Black Ops 2 Screenshot
Tons of information for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has been released via the online press.
Popular news websites for video games recently visited an event where Activision showcased the latest Call of Duty game which has been classified until last night when it was officially revealed in a trailer.
The websites got a look at the game, interviewed members at Treyarch and Activision, and overall received a lot of interesting details about each aspect of the game, including the single player campaign, Multiplayer and the Zombies co-op mode.
If you haven't already, make sure you check out the reveal trailer, the confirmation of Zombies, an interactive version of the trailer as well as six screenshots.
In this article we will provide you with links to previews and give you a detailed summary of the information and impressions gathered.
Preview Article Links
First of all, here's a list of all the preview articles we're aware of. If you know of one not on the list, don't hesitate to contact us and we'll add it in.
NowGamer CVG
Kotaku IGN
Kotaku 2 GameSpy
Joystiq OneOfSwords
Joystiq 2 Destructoid
GamesRadar Game Informer
GameSpot The Verge
Single Player
We will begin by talking about the single player campaign. Be aware that this may contain spoilers, so skip further down if you want to go into the game knowing little about the campaign.
The game will be set in two eras: one is a Cold War during the 1980s and another is a 'new' Cold War during 2025. Alex Mason returns having been the main playable character in the original Black Ops. Frank Woods also returns and as shown in the trailer, an old-aged Woods appears in the near-future era, so it's likely he will feature in both eras. David Mason is a new character and he will be a playable character during 2025, while his dad will be playable during the 1980s (according to CVG). The villain of the game is Raul Menendez who will appear in both eras. According to NowGamer, the "players will discover what happens in the Cold War that makes Menendez such a pivotal role in the war of 2025." Last but not least is Harper; a character who can be seen in the first screenshots to be released.
David S. Goyer, who co-wrote the Christopher Nolan Batman films, helped write the game having done the same for the original Black Ops. The game mostly takes place during 2025 when China has risen to become a world power and is fighting against the United States to gain rare earth elements; the most precious resource on the planet. Similar to The Terminator's Skynet, cyber terrorism is a new threat to hit the game when a terrorist organization (speculated to be called Tactius based on viral teasers) infiltrates America's vast drone network and thus bombing its own cities.
With part of the game being set in over a decade, you can guarantee that there will be some new, futuristic weapons to store in your arsenal. There is the Quadrotor, the CLAW and a Tiltjet plane, all of which can be spotted in the reveal trailer and each has been teased throughout the week as part of the game's viral marketing campaign. The quadrotor is an unmanned air vehicle with a camera and submachine gun attached to it, and it can either be used to give orders to your squad or to attack enemies. The CLAW is an armoured quadruped which can fire a cannon from the front or a rotating turret from the top. A Tiltjet plane can take off without a runway and although the one in the trailer isn't a real military aircraft, it is based on technology that does exist. IGN also saw a new sniper rifle which allows you to see through walls and shoot through different density walls depending on how long the player primes the shot.
Perhaps the most interesting new addition is a branching storyline and the ability to make choices. An example given by NowGamer is having "the option between sniping or rappelling intro an area". On each mission the player will have to make choices and it whatever choice is picked will affect the overall outcome of the mission and the game. Missions can be failed and in doing so, it alters the story's outcome and may even affect whether people will live or die.
You can probably expect the game to take place all over the world once again, but locations that have been confirmed are Los Angeles (USA), Socotra Island (Yemen) and Singapore Docks (Singapore). In LA you will have to protect and escort the President out of the city during 2025 and in the Singapore docks you will have to clear out defences in order for a gunship to approach the area, although not much is known about what Socotra Island will involved just yet. Afghanistan during the 1980s will also feature and it's here where the horses shown in the trailer will play a part when the player meets up with Chinese forces to supply the Mujagedeen with weapons that are needed to tight the Soviet forces.
A new addition to the game is Strike Force Operations which is a sub-mode that lives within the campaign. Here you will be able to pick which mission to play and who to play within it. In real-time strategy style, you can also swap between people within the squad at any point, and the Quadrotor is classed as a character where you will be able to use it to command your squad or shoot enemies. CVG watched a 20-minute demo of a Strike Force match on a Singapore docks map where the player had to secure three checkpoints (A, B and C) until "various story elements involving said checkpoints had run their course." An Overwatch mode which allows you to control your squad from a top-down perspective is also included. The maps are open and enemies can come from different areas, meaning the missions will play out different each time you play them despite having to complete set objectives.
Multiplayer
Treyarch design director David "Vahn" Vonderhaar has confirmed that the game's multiplayer will take place exclusively in 2025 rather than an older era. We will have to wait a bit longer for solid details on multiplayer as is always the case, but Vonderhaar has mentioned how the competitive scene (both those who play and those who watch) has influenced the team at Treyarch, while also saying that social media and social gaming is something they've been looking at very closely. Having witnessed Black Ops 2 become a trending topic on social networking site Twitter, Vonderhaar followed up on a promise by teasing in a tweet that there will be the option to mute all players except those in a party with you; an option that has been much requested.
NowGamer have also posted a few more interesting details about the mode. There will be a map called Aftermath which is set in a destroyed downtown Los Angeles, CA. Each map is said to have "uniquely designed areas to help co-ordinate between players", such as a coffee shop and a hotel lobby in Aftermath that can be identified by players easily. The mode is said to have been stripped back and "started from a very core place" in order to support all types of players and play styles. The Combat Training mode will return, enabling players to improve their skills by fighting against AI bots.
As discovered by our friends at Charlie Intel, it looks like an apparent leaked multiplayer screenshot we posted a while ago is correct. The font style looks similar to a shot found in the trailer and matches some very interesting images posted by CVG.
Zombies
As announced shortly after the reveal, Zombies will be returning. More details on the mode have begun to arrive from CVG, although a full reveal isn't expected until in a few months.
This time the mode will run in the multiplayer engine, which means it show display twice as many Zombies at once and it can handle double the number of players, hinting that the mode could be increased from four-players to eight, but nothing has been confirmed as of yet.
As well as increased numbers, Treyarch has promised new modes. What modes exactly is not yet know, but some members of the community are speculating that there could be a "classic" mode with just four players and another mode with more to take full advantage of the multiplayer engine.
Misc
Although no surprise, the game is out on Tuesday, 13th November 2012 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, and about 300 people have been working on the game with about 250 of them working at Treyarch.
The game uses a similar system that was used in the original Black Ops to capture body movement and facial expressions, except this time it is more refined, reports VentureBeat. They even went as far as bringing a horse into the recording studio. The same website has also posted a very interesting interview with the staff at Treyarch who are responsible for the game's sounds.
According to NowGamer, the game still uses the same engine as previous titles in the series, but the graphics have been tweaked with a mix of "tech and technique". This includes high dynamic range lighting, bounce lighting and self-shadowing effects, as well as a new texturing technique called reveal mapping. The game will continue to run at 60 frames per second as usual and the PC version will take advantage of DX11 graphic cards, although no decision has yet been made regarding dedicated servers.
Big thanks to all the sites who've produced stellar previews, thus enabling us to compile all the information and impressions here.
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