadout, including guns, perks, attachments, and equipment. You could sacrifice a secondary weapon for extra primary attachments or perks, for instance, pushing players to be more thoughtful with their loadouts.
Zombies also got bigger thanks to a massive map known as Tranzit, which featured a bus that would take players to new sections of the map. Although DLC maps lacked the bus mechanic, they were ambitious in other ways by including things like non-zombie NPCs that could assist you, a giant robot, and much more.
Ultimately, Black Ops II was the perfect Call of Duty concoction that pushed the series forward at the right pace and had a high level of quality across each of the three modes. Following in the footsteps of the acclaimed Modern Warfare trilogy, Black Ops II was the final game in Call of Duty’s so-called golden age and may very well be the best game in the entire franchise. Whether or not the series can ever return to these heights remains to be seen, but Treyarch set a high bar for itself with this game.
