Black Ops II – Quick mini review (PC version)

When it comes to brainless first person shooters, I really appreciate quick and flexible control customization and FOV (field of view) adjustability.

Treyarch (who also did the orginal Black Ops in the CoD series) has never let me down in that respect & Black Ops II gets a thumbs up in both departments.

I have limited time to try games out but I must say that BO2 is a really polished product right out of the box.

You actually get three products (and three desktop icons) ... Call of Duty Black Ops II (Campaign), Call of Duty Black Ops II (Multiplayer) and Call of Duty Black Ops II (Zombies) (haven’t tried the zombie one yet).

Bottom line ... if you want to shoot at and/or blow people up of both the internet and/or AI varieties ... BO2 is for you!

For what it is, I’ll give BO2 an 8/10 so far. I'll have to do some more research though so the ranking may vary ...

Too soon for me to say, and this is 360, but I don't think it matters on a game like this.
Played campaign about 20 minutes, kind of liked it, although hard to follow. Glad to see, or rather, hear, Sam Worthington and Michael Rooker (MERLE!). Nice to recognize voices of likable actors for some reason. I'll return to that later, with any luck I'll be interested enough to finish it, something I haven't done since COD4.

MP....ugh. Naturally I skip TDM, since I can't stand it, and go for Domination, one of the 3 gametypes I like. The map was tiny even by COD standards. Action too fast. I'm too old for this #%&*$#. I'll try sometime other than late at night when my nerves can handle it. I usually have to tough it out until I can play the gametypes I really like, but it looks like more could be open from the get-go this time. I'll try it out again later this week.

Think I'll save my $60 this time. I dunno why they still bother making this series. Talk about beating a dead horse....

Because it sells like crazy.

They will keep using the same engine for many, many years too as people keep buying it. BF3 and MoH:W are far superior in my opinion.

MW3 was my last purchase of this franchise.
It is what it is, a mainly Twitch Monkey (Multiplayer)
shooter of which I'm not.

I've enjoyed their campaigns, the multiplayer is
someone else's style not mine. To me It's Quake/Unreal
in a Modern Warfare Skin.

Right now I'm loving Planetside 2 because it's way
more team based and you have more opportunities to
out think your opponent.

Coming from the Battlefield series(Battlefield 2, 2142 & 3)
I sure don't miss being Tk'd for vehicles or having it stolen
while I'm repairing it.

At the end of the day I respect Treyarch for what they do
because they do it very well.

I was positively surprised by BO2. IMO it is the best game so far in that genre...by a large margin.

The SP campaign has a well-written story, and it is not strictly linear....your actions - especially (even partial) mission failures - will have an effect on the outcome of the game (there are six different endings).

Even though it still works like a shooter on rails, the "rails" allow for more flexibility and different approaches, which in turn influence how the missions play out (and therefore how the story will end).

Another nice feature is that the player can customize his equipment before each mission - primary gun, secondary weapon, and attachment for each, plus grenade/explosives loadout and tactical gear.

Shortcomings are - as usual with the franchise - the stupid AI, the sub-par graphics, and the "jerky" character animations (IMO). I also have seen better weapons modeling in other games.

Especially the so-called Strikeforce missions - some kind of RTS and FPS hybrid - are a good idea that suffers from idiotic "friendly" AI behavior: since they are incapable of coordinated combat (or actually hitting an enemy that is 3 feet in front of them), these missions, designed to give the game some tactical depth, tend to deteriorate into frustrating micro-management-fests. IMO at least.

But compared the IMO very disappointing MOH Warfighter, this game is very good. It is the best COD game so far, and here's hoping that Treyarch can improve on that for the next one (better GFX engine, much better AI).

I don't ever play MP with these kind of games, so my observations are strictly SP related.

Agree! BO2 is a great FPS!

Sorry kinrossian, but I'm going to pick apart your post like a vulture on a carcass LOL! ...


BO2 has NO potential.


Would you prefer the dying sequence to start before the enemy is actually killed?


The network code is rock solid. The only problem is that the game is so fast that any millisecond lag is noticeable.


You can choose the game type and vote on one of two maps or random maps.


The matchmaking service is the best I’ve seen in this type of game. There are some small maps and some big maps.


The game is not overrun by running shot-gunners or knifers. You're just getting too close to the enemy for some reason (I'm talking about the PC version btw. I'm not sure of the state of affairs on consoles)


You can’t really play the objectives in BO2. Playing objectives requires teamwork and there is none in BO2.


PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE never compare any game in the Battlefield series to a game in the Call of Duty series.

That’s like comparing Humans to Apes with super-fast reflexes LOL!


Would you consider the three weeks you spent on it quick?


So if BO2 had dedicated servers, would you be happier? Why?

PS.

Don’t get me wrong ... I think BO2 is the stupidest FPS ever and I hate Treyarch for making it so damn addictive LOL!

My "quick review" score stands at 8/10.