Call of Duty: Black Ops II Xbox 360
User Score
4.5 out of 10

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 1672 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 643 out of 1672
  2. Mixed: 175 out of 1672
  3. Negative: 854 out of 1672

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  1. mohmed
    May 20, 2013
    0
    Black Ops II is just another copy of CoD 4, both multiplayer and singleplayer. The multiplayer is super boring, you'll get completely outgunned by smg's and shotguns, which are much stronger than any assault rifle.
  2. Maxim1925
    May 18, 2013
    4
    This game is not an AAA fps-shooter its only an arcade Xbox shooter with an outdatded old crap engine And ugly graphics and a short,boring Classic story but the multiplayer content is even better.But a month later is became boring.Now I think its only 4 out of 10.
  3. mark1003
    May 16, 2013
    0
    This game is simply unplayable. The story is ridiculous, the gameplay is painful, and don't start about the multiplayer. If you really want to play this bad a game, then you should probably buy Jumper of something like that. Otherwise, steer clear.
  4. Cyroy
    May 13, 2013
    2
    Call of Duty 4 was great, Modern Warfare 2 was playable but everything after that went seriously downhill.

    Just as in MW3 there's a lack of inovation, Yes it might be a succes formula but there are people (most of them who do recognize a good game) who start seeing that nothing is improving. I had myself skip Blops and MW3, because of the lack in improvement that were already noticable     in the trailers, but thought by myself I'll give CoD one more chance. I've never seen 55$ wasted this bad.

    Singleplayer: Wasn't bad, maybe quite enjoyable but a multiplayer game shouldn't rest entirely on the campaign mode.

    MultiPlayer: If I have to sum COD's multiplayer up in a sentence it's free for all team deathmatch, You are in a team yet there's no need to help eachother, because having one good player in your team can win the game and this isn't a good thing, It's TEAM deathmatch, not working together should result in failing miserably.

    Hacking and lagg issues still haven't been solved, They had 3 games to fix this and they still didn't do it.
    And there's nothing new to make MP more enjoyable.

    BLOPS 2 brings nothing new on the table, Same different day. Although the Singleplayer is still enjoyable it doesn't really mean anything for it's unchanged multiplayer, sligthly tweaked engine and graphics and still awfull soundeffects    … Expand
  5. ILoveMyUnicorn
    May 13, 2013
    0
    No really, this game is like the same than 5 years old Call of duty, nothing new, still this casual gameplay and the community online is based on 8 years old people.
  6. AdpoGamer
    May 8, 2013
    2
    another game that's just the same as all other Call of Duty games.
    same multiplayer, same guns, same graphics.
    just new maps
    feels like an expansion for black ops.
  7. mask48
    May 4, 2013
    3
    Well, where do I start. As a player of the first cod, i had loved the series and the improving gameplay. That is, till Cod MW 1. i mean, it is also great, but as the new cod games go on, the improvements had slowed down to a crawl. The new cod games keep the same gameplay, barely to nothing new, and very minor improvements. COD Black Ops has the same style of gameplay as COD MW 1, Black Ops 2 is same as MW 2. The games became so lazy with the improvement job, they just paint over the last game. But even with the same stuff over and over again, then why does people just keep buying these games? Out side repeat gameplay, the story is still a little lack luster, but i like the part when COD Black Ops 2 tried to be lest liner by giving more then 1 ending. But honesty, don't buy this game. Every one smart sticks with at least MW2, because they are not really missing out on much.… Expand
  8. GrandTrollArmy
    May 3, 2013
    4
    Better than Modern Warfare 3 and not a total copy and paste, this game still falls short of a 60 dollar price tag. The non-linear campaign is appreciated, but there's no real way for players to think strategically on how to make the right choices that will contribute to a better ending. Simple incidents in the story that players could have not foreseen in any way render a previous decision that may have seem good at the time a bad one. It is also the longest campaign in any COD game ticking in at 7-8 hours, but that's first run through, it is well under 4 hours in replays. Multiplayer, ah, multiplayer... IT IS THE EXACTLY THE SAME! OOOOHHH LOOKY HERE NEW PICK 10 SYSTEM SUDDENLY IT'S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM THE PREVIOUS GAMES! It feels, plays, and even looks exactly the same as all the other games. And I know this is a Xbox 360 review section, but the PC version also does not feature dedicated servers players can rent and own. This will become a problem later in this game's cycle. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is still thriving on PC will a large amount of players due to dedicated servers allowing players to customize their experience.

