Call of Duty: Black Ops II

i'll start by saying that every time a call of duty games is released, i always feel drawn to play them. in my humble opinion, Call of duty modern warfare 1&2 and world at war are my favorite games, simply because they were original titles with phenomenal atmosphere as well as other aspects. I never understood why people have fan boy wars with Call of duty and battlefield, if a game looks great i'll play it, people shouldn't limit themselves to a certain game because of some self righteous gamer rep that they feel they have to live up to. but enough of that, this is my call of duty black ops 2 review. lets begin.

The good.

the story of the game is surprisingly good, or at least intriguing in parts, we get to see old characters return as well as new ones, the graphics of the game are actually better than black ops, in black ops, they looked to shiny, but black ops 2 they were more sharp.the so-called antagonist menendez is extremely well developed, his back story is well crafted and executed confidently, it was one of the things that kept me playing through the campaign. zombies mode is pretty cool, with the new mode tranzit, players are able to find parts according to the blueprints and build that said part to progress and riding a bus to you're next destination. my overall thoughts on campaign would have to be 5/10. i apologize for the lack of detail, im trying my best not spoil anything.

the bad

its really hard to explain the bad, mostly because it has been covered in the previous games so i'll just list all of the problems: the glitches, suicidal A.I, tedious level designs(some of the future missions dragged on to long). the multiplayer has actually gotten worse, the maps have gotten smaller and everything feels restricted, and don't even get me started on the lag, i am unable to play a game with it cutting out, but then again it could be my connection, but it's usually at 85 to 95 percent so it's very unlikely. but like i said, it's just a suggestion.

the ugly

this is where i'll explain why good ideas in the game were ruined. zombies, zombies started in call of duty world at war, then it became more popular in black ops, this is when treyarch were innovators, they had a simple idea, realized it's potential, then spawned original game modes that pushed the boundaries in online gaming, Five and kind der toten, these modes required the players acquire enough points to open new doors that allow them to progress, i know it's not "new idea for the world" type innovation, but they realized potential in their idea, and allowed it to grow, a lot of video game makers have a great idea then they scrap it like THQ, who milk their franchise to death with the same game over and over again not even adding at least one match, but i'll get back to the point. i think frank woods and menendez were my favorite characters, they were interesting without trying to be. frank woods is still his usual stubborn yet courage's self. menendez is a new character to the franchise, who has a tragic back story that makes him likable, but you also despise him, but i wont go into detail. my last problem with the game is the length, i was able to complete the game in 6 hours, 2/3 thirds of the game on veteran. so my overall rating of the game is a 4/10, while the campaign is solid, zombies just doesn't save it, nor does the multiplayer. this is just my opinion that i thought i would share so don't think that im trying to convince you not to buy it, i only recommend that you wait for the price to drop because £40 just isn't worth it. thank you for taking the time to acknowledge an honest gamers review.

Let me start by saying I strongly disagree with all of the negative reviews.
I am an honest gamer who plays a variety of games and honestly I am very impressed with this game, it is a lot of fun and has a decent amount of content to keep you entertained.
I will break up this review into sections of campaign, multi-player and zombies with pros and cons for each.

Campaign Pros:
1. Fun gameplay - with a variety of weapons to use.
2. Decision making - that can impact the story and ending, makes you want to replay the campaign.
3. Story - that is interesting with flashbacks with characters from Black ops 1

Campaign Cons:
1. Short - will take you under 5 hours to complete
2. Glitches - like a knife glitch that will make your knife miss all the enemies even if you are right up close to them.
3. Characters - are a bit boring so you don't focus on them too much.

Multi-player Pros:
1. Customization - which has limitless options for you to create your perfect beasting class.
2. Maps - are varies and fun apart from 2 or 3
3. Combat Training - that puts you up against bots so you can practice
4. Lots of Game modes - so you have lots of different things to play
5. Emblem Creator - you can create an emblem that will appear to enemies after you kill them.

Multi-player Cons:
1. Lag - it is usually in abundance and can annoy you
2. Overpowered weapons - that people use than can kill you in just 2-3 shots
3. Cheaters/hackers - really will piss you off and there are a LOT of them

Zombies Pros:
1. Tranzit which is a big open map with lots of easter eggs to discover including Nacht Der UnToten the first zombie map from World at War
2. Weaponry - lots of different stuff to use and build such as a zombie shield

Zombies Cons:
1. Tranzit althoug big can get a bit boring with a lot of the scenery bland and uninteresting
2. The survival maps which are just smaller chunks of the big tranzit map are small
3. The grief mode is a bit pointless
4. Not even as half as good as Black ops 1 zombies
5. You don't get to play as the original Black Ops 1 and World at War characters

Overall it is a pretty good game and I don't understand the negative reviews, but if your still not sure about getting it wait for the price to go down or rent it. Hope you liked my review :)

Having owned this game from launch date which wasn't ordered from Amazon as I no longer play the Amazon Release Date Delivery Lottery Game here are my thoughts on the multi player.

If you want a game that provides the following this is the game for you:

Non-existent hit detection. Yep shoot someone 5 times with a shotgun only to be stabbed and killed as the opponent runs through your hail of lead.

Lag. Watch the killcam and see that you get the winning kill despite having killed 3 enemies after that guy - tells it's own story.

Map Lag. I didn't know this existed but watching someone move 30 metres in the blink of an eye to kill you only to see them in their original position on the map.

Unrealistic weapons. The only game where you can be shot by someone with a pistol from 100 metres away and die with 1 hit despite you putting 30 rounds into them with a LMG beforehand (also covered in lag above).

Host Migration/Connection Lost. A pretty common occurrence on this version and affects about 30% of my games as does joining games that are already in progress.

Kids. Despite being an 18 there appears to be a whole lot of 8 years old with emblems you wouldn't see on 'adult TV'. Do these parents know what their kids are doing and would they buy them an adult movie? Yes you can 'mute all' but only in the lobby and not when joining an incomplete game.

Single player:

The campaign is too far fetched and despite the ability to effect the ending by manipulating various parts of the storyline are you really going to?

This franchise started to go downhill with Black Ops 2 and continues asunder with this latest release. It's a shame as this has a lot of things going for it like not resetting weapon attachments when hitting prestige but if you can't get the basics right then why bother in the first place.

Regretfully it will be the last COD I buy.

EDIT: £41.99 for buying the DLC up front? I think not that's the price of another game!