Call of Duty: Black Ops II - PlayStation 3

Treyarch returns with the sequel to the hit title Call of Duty: Black Ops. This time around, Treyarch seeks to revitalize the stale franchise in ways that often actually work. After the reorganizing of Infinity Ward, I wasn't sure if I would ever really love a Call of Duty title again. I really enjoyed Black Ops but it still had that "sameness" to it. Looking back, I think a big portion of that was due to the recent modern military settings the franchise had been exploring. It was, in a sense, repeating the same mistakes it had made by constantly utilizing the World War II setting.With Black Ops 2, we are transported to an imagined future filled with high tech gadgets and fast paced warfare. The campaign is short as the previous Call of Duty titles since the popularization of online multiplayer have been. Imagine playing through a triple size action movie. Now imagine playing through a good action movie. That's exactly what the single player experience feels like. The integration of futuristic gadgets and methods of warfare is very refreshing as opposed to the old "walk down the corridor until all the enemies" are dead scenario. To be certain, there is still much of that. However, the large set pieces and action moments serve the story well and mix things up. The Strike Force additions are also a nice, innovative touch with the primary drawback being your allies' AI. I commend Treyarch for their well done attempt at moving the series forward.Multiplayer in Black Ops 2 is definitely the best we've seen. There have been many changes to discourage camping such as making Ghost and suppressors harder to unlock (Ghost also only works when you are in motion). The new scorestreaks (previously killstreaks) are very fun to play with and further immerse the player into that futuristic world of war. Scorestreaks, by the way, is perhaps the best system I've seen to reward players. Everything you do in game (assists, caputring objectives, etc) gives you points towards your overall scorestreak. This does well to encourage team play and get those pesky run-and-gunners to provide some level of support. The create-a-class system has been revamped with the all new 10 point system. This allows you to cater to your favored playing style in a way we've not seen before in the franchise. Customization is still there with playercards, weapon attatchments and camo (no face paint this time). The maps are also wonderfully designed and a welcome break from the trainwreck design featured in MW3. There are also a lack of contracts as seen in the first Black Ops. That was a feature I really enjoyed and so it is sad to see that wasn't carried over. Leveling up is somewhat harder and thus unlocking items for use is also more difficult. Most players are thus on a pretty equal footing for the first half of the leveling system.Overall, this is the best entry in the Call of Duty franchise since the initial Modern Warfare. Detractors of the franchise are still not going to find anything to like about the game while fans are going to revel in the very welcome changes. I think it is necessary to point out that Black Ops 2 serves to change and perfect what needs to be done while still preserving the essence that is Call of Duty. Players really don't want the series to change into something that is hardly recognizable as Call of Duty. More like they want the experience to feel fresh. I think Black Ops 2 does that well.

Great Condition. Works Perfect

Yes, I am still one of the few people who buys and plays for the Campaign mode and think of the multi-player as an add on. So far, I am about 6 hours into the campaign and believe I am almost done with it. One word to describe it: "Amazing"Not only is this the best story in any COD game I have ever played, (This one is my 5th), Treyarch actually added new features to the gameplay. Now, more than ever, decisions I made influenced things like who died and the story outcome . There is also a new mode, which lets you control battles from a third person perspective. You can switch to any character's first person perspective or drone in battle, if you like and think your army is not preforming well, using your own skills to help the team.Zombies is also back and better than MW3's. There is a new "mini" adventure mode, in which you and others try to uncover secrets about the place ur exploring, pretty fun, but you always end up dying, as there is no end to this "adventure mode" You can also fight off waves of Zombies like the other games, but to me, zombie's was not really why I bought this game and gets old after a while.Multiplayer is why a lot of you bought this game, and rightfully so. This time, multiplayer introduces features like the new 10 point system, letting you pick from a selection of weapon "grades" But also with this, are the glitches activation brings to every game. Match making is really bad. It took 10 minutes for every game I have played so far to be found and connected, which is way too long when you only have an hour to play. I'm sure activison will release patches in the near future to fix this, but for now, its pretty unacceptable. So far, I'm only level 31, but from what I've played. the spawning is terrible. It doesn't matter which map I play, two seconds after I spawn, a camper decides to screw me over, it gets annoying, and I hope Activision fixes this as well.Truth be told, I would be playing right now if I were at home, and if MIT's professors weren't so boring, I probably would not be writing a review while my teacher is talking about the molecular levels of hydrogen. (Sorry, back to the point)...Overall, this is a fantastic game other than some multiplayer issues which can easily be fixed. 9.1/10