The ninth game in the Call of Duty series has been revealed. You can find all infos and details including the first trailer and screens here.
Activision has finally released the first trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 which you can find below. The shooter will be released for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on 13.11.2012. Take a look at the official website of the game here. The first screenshots can be found at the bottom of the blog post.
// The story
The game is set in 2025 in Los Angeles, the Middle East, Singapur and other yet unkown places. Sgt Frank Woods, who played a major role in Black Ops and who was believed to be dead, returns. Black Ops features two timelines this time around: You'll be able to continue the story of Alex Mason from the first game at the end of the Cold War but in 2025 you play as Mason’s son David. The story will follow on from the first Black Ops but it will be different from previous Call of Duty games. Black Ops 2 is a direct sequel to Black Ops.
US and China are part of a second Cold War over Rare Earth Elements, which were used to built tech devices and futuristic military weapons. The war was partly started by antagonist Raul Menendez, who hacked into drones and other robotic weapons. The timeline at the end of the 1980s shows why Menendez chose this path in Black Ops 2. The game will also answer the question of what happened at the end of the first game regarding protagonist Alex Mason. Its uncertain if Reznov, another well-known character from the first game, will return.
Mark Lamia from Treyarch said that the team has “done a lot of research into making this plausible near future scenario really resonate with players”.
// Strike Force missions
The singleplayer-campaign will be non-linear for the first time with so called Strike Force missions. Players can take on various roles on the battlefield and they can impact the story. At certain points, players are able to choose one of many “Strike Force” missions. The other missions will then be locked.
In Black Ops 2 you'll never play as a single character. Players can use attack drones, tanks, squad members which results in multiple paths to the mission. It is also possible to give commands to the AI. The actions and roles you chose affects the missions and the whole story in positive and negative ways. It may also change the behaviour of antagonist Raoul Menendez. Treyarch promises a different overall story on each playthrough.
// The multiplayer mode
Treyarch game design director David Vonderhaar announced that the multiplayer mode will be different from the modes in the previous games. “Lets take all this stuff we had and strip it down to its core. Let’s challenge these long held assumptions we’ve had about how systems work. Why does create a class work the way it does. Why do killstreaks work the way they do. Why is the unlock progression exactly the way its been before. Why do we have to start with what we had before?”
Vonderhaar said that Black Ops 2 will have a “well-designed gameplay system” which will not be taken from other CoD games. “Let’s challenge the assumption we have to start from the game we had before. Figure what’s really important to the game and keeping it simple and fast and pure and clean. Let’s get rid of some baggage. Let’s just create a really well created gameplay system period; regardless of whether we had it before.”
// The zombies mode
Treyarch boss Mark Lamia confirmed the shooter will feature the biggest and best zombies mode. “If you like zombies, you’re going to be really happy with what we’re doing with Black Ops 2. it’s our biggest, most ambitious zombies effort ever,” the developer said.
// The fiction
Treyarch’s Mark Lamia said that Black Ops and Black Ops 2 don’t take place in the same world as Modern Warfare and previous Call of Duty games. “Black Ops is its own thing. It’s inside the Call of Duty franchise, but it’s its own fiction. It’s sort of its own brand of fiction as well; it’s this historical fiction where we root things in a historical setting and context and we weave our fiction through it.”
“Obviously there are books written on where things are headed and technology, but we were fortunate to work with some experts and one of those experts was Peter Singer, who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. We approached him because he has written a book about advanced robotics and drones and future warfare, which is really important,” the developer explained.
“We wanted to make sure that this is Call of Duty, it can’t be too sci-fi, it’s gotta feel like this is plausible. It’s part of the DNA of Black Ops where we set up these plausible scenarios and then we have our fiction going through it and our story. Things that used to be the domain of great science-fiction books is no longer, it’s reality; it’s happening; starting to play out in the headlines today, but certainly in the coming decade,” Lamia added.
The games' plot will be told by several narrators and by some of the same characters of the previous game. “Woods is an old man in the year 2025, and he happens to be in this place called The Vault, which is a place where the CIA keeps its former operatives that are too sensitive to be somewhere else. You’re playing David Mason – the son of Alex Mason – and as this opens up in 2025, you go to visit old man Woods and you’re trying to start to unravel what is going on with the villain [Raul Menendez].”
Mason will ask Woods about past events which connect to the game’s plot, which will also take place around the character, according to Lamia. “You’re going to be on the hunt for Menendez and unravelling that mystery, and then you’ll remember things that Woods has told you as part of his narrative And that’s how we’ll jump you back to the past and propel that story forward as well.”
Treyarch wants to push the boundaries because the franchise now consists of nine iterations and there needs to be a groundbreaking change. “When we talk about pushing the boundaries, that is an internal creative desire for a team of veterans that have created a lot of Call of Duties… At this point in the franchise, I think it would be far riskier to not push the boundaries.”
Lamia also referred to the linear path of games which will not be the case in the upcoming shooter. “That won’t be the case this time. You’re going to make decisions along the way, and they will have an implication on your story. Some of those choices will be obvious in ‘Call of Duty style.’ And sometimes, just as in real life, the implications might be more subtle and you might not realize them until later. To be clear: this isn’t an RPG. We’re not trying to do that. We are trying to give players some story branching in their gameplay so they can see how some of their choices affect the outcome of the game.”
// The developer
“There’s over 250 people at Treyarch, but there’s over 300 people working on the project,” studio head Mark Lamia said. “We do have contractors and test teams that aren’t part of the company. Those others aren’t actually employees of Treyarch. But there’s over 300 people working on the game right now.” He said the single-player campaign and multiplayer are “pretty big and ambitious” while the team creates “another game with the Zombies there” which is why a large developer team is needed.
Treyarch needs to work with the other Call of Duty teams to achieve the Black Ops 2 project. “We actually do open up anything from our side that they can have access to, but they have their own team with their own creative work. Whether it’s inside of the Call of Duty franchise or, frankly, some other area of essential technology or whatever other area – if there are things that teams can access or leverage, then they do. For example, the facial rig and the performance capture was something that we worked with Activision’s central technology team on quite a bit. There’s a lot of learnings there that can be applied to other teams.”
Treyarch and Infinity Ward share certain values within the franchise, according to the Treyarch studio boss. “I think the desire to make sure, particularly, that the multiplayer game runs at 60 frames per second and is fast-paced and precise. The cinematic nature of the game, I think, is sort of signature for the series. For every game that we’ve made, or Infinity Ward or some of the other developers have made, that’s an important aspect of it.”
// Pre-order
Pre-orders have now gone life and GameStop offers four waves of pre-order goodies which will unlock in the months to come. The first wave starts May 4 2012 with a two-sided poster. The first wave ends June 30 2012. The three following waves will be announced in July, August, and October. They'll include other bonuses as well as ingame items.
// Graphical features
Dan Bunting from Treyarch said that the developer will focus on HDR lighting, self-shadowing, bounce lighting and reveal mapping, a new texture technique in order to create a “visual overhaul”. PC players will be able to “take advantage” of the games' graphic if they have DirectX11-enabled hardware.
■ Jensen6
