et's not be coy. We both know why you're here. You want to know if this is the one. Is this the game that will finally turn the tide and see Call of Duty given a bloody good kicking? Believe me, I understand that impulse. We're conditioned to root for the underdog, not to cheer on a champion that's already spent five years on top.
Sorry to disappoint, but Black Ops 2 is not the cynical obligation you might think. It may be destined to earn all the money in the world between now and next November, but that assurance has gifted developer Treyarch with confidence, not arrogance. For so long considered the second-string studio, brought in to add to the series on Infinity Ward's off years, Black Ops 2 sees Treyarch not only adding to the franchise but taking ownership of it. This is a game that dares to take a billion-dollar formula and muck about with it.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the campaign mode. Bucking the trend for increasingly stunted single-player shooter experiences, Treyarch has returned to the belief that the solo portion of an FPS is the beating heart of the game, not a grudging tradition useful only for bombastic trailer shots.
No longer are you handed a pair of weapons and shoved down a corridor of scripted stunts. You can now choose your loadout and equip perks before each level, much like multiplayer. The maps accommodate and embrace this freedom too, offering broader routes that reward the exploratory player and secret areas, containing better weapons or useful intel, that can only be accessed with a special perk. There are still a few headbanging checkpoints where you can see the ghost of CODs past in the waves of spawning enemies that only cease once you hit the right trigger spot, and the AI still won't be winning any chess matches, but Call of Duty hasn't felt this alive in years.
The story is absolute nonsense, of course, but still devilishly entertaining. Hopping between flashbacks to Black Ops hero Alex Mason in the 1980s and his son David in 2025, you'll pursue charismatic terrorist leader Raul Menendez across the decades. The near-future setting comes close to being a corny gimmick, with its cloaking armour, robot spiders and flying wingsuits, but it also frees the game from the jingoistic onanism of Modern Warfare.
While rival shooters continue to herd themselves down the cul-de-sac of military realism, Black Ops 2 throws itself into pulp sci-fi with gusto. Although missions take place in Angola, Yemen, Pakistan and other potentially offensive hotspots, the story avoids the predictable post-9/11 plot devices. The evil Menendez is referred to as the biggest threat since Bin Laden, but with his smart suits and European suave he's a flamboyantly sadistic Bond villain rather than another fiendish Islamic mastermind.
Most remarkably, for once the storyline isn't a “one and done” linear romp to be churned through in a hurry. It's still relatively short - around six hours or so - but a branching storyline forces you to think and engage with the fiction rather than hammer through it. There are six endings and multiple points where your actions can dictate the outcome. A few blunt button-prompt moral dilemmas aside, it's surprisingly seamless. More than once, I finished a level only to discover that there were events I could have altered.
There are also level-specific challenges to beat, leaderboards that gauge your score against your friends and optional Strike Force missions that allow you to control multiple units, vehicles and turrets from an overhead tactical view. Some of these tie up loose ends from the main missions, others will impact the ending you get. It's a bold experiment, but not always a successful one. Friendly AI is pretty bad, meaning that the real-time strategy and tower defence aspects quickly take a back seat to hands-on intervention, at which point it becomes just another FPS level. They're not unplayable and still make for a change of pace compared to the core missions, but if this feature is to return in future instalments it'll need a bit more spit and polish.
