Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Treyarch and published by Activision (Square Enix for Japan). Black Ops II is the ninth installment of the Call of Duty franchise and is the sequel to 2010 game Call of Duty: Black Ops. It was released on November 13, 2012 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows and on November 18, 2012 in North America, November 30, 2012 in Europe and Australia for the Wii U. Square-Enix released the game for the Japanese market on November 22, 2012 as a subbed version. A Japanese voice-dubbed version was released separately on December 20, 2012.
Gameplay
Strike Force missions
Black Ops II is the first Call of Duty video game to feature branching storylines, in which the player's choice affects both the current mission and in turn, the overall course of the story. Known as "Strike Force missions", these branching storylines appear during the 2025 storyline and feature permanent death. The success or failure of these missions can have ramifications for the wider campaign storyline. Choosing one of the missions locks out the others unless the player begins a fresh campaign.
Strike Force missions allow the player to control a number of different war assets, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, jet fighters and robots. If the player dies in a Strike Force mission, the campaign continues recording that loss, as opposed to letting the player load a previously saved checkpoint. The player's progress in the Strike Force missions may go on to change even the plans of the story's antagonist, Raul Menendez. By the end of the game, the player may have changed the results of the new Cold War, and the player is shown what could have gone differently.[citation needed] Zombies Treyarch has confirmed that the Zombies mode will return for Black Ops II with new game modes. Its predecessors were Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops. This is the third time for the Zombies mode to appear in a Call of Duty game, and the first time to have game modes other than the traditional Survival mode. Treyarch has also confirmed that Zombies will run on the game's multiplayer engine, allowing for a deeper community experience, along with new features. A new, 8 player co-op game called "Grief" is also supported, featuring 2 teams of 4 players competing to survive, unlike Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops, which only supported 4 player online co-op.
The first map featured in the game, "Green Run" , introduces four new characters: Samuel Stuhlinger (voiced by David Boat), Marlton Johnson (voiced by Scott Menville), Abigail "Misty" Briarton (voiced by Stephanie Lemelin) and Russman (voiced by Keith Szarabajka). The map is set in an abandoned town in Washington, USA. Dr. Edward Richtofen (voiced by Nolan North), the antagonist of Zombies from the previous game, returns as the announcer. There are 4 sections to play on "Green Run". They Are: Bus Depot, Town, and Farm; You also get To play in Diner if you buy the Revolution DLC pack. There are also modes that you can play in the sections. For Farm they are Grief and Survival, for Town they are Grief and Survival, for Diner it is Turned, and for Bus Depot They are Survival and Tranzit.
The first downloadable map, Nuketown Zombies, is a Zombies rendition of the multiplayer map featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops. It is set in a nuclear testing ground in Nevada, USA, and features unnamed CIA and CDC agents fighting against zombies.
The first DLC pack, Revolution, featured the Zombies map," Great Leap Forward". It follows the four characters from the Tranzit map. The map takes place in three destroyed high-rise skyscrapers in Shanghai, China. There is one section to play in "Great Leap Forward". The Section is called Skyscraper and the mode in Skyscraper is Die Rise. Also, there was an add-on on to the previous map "Green Run" where you could play a new section of the map that was only playable on the Tranzit mode. The section is called Diner and is the only section to not have Survival as a playable mode. Instead Diner is the only map that can play the game mode Turned, a new mode where play as the zombie and you must kill the lone human player so that you will span as a human and will have to fend off the undead players.
The second DLC pack, Uprising, featured a brand new Zombies map called "Alcatraz Island". The map is set in the infamous Alcatraz Prison in the year 1933, and features 4 new characters: Albert "The Weasel" Arlington (voiced by Joe Pantoliano), Billy Handsome (voiced by Ray Liotta), Michael "Finn" O'Leary (voiced by Michael Madsen) and Salvatore "Sal" DeLuca (voiced by Chazz Palminteri), who plan to escape the island only to run into the Zombie outbreak. Mob of the Dead is also the first Zombies map possible to "complete", rather than fighting through the waves until being overwhelmed. An Easter Egg hidden in the Map reveals a story twist that the gangsters are simply stuck in a repeating cycle in Alacatraz, following a betrayal by The Weasel during their escape attempt. Successful completion of the Easter Egg breaks the cycle, allowing Weasel to kill the other 3 players, or the other way around. Either of these outcomes ends the game, with a message reading "The Cycle Continues"/"The Cycle Is Broken", respectively. There are two sections to play on "Alcatraz Island". They are Sunset Strip and Cellblock. The mode on Cellblock is Grief and the mode on Sunset Strip is Mob of the Dead.
The third DLC pack, Vengeance, features the Zombies map "Resolution 1295", which is set in an underground Western town. The four Tranzit characters return, along with a brand new character known as "Leroy" who may or may not aid them in the fight against the Zombies. The map also marks the debut of the Zombies weapons the Paralyzer and the Ray Gun Mark II the latter of which is made available on all Zombies map of Black Ops II. The map has two sections: Processing and Borough. Buried is the main story mode played on Processing, and Grief and Turned modes are available on Borough.