Developer Treyarch spoke about the all planned out near-future setting of the shooter while also dementing an open beta test. Amazon's announced that pre-orders of the game are high, very high.
Treyarch studio boss Mark Lamia explained that the near-future setting was planned from the beginning. “From the very beginning, going to the near-future was on the table for us. We really wanted to do something fresh and exciting and new and create this epic fiction. Black Ops doesn’t talk about a timeframe, Black Ops is about what you’re doing. It’s about being in black ops and these deniable operations and I think the dark mystery we presented in Black Ops comes through dramatically in the characters, the story, the setting, it’s more about that than any particular timeframe.”
The two timelines of the two Cold Wars in the game are showcase “the most compelling villain in Call of Duty” Raul Menendez, according to Lamia. “To do that, we wanted to be able to tell a story that required part of it take place in that first Cold War era in the 80s, not about 20 years after the end of Black Ops 1 where we learn about that villain’s motivations. And it isn’t until we get to this later point in time about a decade out or so from now where technology has advanced at such a rapid pace and has been incorporated into our technologies and our military infrastructure to the point where our villain is able to turn our greatest strength into our greatest weakness.”
Treyarch’s Mark Lamia also named the organization which is the enemy in the game. Its the real-life Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the SCO. In 2025, the organization has militarized itself and so has its own special forces and black ops. “As the proxy war conflicts occur [in the game] you might encounter these SCO forces. Maybe they’ll be a part of the multiplayer. Who knows?”
The developer also said that there will be no open beta test for the shooter.
Almost two days after the announcement, Amazon said that pre-orders of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 are three times as high as pre-orders of Black Ops back in 2010. “Set to be one of the biggest games of the year, it’s great to see so much enthusiasm and anticipation for Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” said games manager Graham Chambers from Amazon. “Bolder and better than before and with everything from a futuristic storyline through to single player mode, Zombies and multiplayer, Black Ops II promises something Call of Duty fans have never seen before.”
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