User Score
4.5 out of 10

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 1664 Ratings

User score distribution:

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  1. Nov 15, 2012
    2
    It is beyond me how we still have people who buy Call of Duty. It s the same thing it always is. The only thing i keep hearing in Trey Arcs case is that the game has zombies. So what? To any body that buys this game over many other great zombie games I say shame. If trey arc wants zombies, make a real zombie game, not a gimmick inside of a war shooter. Back to Call of Duty. Nothing changes to the point where I want to spend another 60 bucks. Id rather wait for much better FPS games like Far Cry 3 or just play current great FPS games like Crysis 2 or Borderlands 2. Sequals that took what was good about the first game and then multiplied it to make it its own without ruining what made them great. Call of Duty is just been played out.

    I do however give the publisher activision much respect in the fact that they keep producing the same game year after year and get millions to buy it.

    "Its cause its great. People wouldnt buy it if it sucked."

    Good point. To that I say take out single player. See if people will buy it it if its only online. They would.

    The whole basis of my opinion is that they dont know how to make an engaging story.

    Bottom line. Buy it, dont buy it. I dont care. I know where I stand.
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  2. Nov 15, 2012
    0
    This game is huge fail! The sound is awful, graphics - mediocre. Maps - my, oh my!
    Zero the Hero!
  3. Nov 15, 2012
    4
    I will start by saying this, Call of Duty:Black Ops II is not a terrible game. Its just as polished if not more so then the previous titles. Slight improvements in game play mechanics and zombie mode(s) don't go un-noticed. I've been a Call of Duty fan since the start (I'm talking the original COD and all its expansions on PC) but only a fool can play this game and say its ANYTHING more then MORE OF THE SAME!!. Nothing about the game stood out, nothing revolutionary and nothing mind blowing. The dated graphics engine is absolutely showing its age and cant hold up to gorgeous titles like Halo 4 or even BF3. I finished the campaign in about 6 hours and the multiplayer sadly did absolutely nothing for me, The level designs are un-imaginative and even the "futuristic" weapons lack the punch I was looking for. All in all Call of Duty Black Ops II is the solid 60fps shooter we've come to expect but nothing more. Sadly the back to back COD releases have taken their toll on most of the veteran gaming community leaving us all craving for something new. Expand
  4. Nov 15, 2012
    0
    WOW, what a terrible game!
    Why do we allow this franchise to continue. Please stop supporting this game. THANK god I tried it for free. Call of Duty has been the same exact game since COD2.
    Gamers deserve better than this, a high price tag for absolute trash.
  5. Nov 15, 2012
    4
    I don't want to give this game a four, but words cannot describe how depressed it made me feel. I guess the campaign was alright, but it's time for a change, CoD. Especially when it comes to multiplayer, something Halo 4 actually managed to pull off.
  6. Nov 15, 2012
    4
    Call of Duty... what can be said? they have stretched the FPS Genre to its limits first they burned out the WWII era now the modern and slightly beyond era have gone down in boring flames.
  7. Nov 15, 2012
    1
    I'm a 34 y/o guy that is a huge of shooters but if you think this is an improvement, you are nucking futs! The graphics are terrible and they borrowed the color scheme from Serious Sam. Multiplayer is king these days and the pick 10 system does not redefine this title. The levels are small, easily campable and just plain dull and boring. I give it 1 for how smooth it feels but could not shake the feeling like I was getting killed when I clearly had the upper hand in gun battles. I've already lost interest here after 2 days of trying to give it a chance. I hate HALO but i'm trading in BO2 in for it today. Expand
  8. Nov 15, 2012
    1
    Well.... I fell for it AGAIN. I've been playing Call of Duty since Call of Duty 3. It stopped getting good by Modern Warfare 2. This is what Call of Duty does. They play all these awesome trailers on YouTube and on TV, and you think.... "Well, I don't know if I want to get this game." And then around 2 weeks before the release date, they play the best trailer they got for their last sales pitch, and you really want the game. Okay, so I got the game Tuesday night and I hesitated to play it until yesterday. I beat the campaign last night, it sucked. Graphics were slightly improved, but it was typical COD style, no big problem there... The story was annoying. The whole future-istic crap is so over done. It felt generic and dumb. So, I played the multiplayer. Typical COD sh*t. Nothing changes but the maps and weapons, and people STILL hack the game so it ruins what little fun there is. I quit half way through a Team Deathmatch, because this was incredibly stupid. So I played zombies.... Fantastic stuff! It seems Call of Duty needs to release their own zombies installment instead of the same ole crap they spew at us every year. Zombies is the only thing they've gotten right. CALL OF DUTY, WE DON'T WANT A MODERN WARFARE 4 NEXT YEAR, WE DON'T WANT A BLACK OPS 3, WE WANT CALL OF DUTY: ZOMBIES. JUST A FULL GAME OF ZOMBIES. ZOMBIE MULTIPLAYER, ZOMBIE CAMPAIGN, ALL THE GOOD STUFF. Ugh. I would say I won't be buying next year's installment.... but I've said that since MW2. Expand
  9. Nov 15, 2012
    3
    If you or your kid have been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) or Kalnienk vision disorder this game is designed especially for YOU ! This is not the Black Ops game you were hoping for... This is Super Turbo Edition ! Treyarch came to the conclusion medium size maps are boring and not engaging enough.Play area has been shrinked significantly (on most of the maps) to accommodate extremely engaging close quarters play-stile of spawn chuck a grenade and then either kill something or get killed by whatever flew out of opposite side. Every map has been build around simple principle of tiny area and 3 corridors to flow the gameplay in the middle left and right side. I dont care about single player or will be talking about it but I assure you its Michael Bay style showcase from killing Vietcong soldiers, wing-suit flying all the way to some idiotic command and conquer RTS style mini-missions 0_o why ? I don't know... and YES ! There is dubstep, because every game in 2012 needs some of that wub wub. The only redeeming factor could be zombies, but why would you be willing to pay full price for it when there are more engaging brain eating themed games available for a lot less (L4D series) So far I've spend 5 hours in online battles and had no fun at all ! I'll try to sell this game by the end of the week or trade with somebody for something else. Meantime I'm going back to battlefield, maybe I won't have shiny 60 frames per second but at least game is not forcing me to have fun doing escapades inside rat maze size of a shoe box ! Expand
  10. Nov 15, 2012
    0
    Horrible. This feels like 2 steps backward in game play. Really bummed at it's arcade like feel and look. Tried to like it but I can't.
    Blops I was my favorite game - and I was hoping for this game. But it's really just crappy comparatively speaking. Major let down. Games are short, you can't get pro perks anymore, no rewards for skill. Blah.
  11. Nov 15, 2012
    2
    Wow could they beat this dead horse anymore. This is by the far the worst in the series. They just keep pumping them out. The Story makes no sense and the game play is just more of the same. I'm done buying this crap. MW is now dead to me and BLOPS is beyond dead. I think we need to face facts MW is dead my friends.
  12. Nov 15, 2012
    1
    I Put the Game in Xbox360, and i installed, the menus are bad, i play the entire campaign and is ok , the multiplayer the same that the others cod´s, the campaign zombies is the best , but a game AAA with a campaign ok is not good, this game is a flop and the worst cod in 5 years.
  13. Nov 15, 2012
    0
    I dont get why Activision keeps renaming their Single Player Campgain dlc ($10) and take 1 **** year to release a weapons/map patch, and why on earth is this patch $60.
  14. Nov 15, 2012
    0
    It's called market saturation. Counter-Strike, TF2, and Battlefield 2 have as much if not even more content than Black Ops 2. These games are over 5 years old and when released costed less than 70 dollars. I wouldn't have a problem with Black Ops 2 if they sold it for 30 or 40 dollars because I don't see a 70 dollar value in its content or in the innovation in it. It's exactly the same as the CODs before it except the weapon models are changed (Which is very easy to do) more added to multiplayer customization and more added to zombies. These improvements are not worthy of a 70 dollar price tag as if it is a full game. A 5 hour campaign and some new content is something an expansion pack should have, not a full game.