    Multiplayer is just go in, shoot the other players, and get out. They add tons of new game modes this year but most are overly complicated so no one's playing those and some are way too simple that they're down right boring. And multiplayer is INFECTED with 12 and under little kids. There is an average of 240,000 players playing this game's multiplayer on the Xbox 360, subtract all those under the age of 12, and you get the PC player count which is around 12,00-15,000. Multiplayer is boring and is poorly executed. Weapon customization is strong though.

    Zombies mode returns in Black Ops 2 but once again, it proves to be nearly identical to the previous games. Just sit there and wait for the zombies to come, shoot them and kill them until one magically pops out and kills you and that's it. TranZit is neat but really, really gets boring after you played it once. And don't even get me started on Grief mode. No one is playing Grief because it is down right boring. The trailers made grief look like it was going to kick-ass but after I managed to find one match, I found it quite boring.

    Just don't buy this game. Call of Duty is not what it used to be. Activision needs to step up their game, work with new developers and add real innovation to upcoming games, the developers need to take their time and not rush to get in before November.

    COD:

    Children's
    Online
    Daycare    … Expand
  9. WhovianFantatic
    May 3, 2013
    2
    In my opinion the only good cod game was WAW.. the first few were boring hard and uninspired up until WAW then modern Warfare 2 came along.. I thought it was nothing special or nothing spectacular.. but then cod BO 1 came out... its zombies was ok but the story itself was horrible and no tension was caused throughout the entire game.. Then MW3 came out.. and im my opinion that is one of the worst games I have ever played... The game was boring uninspired just like the first few.. cod gets a new game every year and it just goes to show no work is put into it.. This isn worse then MW3 mostly because of its zombie mode but if you think about it. this is the same load of garbage since MW2 the graphics look the exact same and nothing stands out beside 1 mode in zombies.. the rest is boring and stupid.. zombie mode lets us down here only with 1 good thing.. the story line is about 2-3 hours long and it had no tension in it just like the last because all you do is talk about the past... so you know you live until the end.... its worse because I never liked any of the characters and they all felt like this game is crap... and now i hear there are 2 cod games coming out in 2013... give me a break... cod is the same load of garbage every game...… Expand
  10. dynamite298
    May 1, 2013
    0
    I dislike all COD games, they are all basically the same but with just different items. I really hate COD games because of their laggyness, unfair battle processes, and everything else is basically unfair.
  11. Virtro
    Apr 29, 2013
    4
    Black Ops 2 is just another copy/paste/edit game. You search for a terrorist, surprise? Not so much. The gunplay is once again the same as it always has been. Just point and shoot and nothing interesting to mix in between. The multiplayer is just as tedious considering its nothing but more hard work for no rewards besides guns and stuff.

    Lets face it, its a bandwagon that is milking the     gamers dry of good money they could be spending on a brighter game. Call of duty isn't worth it anymore people, so why not play something more fresh?… Expand
  12. BeAwesomeOne
    Apr 26, 2013
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Gosh, I hate this game. Never mind the fact that this is same game as the other games and have same multiplayer like other games from this franchise (only with different HUD), my biggest problem is that this game shouldn't be a sequel! I mean sure, you play as Mason half of the game but the other half is a futuristic FPS. WHAT THIS HAS TO DO WITH FIRST BLACK OPS?! To be fair, future part of this game has some pretty good features such as camouflage, sticky gloves, that let you climb a rock mountain and sky diving section. Sadly this happen only one or two time in this game. Anyway I don't understand a point of playing both Mason's campaign and future campaign, if Black Ops 2 only contains a Mason's campaign then that's will be fine. Only resemblance in future in BO2 is Woods... that's it!

