Call of Duty: Black Ops II
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Call of Duty: Black Ops II |
 |
| Developer(s) |
Treyarch |
| Publisher(s) |
Activision
Square Enix (Japan) |
| Writer(s) |
David S. Goyer |
| Composer(s) |
Jack Wall[1]
Trent Reznor (theme music)[2] |
| Series |
Call of Duty |
| Engine |
Black Ops II engine |
| Platform(s) |
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Wii U[3] |
| Release date(s) |
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 & Microsoft Windows
November 12, 2012 (Steam)
November 13, 2012[4][5][6]
- JP November 22, 2012 (Sub)
- JP December 20, 2012 (Dub)
Wii U
NA November 18, 2012
EU November 30, 2012
AU November 30, 2012[7]
- JP December 20, 2012 (Dub)
|
| Genre(s) |
First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) |
Single-player, multiplayer, Co-op |
| Media/distribution |
Blu-ray Disc, DVD, Download, Nintendo optical disc |
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a
first-person shooter video game, developed by
Treyarch and published by
Activision (
Square Enix for
Japan). It was released on November 13, 2012 for
PlayStation 3,
Xbox 360, and
Microsoft Windows and on November 18, 2012 in North America, November 30, 2012 in Europe and Australia for the
Wii U.
[4][5][6] Square-Enix
released the game for the Japanese market on November 22, 2012 as a
subbed version. A Japanese voice-dubbed version was released separately
on December 20, 2012. The Japanese release of the Wii U port is only the
dubbed version since the console was not available in Japan in
November.
[8] Black Ops II is the ninth game in the
Call of Duty franchise of video games and a sequel to the 2010 game
Call of Duty: Black Ops. The game was launched at 16,000 stores worldwide at midnight on November 13, 2012.
[9]
Black Ops II is the first game in the
Call of Duty
franchise to feature future warfare technology and the first to present
branching storylines driven by player choice. It also offers a 3D
display option.
[10] A corresponding game,
Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified, was released simultaneously on the
PlayStation Vita. Within 24 hours of going on sale, the game grossed over $500 million, beating 2011's
Modern Warfare 3 to become the biggest entertainment launch of all time.
[11] It went on to sell 7.5 million copies in November 2012, making it the highest grossing game of the month.
[12]
The game is the first in the series to feature significant elements of
nonlinear gameplay, most notably
multiple endings.
[13]
Synopsis
Characters and setting
The single-player campaign features two connected storylines, with
the first set from 1986 to 1989 during the final years of the first
Cold War, and the other set in 2025 during a second Cold War. The protagonist of
Black Ops,
Alex Mason returns as the protagonist in the first
Cold War section, and chronicles the rise to infamy of the game's primary antagonist, Raul Menendez,
[14] a
Nicaraguan narco-terrorist and the leader of "Cordis Die", a populist movement celebrated as the champion of victims of
economic inequality.
[citation needed]
The 2025 section of the game features Alex Mason's son David as the protagonist during a new Cold War between
China and the
United States.
[15] In this era, wars are defined by
robotics,
cyberwarfare,
unmanned vehicles, and other futuristic technology.
[14][16]
Plot
In the year 2025, US Special Forces operatives led by David Mason and
his partner, Harper, arrive at "the Vault", a top-security location
home to an aging
Frank Woods,
whom they suspect possess vital information on the whereabouts of Raul
Menendez. Woods concedes that Menendez has recently visited him, and
shows them a locket that the latter had left behind. Frank then narrates
several covert missions undertaken during his military career which
span their previous encounters.
1980s
In 1986 Alex Mason had effectively retired from active duty to pursue
an obscure existence in Alaska with his son, the seven-year-old David.