    *WARNING below is a rant*
    I don't believe Black Ops 2 be a 0. But it sure isn't anything above a 6. Here critics are giving a game that shows no innovation 9/10 or 10/10's. There are indie developers out there working their asses off for years to make a new game with new innovative ideas, and there are developers out there trying new ideas and working on games for years. Yet they don't get 9's or even 8's for double the work and heart they put into their game. I'm not saying give these games higher ratings, I'm saying don't hand out ratings to games that DO NOT TRULY DESERVE IT. What kind of a market are we creating? That games should come out every year with only small improvements instead of large improvements? Should we continue to saturate the video game market with similar mediocre games for the sake of being called "a good game" by critics and fans alike. We're encouraging developers to stick to what works and never try to differentiate their games. This is why so many games are moving away from their original genre of game and swapping to first person shooters instead of their traditional strategy or tactical third-person shooter genre because of the cult-following of unoriginal games like COD. This could easily happen again with game developers seeing the reception from critics towards COD. Prototype 2 got flak for being too similar to the original (which came out little over 3 years ago) from both critics and fans, yet a Call of Duty that uses the same 5 year old engine is called remarkable, breath-taking, innovative and to my discontent; "A MASTERPIECE"
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  15. Nov 15, 2012
    2
    Oh look, it's THIS game again. Wee, Call of Duty 4! We're having fun! The 6th DLC- I'M SORRY I MEAN BRAND NEW CALL OF DUTY has been released. Boy oh boy, where the hell do we begin with this stinker. Same boring story, same boring guns, same boring graphics (come on you'd think with record breaking sales they'd at least upgrade the graphics engine but nope, same old sepia toned goodness to please my eyes). Here we have the deadbeat devs pulling what capcom did back in the late 80s and early 90s with megaman. Annual release? Don't mind if I do (except classic megaman was actually fun). Now don't get me wrong, Call of Duty 4 was actually a pretty fun game, but when all you do is just release these games that hardly qualify as a CoD4 DLC, let alone a new game, your customers are going to be upset with the extremely obvious stagnation of the series except brain dead children (WHICH IS WHAT THESE GAMES ARE TARGETED TO WHOOPS). Do yourself a favor, and pick up Call of Duty 4 for 5 bucks in your local hicksville wal-mart bargain bin and don't spend 60 dollars for really the same exact thing. If you're new to the whole Call of Duty shindig, stay away from it like the Chernobyl disaster site, or lock yourself in a hot tar kettle until your soul is relinquished to the sphincter of hell where you'll find the developers for these terrible terrible mistakes at work. Expand
  16. Nov 15, 2012
    3
    I dont honestly know why people are still buying these games. After all cod game launches, commentary are all the same :been there done that blablabla. Will people ever learn? I played with my friend computer a few minute and honestly i'm glad to not have purchase this other cod "cut and paste" title.. They think by adding different perks and gadgets they will keep the franchise alive. But its dead since a long time ago. And they put so much money on publicity to make them sell tons of that crap over and over again . Its capitalism at its best. Pathetic! Expand
  17. Nov 15, 2012
    1
    Buying Black Ops 2 is like buying a burger that has some sort of "add on" that makes it seem tastier. E.g. burger with added hot spicy onion rings or some special sauce.

    Essentially you're purchasing the same game but with some minor tweaks.....

    Black Ops 2- Futuristic setting, Multiple endings, Choose 2 choices in game which lead you back to the same linear path (i.e. rappel down an
    d fight enemies in close quarter combat ? or be a sniper and support your allies?)

    A good attempt at being innovative. Robots, future tech.... meh.................

    Graphics- No changes

    Multiplayer- Same thing

    Zombies: Yeah, I admit this is better than Black Ops and fun with friends, but still.... meh

    But at the end of the day, this is my opinion so don't be hating on me

    Although I applaud Black Ops 2's marketing campaign of getting all these celebrities in one promo video, so that was good
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  18. Nov 15, 2012
    1
    the real score and the real quality of this game is around 4. But I give 1 against treyach and activision mentality. well, regarding the quality of the game, what I can say is : the game is outdated with indecent graphycs a boring story, stupid characters and a sp campaign structured on stupid, fast ride and mindless mission on rails that lasts 5 hours. If you are searching for a solid fps well structured in single player campaign, with an open world or sandbox missions or freeroaming DON'T BUY COD Blackops2, DON'T waste your money or rent it for a day and wait for farcry3 release or go out and buy the best fps yet available of this year: borderlands 2. The single player campiagn is only an excuse to sell this game at 60 bucks, but in reality the lenght is like a dlc of the previous Cod:black ops. Cod: Blops2 is only for fanboys multiplayer addicted, but warning because the multiplayer mode isn't perfect and has actually connection issues. Expand
  19. Nov 15, 2012
    0
    A miserable excuse for a sequel let alone a full game. This is more like a overly priced DLC expansion pack. Completely no innovation compared to other games this year. It's campaign is repetitive and suffers from the same world war military shooter "been there done that" shooter syndrome. It's Multiplayer is no different, a copy and pasted rushed Modern warfare 3 multiplayer with the slightest tweaks that leave this game with completely nothing new to offer but a dent in your wallet for the same 'copy and pasted' non-innovative online experience that leaves us bored and swapping game disc's almost immediately after playing this re-hashed 'expansion pack'. A certain waste of my money and will be trading this game in on my next stop to my local Game shop. Expand
  20. Nov 14, 2012
    4
    Boring! MP is complete garbage,zombies is the same and the campaign is meh at best. I have been a huge fan of the series but now i'm done! The fun factor doesn't exist in this game.
  21. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    I feel it important to say first and foremost that i have never enjoyed the multiplayer of COD. The spawning is stupid, the fighting erratic and importantly the variety non existent. What mildly intelligent person actually cares about the relentless barrage of trophies and medals which remain as completely useless mementos locked away in the dark quarters of your console. Receiving a trophy does not make a game fun. Playing the game should be all the fun needed. COD is not fun. I started up the single player campaign to be blown away by the complete lack of 3D during cinematics. To clarify i have just finished AC3 in 3D and the 3D was awesome, the game, so so. Then the game finally started, thought id get my kill on. Instead i was left feeling sick by the poorly programmed 3D in the game. OK, i'll play without 3D then (dissapointing since 3D games are few and far between). I thought maybe i would stop feeling sick now. I was wrong. The urge to bring up breakfast, lunch and possibly dinner from the night before was simply to great. You see i am a sympathetic vomiter, i see vomit, i vomit. What was being served up on my beautiful 1080P 63" 3D TV was indeed vomit. The graphics are worse than bad. I can hear all you braindead fanboys now, "it runs at 60fps...how can it be bad when so many people buy it?..." Well first of all, in case you hadnt noticed, nobody cares about 60fps, as long as it can hold a steady frame rate of say 30fps and not stutter it is perfectly acceptable even imperceptible, ie BF3 which incidentally craps all over CODBO1 & 2. "Why do so many people buy it?" Easy. People are idiots! One need only walk down the street and witness a slew of teenage boys wearing their little sisters jeans with hair that must having taken all morning to style to understand this. More evidence you ask. Look at those that sit atop society in any region of the world, they are always a minority, why you ask again. Because people are overwhelmingly idiots. Back to COD. I am not a hater, honestly i want all games to be fun. I've been gaming for like 25 years, i do not discriminate. So where did my CODBO2 story end?? I was so disillusioned with gaming after just 10 mins of CODBO2 ( I know your thinking, "well you didn't even play it, you missed the options and story line blah blah blah zombies blah blah") I didn't and wont miss anything. If i want to be bored and have options that lead to different endings i'll read one of my old chose your own adventure novels. If i want zombies I'll watch The Walking Dead (which is awesome BTW). So... I digress. After attempting to play and ending up heaving in the toilet i was depressed. I thought to myself i cant wait until the end of the month for Far Cry 3 or more importantly the end of the year for more expansions for BF3. I need to have my new found hatred of games quashed. Now i must tell you that i have never owned an XBOX always PC games and Playstations. I did the only thing i could. I bought a XBOX and Halo 4 and whilst is very far from the greatest game ive played, it has all but erased the sour taste left by CODBO2. Shame on you Treyarch for dishing up such a pile of steaming hot turd when you have the resources and fan base to do something truly revolutionary. Shame on you, you masses of idiots out there who will buy and love this game for no apparent reason other than you liked the one before it and before that and so on. Shame on you professional critics for giving this game such a high score. I have never posted anything online before, not a blog, not a tweet nothing. This game has brought out the entitled **** in me that so many of you had embraced so long ago. I feel that what i have to say is important enough that the world need access it. Shame on you CODBO2 for making me an internet posting geek who thinks that people care what i have to say. Please stop buying this dribble. Please start thinking for yourselves. I gave it a zero because im sure i played this already...in the '80's. Expand
  22. Nov 14, 2012
    4
    When I saw Black ops 2 for the first time, I thought it looked cool. I had played previous Call of Duty's and found the first one to be great. Then, only every game afterwards, was the same thing. As great as Black Ops 2 looks, it is, the same damn thing. The campaign is ok, not going to keep you after your first play through. The multi-player is crap. Remember Modern Warfare 1? I almost thought I was just playing an awful map pack. It might be okay if the maps were well structered, but no, they are just awful and invite camping and cheap tactics. Zombies is the only thing I can say anything good about. It will keep you for a little while, but soon, and quickly, will get boring. I wish Black ops 2 was better, at the same time, I had wished, previous Call of Dutys had been better. Call of duty is just a cash cow now. Don't waste your money. Expand
  23. Nov 14, 2012
    3
    As a COD fan who picked this up at midnight. I'm very disappointed. The point system in multiplayer isn't bad, but the streaks are just blah. The strikeforce missions are a complete failure, and almost impossible without playing it as one of the characters. They take me completely out of the game. Zombies well, what happened??? All of the fun of playing is lost, and now it's just boring. This was the only reason I could get my girlfriend to play the game, and its completely broken. All of the maps follow the same cookie cutter form of each other. There's always 3 routes - left, right, middle. And they are made to be chaotic instead of strategic. Sniper rifles are almost useless for sniping. I really wish I had played the game more before I redeemed my 4000 points for a season pass.

