Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 game review

The knives have been sharpened, the vitriol pumped, the maps cleared of bodies and the zombies starved. It can only mean one thing: Call of Duty: Black Op 2 is upon us. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Flagging the issue It's the series where reviewers can never win, and Activision's coffers never fail to be filled. Where one …

[Electric Panda]

Not surprised

Each CoD game has been a photocopy of the one before it since IW and Treyarch started sharing the engine. This series is at death's door and even the hardened fans are growing tired of it.

A friend once referred to CoD as "Duck Hunt HD" and it seems from the review that this version is no different.

[JeevesMkII]

Re: Not surprised

I heard it sold about 7 million copies on launch day. If that's death's door, sign me up for death. I guess what people are really paying for is essentially a subscription to an online service. You pay your 40 quid every year for privilege of access to the servers people are shooting each other on. It scarcely matters if they offer anything new or not, as long as they're better than the competition, they can sell millions every time.

[Andy Fletcher]

Re: Not surprised

@Electric Panda I'm not surprised either. It seems staple for people who don't even own, let alone play the game to have an opinion on it. Well done sir. And of course they haven't changed it - people like it. Changing it would be the dumbest thing they could do wouldn't it?

[leexgx]

Re: Not surprised

only 30k on-line players thought (guess every one is only playing single player or zombies)

[IHateWearingATie]

You forgot to mention...

... the continual releasing of over priced map packs.

I like playing COD online with a group of mates, but it is getting a little tired and this version doesn't seem to address that

[Silverburn]

Mechs

The logical part of my brain says that mechs are a useless design for warfare - urban, ruran or otherwise. Even if you could conquer the physical and packaging problems. A conventional tank would be better.

However...they are bloody satisfying to play...mechwarrior ftw!

[VWDan]

No Interest

I've actually really enjoyed the whole Call of Duty series, right from the original WWII classic. That said, this whole "future warfare" concept has me completely losing interest. I know realism was never really CoD's strong point, but at least there was a semblance that you were doing something plausible, but now it's just science fiction. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not what the series should be in my opinion.

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

Damn

Was hoping for a review of Mass Effect 2.

You sure those screenshots aren't photographs?

[Silverburn]

Re: Damn

They only look like photo's because of the graphic superiority of <console X> as compared to <console Y>...

Fanbois...commence thermonuclear flame war now!

[David Webb]

Re: Damn

As if, the X and Y consoles are frikken sucky for gameplay, everyone knows that the <console Z> is much better and when it comes to gameplay Z wipes the floor with X and Y!

[Bush_rat]

Re: Damn

What, forget <console z>! <operating system x> with <hardware x> is better than all of your shit!

[Shaun 2]

I too was not interested, but my wife decided to surprise me with an early Christmas present. Have played roughly 8 hours of multiplayer, and 2 hours of single player so far, and am enjoying it.

The tweaks to the multiplayer scoring system are welcome, and should reduce camping once players have gotten used to it. I am disappointed to see the tactical insertion is back, so expect to see it being exploited just as soon as players reach the required rank.

The few set pieces that I've experienced in single player have been brilliant. I'm playing through on veteran, which to be honest is probably now beyond my skill level, so I'll probably have to reduce the difficulty to get through the final missions, which are normally carnage.

It's not a genre-changing title, but it is a good game, that should keep me going until The Elder Scrolls Online is released.

90%

[Greg J Preece]

I'll be buying it when it comes down in price a bit. No interest in the multiplayer but I've yet to play a CoD single player campaign I didn't enjoy (or love). And despite being able to call the original BLOPS storyline miles in advance, I enjoyed the game way more than MW2, which just got silly trying to outdo itself. The Vietnam level in BLOPS was all kinds of awesome.

I do like the branching idea, too. That sounds like it could be fun.

The series isn't perfect, and I personally wish they'd tell the 360 to piss off and make a newer engine (never gonna happen), but given the previous games I'll still be checking this out.

[JeevesMkII]

Really?

You enjoy the single player on these bags of shite? What's wrong with you?

[C Yates]

Re: Really?

@JeevesMkII

Spot on! I think they only have the single player campaign just so they can say they have one.

The multiplayer is what it is meant for, and it is the multiplayer I know and love... even though I die a lot... to twelve year olds... *sob* :(

[Greg J Preece]

Re: Really?

You enjoy the single player on these bags of shite? What's wrong with you?

I enjoy flying helicopters upriver machine gunning people to death while listening to Jimi Hendrix. You act as if that were odd somehow. And you're not honestly going to try and tell me CoD4 had shit single-player, are you?

I'm not interested in the multiplayer, mainly because of the player base. I prefer to play solid co-op games online. Killing Floor is a good example because it forces the players to work together, rather than act like dicks and hurl obscenities at each other all night.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Really?

@Greg:

Fair enough, one man's meat and all that... I do play the single player campaigns through once before starting the multiplayer, but it's all a little too scripted for me; something which the MP isn't.

I can understand why you hate the playerbase, but it's not all that bad if you mute the trash talkers. It sounds a little like my Dad's reason for not going to the cinema; the net result is that you're letting other ignorant morons dictate how much of the game you play. You paid for it, sod them!

Besides, they're not ALL like that - give it a try :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Really?

Shizoid personality disorder....

You?

[SpaMster]

Make your mind up!

Very strange review considering this site gave MW3, which is a game with a lot more issues and a lot less to offer, a score of 90%. Surely if you put this game down for being more of the same, you should have done it with MW3 as well?

[SpaMster]

Re: Make your mind up!