Their shaky relationship is strained further when Mason is solicited by
Jason Hudson, seeking to recruit him for an assignment in
Cuando Cubango during the height of the
Angolan civil and
South African Border Wars. Woods had disappeared with his men while aiding
Jonas Savimbi's
UNITA rebels against Angola's
Marxist government; their actions have already been disavowed by the
CIA and Hudson hopes to rescue any survivors. With UNITA assistance, Mason and Hudson recover Woods from the
Kavango River,
subsequently locating Menendez among a contingent of Cuban military
advisers. However, a firefight breaks out, and their quarry escapes as
the Americans are rescued by Savimbi in a
Hind D. It is revealed that Menendez is responsible for holding Woods captive after murdering his team.
In light of this information, Mason, Woods, and Hudson begin tracking
Menendez, who has established himself as a primary arms dealer for bush
conflicts in Southern Africa and Latin America. Later in the year, the
CIA authorizes a strike against the unscrupulous Nicaraguan, now making a
healthy profit running arms across
Soviet-occupied Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, Mason, Woods, and Hudson assist the Mujahideen in their
battle against the Russians, along with Chinese operative Tian Zhao.
Woods and Mason find Lev Kravchenko, who turns out to have survive the
grenade incident with Woods in Vietnam, causing Mason to see the numbers
and hearing Reznov's voice again. Kravchenko is interrogated by the
group and the player is given the option of executing Kravchenko by
Reznov's orders inside Mason's head or resisting and finishing the
interrogation, in which case, Woods then executes Kravchenko after
admitting that he associated with Menendez and that he has men inside
the CIA. Regardless of how Kravchenko is killed, the Mujahideen are
revealed to be allied with Menendez, and double-cross Mason, Woods,
Hudson, and Zhao. The four are beaten, tied, and left for dead in the
middle of the desert, unconscious until rescued by civilians, one of
whom Mason believed to be Reznov.
At this point, Menendez's motive for his seemingly senseless vendetta
against the West become clear: his beloved sister was grievously
injured in an act of arson committed by American businessmen for
insurance money. The Menendez clan, which dominates a powerful drug
cartel, was again rocked by loss when the CIA sanctions the
assassination of Raul's father. An embittered Menendez now considers the
conflict to be personal, but his one-man struggle against the West is
interrupted when Mason, Woods, Hudson, and the
Panama Defense Force raid his headquarters in
Nicaragua; an enraged Woods inadvertently kills Raul's sister with a grenade.
Faking his demise with the assistance of Panamanian dictator
Manuel Noriega, Menendez lives to retaliate against those he holds personally responsible for his sister's death. During the
1989 invasion of Panama,
he utilizes moles in the CIA to kidnap Hudson and David, using them as
bait for a trap. He then uses Hudson to mislead Woods, manipulating him
into shooting Mason instead of himself. If the player disobeys Hudson's
instructions to shoot Alex Mason in the head and instead shoots him
anywhere else, he will survive and reappear in the game's ending. In the
ensuing chaos, Menendez kills Hudson and cripples Woods. Unsatisfied
with his revenge, Menendez allows Woods and David to live, promising to
return to complete his revenge when the time is right.
2025
Three decades after the Invasion of Raoul, Menendez re-emerges as the
leader of Cordis Die, a massive populist movement with over a billion
followers. He stages a
cyberattack that cripples the
Chinese Stock Exchange; in response, the Chinese ban the export of
rare earth elements, fermenting the start of a new Cold War between the United States and
NATO,
against the Chinese-led SDC (Strategic Defense Coalition ). Taking
advantage of this stand-off, Menendez attempts to bring the two powers
to a full-blown war by inciting conflicts between the two, secretly
aiding SDC leader Chairman Tian Zhao. Using the intelligence provided by
Woods, David, now a
Navy SEAL code-named Section, leads
JSOC forces in the renewed search for Menendez.
Shortly after gathering intelligence from Woods, Section and JSOC infiltrates
Myanmar
investigating a spike in activity in the region. There, Section's team
encounters a computer engineer under Menendez's employment, warning them
of a cyberattack with a Celerium device, a quantum computer capable of
hacking any computer system. Section's team is later deployed in
Pakistan,
attempting to gather intelligence on Menendez's plots. During the
infiltration, Menendez discloses the name of a target, "Karma" in the
Cayman Islands.