    I've never bothered to create an account on MetaCritic, but after a few days of playing this game, I needed to express my disappointment. If this is your first COD game, go ahead and buy it. But if this isn't, and you haven't bought it yet, pass. It just feels like a half completed game.
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  24. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    Treyarch, congrats. You've officially embedded yourself in my mind as horrible at game making. Many people here are complaining about the lack of change, but I disagree. I hate the changes they've made. For this review I'll be talking about the multiplayer part of the game.

    And it sucks. Sniping is absolutely impossible. The guns scope in incredibly slow and awkwardly. It's honestly so
    frustrating. The killstreaks in this game blow. You randomly die from being electrocuted or somehow explode. The game overall is very dark color wise which makes spotting enemies nearly impossible. Lastly, the create a class system is just plain stupid. So many perks are made into attachments and it's impossible to get a class that really fits your needs without making serious cuts.

    Honestly, I want more of the same. I want the old CoD 4 back. Not with these stupid "advancements",
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  25. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    The game is really weak and repetitive. The campaing is awful full of cliches, and boring. The multiplayer is the same as Modern Warfare, Zombies is somewhat good, but I still prefer the Nazi Zombies of World at War. The new features suck since they only works in first world countries(since the rest don't have enough bandwich) and no one of my friends would want to watch me play Call of Duty, when they can saw games that takes skill like LoL, Starcraft, Halo or DoTA. The game is bad, and the same thing like the last year, but like with Pokemon people will buy this game just because is easy to play.
    Also graphically the game resolution is really really bad.
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  26. Nov 14, 2012
    1
    I wasn't expecting much, but I expected too much. The graphics would have been good, for 3 years ago. The campaign is weak like always and the Multiplayer is nothing new. Even the zombies, the one reason I had faith has been ruined. Tranzit is fun, but that's all there really is. Nobody in there right mind could possibly like this game.
  27. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    I don't know how people rate this game 10/10, 9/10, or even 8/10. The campaign of this game was kinda weak, and like all CoD games, its very short. Just because they think adding bunch of explosions in one screen would make this game awesome...lol no...Multiplayer...oh man...the reason buy this game is multiplayer. The online of this game is basically the same sh!t as the other titles..similar perks and all. They might have added a few new additions like some new tech into the game multiplayer but still it feels the same. This game deserves 5 or lower out of 10. Its not worth the 60$ people...your basically buying the same game except with a new story and new toys added to your online experience. You guys please open your minds and face the fact that this game is not worth it. PS: Only positive thing about this game is zombie. Expand
  28. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    A copy and paste job, cheap lazy money grabbing offering, this franchise deserves more and gamers even more. What is achieved in this, could have been a £ 15.00 DLC update.
  29. Nov 14, 2012
    4
    The dirty little secret of the Call of Duty series is that the original creators left Infinity Ward to start Respawn Entertainment, and with them they took the intelligence and innovative spirit of the series. What was left were the bones of a great series left to be recast by two back to back developers who would futilely attempt to revamp the series again and again. The last great Call of Duty was Modern Warfare 2, and since them fans have been slowly exposed to a dying series that will eventually be a parody of itself. The core of Black Ops 2 multiplayer is broken because it doesn't not deal with fundamental aspects of fun and gameplay. The maps are chicken scratch attempts at creating an adrenaline fueled rat maze with no sense of intelligent direction. The spawns are absolutely horrid: spawn can often be a throw of the dice to see whether you manage to live or die. Finally, the lag in this game is still at a lower level than the MW1 and MW2 variations, the lag still puts you into that situations where you thought you had the jump on a guy, but the killcam reveals that you didn't even pull up your gun. Without addressing these core issues, the series is slowly withering away its hardcore fans, and eventually the rest of the community will start to catch on. Treyarch is a shady mom and pop used car sales lot who will praise the paint, but refuse to fix the engine.

    If the gun classes were balanced, the online gameplay fixed, and the maps completely redesigned with strong team deathmatch gameplay I would be inclined to give this game at least an 8 or a 9.
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  30. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    This game is worse than the first black ops mwf is were it's at black ops controls are jerky and not smooth like mwf. Black ops is unrealistic. They made it harder to earn kill streak packages it's just a horrible game all around wish I could get my money back
  31. Nov 14, 2012
    3
    To be fair after the last release (MW3) I was to say a little disappointed. I strongly believed that Activision were just trying to milk the 'cash cow' that was / is its loyal following. I have bought every previous version on release day myself before you start to slag me off!!
    This time though I decided that I was not going to stand in line like a mindless sheep that Activision would b
    e banking on awaiting the midnight release. This year I decided to go down to my local Blockbuster and rent it for the week. Well, that was the plan....... having played this pile of stinking dogsh*t for 12 hours I find myself taking it back already!!
    They is nothing new in this game, nothing ground breaking as promised. To me, it looks like a step backwards rather than the much hoped leap forward! I my opinion, this is little more than another game that could have been just DLC for the original BO. The single player could be finished by a trained monkey in less than 3 hours! As for multi player - if your lucky enough to get online and stay there without being kicked, you find camper friendly maps, an unstable connection that often sees you die. Then, when viewing the kill cam the killer was in front of you!!
    Activision have stooped to an all time low, taking the money from loyal fans and doing a runner, almost like a legalised mugging!
    This franchise has sadly reached the end of the road. I myself will be saving my £45. I'm sure that this will be slated by fanboys who cannot see further than the end of their nose, but thats not really my problem.


    Put simply, I would not touch this with a barge pole unless being let down and disappointed is what your into!!
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  32. Nov 14, 2012
    1
    I'm extremely disappointed in this game. Treyarch wanted to get rid of the thing a lot of people complained (Ghost) about in the previous Black Ops, that they completely ruined the game. UAV is instantly unlocked while Ghost is unlocked at lvl 55, coupled with the fact that you still appear on radar even with ghost unless your are sprinting makes any kind of stealth play impossible. They wanted to get rid of campers by splitting up the original ghost perk into 3 separate perks, but people still are gonna camp. Now te campers are just going to know exactly when your coming in so there going to be ready. How does this make any sense to anybody? The way the game plays right now is pretty much a giant split screen and everyone is screen looking because UAVs are being used so much that people are constantly on the radar, so people are always going to know if your coming around the corner. I've always played a run-n-gun stealth class in every recent cod game, now I can't do that because there really is no more stealth class. So now I'm force to play a horrible play style of running around like a idiot and just spraying at people hoping I my connection is better so I get the kill. Sounds like fun right?!? Thank you Treyarch for having me waste my money on your horrible game, and thank you because I'll never be buying another COD game ever... Expand
  33. Nov 14, 2012
    3
    Garbage. Same re-packed gameplay. Graphics are very, very disappointing for the latest game released this year. Multiplayer identical in almost every way. 'Ohhh new guns!'..... I wanted to like this game, I really did. Laughable campaign with 9,000 stupid AI that you mindlessly murder map after map until you make it to the checkpoints and suddenly become impervious to gunfire.. Better game than Black Ops I. Zombie maps have a somewhat new face and idea and are fun, but still confusing, which I suppose is part of the intrigue(I made it past lvl 50 on most of the last Zombie maps as to show I'm not a complete n0ob). Graphics still suck and zombies still act the exact same as the last game. Exact same. Music and sound is even the same. I would like this game a lot if it was the first CoD I played, but since it is JUST LIKE the first CoD game I played, I'm pretty bored and I can't believe people are paying $60 for another map pack and weapon re-skin in such record breaking numbers. Are we just mindless sheep? I love how we are eating up this garbage. If they make another game with this same engine and the same graphics, I fear it will make CoD a self parody(if it hasn't already). Treyarch and the rest of the CoD producers are laughing all the way to the bank with this one. And the last one. And the one before that.