Plus I’ve just noticed the reviewer is the same guy that did the MW3 review, which makes the score even more bizarre. This game is miles ahead of MW3 gameplay wise. This isn’t an honest review at all.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it just me

Or does the explosions in the screenshots look a bit cartoon like?

[Anonymous Coward]

Running Crysis 2 in 64 bit mode with Direct 11 and hi-res textures on my twin GPU powered, quad core pc makes me think that those screen-shots look like a console ... ie very poor. Playing Mass Effect 3 is a giveaway too ... I go from fabulously marvelous (mostly) when my system is doing the work to utter crap when the console suitable cut scenes appear. It's really night and day. What I'm really trying to say is that games used to push the development envelope but consoles have dumbed down the concepts AND technical execution ... but you know that.

[asdf]

of course

Funny that when your hardware was designed in 2005 and 2006. Go look at your rig from back then and see the kind of games you were playing. Probably still better but a lot less than today.

[elmo]

Faults

Activision and Treyarch have already admitted there is a substanial freeze issue across all platforms but its most noticeable on the PS3., Only bought it mates want to play this and only this.......

[Obitim]

What about

the changes to multiplayer with the pick 10 system?

Also the screenshots that I have seen are the same as a large number of other review sites (the cavalry charge in particular)

Did you actually play the game fully or just see what else was written and grab a few screen shots?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What about

Okay I give in; "Pick 10 system"? :)

[Obitim]

Re: What about

It was a change from the old multiplayer one primary weapon, one secondary, 3 perks and 2 grenades, instead it;s a case of using 10 slots instead so if you don;t want to use a secondary weapon you can replace that with something else.

Not a big thing but it shows that Treyarch are trying new things with the multiplayer

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What about

Ahha! Thanks!

Only replied because I'm shocked that some moron still downvoted you for answering a question without any bias.

Prick.

[clocKwize]

Pick 10 is basically you can have anything (any weapons, perks, attachments, wildcards, etc) as long as you have no more than 10 in total.. so you could have 2 primary weapons, if you a wild card that lets you have 2, but then you'd have to give up 2 other things (1 for the wildcard to allow it, 1 for the thing the primary weapon was replacing.. probably the secondary weapon right?)

[Greg J Preece]

That sounds a bit hard to balance. I imagine some loadouts will be nerfed in short order.

[Blitterbug]

Teacher to the Rescue!

"it also relied far too much on tired principals"

Moonlighting from their day job, I take it.

[DrXym]

Call of Duty is well past its sell by date

Single player COD has barely advanced since the first title - linear levels, heavy amounts of scripting, retarded enemies and allies, infinite spawn points, hidden triggers, unopenable doors and windows and even more scripting. What was forgivable 10 years ago simply isn't forgivable now.

[tractor_saint]

Loving the game.. but they need to release server code

tbh it's my first wander into the COD franchise so can understand the frustration of those that have paid £xx for games gone before. However, as a first purchase of COD and playing a lot of CS:S and CS:GO I thought I'd get it mainly for the multiplayer part.

Glad I did - an excellent game and really like the way you advance through weapons and add ons. The only negatives are really linked together:

1. Lag balancer basically auto-balances to the worst players lag. Frustrating when 11 players have fantastic connections but one player is playing from the moon and bringing everyone else to their level.

2. No separate dedi servers, all run by COD folks. So, no admin, no kicking players for abuse etc.

Basically, I want my clan to have their own server and play the way we play it. We've been very successful in the past on previous games I can't understand why there are no dedi servers for 3rd parties (they say it's to stop hackers but there are already hackers in the game now)

Overall, just for Multiplayer I'd give it 85% - can't wait for a few updates to sort out small issues and then for them to give us the clan servers!

[asdf]

Re: Loving the game.. but they need to release server code

>release server code

I would prefer more that you could pick dedicated servers so you don't have to pray every time some nub rage quits in the middle of a long match. That's never annoying when you are about to knife someone and it freezes and after countdown they turn around, drop you and then teabag.

[asdf]

Re: Loving the game.. but they need to release server code

I meant more dedicated servers ran by publisher as they are the ones making bank. Clan servers probably wouldn't be much better and based on what I saw in BF3 may even be worse.

[asdf]

hmm

Have this game still wrapped in plastic at home. I can't seem to pull myself away from CS GO on my PS3 long enough to play it (yes whatever pc version better blah blah, I hate mouse gaming). That game is pure addiction. I guess its a good thing they don't include all the maps for the PC version or might not have even bought COD. Probably going to be sorely disappointed with COD when I go back to MP with 8 yo who have no idea what cover is. The problem with COD tends to be more the people that play than anything.

[jef_]

Better than MW3?

I dunno, i cam to all of this stuff with MW3 - loved it and when I got tired of it moved to Battlefield 3 which is also great (for different reasons). I got bored of that and so was looking forward to Black Ops 2. Having played it for a few hours now I feel like I must be missing something - the graphics seem really cartoony and way too 'clean', and the levels seem tiny (even compared to MW3). Maybe it's just that my standards have got much higher... Also tried CS Global Offensive a couple of months ago and again, I read the reviews and thought 'what is wrong with me' because I found it massively shallow and repetitive, despite most people being all like - 'it's great'. Hmm. Will persevere with 'BLOPS 2' but so far it is somewhat uninvolving, compared to MW3.

[Spotswood]

Zombies?

Considering the replay you get out of Zombies (everyone I know LOVES Zombies) I'm surprised you didnt get into too much detail. Surely that has to be a contributing factor to a Black Ops review.

[MJI]

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