    In other words this game will be better if they focus mostly about Mason storyline rather than on future soldiers one. If Activision wants to make a futuristic FPS in Call Of Duty, that's fine. But please don't put Black Ops name on it. Called it, I don't know, Futuristic War or something.    … Expand
  13. Tomaskovic93
    Apr 25, 2013
    1
    The only thing this game is good for is being a time waster, a very expensive time waster. You pay 60 dollars for the same game you've been getting every year thinking "this one will actually be good!" but no, you get 5-7 hour single-player campaign that i'm guessing no one even plays. Call of duty is all about their multi-player which hasn't made any significant change since CoD 4. Different guns with the same stats as the previous games. Do not buy it. if you want to spend 60 dollars in order to screw yourself, buy a really nice instead.… Expand
  14. Auritone
    Apr 22, 2013
    4
    Ah, the Call of Duty franchise… What can be said about it which hasn’t been said so many times by so many people? It’s seems to be a franchise which continues to divide the waters of gamers: You either love it or hate it. There really doesn’t seem to be any middle ground on this one.
    So where do I personally stand?
    My problem with this particular FPS franchise lies very much with the dev     the developer, Treyarch, the overprotecting parents of game developers. Treyarch seems to live in constant fear of relinquishing some of their control of the game to the player, leading to one of the most scripted and linear shooter franchises on the market, at least up to this point. One notable thing about Black Ops 2 is that there are attempts from Treyarch to give more control to the player, but then it seems like they regretted their decision and pulls the players right back where they want them.
    One notable example of this is in Afghanistan where you have to stop a Russian assault with heavy armour, helicopters and infantry while on horseback. This initially seems like opening up for a bigger area with more freedom of movement and ways to take out the tanks and helicopters. However, this turns out just to be show, because in fact the whole stage isn’t as big as it would have you believe, there are really no options as to how to approach taking out the tanks and helicopters, and if you try to stray just a little bit, you are without warning killed off for going off the map.
    It seems like Treyarch tried a more open level design, but then thought better of it, making the player feel like a dog who just got a longer leash. Surprised by this it starts to run to stretch its legs only to get pulled back with a neck breaking jerk.
    Another attempt are a couple of tactical Strike Missions, which try to blend some real-time strategy into the franchise as well as giving the single player campaign a multiplayer “feel”. Now, this would have been a welcomed addition if it had been executed better than it actually is.
    The problem is twofold: First of all the strategy is extremely simplistic, leaving you with only four different squads at your command, and only being able to tell them where they to go using a quite useless overhead tactical map which I never used. You can then jump into any individual squad member and control it, whether a soldier, a gun turret, a rolling gun turret, or a small, slow walking tank. And this leads to the second problem: The AI. You get more out of just going commando on the enemy and try to do the tasks yourself, than rely on the orders given to your squads, as they will be killed off faster than a sloth on the MI5. On several occasions I have also seen squads taking the longest, and most enemy infested route possible to the destination I had set for them, resulting in them getting massacred in seconds.
    These strike missions are fortunately optional, but they are still frustrating to play.
    Other than that there really is nothing new in the single player campaign which, as usual for the franchise, is as short as ever and plays out more like a Michael Bay movie than anything else, though the cutscenes and set-pieces are as spectacular as ever.
    What really gets to me with this franchise is Treyarch’s reluctance to let go of the player’s hand. At one point you are on the side of a cliff, swinging on a line with you buddy using "high-tech gloves of the future" to stick to the side. Now, rather than actually letting the players do it on their own and actually climb around on a cliff surface, the whole thing is done with a tedious quick-time event.
    The following section which sees you gliding over mountains could have been a lot of fun, if it weren’t for the fact that it might as well have been set in a tunnel, as straying even a few meters too far from Treyarch’s very short leash will result in a restart.
    It's the same story with the "stealth". As usual you are left blindly playing "follow the leader", failure to do so results in you being discovered even if in cover.
    And that’s really my whole problem with the franchise and Black Ops 2. There are so many things which could have been so cool if you were just allowed to actually DO it.
    I like just a minimum of freedom and a minimum of control in my games and this franchise gives me neither.
    It treats the player like a little child learning how to cross a street, and never ever at any time does it let go of the player’s hand, squeezing it to a point of stopping blood circulation.
    That said, the multiplayer is still quite solid (if you liked it before) with a new league feature and other additions. The Zombies are back, but this time they are actually the most boring and quite ugly part of the game