    Gets a 3 because a 0 is stupid. There IS content here and there is even new content, just not enough to justify a new game.
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  34. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    Worst iteration out of them all, this game is a cash cow and offers nothing new. Same weapons, same types of matches. It is just a very tired franchise and should be put out to pasture. Let the Kiddies keep the CoD Franchise, Halo 4 reigns supreme as always.
  35. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    Please please do not listen to the people giving this game a score of 10. fan boys or not this game is absolutely embarrassing. I have taken it out of my hard Drive and it won't be going back on I nearly snapped the game disc in frustration shame on you treyarch shame on you. You should be ashamed of this game. For all the people saying don't listen to the 0 scores theirs a reason the community is rating this game 0 and that's because it is **** save your money ant your time avoid like the plague. Awfull. Expand
  36. Nov 14, 2012
    3
    OK let's get the Pros out of the way. Additions and improvements to the Zombies mode is fantastic. The game looks better than Blops 1. I don't touch single player but I'm sure it's more of the same ol' Point A to Point B. The Cons. Multiplayer maps are mostly narrow corridors. Gone are the days of pulling up your sights. Instead grab a sub machine gun and spray 'n pray from the hip. Takes lone wolfing to the extreme. The maps themselves just feel like a jumbled mess, like Treyarch thought they were doing some DLC for MW3. The spawn system. In older CoD games, there would be a defined location that you would spawn and was pretty good about not spawning you 10 feet away from where you just died. Not the case. I routinely respawn close to where I died next to a camper, then have to figure out a way to go around. Sniping. If I get killed one more time from a sniper bullet to my toe or the surrounding air next to me I will flip my lid. If I had never played a CoD game before I may enjoy this. Thinking that the game was supposed to be like this. But I've played for a long time. MW2 and Blops 1 were the best games in the series. Blops II however is just plain garbage. That's my rant and I'm stickin' to it. Expand
  37. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    solution to all your problems relating to this terrible game: 1 take your copy of Call of Hackers: Hacked Ops 2, sell it back to the retailer you got it from, or sell it on eBay 2 take the money you get from it and go buy HALO 4 and Minecraft 1B take your copy of Call of Hackers: Hacked Ops 2, get a video camera, set it to record 2B DESTROY THE GAME!!! 3B upload the video to youtube and gain the trust of millions of gamers Expand
  38. Nov 14, 2012
    4
    The most boring piece of **** that I've ever played. I've only played it for a few hours and I already want my money back. It's just the same crap every year.
  39. Nov 14, 2012
    1
    sever not availble for the last two days cant play online at all
    weak story and the online play that i have played was a clone of the other games
    the yearly update is getting old and every year the get it for the one new thing they add but this is the last time cod. has went the way of tony hawk and gutiar hero
  40. Nov 14, 2012
    4
    I buy these games for one reason and one reason alone and that is multiplayer. While i can appreciate the steps Treyarch as made to bring in change to the facist regime that is COD the multiplayer falls short in almost every way, maps are crap, guns arent fun and the overall feel of the gameplay is just very off. I have been an advocate for the series since COD4 but my patience is wearing thin. STOP coming out with one every year take a break and bring us a COD we deserve, not the one we need right now.... Expand
  41. Nov 14, 2012
    1
    My Son and I purchased the Hardened edition and were so looking forward to it. It is a let down, the game play is too simular to Ghost Recon, and the maps might as well have been issued as map pack for Black Ops 1. I find the whole feel of this greatly dissapointing and feel I have totally waisted my money. My Son, after just 20 minutes, "Dad, its crap". Sorry. But if you know the previous maps you can even work out where they have just re-skinned them too. Look for launch forinstance, or Ait Plane wreck in COD 2, diverse examples of copied mapping. Expand
  42. Nov 14, 2012
    1
    I would like to say that this game is a decently made game; if it were still CoD 2... or Maybe CoD 3. The fact that this franchise has made SOOO MUCH MONEY!!! and yet almost none goes back into developing a better game. I rented this game, and was not impressed at all. I did a little comparison and put CoD BO on, and let my wife play it. I then let her play BO2. I then asked her if I could go buy BO2 after she played BO, her reply was "It really seems like the same game." I then agreed and decided it was not worth the 60 bucks. In my opinion this game is nothing more than a simple map pack with some minor changes they could issued through a patch for BO. It is by no means worth 60 dollars, I might look into it when the price comes down to about 20-30 US $. Expand
  43. Nov 14, 2012
    4
    Meh... I wasn't impressed. It's the same, frustrating, yearly COD game that you all know and have played in the past. There's not much else to say really.
  44. Nov 14, 2012
    2
    One of the worst shooters I have ever played. The game feels so old now and just boring as hell considering I have played the game in various iterations since 2007 with Modern Warfare. This game is abysmal and after reading the scores from all the gaming site and mags I realize that Activision are still playing for high reviews and milking it's customers all the way to the bank.

    Don't b
    uy this game, it's not worth your money, unless you have a simple mind and like playing the same game, year in, year out with no changes at all. Expand
  45. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    i think people are being too harsh about the graphics and sounds. i think they are vastly superior to mwf3. my issues have to do with treyarch and activision themselves. they were very mysterious and tight lipped about what was to be in the game and what wasn't. but based on the numerous reports i read prior to the game, i feel absolutely duped. drop zone was to remain in the game...not true. quickscoping would remain..i've yet to be quickscoped and in previous games that happened all the time. there was supposed to be a way to play sniperless games..not true. this game was supposed to reward objective oriented players. what a joke that is. they take away the support streaks and the rewards for playing the objectives is much less than in mwf but the risk is greater. case in point, hardpoint which appears to be drop zone is actually more like team defender. as long as you hold a point you get a 25 percent increase to the kills you make. well, in team defender it was 100 percent. so the objective is 1/4 as rewarding now (in regards to personal points).camping was supposed to be almost eliminated due to changes. you'd have to be on the move to be invisible from uav with the right perks. well, try keeping a uav in the air. it's usually there for about 3 seconds. so in turn, camping is every bit as rampant as ever. i think it's actually a bigger problem now. i'm an objective oriented player and i'll never be the slayer some are. i have zero reason to ever play this again. there simply isn't a mode on here that i can't swap for a more rewarding mode on mwf3. to me, treyarch either deliberately leaked bad info or allowed bad info out there. a clear cut explanation of what would be in and out of the game would have fixed that. it very much shows that they were scared some people would stay away if they were truthful. i'll never spend another penny on another treyarch or activision product. the game looks very good and sounds good. i think the aiming is much simpler and less jerky than mwf3. it is smooth that way and plays well. but i don't understand why they create maps where there simply aren't many jumps. in most mwf3 maps there are numerous spots where you have to know the game and have to discover ways to get up on things and sometimes get an advantage. treyarch does so little of that. that's actually a lot of the appeal, knowing the game and knowing little secrets. with how treyarch designs their maps it's like 2 teams playing paintball in a frickin hallway. the terrain needs to be somewhat interactive. but there is very little of that in comparison. i like the idea of league play but i'm not going to waste my time seeing how good or bad i am at a lousy game. i can't even force myself to play this stupid game anymore. there are a lot of good things with it. if you are a good non sniper slayer type that has little intention to play the objective, this is the game for you. but as it is at this very moment i have no intention to waste another moment playing this crap. Expand
  46. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    just awful! Treyarch seem to mess up whenever they get the chance. I used to really enjoy playing call of duty but Treyarch keep on churning rubbish out. They know people will buy into the call of duty franchise so seem to make little effort to make them even better. Why not change the whole FPS genre again. Mix it up. Using the same engines as years gone by. Come on Treyarch, make some effort! At least MW3 was playable. Expand
  47. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    Once again. CoD has done it. And not in a good way. They have butchered the campaign, and zombies is now a repetitive gametype that is only a shadow of what it was in World at War. The multiplayer is the same issue as it was in Modern Warfare 3. Repetitive and unsatisfying. Unless CoD wants to ram itself into the ground, they need to reboot the franchise and possibly have an entirely new company develop the games. Expand
  48. Nov 14, 2012
    2
    Ok let me get with this. First campaign was all right but some parts were dull. Multiplayer same, repetitive, unbalanced. Zombies the only good thing there. Audio shooting was horrible. Graphics I really don't care and besides if CoD games had the best Graphics but everything else was crap would you buy it? That's exactly what i think about it.
  49. Nov 14, 2012
    1
    My problem with the Call of Duty games is they have a ton of potential. A TON of potential. This was really well exposed with CoD 4, when the series took a turn from crappy usual WWII shooter to fantastic Modern shooter.