Section and SEAL operatives Harper and Salazar later infiltrate the
Cayman Islands, finding out that "Karma" is a woman named Chloe Lynch, a
former employee of Menendez's shell corporation, Tacitus. Lynch was the
main developer of the Celerium device, and as a means of wrapping up
loose ends, Menendez had deployed mercenaries for her abduction.
JSOC later has a lead on Menendez in
Yemen,
where JSOC asset Farid infiltrates Menendez's cell to help Section
facilitate the leader's capture. The player, as Farid has a choice
during the mission. Menendez, suspecting Farid's disloyalty, orders him
to shoot the captured Harper. If the player chooses not to shoot Harper,
and instead attempts to shoot Menendez, he fails, but Harper survives
and is rescued. If the player chooses to shoot Harper, Farid survives,
and Harper is not present in any conversations or missions thereafter.
Menendez is successfully captured, but this was a ruse for Menendez to
hack into the U.S. military's computer infrastructure on the aircraft
carrier the
U.S.S. Obama, seizing control of the United States'
entire drone fleet. Salazar is revealed to be Menendez's mole within
JSOC, and facilitates Menendez's attack—Menendez escapes with Salazar's
aid, and when Menendez breaks in to the bridge of the Obama, Salazar
shoots the soldiers guarding Admiral Briggs, with Lynch's survival
dependent on Farid's survival in the previous mission. The player,
playing as Menendez, has the choice of either killing or wounding
Admiral Briggs. If the player only wounds Briggs, and the player has
completed all of the Strike Force missions, JSOC and SDC enter an
alliance, then the player is later informed that the SDC sent hundreds
of drones to defend the Obama, and consequently Briggs was able to save
the ship and its crew. Menendez uses the drones to stage an attack on
Los Angeles during a meeting of G20 leaders, hoping to kill them and cause catastrophic damage to the global economy. Mason escorts the
President of the United States to safety amidst the drone attacks.
JSOC eventually finds the source of the transmissions responsible for the hacking to
Haiti,
where Section leads JSOC forces into recapturing the facility in the
final mission, and apprehending or killing Menendez. There are different
endings depending on the actions the player takes throughout the
campaign, such as whether or not the United States and China are able to
enter an alliance with each other, as well as determining the fates of
certain individuals in the game.
During the main campaign, the player may choose to participate in
optional Strike Missions. The Strike Missions involve JSOC attempting to
curb the SDC's global influence by preventing them from forcing
neighboring countries into the alliance. Section himself does not
participate in these missions directly, though he can command the forces
remotely from a command center. If the missions are completed
successfully, the SDC is weakened enough to ally with JSOC, and assists
the player later in the campaign, for example, in sending its own drones
to rescue the U.S.S. Obama and sending its forces to assist JSOC in
Haiti.
Endings
The storyline of
Call of Duty: Black Ops II has several possible endings. The one shown depends on decisions and tasks completed over the course of the game.
If the player spares Menendez's life, completes all four Strike Force
Missions, and the characters Chloe Lynch and Alex Mason survive the
events of the game, then the preferred ending will result. The player
will have secured an alliance between China and the United States,
ending the Second Cold War. Lynch's survival prevents Menendez's
cyberattack from succeeding. And finally, Mason's survival allows him to
visit Frank Woods in retirement, reuniting with Section. The final
scene shows Menendez in prison becoming enraged after watching a talk
show with Jimmy Kimmel interviewing Lynch, who insults him during the
interview.
[17]
If Menendez is spared, Lynch survives, but Mason is killed in action,
then the Second Cold War will end, and Menendez's cyberattack will
fail. However, Section will visit his father's grave with Woods and
decide to retire from soldiering. Woods comments that his father would
approve of the decision.
[17]
If Menendez is spared and Lynch is killed, Section will apprehend
Menendez taking him into custody. The cyberattack will succeed, allowing
Menendez to escape. He kills Woods in the retirement home before
visiting his sister's grave, dousing himself in gasoline and readying a
lit match.