    So other than the Strike Missions, Black Ops 2 is very much business as usual.
    If you like the franchise you won’t be disappointed, and if you like me don’t see what all the fuss is about… well, you still won’t.    … Expand
  15. OnAnarchy
    Apr 22, 2013
    3
    I play it frequently, because it's like cocaine in video game form. It numbs your mind, but doesn't do much else. I've come across far too many bad glitches and crashes that it renders the game almost unplayable. In hardcore, you get kicked (and placed on 'probation') if you kill your teammate too many times. Most often it's because they are stupid as hell or they die in unavoidable ways. I've seen weapons fail to spawn in classes (leaving you with no primary weapon), 7 (sometimes 8) players to a team in 6v6 matches, and spawns so bad you die instantaneously on maps way too large for that to happen. I feel like Activision has turned it's back on their fans; it's not about the quality, only the money. Save your time and play some indie games or stuff by less autocratic developers. Support the people who still make good games.… Expand
  16. L3onardoSantana
    Apr 21, 2013
    0
    By far the worst call of duty game I have ever played. MW2 was my first call of duty and that was by far the best one for sure. black ops was good too, i had no problem with that. MW3 was terrible and then Black ops 2. it just shows me this series is dying very quickly. only because call of duty is really siding torwards one side of the audience only. MLG's. which is cool and all but what about the other average audience that doesnt spend hours on call of duty practicing to be pro? whatever happened to just having fun?
    i was hoping quickscoping would disappear since it did in the first black ops which was great, unfortunately it came back and worse than ever before. you're shooting the hell out of a guy and in the meantime he pops off a shot and no scopes you, one shot kill. so stupid. in mw2 i first played very stealthy cuz thats my sort of gameplay style, silencer, cold blooded so no air support can see me, ninja, & claymores cuz i never have good game for grenades. but now as the games move on, they're forcing people to be more run and gun instead of campers. which is stupid because people are going to camp regardless. all the time, everytime. it's never going to end. so just stop and let them do what they want to do. the spawn points are so confusing and frustrating as well which forces the average player to run around like an idiot and spray their gun hoping their connection beats the other persons. that's another thing about this game too, i'd be shooting the hell out of a guy first but he would somehow kill me. this is by far the most frustrating game ever too.
    i literally have lost interest in this game too maybe a month in.
    i definitely dont recommend buying it. i might just have to find a new series thats actually worth playing than pissing me off all the time becuase of its bullcrap in it. i can guarantee you that if infinity ward employees hadnt gotten fired, they fixed one man army/noob toob, took out the ridiculous commando lunge, and still put out new maps.....people would still be playing MW2 to this day    … Expand
  17. HawkeyeWii
    Apr 19, 2013
    0
    Very weak game. If this game isn't showing signs that Call of Duty is misses a step then I don't know what is. It adds absolutely nothing new. This is no exaggeration. I would rather play Pong or E.T for Atari than this garbage!
  18. vintagegamer16
    Apr 19, 2013
    4
    is this a call of duty game? yes. does it play like call of duty yes! is that a bad thing? well.....in my and many others opinion...YES!! they have been using the same formula since modern warfare 1! now yes of course they have added extremly minor new features, yes i get that. the only thing this game is truly good for honestly is its zombies mode.
  19. Enforcer122
    Apr 16, 2013
    4
    Man, this was really disappointing. I can see what they were trying to do, and I respect that and understand it. But I just couldn't get in to this game. The campaign was very poor, zombies was an improvement but still not great and the multi player was more of the same. The campaign like I said, was the poorest I've played in COD history. I was just utterly confused throughout and it was a pain to play at times.… Expand
  20. EV3RLiGHT
    Apr 16, 2013
    1
    To summarise the whole game: it is weakest, most repetitive shooter to date. I don't even know why people invest to this franchise, but it is certainly not improving anything. The game contains an awful network of under-aged players, it is lacking visual aesthetics, it's poor story makes me want to puke, there is no destructible environment, too much DLC and the list goes on and on. It is sad when such franchise gets compared to Arma or Battlefield franchises, since it's the most pathetic copy paste game the developers made money on. So stop bloody buying it!… Expand
  21. RedJ
    Apr 12, 2013
    1
    The single player is easy on the highest difficulty but that isn't the reason you buy this game.
    The other mode zombies feels wrong where black ops 1 zombies was entertaining for an hour or two this zombies held my attention for all of 5 minutes.
    Multiplayer is riddled with annoying players, absolute noobs and MLG wannabes.
    Overall a terrible game.
  22. NewVegasGod
    Apr 11, 2013
    4
    They need to learn that they can only re-release the same game so many times before people start to take notice.