    I don't care how much Black Ops II has improved from Black Ops or MW3. With the amount of feedback and ideas they get from the community, this game should look nothing
    like the previous two.

    This game has so much potential if the devs just listened to the community and actually worked on the game. People think the Pick 10 system is different. All it does it let you chose double on certain things and nothing on other things. Barely any different.
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  50. Nov 14, 2012
    4
    I like the game, but it is really showing its age. It would have been really cool to have all these new features with a new game engine, one that really pushes the hardware to the max. After Battlefield 3 and Halo 4, its really hard to go back and play a game like this. Just cause I'm playing the game a lot right now doesn't mean its the greatest thing ever. Activision needs to stop looking at numbers and sales and realize that this is not the best effort they could make. Expand
  51. Nov 14, 2012
    4
    There are two ways to review a game such as Call of Duty, which is what I feel leads to the polarising effect thats often seen within the reviews. One way is to review the game solely on its own merits, its story, graphics, gameplay, controls and taking no other part of the franchise into consideration. In this regard, Black Ops 2, like so many other Cod games, delivers with slick controls, fast paced addictive multiplayer, class customization and all the other hallmarks of a quality product. The campaign is still more of an add on, with the majority of the focus being placed upon multiplayer, and still retains the tradiontional linea, "clear a room move on" style of level design, interspersed with set pieces and vehicle sections. New steps have been taken with the addition of multiple endings based upon your choices, however this feature fails to actually add anything to the experience, at most just dragging you into a second playthrough if your curious about the different consequences of your actions. Top down RTS style side missions have also been added, yet the implementation here is poor, hampered by the AI being used by the soldiers and almost forcing you to take direct control over your forces if you want to progress, thankfully though these are options and can be avoided if you find them not to your tastes. The game therefore seems like a decent product, a polished, professional piece of AAA game design, but there is of course one other thing to consider.

    The second way to review the game, and the one that overall I will be taking, is to look at it as part of the franchise as a whole. This sadly is where the game falls down. All of the points I've made thus far are valid, but the problem comes when you compare it to the other Call of Duty games, and realise that this is the exact same formulae that they perfected years ago. Set pieces, chases and other action sequences where you are basically forced to watch, your control reduced to panning the camera or what are essentially quick time events, still take you out of the action and reduce you to more of a bystander than an active participant. Missions are still linear, you clear a room of bad guys, move to the next one, rinse and repeat. The multiplayer may be fast paced and hectic, but its also once again the exact same format that has been served up for the last few years now, a few new game types are not the kind of innovation that should be expected when you reach this stage of a franchise. The maps are cramped, designed for solo players in mind and reinforcing the general veiw that this is in no way a team game. The new score streak system differs very little from the previous kill streaks, in some cases being even more unbalanced. One also has to question the logic behind rewarding the leading players with even more powerful and deadly weapons and abilites and further increasing their lead instead of providing these benefits to the losing team to enable them to close the gap and keep the game close, competitive and exciting. Its all designed around the unrealistic one man army approach taken in these games, which is what cultivates the negative attitudes of many of its online players, and whilst their behaviour is no fault of the games, activision, infinity ward and treyarch have never taken any great pains to make the online a more enjoyable, balanced or even fair place for its more reasonable players.

    Call of Duty is guaranteed to sell, regardless of the changes they make, so you have to ask why the developers dont try something new, it feels more as if they churn out these almost identical clones out of either laziness or an actual inability to create something new. The changes, as seen here with the RTS segments, are poorly implemented and they make never have enough of an impact to drastically change the core experience, always altering the periferal, inconsequential things rather than risk any potential backlash for changing the game. After all who wants to be the guy that killed "the best selling franchise in gaming history"? The thing is, you cant kill it, year after year people will buy it, so take the chance, innovate, change it up. If people preffered the old version, they can play that game, if they want a new experience, give it to them. Black Ops 2 works as a game, its a great example of one, but it fails as part of a franchise, because yet again it brings very little to the table that the previous games have not already covered. If you want a good, solid, slick modern FPS, go play Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare or your preference from the heap of sequels it has. Just dont think this is going to be anything you havent seen before.
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  52. Nov 14, 2012
    4
    I was excited to pick this game up after reading some reviews by critics. They made it sound like a lot had changed in this new cod game. After spending 60 dollars and playing the game, i realize these critics must have been paid to write all those good reviews. The games campaign is still the same on rails garbage that holds your hand through the entire game. Still has stupid enemy's that just run out in the open are just stand in one place and shoot. Its just a boring tin can shooter like all the other cod games. I know most people buy this for multiplayer, but I still would like to play a good fps campaign. The multiplayer is the same, so you will either love it or hate it. Expand
  53. Nov 14, 2012
    0
    id give it less the 0 if i could. save your money if you've bought any of the last 4 COD games then you already have this. I feel bad for all the suckers who keep buying these games at full price. I've been playing for 4 hours at my buddy's (who is a sucker) and theirs nothing even worth talking about. actually zombies are sort of fun. they should just make a zombie game and charge $20. all we are is dollar signs to them. im fed up.

    former COD fanboy
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  54. Nov 14, 2012
    4
    Looks the same, feels the same, and it just simply is the same. Don't get me wrong, that game isn't that bad. But every single call of duty game shouldn't be the same. The game is living of its name, not its gameplay. For the people saying don't buy it if you don't want to play the same thing.. WTF? That's the kind of **** that promotes video game companies to ram their manhood into you. The longer you say, "Hey, if you don't want to play the same CoD, don't buy it" the longer they decide to F off because they know people are going to keep buying their game. It's seriously disrespectful to the people who buy these games in hopes of having at least a slightly different experience. This game feels like MW3.. It was supposed to feel like black ops, but with more innovation.. They disappointed. Do yourselves a favor, get halo 4 and don't look back. Not that halo 4 was better by a long shot, but 343 did a much better job than Activision... Way to ruin another one Activision! Expand
  55. Nov 14, 2012
    3
    I made the mistake of playing this straight after Halo 4. Maybe if I played this game 5 or 10 years before Halo 4, it wouldn't have seemed so bad. Everything about Black Ops II feels old, tired, linear, on-rails. The graphics engine is dated and looks cheap, flat and synthetic compared to numerous recent releases I could mention. The game play requires no thought or tactics. A.I. is barely existent. It's just an unsatisfying experience all-round. But the hype, fan base, and ridiculously favourably high critic reviews will ensure it sells millions. And I, amongst many others, was duped into wasting my money on it. Expand
  56. Nov 14, 2012
    4
    I really want to like this game, it's fast and fun but at the same time it really hasn't wowed me at all and I think this is going to be the last COD I buy on launch day. I like the new pick 10 system and some of the new features like the shock sticks and the millimetre scanners but the maps seem to be designed to encourage spawn trapping, the spawn system is broken and god help you if you're playing mp split screen! Yes I realise in games like domination you swap spawns at half time but that does not excuse spawning in the exact same location again and again if your team is spawn trapped! How is it that after all these years they still haven't done something about these issues!?!? When I played on my own it was a mix of fun and frustrating but this was down to the other players in all fairness (being paired with randoms against a full team is rarely fun!), however when I later played split screen with my wife it was almost unplayable! I have a 38MB broadband speed and I am a damn good player, other players should not need near enough a full clip to die! Oh and also what's the point of altering perks to discourage camping when the maps seem to do nothing but encourage camping!! I really, really wanted to like this game after the frustration-fest that was MW3 but so far I'm really not impressed. Expand
  57. Nov 14, 2012
    3
    This title jumps past the previous black ops game in many ways but fell short in a few. The graphics are much better but the texture quality and overall look of the terrain still leaves a huge gap between treyarch and infinity ward whos had better looking faces facial animation and texture usage all the way back to the scene in mw2 where your scaling the icy cliff. Therefore you always feel like youre playing an older cod game. Second is there custom icon.there are far fewer options in this than in the first black ops. Not to mention a lack of weapons to pick from. They greatly improved the eeapon addons however. The target scope and quick aim forgrip are a few solid examples. All the maps feel small and full of close quarters corridor fighting and with the poor spawn system thats been with all call of duty games it makes those shots from behind in an area surrounded by teamates all the more annoying. None of the maps are in my opinion memorable such as crash terminal ambush or firing range which is another downside to the entire black ops series. No maps pop out and make you crave them.