[17]
If Menendez is killed regardless of Lynch and Mason's fate, a
YouTube video that Menendez recorded earlier will air, inciting the civilian population to riot.
[17]
Gameplay
Strike Force missions
Black Ops II is the first
Call of Duty video game to
feature branching storylines, in which the player's choice affects both
the current mission and in turn, the overall course of the story. Known
as "Strike Force missions", these branching storylines appear during the
2025 storyline and feature
permanent death.
The success or failure of these missions can have ramifications for the
wider campaign storyline. Choosing one of the missions locks out the
others unless the player begins a fresh campaign.
[16]
Strike Force missions allow the player to control a number of different war assets, such as
unmanned aerial vehicles,
jet fighters and
robots.
If the player dies in a Strike Force mission, the campaign continues
recording that loss, as opposed to letting the player load a previously
saved checkpoint. The player's progress in the Strike Force missions may
go on to change even the plans of the story's antagonist, Raul
Menendez.
[16]
By the end of the game, the player may have changed the results of the
new Cold War, and the player is shown what could have gone differently.
[citation needed]
Zombies
Treyarch has confirmed that the Zombies mode will return for
Black Ops II with new game modes. Its predecessors were
Call of Duty: World at War and
Call of Duty: Black Ops. This is the third time for the Zombies mode to appear in a
Call of Duty
game, and the first time to have game modes other than the traditional
Survival mode. Treyarch has also confirmed that Zombies will run on the
game's multiplayer engine, allowing for a deeper community experience,
along with new features. It has also been confirmed that the Zombies
mode will support 8 player co-op, unlike
Call of Duty: World at War and
Call of Duty: Black Ops,
which only supported 4 player online co-op. On January 29, Black Ops
2's 1st DLC, Revolution, came out. The zombies map in the DLC was called
Die Rise, and it takes place in a bunch of destroyed high-rise
skyscrapers in Shanghai, China.
Development
| [hide]Minimum System Requirements |
|
Requirements |
| Microsoft Windows[18] |
| Operating system |
Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) or Windows 7; (Windows XP not supported) |
| CPU |
Intel Core2 Duo E8200 2.66 GHz or AMD Phenom X3 8750 2.4 GHz |
| Memory |
2GB for 32-bit OS or 4GB for 64-bit OS |
| Hard drive space |
16GB |
| Graphics hardware |
Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512 MB or ATI Radeon HD 3870 512 MB |
|
Activision Blizzard CEO
Robert Kotick stated on November 8, 2011 that a new
Call of Duty game was in development for a 2012 release and will be the newest installment in the franchise.
[19]
The game was officially confirmed by Activision during its
fourth-quarter earnings call on February 9, 2012, and promised that it
will feature "meaningful innovation" for the series.
[20][21] Oliver North, who was involved in the
Iran–Contra affair was a consultant and helped promote the game.
[22][23]
Internal leaks
Reports of
Black Ops 2 surfaced following a product page for
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 appeared on
Amazon France
before quickly being taken down in February 2012. No information had
yet been released by Activision, but Gameblog claimed that Activision
demanded it remove its original report too.
[24]
When it refused to do so, the publisher cut off Gameblog from ad
support, review game mailings and future Activision events for refusing
to comply.
[25] Later Activision denied Gameblog’s claims that it has been cut off.
[26]
Around the same time, computer game artist Hugo Beyer also listed
"Black Ops 2" as his current project in his Linkedin CV, before his
LinkedIn page was taken down.
[27]
Beyer is an artist working for Nerve Software, "a Dallas-based
independent developer" which has "helped" with previous Activision games
including,
Black Ops in 2010.
[28] A "Black Ops 2" trademark by Activision was spotted January 2012.
[29] Further
Black Ops 2 was listed by the France international entertainment retail chain
Fnac in March 2012, which touted a predictable November release date.
[30]
On April 9, 2012, an image was leaked from a URL on the official Call of Duty website, which leaked the
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 logo, as well as a reveal date of April 28, 2012. The URL was later removed.
