Story

It's a foreseeable future and there is a "cyber" terrorist gearing up to bring the major super powers to their knees over something that happened in the past. The past being the mid 80's just for reference. It is up to a Special Forces team to figure out what is going, stop it from happening, and capture the mastermind behind everything. All of this before the United States and China go to all out war and most likely destroying the globe. Of course this all fall on the shoulders of your lone hero.

Hated

I'm going to start off by saying that the audio for the game was overly irritating. Not the actual dialog, but the audio volumes and overlays. One second I'd be watching a cut scene and need to crank the volume just so I could hear the story and events. Then without warning it hops back into game play and my speakers would almost get blown as the audio jumped to eleven. It kept me scrambling for my audio remote more than I really should have been. It was too annoying and made me feel like I missed certain points of the actual story as I would turn things back down only to be met with another story scene requiring me to scramble again.

Next up, the AI was absolutely worthless. That is at least when it came to your allies. I lost count how many times I was in a firefight and I would watch as enemies would run right past my allies without anything stopping them. Every now and then, mainly Harper, they would intervene and take down the opposing threat while I dealt with the other overwhelming odds, but that was few and far between. I get that I should be an army of one here, but when you give me other characters and allies, they should be more than just cannon fodder for me to see where the next group of enemies are hiding. That is really all they were good for in the game. That and taking the cover that is needed to progress.

Speaking on cover, what is the point here? The whole game I am being told to take cover but everyone has the ability to see through it or shoot through it. Or if anything, sneak past the AI that is supposed to be covering my flanks thus making it null and void. It was seriously easier in many of the missions just to run from one point to another trying not to gunned down than it was to actually use any kind of tactics to advance. Hells, there was one mission where I actually snuck around the edge of the whole map where I was even able to sneak up on the spawning pool of enemies before they were even fully rendered into the scene. Like I said, why use the tactics the game is built around when the game doesn't actually play by its own rules?

Loved

So with those glaring issues, what is it that sold $500 million in a day? Well, for me, the story that bleeds into real world issues is one of the biggest things I loved about the game. Most people don't understand some of the real world economics or how things could really play out. Nor do they really care. At least now a large subsection of our subcultures getting some form of lesson. Yes it is hypothetical, but at least it does bring some form of awareness.

All seriousness aside, I'd also have to say that the Strike Force missions are an amazing addition to the franchise. I spoke on this way back after E3. They are a group of side missions that allow you to take command over any one of the units on your side to achieve a specific goal. While not mandatory, they are a great break to the standard game play for the campaign. I'll admit that most of you hardcore FPS fans will not like it; I know a lot of people will just as I have.

Overall

Let's be honest, a good portion of those who are looking to pick up Black Ops II are going to do so for the multiplayer. It's the nature of this beast. But for those looking for something other than that, it is worth a good play through. If you look at some of the above issues as perks, you know forcing you to be a true army of one; this will help you when you make the jump to multiplayer. Just treat the audio issues like you would an annoying pre-teen on audio chat. Ignore it or try to deal as I did.

I will say that it is nice to see that Treyarch is mixing in new elements into the franchise. It shows that they understand that we won't be standing for the same old FPS every year with a new story and some fresh skins/maps.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops II was developed by Treyarch and published by Activision on November ¹³ for the PS3, 360, PC, and WiiU. A PS3 copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.