    Pros-better graphics than the first black ops
    -no death streaks
    -more useful weapon attachments
    -good variation of game modes for normal core

    Cons-textures and graphics look far older than okder cod titles made by infinityward
    -small gun selection
    -less icon customization options
    -no larger maps open alot of corner dodging
    -poor spawn system putting you steps away from an enemy.
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  58. Nov 14, 2012
    2
    the game is so ugly, the campaign is so scripted, the weapons sounds so bad. the only things that works is the mp. but even the mp is boring as hell. i'll stick with cod mw 3.
  59. Nov 14, 2012
    2
    OMG. what a joke. Why anyone would play this garbage over other current games like Halo4 or Battlefield is beyond me. This is just another boring rehash with LAME connections to multiplayer and stupid typical campaign. THIS IS 2012......WHERE THE HELL ARE THE DEDICATED SERVERS......SELL OUTS. And i find it amazing how many Users hate the game...but ALL the game sites LOVE IT. sellouts
  60. Nov 14, 2012
    4
    I'm glad I rented it first. The game really isn't that good. I'm not a COD hater. I used to love this franchise, but it just isn't the same...or actually that is the problem, it is the same. Same old same old. So they set it in the future, but the overall experience is just the same old thing and I just couldn't get into it this time. I got bored right away and this is going back to RedBox tomorrow. Infinity Ward and Treyarch both need to sit down together with Activision and figure out how to innovate and breathe new life into the COD franchise. Nothing they've done over the last 2 years has felt innovative. Its like lipstick on a pig. Come up with a new graphics engine, come up with some new ideas and figure out how to get that spark back. I really want to like COD again, but this is not the one that will get me back into it. Everything just feels tired and old. I know that some will point out that the futuristic technology is what sets this one apart. But you now what this feels like? BO2 just feels like that hot actress that everyone couldn't stop talking about 10 years ago, but now she's old, tired, washed up and raiding your medicine cabinet for prescription pain killers, but if she'd just invest some money in an extreme makeover and get herself checked into rehab, she could shine once again. Expand
  61. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    MW3 was a huge disappointment. Guns with no recoil and ridiculous shooting power, lag, pathetic split screen...you all know.

    BLACK OPS 2 - WTF Activision?! Maps are MICROSCOPIC. I get shot in the back every 5 seconds because of CRAP SPAWNS. BORING multiplayer.....I love BO1, it's my #2, but this is a disgrace. Guns kill instantly no matter what range you're at. I'm going back to W@W. bye.
  62. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    Terrible game, I mean seriously spaghetti nearly flew out of my pockets with how boring the "future" is. It's the exact same thing as the other game, and to top it off my copy had MASS EFFECT **** 2 DISK INSTEAD OF THE 2ND BLACK OPS! WHAT THE **** You don't understand how rustled my jimmies were. Overall its a lame B-movie plot with stupid "future" **** with the same killstreaks you always get. And trust me, I don't think this game has a lower user score for a reason, 3.9 is way too high of a score I would've given this piece of **** You can only buy the SAME **** GAME so much until you **** snap. Expand
  63. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    Game play: 2007
    Graphics: Sega Genesis
    Sound effects: think cheap made in China fireworks
    Whats new: you lost 60 bucks

    I feel bad for those who bought this game merely to play with their friends. Those who felt socially obligated to buy the game hopefully can take it back and use the money for a better game like Halo 4.
  64. Nov 13, 2012
    2
    Looking for more innovation, something new as black ops1 did when it came out. Multiplayer functions and options are basic but the maps i think are kind of cool. One other thing.... This game made me almost hate zombies. I felt like i wasw playing a frustrating arcade game, stupid fire. Dont really know what else to say, just as a common consumer i was pretty disappointed with BO2 overall experience so far Expand
  65. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    i see all kids crying and grip about why this game is so low rate.. its simple this game sucks balls, play halo 4 if you want futuristic game this is another AD/HD shooter like every year.... sry my bad english..
  66. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    This game really sucks, its an epic failure, the mods of this site must send these reviews to the developers of this useless no effort video game. -10/10 for me.
  67. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    Game is boring just like I was expecting. Went to my friends house to at least give it a try. Gameplay is boring. Graphics look exactly the same as Black Ops. Multiplayer is unbalanced. I have no clue how reviewers are saying the killstreaks are balanced. It actually seems worse than mw3. Do yourself the favor and don't buy the game. Buy Assassins Creed 3 or any game for that matter instead.
  68. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    I would assume 25% or less of customers buy this game for the campaign. I have not played it so my review is based completely on multiplayer and zombie mode. I have owned every COD game since COD 2, so my reviews are based on experience and comparision to past COD games. Graphics seem worse than past iterations and seem to have some kind of light filter glaze over everyting so you won't notice the cartoon like bulidings. Frame rate seems lower than other COD games. The lag in multiplayer is worse than MW3 (did not think it could be possible). 9 out of 10 times I die, its due to being shot around a corner ducking fire. I live in the midwest United States between Chicago and St. Louis which I ping less than 50ms to either one and have a 30m down and 6m upload so my connection is not the issue. I seem to be a second behind most players. Players with 3 bars seem to rule every game. Zombie mode is slow and lacks action. Seems like 50% of the time you are waiting for a bus to take you to another location. Nothing new or unique to either standard multiplayer or zombie mode. Game types, animations, buildings, and props seem to have been copied and pasted from MW3. I see nothing at all creative or new about this game. Seems like a step backwards from MW3 if that is even possible. I think the series peaked at MW2 and has gone downhill ever since. Activision is profiting off the name and giving us absolutely nothing for our money. I would not recommend this game to anyone. Expand
  69. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    There is only so much you can take when it comes to repetitive video games and it seems like the more repetitive the game gets, the more 12 year children try to defend it's status. The game itself has had no improvement in graphics, the audio and noises are terrible and as usual and the gameplay is the mind numbingly boring "run, die, run, die, run, die" that it always has been. I'm not entirely sure why people repeatedly buy the same FPS junk over and over again, but hopefully it will wear thin one day because COD is literally just a copy of the previous. Expand
  70. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    Until they make a long campaign I will continue to give 0's on every edition they release. I've been patient since the first modern warfare but we're still getting these 3 hour campaigns. I WANT MY MONEYS WORTH!!! Multiplayer doesn't take any thought:just slap on a couple levels together, some perks, guns, and you'll please the lemmings.
  71. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    this game is so dull and without any atmosphere. it is probably the most terrible and unrealistic shooter i have ever played. sometimes i felt like i was in a b-movie of dolph lundgren and in some moments i expected cuck norris to come around the corner and kill all enemies with a roundhouse kick. it wouldnt had made a diffrence to the atmosphere in this piece of junk.
  72. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    Activision wont be able to keep this up forever. People are realizing that this series has degenerated into a yearly rehashing of old gameplay and graphics. The worst part is that I will probably end up buying it like everyone else, just to see if it's any better than the last piece of crap they released.
  73. Nov 13, 2012
    3
    As a regular player of the original Black Ops I had hoped to enjoy almost every aspect of COD Black Ops II (with the exception of Zombies) but now that I have actually played the sequel I can only say what a massive disappointment it is.
    I bought this game at midnight and queued for an hour and a half to get it on release.
    When I got home and first loaded the disc I was greeted with a ma
    ndatory update - 24 Mb - hardly a good start and increasingly common these days. Then came the Nuke-Town DLC - 125 MB - and when that was done I had the chore of setting the graphics / sound / safe zone options. Half an hour since the disc went in and I haven't actually fired a shot yet.
    When I did actually get to play I selected multiplayer first - and a quick look at the leader-boards revealed that some people at the top of the leader-boards have had nearly two (2) days game-time played already!! That's game-time folks - not time that they've actually owned the game but time spent playing BEFORE the game was officially released.
    When I did get into my first multiplayer game I had to select my weapons from the default classes - and no weapons were familiar favourates. It seems that 'just to be seen to be a bit different' all default weapons have to be ones I was unfamiliar with. Oh well it was getting late so just get on with it.
    Although the graphics looked very 'cartoony' I was impressed by the effort that went into the way the game looked - a lot of it seemed very graphically simular to MW2 and 3 though. When playing I did seem to be dying too easily and taking too many shots to kill people though - a nasty sign that lag compensation has reared its ugly head again. I am on a 56 mbs (15 ms ping) fibre connection so someone on a 2 mbs landline will own my ass because Trayarch seem to not understand or care how fast internet connections actually put the person with the fast connection at a massive disadvantage or that the faster your connection and the lower your ping the more clients will try to join your host and those clients will be further away so will lag more and your ping will be artificially increased to 'make it fair' for slower clients at your expense AND IT DOESN'T WORK.. grmbl.
    The Pick 10 system doesn't work either - it annoys me and restricts load-outs and I spent too much time compromising on stuff I couldn't have rather than picking the stuff I could have. I did miss the option to buy new stuff using the money from challenges/kills/contracts from Black Ops I. The contracts and option to buy should never have been removed as this again brings this new game closer to to MW3 - just the same way that all the good weapons are only available late in the Presige ladder it will encourage people not to bother Prestiging so again Trayarch got it wrong. By now I was yearning to just play a good game and realising that it wasn't going to happen.
    I played the Single Player mode the next morning - in 3D and in Regular difficulty. Very impressed with the cut-scenes which oozed quality. However, the game itself was a joke. I was surrounded by a huge number of enemies only to be getting slight grazes by their weapons and gunships, seemingly superhuman in the face of impossible odds. My AK-47 worked in a way that was massively different to the multiplayer game in that it mowed down wave after wave of enemies. Disappointed in yet another COD let-down, I ended the game.
    This will sell in millions. It doesn't deserve to.
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  74. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    The main spoiler about this game is that we have all played it before. The master of copy and paste in video-game history. Campaign is typical of that in CoD. Dumb A.I. always making you get ALL the kills because they cant shoot a gun and sometimes your allies will by 'accident' throw grenades towards you. You walk into a room, random huge explosion that throws your character to your ground, etc etc. MP, is the same as last years except new skins. Unbalanced and too easy. Biggest changes is in zombie modes but honestly that is 1/3 of the game. The other 2/3 is the same thing.

