What's new with Black Ops 2?

By Chris Harcus
[associate culture editor]

The success of last year’s Modern Warfare 3, Activision’s Call of Duty franchise seems primed for even more success with the recent release of the highly anticipated Black Ops 2. To the average consumer, the Black Ops and Modern Warfare series can seem interchangeable; for instance, both series feature a macho soldier as a protagonist who deals death to what appears to be generations of foreign nations across the globe via Michael Bay-like set pieces. While there are definitely obvious similarities, each series has its own quirks that help make each version stand out.

In celebration of the release of Black Ops 2, we here at The Runner have garnered together three major differences that separate Black Ops 2 from its Modern Warfare predecessor.

The living dead

Introduced as an Easter egg in 2008’s World At War, Zombies have become a defining part of the Black Ops experience. The original rendition of the addictive mode revolved around four players in a cramped house fighting off waves of increasingly aggressive undead for as long as possible. For Black Ops 2, the mode has been greatly expanded by turning the cramped house into a massive landscape populated by the living dead. Players will have to use a fortified bus to traverse the deadly terrain (à la Dawn of the Dead) while hunting for ammo, weapons, and the reasons that caused the zombie apocalypse in the first place.

A story worthy of a good action movie

The Call of Duty franchise has never been a story-focused series; most story details tend to devolve into “SHOOT THE TERRORISTS!” being screamed at the protagonist over his radio. The original Black Ops tried to change that with its conspiracy driven story that was interwoven with actual events that occurred during the Cold War. The resulting story was praised as being a bold step forward for the franchise with particular praise being directed towards the game’s abandonment of relying on radio chatter to deliver dialogue. For Black Ops 2, developer Treyarch has doubled-down on its efforts to make Call of Duty a cinematic experience that delivers the story as well as the special effects expected from a big budget Hollywood movie. Treyarch has made significant enhancements to the characters facial animations which allows for a greater range of emotion to be conveyed, as well as including multiple decisions for the player to make which will directly impact the story, eventually leading to one of the game’s multiple endings. Combine all these changes with the fact that the story is penned by the writer of the Dark Knight trilogy, and Black Ops 2 might have a story that could rival Hollywood blockbusters.

Blood and guts

Unlike developer Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare series, the Black Ops series has always been obsessed with one-upping itself when it comes to the blood and gore gross-out factor. Rampant dismemberment litters battlegrounds with shades of red while cringe worthy cut scenes show poor soldiers getting cigarettes shoved in their eyes, pipes pounded into their heads, and glass shards shoved into their mouths. Meanwhile during zombie gameplay, shooting off an undead’s legs will cause him to crawl towards the player while snarling and leaving a bloody smear in his wake. The attention to detail in the gore is gleefully sadistic and while it may not have a direct impact on gameplay, it will ensure that the billions of players who bought the game are guaranteed a bloody good time.