[31]
On April 18, 2012, Kotaku received an image from "a retail source",
which showed a teaser poster that lacked a game title but had clear nods
to
Black Ops and a May 2 date that seemingly points to a reveal.
[32] On April 27, 2012, an image containing two
Target pre-order cards sent by IGN reader Richard confirmed the game's title and release date. The cards clearly display the
Call of Duty: Black Ops II logo, and the release date November 13, 2012.
[33][34]
Reveal
On April 23, 2012, Activision redesigned CallofDuty.com to announce that the game will be revealed on May 1, 2012 during the
NBA playoffs on
TNT.
[35] The art featured on the site matched up perfectly with the supposed retailer leak received by Kotaku.
[36]
However, parts of the official website went live hours prior to the
announcement, which revealed the title, confirmed the release date for
PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and the "21st Century Cold War" setting.
[37]
Activision had hinted that the game may eventually become available for
Nintendo's own consoles, although had no official announcements for the
time being.
[38]
As promised by Activision, the preview for the game was revealed in the
form of a YouTube trailer that detailed the futuristic setting, the
characters carried over from the previous games, and the conflict.
[39] After the game was revealed, the preorder rates on the game set records three times higher than for the preorders of the first
Black Ops.
[40] Critics have noted the trailer's similarities to that of
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
[41][42][43] On July 19, 2012 a second trailer was released by
Treyarch, offering insight into the game's narrative. The storyline has been described by writer
David S. Goyer as "better than a Hollywood movie".
[44]
Gameplay revisions
In developing
Black Ops II, Treyarch introduced several revisions to the gameplay mechanics for online multiplayer that have been a hallmark of the
Call of Duty
franchise. These include the introduction of "multi-team" games that
allow matches to host three or more teams of players, in counternance to
the traditional two factions,
[45]
and revisions to the "Create-A-Class" function that allows users to
create customised characters for use in multiplayer matches.
[46]
The "Kill Streak" function, which gives players in-game rewards for
killing other players, has likewise been revised and will now be known
as "Score Streaks". Whereas players still receive in-game rewards, these
are unlocked by performing certain actions - such as killing other
players, successfully capturing territory, and so on - rather than
simply killing other players.
[47][48] Furthermore, the "wager matches" feature included in
Call of Duty: Black Ops has been removed.
[46]
These changes were introduced to shift the emphasis towards
objective-based gameplay, reward players who work in teams and to make
the game more accessible to new players.
[47]
In addition to this, Treyarch announced plans to integrate
Black Ops II into the world of "eSports" or
competitive gaming.
[49]
To this end, Treyarch unveiled a matchmaking system designed to pair
players up based on their skills within the game to ensure that online
games are relatively equal in terms of player skill. They also announced
what they termed "CODcasting", a form of
live streaming that allows users to stream their games directly onto
YouTube from their gaming consoles.
[49]
There is also 3D support if players are playing with an HDMI cable on
a 3D TV. Before one enters multiplayer mode, one needs to simply just
turn on the 3D setting in the "options" menu.
Audio
Black Ops II features the voices of
Sam Worthington as Alex Mason,
Michael Keaton replacing
Ed Harris as Jason Hudson, James C. Burns voices and provides motion capture for Frank Woods,
Gary Oldman reprises his role as Viktor Reznov from
World at War and
Black Ops in a brief cameo,
Andrew Divoff returns as the voice of Lev Kravchenko, Rich McDonald voicing and providing motion capture for David "Section" Mason,
Michael Rooker voicing and providing motion-capture for Section's squadmate, Mike Harper,
Erin Cahill voicing Chloe "Karma" Lynch,
Tony Todd voicing and providing motion-capture for Admiral Briggs,
Kamar de los Reyes voicing and providing motion capture for Raul Menendez, and
Robert Picardo, who voiced Secretary
Robert McNamara in
Black Ops, voices Erik Breighner. The game's soundtrack was composed by
Jack Wall,
[1] with the main theme composed by
Trent Reznor.