    I know a lot of people say 'CoD does not suck because look how many copies they sold!' Yeah? Look at how many people watch Honey Boo Boo or Jersey Shore, that does not make it a good tv show now right? Okay then.
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  75. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    The campaign is garbage. Totally don't care what the story is. Just want to shoot people and this game just keeps coming up with ways to keep me from doing that. When your not forced to watch a boring and aweful cut-scene they have you doing other garbage like swinging on rocks, riding horses and "tapping" controller buttons to actually keep you from shooting a prisoner! If all that isn't bad enough the game-play feels like I'm playing COD 2. Bad graphics, bad story, totally linear experience. Who signed off on releasing this terribly disappointing game? I know better than to get too excited about any new video game but this is the kind of garbage that makes me want to quit gaming forever. Expand
  76. Nov 13, 2012
    4
    I normally don't write reviews. I'll be honest. I bought it for the multiplayer and zombies. Don't care about campaign. And the multiplayer is good but the networking is making the game unplayable. Constant host migrations and drop outs. I shoot people and in the killcam it shows me standing there doing nothing. If/When they patch the networking I'll come back and raise my score. Until then it gets a 4/10 because zombies is pretty cool to play with friends. Expand
  77. Nov 13, 2012
    1
    Be it Treyarch or Activision, I'm absolutely sick and tired of developers copy pasting games and selling them at full price every 10 months. The COD franchise is the worst for this. This franchise represents everything that is wrong with the gaming industry. Don't buy.
  78. Nov 13, 2012
    3
    I felt compelled to write a review based on the digital media putting down user comments. I came to metacritic this morning and saw very high critic reviews so I went and rented bo2. I'm not a fanboy or a hater, just saying. I played for a many hours and just checked the internet to see what everyone else thinks. I see a ton of articles saying how the disparity between high critic review and low user reviews is a shame and there needs to be something done. Well again I felt compelled to write a review because the critics are dead wrong. How can this game get such high marks? It's the same game I played for years and many 12 year old latino boys may think it's the best game ever I strongly disagree. The campaign is boring excuse me BORING. The multiplayer is ever so infected with kids talking smack and the guns feel weightless. COD is geared towards kids and it has become apparent. The life has been sucked out of this franchise but when ironman is in your commercial what else do you need. This isn't meant to be such a bashing as I may be losing the point that the critics got this wrong again. They are so afraid to give an honest review or should I say a low scoring review on cod. It's a shame. This series has gotten so outta hand I couldn't believe I'm playing with futuristic weapons on a cod game and really black ops as the title. It's amazing to me that black ops is such an elite force that when you plug into xbox live thousands of people are playing characters that would be the most elite fighting force it's a little funny that anyone can be a super extreme operative. This is the last year I spend anymore time with cod at least it was just a 1 day rental and not 60+ dollars. Expand
  79. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    More of the same but now with a ridiculous story. The futuristic plot makes no sense at all. Multiplayer feels like Previously Call of Duty Games (MW and BO)I have it on sale now!
  80. Nov 13, 2012
    1
    Terrible, terrible game. -Futuristic setting is boring -Multiplayer Killstreaks are boring (and even more unbalanced than MW2) -Gun Audio is bad, MW3 was better, in fact. -Terrible Graphics -Campaign is incredibly linear and boring. This game is terrible, around the same "quality" as MOHW. is **** **** **** ****
  81. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    Absolute trash. Complete rehash of its predecessor in the most literal sense. Please my fellow gamers I care about your christmas money. Save your time and resources.
  82. Nov 13, 2012
    3
    Multiplayer was what I was looking forward to, yet the graphics are cartoonish. Difficult to know when you've killed an opponent at long distance. Non-intuitive Create a class section. Not worth commenting further. waste of money.
  83. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    Bro Fest 2012! Get your TapOut shirts and dubstep ready! This one is shaping up to be the biggest gathering of pointless nonsense we have ever seen!!!
  84. Nov 13, 2012
    2
    I can't say we didn't all expect this. Basically the same game and graphics we saw in 2009. Hoped in a new beginning to a great series, but was just disappointed and out 60 bucks. This series has some great potential that is just wasted because of a greedy company looking to plunder your bank account.
  85. Nov 13, 2012
    2
    Truly huge let down of game, the Call of Duty engine is beginning to show its age, annual releases are ruining the franchise the negative gripes I have with this game is that it doesn't really bring anything new to the game its the same game year in year out, unlike the FIFA franchise (noticeable upgrades to game play) little or any progress has been made to improve the franchise which makes it really disappointing, having been overwhelmed with Modern Warfare I am honestly starting to believe all hope has is lost with this franchise, after Modern Warfare 2 this franchise has taken a nose dive into oblivion and I don't think it will ever return to its former glory, the game is catered for the "casual" gamer the franchise was a lot better when it wasn't as mainstream as it has become now, the chewing gum has finally lost its flavor.

