Call of Duty : Black Ops 2

Another release of Treyarch and the story picks up and follows as a sequel to the Black ops which was released back in 2010 . Although the initial enthusiasm with which the game was expected and received in the gaming community was higher than ever , the game still failed to satisfy many of hardcore gamers and shockingly even its its own COD Fans ..Wat with the continuous failure of MW 2 and MW 3 (Although not many agree to tat point,   even though when they know tats the truth ...)Black ops 2 was supposed and hoped to be the return of the series back to its throne of the Best FPS Military shooter . But alarmingly it falls short .

The story picks is divided into two time zones , One that actually takes place during the actual Second Cold War ( 1986 to 1989 ) with Alex Mason and Woods taking point in going after a criminal who goes by the name of Menendez . And in the near future 2025 , where the JSOC team Member / Alex Mason's Son , David ' Section' Mason and his partner Harper go in to stop a Terrorist / revolutionary group tat goes by the name of 'Cordis Die' . Woods repeats anecdotes of his and Mason's encounter with Menendez . First time they have given of Multiple Story lines which gets selected by the options that the player chooses as he progresses through the game . Accordingly there are 4 possible ways that the game may end ,

1. If the player spares Menendez's life, completes all four Strike Force Missions, and both Chloe Lynch and Alex Mason survive the events of the game, the "best" ending will result. The player will have secured an alliance between China and the United States, ending the Second Cold War, Chloe's survival prevents Menendez's cyber attack from succeeding, and Mason's survival allows him to visit Frank Woods in retirement, reuniting with Section. The final scene shows Menendez in prison, watching a talk show with Jimmy Kimmel interviewing Chloe, getting enraged when Chloe Lynch insults him during the interview.

2. If Menendez is spared and Chloe survives, but Mason is killed in action, the Second Cold War will end and Menendez's cyber attack will fail, but Section will visit his father's grave with Woods and decides to retire from soldiering; Woods comments that his father would approve of the decision.

Harper

3. If Menendez is spared, Chloe is killed and Mason's fate is unresolved, Section will apprehend Menendez    and take him into custody. The cyber attack will succeed, allowing Menendez to escape. He kills Woods in the retirement home before visiting his sister's grave, dousing himself in gasoline, and readying a lit match.

4. If Menendez is killed, Chloe's fate is unresolved and Mason is killed, Section will visit his father's grave. Menendez's followers will riot when they learn of his assassination from a video Menendez programmed to post in that event, ending with a cut of the White House burning.

Raul Menendez

5. If Menendez is killed, Chloe's fate is unresolved and Mason lives, Section will kill Menendez before reuniting with his father at the retirement home, and Menendez's followers will riot as above

So tat the story part . No wcoming to the gameplay and Graphics . Lets take the Graphics first . 

GraPhics ::

The first word tat pops up in your mouth when you see this game is  "Shit it sucks " . Because after seeing titles like BF3 and Medal Of Honor Warfighter where the Graphics is the one part they have solely concentrated on , The Infinity Ward's 6 year old engine barely keeps up with the latest trends . It looks old and drab and even with all the eye candy enabled it looks like a game which was released way back in 2002 or 1999 .

Atleast the future session of the game looked good .But I seriously wonder , since because those were the gameplay which was actually show cased in E3 2012 . So I think developers concentrated more on them and eventually left out the other part of the levels .Sheesh !! talk about negligence huh :D. If you want to have  a look at decent level Graphics of this age then i suggest Hitman Absolution , Which is absolutely mind blowing . So anyway lest not stray of the topic, and coming back , the Technical Brilliance of the game clearly is outdated . If IW and Activision think of ever being in the race then they surely should concentrate more on their goods before loud mouthing to everyone.

Gameplay :: 

Strike Force Missions

The one thing that CALL of Duty was famous for are the Dramatic events which occur in the gameplay itself and not depending on cutscenes to bring out the cinematic style in games like other games of its genre did  . I mean Modern Warfare was famous for it . MW , MW 2 and MW 3 had a lot of epic moments in it . Like the scene where you alternate between giving command from satellite above and actually playing with the soldiers below at the same time and then again going up to give commands to your troops in order to make them invisible to the group tats patrolling the area .Even Black ops had its perks . The visuals had a new timbre and somber look to it tat actually added much more mystery and cinematicity of the game . Personally i loved it the most .Tats why I was so excited to hear about Black ops 2 . But....

Glide Mission 

This game alas !!! fails miserably to impress . I was expecting so much from it that when it finally came out I was hugely disappointed . Especially The Strike Force missions are so pathetic and Slow with Dumb A.I that gets killed easily and again its up to you ( The One Man Army ) to take care of everything ( yeah , tell me about it huh !! ) . The visuals also were a little boring and repetitive sometimes . And absolutely Zero Dramatic moments  :( Worst disappointment ever .


Weapons : : 

There are a lot of weapons that are available in the game and while loadout you are given an option to select the weapon of your choice or to go with the default load out . But seriously , you wont feel any difference between the guns at all .Its worse tat you had to reload all the guns so quickly tat you need to empty a full magazine to kill an enemy . Or if you are expert you can pull of headshots and thereby reducing the amount of reload necessary to complete a mission . No special weapons that are worth enough to be mentioned about , just the usual sort of weapons and grenades and Flash bangs .

Pro's :: 

1. Military Fanatic Gamers are going to crazy over all the cool stuff and gadgets that are available
2. The missions in the future are really cool especially the one where you and Harper swing from the mountains and then air Glide using Retractable wings to land at the enemy's line  and the level where you are asked to control a jet .
3.  Branching story line based on multiple events that the player gets to decide.

Jet Fly mission

Cons ::

1. Boring aim and shoot gameplay .
2. Zero Dramatic Gameplay moments .
3. Same old Sob Revenge Story , Nothing new there .
4. No actual connection between the players and the Player Character .
4. Stupid AI in Strike Force missions .
5. Poor Game Engine that makes you feel like you are playing a game that came centuries back  .

Overall :: Just another Army FPS shooter that can tease a Trigger Happy gamer's Appetite and hardcore COD fans . But apart from that a title that can be missed without any regret .

Rating :: 7.6 / 10 

Regards
Ram