Call of Duty - Black Ops 2: Everything You Should Know

Call of Duty - Black Ops 2: Everything You Should Know

Duty calls you back in time, and into the future. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re taking a look at everything you should know about Call of Duty, Black Ops 2.

As with the previous installments, the developers for each COD game switch between Infinity Ward and TreyArch, with TreyArch heading up development for this year’s iteration.

Black Ops 2 takes place in both the past and the future.

Sections taking place in the past follow Alex Mason, whom players will remember from the first game. These levels are set in Central America, Afghanistan and Angola during the 1970s and 80s. These chapters explain the rise of game’s primary antagonist, Narco-Terrorist Raul Menendez.

The second major part of the game will take place in 2025. These portions will focus on Menendez’s attempts to bring the United States into a full-blown war with China, after a cyber attack on the Chinese stock market sets off a “second cold war”.

These future sections of the campaign will have players take control of Alex Manson’s son David, and will feature locations such as Los Angeles, Singapore and Yemen.

With a major portion of the game being set in the future, much of the focus of the game will be on unmanned warfare. Unmanned drones and robots feature prominently as a major part of the plot will hinge upon America’s drone network being hijacked by terrorists. Of course, players get to try out lots of cool new futuristic death toys as well, like arm mounted explosive launchers and sniper rifles that can see, and of course shoot, through walls.

While previous games in the Call of Duty franchise have been criticized for their stringent linearity, Black Ops 2 hopes to break this mold with a more open-ended campaign the new “Strike Force Missions”. Player choice will have a significant impact on the plot of the game and the outcome of the story.

For example, when certain objectives are failed, the mission will continue as is, and the ramifications thereof will have dramatic affects on what happens later in the game.

“Strike Force Missions” expand upon this even further. During these portions of the game, players command vast amounts of military assets from a commander’s perspective, much like in a real time strategy game, but will still have the option to jump in a join the fight from a soldier’s perspective. These sections will feature permanent player death as dying does not result in a chance to try again, but instead affects the outcome of the story as a whole.

As in previous installments, Multiplayer is still a major focus and has seen a number of significant changes as well. The create-a-class system has been overhauled to be a lot less restrictive, as every item is now assigned a certain number of points instead of being designated into a specific class. Players can choose any combination of items they wish as long as their total number of “item points” doesn’t exceed 10, allowing for near infinite combinations of weapons and equipment.

The addictive and controversial Kill Streak system has been replaced with Score Streaks, so players who focus on completing objectives and helping their team will be equally rewarded alongside those who focus solely on body count. Along with major tweaks to the prestige system, integration with Call of Duty Elite from launch and added features for eSports broadcasting, TreyArch is looking to completely squash community fears that Black Ops 2’s multiplayer will be just “more of the same”.

Fans of Treyarch’s ultra popular Zombie Mode are in for a special treat as well. This time around, the mode has been given it’s own campaign. Zombie Mode now runs on the game’s multiplayer engine, instead of a modified version of the single player engine like the previous installments. Most notably, this will allow for 8-player co-op instead of just 4, and incorporates Theatre mode so players can re-watch and edit footage of their games.


With all 3 sections of the game seeing major shifts in structure, players can expect a fresh take on the familiar goodness they’ve come to love with the series. Black Ops 2 will be available for Xbox 360, PS3 and Windows PC.

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