    Negatives
    - Extremely linear, boring campaign
    - Same rehashed game engine (signs of aging)
    - Doesn't really improve on whats been done before Positives
    + Zombie mode (This should be a standalone affair and stray away from the COD franchise)
    + Pick 10 Leveling System
    + Hopefully this will be the last COD this gen before it is completely overhauled for next gen
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  86. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    An awful display of how corrupt and stupid the gaming media are. How does a carbon copy game warrant a 9/10 score from anyone who has any degree of passion for games. This does nothing at all to improve on any aspect of what was already a tired and disfunctional series.

    Single player campaign is another disgrace full arrogant mess full of mindless relative actions such as shoot the hund
    reds of brown terrorists in the face. The story is awful 80's action film tripe with every possible shock tactic thrown in to try and garner some publicity.

    Multiplayer is the same as ever, which would be fine if they were not charging 40 pounds for something you probably already have let alone the cost of the always overpriced and inevitable dlc.

    As for zombies my one last hope, its essentially a 40 pound map pack, same guns, same music, same sound effects, same everything just now with added Cappy fire all over the place and smoke to hide the ageing graphics.

    Please don't fall into the meat grinder, just play something good like dishonored for single player and stick to one of the old games for mp, it is the only way to tell them to stop excreting these rectangular turds on a yearly basis.
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  87. Nov 13, 2012
    1
    Another re-hash. Every iteration seem's like an add-on/expansion. Nothing new or innovative about this series. It still uses the same graphics engine from 2007. The sound is sub-par compared to other games such as the Battlefield series.

    Played one Call of Duty, you have played them all.
  88. Nov 13, 2012
    3
    The game is just last nights dinner reheated and served as left-overs. Graphical changes are very low. Though, one well done aspect of the game is the zombies, which is a large improvement from the last game, but the campaign and multiplayer are dried out and over-used. This may not reflect the opinion of others, but my opinion is that it just seems to repeated.
  89. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    Wow!! Tryarch really out did themselves this time!! Hahahahahahaha Nah. It's the same game it's always been. Same. Damn. Game. Different skin! "But wow!! It's set in the future!!" Really?? Because it's boring and the audio is **** up. The multi-player is the same, the campaign is the same, everything is exactly the same! Way to go!! You suck!
  90. Nov 13, 2012
    3
    It's funny how people still buy call of duty. Xbox 360 players are not only paying for Xbox live at least once a year, but also paying for the same **** COD game that comes out every year. Literally, I think call of duty is one of the only games that comes to my mind that doesn't improve its graphics from game to game. If anything, its graphics get WORSE every year. If you are one of the idiots that still buys Call of Duty every year, go ahead and get this 60$ map pack. If you actually have a brain, don't buy this **** If you have never bought a call of duty game, just buy Black ops 1. It's the same game, but it's cheaper now. Until people put their foot down and say no to this bandwagon game, they'll keep releasing the same game every year just for your hard earned cash. Expand
  91. Nov 13, 2012
    2
    I have this on PC and bar a few new tweaks, guns and modes this is the SAME F##KING YEARLY BS from Activision! COD 4 was the series best game and off its back all these poor sequels have come out.

    Multiplayer -Same old rehash with a dash of mw3 and rubbish looking sci-fi stuff
    Single Player-Linear, wow they gave you choices what innovation. YAWN
    Zombies-Only reason this gets a 3 cause
    zombies are cool.

    IGN gave this a 9.3 what a f##king joke.

    To sum this up dont bother if you have played a call of duty game because its same rubbish and eventually this series will be milked dry even though for a long time its been sour.

    Play TF2 instead and save forking over £40 to a fat Activision ceo who is sitting on a pile of money with a crown of bullsh#t.
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  92. Nov 13, 2012
    1
    Same engine, Same formula, a few new guns... I'm not sold.

    How year after year people flock to the new edition of the call of duty franchise I'm not sure. The best Modern Warfare game was the original, since then the franchise has gone slowly downhill with each new installation. I would advise people to stay away from this one and wait for it to hit the sale.
  93. Nov 13, 2012
    2
    Haven't I already played this game somewhere? The only thing that has been noticeably improved has been the graphics. Multiplayer as a whole is very disappointing, as is the campaign.
  94. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    i am not accepting graphics from 2007 and a gameplay that reapeats the whole same crap for the 1000x time.

    its not even like i PLAY a game? its auotaime, autoheal auto.... get me out of here...
  95. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    Utter garbage. The OVER lag compensation from MW3 is back, but it is even worse this go. All the guns are EXACTLY the same! They all have no recoil and have high clips and fast fire rates. The maps promote headglitching and have no real flow.

    For some reason, they decided to mess with the sensitivity settings and make the X and Y axis different, without giving you the option to adjust
    both separately. Hit detection is just as bad as Black Ops, although they tried to mask this by not adding recoil to any of the guns.

    Single Player is pathetically unlikable. Basic generic shooter campaign, which last for about 4 gruesome hours. I heard that they will be implementing the single player of this game as a torture device at Guantanamo Bay.

    My copy is already on Ebay, save your wallet and your dignity by skipping this boring piece of recycled junk.
    Expand
  96. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    I'm doing my part :) I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :) Call of duty has ruined this generation and probably future generation shooters because they lack zero innovation and follow the same Hollywood path of squeezing out sequels in order to generate as much profit as possible while giving absolutely nothing back to its fans. Go fudge yourself, Satan, for infiltrating my favorite medium and industrializing it like you have my country - no longer to be the art it once was. I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :)I'm doing my part :) Expand
  97. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    "Rehash: The Game" should it be called. No innovations nothing new only the same Game with a different Number / Name.
    Boring story, slow paced Gameplay, much action but too shallow to be cool. DLC and Season Passes to get more Money from the Customer.
    0/10 - It's Okay.

    PS: Players.. stop buying these "games", they are the Reason why every Developer tries the Same to get Money and Game
    s aren't getting better.
    Stop the Cancer.
    Expand
  98. Nov 13, 2012
    1
    I am not sorry I had to put this but Treyarch always hypes up their games with great advertisements then there is the big disappointment when you buy the game, this game is pretty much Black Ops 1 with minor improvements in multiplayer. On the other hand there is Zombies which is great with the innovation but multiplayer is just outright HORRIBLE and Infinity Ward's Multiplayer will always be better regardless. Campaign is eh the usual. I just like Treyarch's Games for the Zombies sorry to tell you Simple Chart
    Multiplayer Singleplayer Other Gametype(Zombies/Spec Ops) -Infinity Ward -Infinity Ward -Treyarch
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  99. Nov 13, 2012
    0
    When is everyone going to get it in their heads that this is just another rehash washed out Call of Duty game? One day, Activision is gonna ditch supporting the series just like they did with the Guitar Hero series and they'll be looking for another game to leech on for money.
  100. Nov 13, 2012
    4
    I'm sorry all you paid $50+k a year magazine and online critics, Activision seems to have their hand too deep in your pockets for this to justify your 9 scores that I've been reading all over the interwebs. Unfortunately my review comes after already being jaded from MW3 and that sell-out of a title as well. Treyarch TRIES to be different here by what....uhhhh making it a MODERN first person shooter?? Oy vey, so lets get to it; the story is a tack-on and feels like the same-ol story spun in a different time and setting. Sound familiar? It will be. Zombies are back, and actually has some fresh feel to it, but its all from the same engine and "feels" the same. The usual Multiplayer suspects are back and nothing really ground breaking has really caught my attention. Activision is yet again trying the "lets milk this cow" till its dry strategy and sadly millions of people are going to buy it anyway. Going to Gamestop to resell it and going back to my Halo 4. Expand
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 73 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 67 out of 73
  2. Negative: 0 out of 73
  1. 80
    This is not to say it's a bad game, it's just not different enough from previous Call of Duty titles. The story isn't memorable, the maps and weapons aren't any different to what we've previously experienced, the gameplay is near identical to previous games, and when it's not identical it falls flat and fails to impress.
  2. Jan 19, 2013
    80
    It's fun, and an indication that Treyarch is willing to explore ideas that Infinity Ward has thus far ignored. [Issue#93, p.74]
  3. Jan 7, 2013
    95
    If the original Black Ops was Treyarch's coming-out party, then Black Ops 2 is the studio's affirmation that their COD expertise was no flash in the pan. If you're one of the 16 people who hasn't played this gem yet, go buy it now. Conversely, if you're among those who bought the game but hasn't ventured into the single-player campaign (yes, it happens), there's a great narrative and divergent gameplay awaiting your experimentation, so check it out.