    There's nothing wrong with the CoD formula (except a rather short and mediocre campaign, but Black Ops 2 did a little better at that aspect) it's just that they keep release game after game, year after year, barely changing anything. And they're releasing another this year. I    t needs to stop. Now.… Expand
  23. TheKemosabi
    Apr 10, 2013
    0
    If you played a Call of Duty game before, then you've played this game aleady. The creaters seem to have no intrest in taking a few years to invest time and money in order to innovate something that feels fresh. But then again why would they? lol If I knew all I had to do was slap a new skin on an old game in order to make billions upon billions of dollars, I would do the same.
  24. Shadownerd45
    Apr 5, 2013
    0
    I played this game at a friends house. The lag was unbearable, The guns were extremely unbalanced. You feel like you are shooting a water pistol against the BFG 9000 from Doom. The maps are all the same and offer almost no places to use a sniper rifle other than quick-scoping. The killstreaks are bland and seem to be the same, The UAV needs more kills to support your team than a remote control car with C4 on it. The final straw was that Treyarch LIED to you. They offered a pre-order bonus of Nuketown 2025 with it's own exclusive playlist, Then they took it down. If i EVER drop money for a game before it is released then i want to enjoy the bonus i got. My final verdict is that this game is a money grab. BACON camo? REALLY? They charge overpriced DLC for maps that look the same and useless micro-transactions. My ranking is DO NOT EVER BUY THIS GAME. COD HAS FALLEN AND THIS IS WHY.… Expand
  25. TheDarkImperial
    Mar 30, 2013
    0
    It's always the same Bad Game.Worst Story Ever. unbalanced Mutliplayer. IT SUCKS with his Dupstep wuuuuuaaaaahh zzzzzzzz booooooooooooommmmmmmmmm
  26. scbane
    Mar 28, 2013
    3
    How I felt playing the game? after the excitement of the new car smell of new maps wore off, and after yet anothe blockbuster game releasing dlc that should have come with the game like a week after launch, i found myself looking at the screen wondering which cod I was playing. Cod MW was my favorite game of all time. still prefer it and mw2 over blops and mw3. Waw was my favorite treyarch game ever...ZOMBIES! then blops zombies, which were ok but overdone and too frantic. My complaints? Same game as blops and mw3 with a little polish tossed in. persistent server problems, aged graphics, still fast scoping auto aim, ridiculously accurate weapons, lack of ANY FEEL OF INVENTIVENESS. How many people want to watch the same tv show, just with different characters, every time they watch tv? Same plot, same clothes,etc. I read reviews by others rating 9 or 10. Have to be fanboys defending a dying franchise or paid reviewers. If it werent for the ok zombie play, I already would have taken my copy of Blops II back to gamestop to trade in.… Expand
  27. UndiyingPickle
    Mar 27, 2013
    2
    Generic and repetitive gameplay, awful campaign mode and nonsensical zombie mode make black ops 2 a game that didn't need to be release.
    So let's start by the campaign the whole six hour campaign is playing through different sections of just shooting dumb and suicidal AI that not do anything more than just be annoying then watch a non interesting not necessary cutscene and that pretty muc    h is all that there is.
    For multiplayer you have your basic game modes (tdm, dm, dom etc...) the new game modes are not innovative at all and are just game modes from different games plastered into this game every weapon feels exactly the same aside from the way they fire, (full auto or bust fire or semi automatic) i find myself sleeping after playing for a while.
