[Review] Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Wii U)

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The ‘Call of Duty’ series may still be about intricate stories and engaging characters after all.

Author: Austin

A lot of people make fun of Call of Duty for being mindless, repetitive nonsense that too many people buy into when there are way better games out there that they could be playing. Hell, whenever I need a game to be the faceman of the excessively high-octane, testosterone-fueled trends that permeate gaming culture today, I turn to Activision’s inhumanely popular first person shooter franchise. It just seems… “right”, somehow. And yet, after playing Black Ops 2 extensively over the last week or so, I can’t help but feel as though I need to clarify something:

Treyarch is now exempt from the criticisms that apply to the Modern Warfare series.

Perhaps a bit like Zelda, Call of Duty games are held to a higher standard than other first person shooters because they’ve been out for so long and they bring so little “new” with every successive installment. Of the three development teams that work on the series, Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer seem to stick to the formula through and through, delivering unrealistic thrills and mindless nonsense for a few hours, alongside the tried-and-true formula for multiplayer and some extra bits of fun like “Spec. Ops”. Treyarch– the developer behind the Black Ops trilogy– seems to approach things a little differently, especially if you analyze the stories of their games.

I call Black Ops a “trilogy” because although the latest game is only the second numbered installment, the story of the series actually has deep-rooted connections to Call of Duty: World at War, even though that game is historical and set in the 1940s. Once you see what those connections are you begin to understand the breadth of detail that this particular branch of the franchise has, and Black Ops 2 perfects all of it, ties it up nice and tight, and delivers far and away the best single player the franchise has seen since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

It’s ridiculously hard to get into too much detail about the story itself without having to explain far too much about World at War and Black Ops, but the best overview I can give you is this: The first game (WaW) is set in the 40s, the second game (BO) is set in the 60s with flashbacks to the 40s, and this latest game (BO2) is set in 2025 with flashbacks to the 80s. It’s a complicated web of characters and storylines that will leave you behind if you’re not paying attention, but the latest game makes it quite difficult not to.

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That’s Harper. I like him.

“Likeable characters” and “Call of Duty” rarely find themselves in the same sentence. I mean, sure, the developers always say that they’re trying to craft “three dimensional” characters that players can really “connect to”, but so far it hasn’t been true.

That is, until Black Ops 2.

This is honestly the first game in the series where I can name characters (Woods, Mason, old Mason, Menendez, Harper– even side characters like Farid, Chloe and Briggs), think of their faces, remember the role they played in the story, and remember why I like or dislike them off the top of my head. This might be due to the quality of the voice acting, but another huge part is that the scriptwriter (David S. Goyer) is the same guy who did the writing for ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy. I know you guys (especially you guys, given that most of you are Nintendo-die hards) will have a tough time believing me, but if you can get past the occasionally ridiculous set pieces, the characters of this game will be the most memorable in the franchise, hands down.

It’s also worth mentioning that Treyarch hasn’t just improved the story of the campaign– they’ve redone a lot of the gameplay elements as well. Adding in branching storylines, in-game decisions, and multiple endings makes things feel much more organic, and the best part of this is that it often feels like you’re unintentionally making decisions in the game that will affect the outcome. Similar to something like Deus Ex, the decision-making points aren’t always shoe-horned and obvious– it appears as though they just happen in game based on what you do, and they have a real effect on what comes next.

On top of that they added something called “strike-force” missions, which are a sort of pseudo-RTS/FPS hybrids that are slightly clunky, but ultimately do a lot for pacing in the campaign. These missions are totally optional, but they make it feel like there’s a global conflict in which you can participate (or not participate, depending on your choice), as opposed to feeling like you’re being dragged along on this contrived trip of super-soldiers and lots of yelling. I mean, there are still super-soldiers and there’s still a TON of yelling, but it doesn’t feel like a poorly done modern LARP session with flashy lights anymore.

Beyond the single player, there is of course the trademarked online multiplayer of Call of Duty (which hasn’t changed too much other than having some of the best maps of the series), and the Treyarch-”trey”’dmarked (see what I did?) “zombies” mode. With the regular multiplayer, everything works as you’d expect– there’s just one small caveat with the Wii U version: Only about 800 people are ever playing online at once, so unless you’re trying to play one of the “main” modes (Free-for-All, Team Deathmatch, Domination, etc), you may have some trouble finding people to play with. Every time I’ve looked the “Party” playlist and “Hardcore” playlists had zero and about 40 people in them, respectively. That’s not great news for online aficionados!

Originally, “zombies” was a modest and entertaining attempt to have players fend off hordes of Nazi zombies, wave by wave, until they were inevitably killed. Now the mode has turned into a weird “campaign” of its own, with an incredibly subtle story and hidden clues as to why things are the way they are and what the heck is going on with the zombies. I’ve learned bits of the whole story in the past (which includes time travel, teleportation, crazy scientists, and drunk Russians), but it feels like this one is going to take a lot longer to crack than previous versions.

Unfortunately “zombies” is perhaps the biggest disappointment of the game. Speaking from a gameplay perspective, there are three (four, but I’ve yet to unlock the last) levels to play in, two of which are far too open and covered in obnoxious fire to hinder movement, and the third which only has two rooms, making it impossible to survive past level 8 without some serious planning and skilled friends. I was a big fan of the types of levels we got in the past, but now I’m afraid this might become my least played mode in the game.

Now, let’s say you’re deciding between buying the Wii U version of Black Ops 2 and some other version. Which one do I recommend? If you ever play the game locally, absolutely the Wii U version. The ability to do GPTV (Gamepad/TV– new acronym) splitscreen is incredible and I’m sure it’ll be an FPS-staple on the console. The fact that you could play on the Gamepad entirely if you wanted is great if other people want to watch TV, you want to play in bed, or you don’t have a TV to plug in at all. Add to those the fact that you can play with the Pro Contorller, the Gamepad, or the Wiimote+Nunchuck combo and– at least as far as Gameplay– you have the definitive Call of Duty on consoles.

That being said, I did notice a few graphical glitches while playing through the single-player on this console. One level had jets flying overhead and then just disappearing suddenly, another one gave me brief sniper scope trouble when the crosshairs wouldn’t appear, and several missions experienced minor slowdown and jaggy framerates. Nothing at all game-breaking, but stuff worth mentioning.

Buy this game if…

You enjoy deep stories, likeable characters, and the trademarked ‘Call of Duty’ gameplay.

Don’t but this game if…

You simply dislike the way first person shooters play.

This game is better than…

Call of Duty: Black Ops, Medal of Honor, Halo: ODST

This game is worse than…

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Halo: Combat Evolved