[2] The soundtrack was released as a part of the
Hardened Edition and
Care Package releases, as well as on iTunes and Amazon, with two supplemental tracks by Brian Tuey, as well as
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K550 (Allegro Molto) by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Reception
Critical reception
Call of Duty: Black Ops II has received generally positive reviews from critics.
IGN editor Anthony Gallegos describes the game as "a good example of how to evolve an annualized franchise."
[62]
Gallegos praised the game for telling a story that he felt was
genuinely interesting and creating a villain that he empathised with to
the point where he started questioning his own actions over the course
of the story. Gallegos directed criticisms at the
artificial intelligence
of allies in Strike Force mode, pointing out that he often had to
direct them to one corner of the battlefield and then do everything
himself in order to pass the missions; and at the ending of the campaign
mode, which he felt was disappointing, even when he was aware that the
outcome was directly influenced by the choices he made.
Dan Ryckert of
Game Informer
was equally critical as Gallegos of the artificial intelligence of
Strike Force mode, and was unimpressed by the "Pick Ten" system
introduced to multiplayer modes, noting that it was "interesting, but
ultimately less exciting" than the system used in previous
Call of Duty titles.
[59]
Like Gallegos before him, Ryckert praised the narrative and structure
of the single-player campaign, introducing changes that he felt were
overdue and noting that the branching storylines "had me talking to
others about their experiences in a way I had never done before with
this [
Call of Duty] series".
Steven O'Donnell and
Stephanie Bendixsen, of video game talk show
Good Game,
both gave the game an 8.5 out of 10, praising the gameplay multiplayer
and zombies mode, but were critical of the campaigns confusing narrative
and Strike Force missions.
[67] In particular to the narrative
Good Game,
was critical of the opening battle where the player guns down fleeing
Africans rebels, feeling that it was added purely for shock value; "The
landscape of shooters is changing somewhat. The fact is that everyone
loves playing military shooters, but we're also realising that we don't
want to glorify aimless killings. A lot of games are trying to make you
feel that conflict and even make you feel bad about what you're doing.
But I don't think it's been handled very well here".
[67]
Frederick Charles Fripp of
IT News Africa
gave it a final score of 9.2/10 and wrote "...BO2 is a non-stop
action-packed shooter that will keep gamers on their toes and on the
edge of their seats. It has everything a player could want in a game:
great graphics, a good story, easy controls and superb acting."
[68]
Sales and revenue
Activision has said that it believes
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
day-one shipments were the largest for any game ever. "The record
number of pre-orders from last year's Modern Warfare 3 drove the largest
day-one shipments in our history, and in the industry's history," said
Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg during an earnings call on
November 13, 2012. Hirshberg said more than 2.5 million people queued at
16,000 shops at midnight on Monday to buy
Black Ops II, "making it the largest retail release in Activision's history and in the industry's history".
Activision reported sales figures for
Black Ops II in the U.S. being more than 7.5 million copies sold on launch day
[69]
and grossed over $500 million, in the US alone in its first 24 hours,
making it the biggest entertainment launch of all time. It is the fourth
year in a row that the
Call Of Duty series has broken the same record. 2011's
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 grossed $400 million on one full day; 2010's
Call of Duty: Black Ops grossed $360 million on day one; in 2009,
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 brought in $310 million.
[70]
The title grossed more than $800 million globally in its first five
days of availability, exceeding the $775 million record set by 2011's
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the $650 million set by 2010's
Black Ops and the $550 million one achieved by 2009's
Modern Warfare 2.
To be exact, it has beaten theatrical box office, book, and video game
sales records for five-day worldwide sell-through in dollars.
Black Ops II went on to gross $1 billion in the first 15 days of availability, beating
Modern Warfare 3's record of the first 16 days.
According to
NPD Group,
Black Ops II was November's biggest selling game of the month in the U.S.
Black Ops II sales surpassed first-month sales of 2011′s
Modern Warfare 3 by 8 percent, and sales for November sit at around the 10 million unit mark.
References
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