    At last zombies is just... awful... the new so called zombie campaign is just the same survival mode but with a different name the stages feel exactly the same and is just not fun.
    the only reason why this game is getting a two and not a one or even a 0 is just because the graphics are decent and the campaign even if they are terrible have different endings and choices.
    In conclusion i wouldn't buy this game at all is completely skippable it doesn't innovate in absolutely anything and most of the copy paste ideas are just badly performed, DO NOT BUY THIS GAME.    … Expand
  28. Coletrain128
    Mar 26, 2013
    2
    At one point, I did enjoy the Call of Duty franchise for what it was. It had an exciting campaign, an addictive multiplayer (until little children, hackers, and people who treated the game as if its a goddamn national sport ruined it all), and was an overall great package. But most of the hate has gone beyond this franchise itself and straight to the reputation of its developers as they will constantly force the same product every year in order to produce the same sales results as say MW2. This practice doesn't help evolve the industry, it destroys it. The more you release the same product every year, the more likely it will fade away. Look at Guitar Hero, a game that was published by Activison but failed because of over flooding the market with the same game every year. Because of this, Guitar Hero is not only dead, but so is the music game genre. Now, Call of Duty has not only attracted some of the more dedicated consumers, but the casual market as well. This game is the reason to why the game market is flooded with Shooters every year and there is hardly any diversity in the game market. The fact that these games are pumped out ever year with little to no creative is the reason why the material is dry, monotonous, and unappealing to many. The only positive is that the game isn't broken. This franchise not only reached its peak back way back in 2007, but it has also brought a downfall to games in general.… Expand
  29. Harryhausen
    Mar 22, 2013
    1
    This game is, by far, the worst call of duty EVER (and i've been playing this franchise since call of duty 2). the graphics are outdated, the story sucks (as always), the graphics are outdated and the story sucks.

    by the way, the graphics are outdated and the story sucks.
  30. azgoodaz
    Mar 18, 2013
    0
    This is a horrible game. This is the same as Black Ops 1, same engine, same guns. Lame DLC, Lame Servers. This was just a money maker for them, a rushed game in which should have been a 3 or 4 year project. Every COD, should take at least 4 years to make NOT 1 every year. COD mainly is for Little Kids ask there Mom's to buy it and in so they can play with their friends and spend money on DLC. Big Companys that host Competitive games with not good MLG players and spend Millions but cant fixed the servers? Smh… Expand
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Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 73 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 67 out of 73
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 73
  3. Negative: 0 out of 73
  1. Xbox World Australia
    Jan 22, 2013
    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.
    Read full review
  2. X360 Magazine UK
    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. DailyGame
    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.
    Read full review
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