Call of Duty: Black Ops II

"THE FUTURE IS BLACK."

- Official tag line "They'll always need men like us. Those who are willing to do... what others cannot."

- Frank Woods in the Reveal Trailer Call of Duty: Black Ops II, stylized as CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II, and also abbreviated as COD: BO2, or simply BO2, is an upcoming first-person shooter developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. This is the ninth main installment for the Call of Duty franchise, set for release on November 13, 2012. It is the sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops and was announced on May 1, 2012, during the NBA basketball game. It is the first game made by Treyarch to be set in the future, and also the first direct sequel produced for the series by the studio.

The link to the Call of Duty: Black Ops II website was also granted access to the public to coincide with the world reveal during the NBA basketball playoffs.

Story
Taking place in both the 1980s and 2025, the main plot of the story includes drones and electronic weapons that are built to keep populations safe are hacked and turned against their own countries when the main antagonist, Raul Menendez, steals the "keys", sparking a "Second Cold War" mainly in Los Angeles. The People's Republic of China has invaded Los Angeles due to a global struggle involving rare earth minerals from a cyberattack that tear apart the Chinese Stock Exchange. Alex Mason returns in the 1980's section fighting through proxy wars for the U.S. An SOG squad consisting of Harper and David Mason, son of returning character, Alex Mason, together with Anderson evacuate the President of the U.S. and the French President out of Los Angeles while experiencing first-hand, the hostilities of their own drones paired together with Menendez's men. They must combat the newly advanced technologies, robotics and unmanned armies such as CLAWS and Tiltjet Planes with the use of X-47 Pegasuses, F/A-38s and Quadrotors leading the Presidents to safety at the Bonaventure Hotel.

Meanwhile, Frank Woods returns and is inside of a secret place called The Vault. It turns out that he had survived his near-lethal encounter with Lev Kravchenko, not surprised, almost anticipated Raul's plan and even gets to meet him when Raul breaks in to personally give him a locket of unknown value. Woods narrates the 2025 section of the game.

Jason Hudson comes back in a unknown faction but will take part of the events in Angola in 1986.

Alex Mason, Jason Hudson and Grigori Weaver are continued to be spied and hunted down by Operation Charybdis. It is unconfirmed if Weaver will take part in the story.

Viktor Reznov will return in th 1980's section of the game. It has been hinted that the friendship between him and Alex Mason, started in Black Ops, will be continued in Black Ops II.

Gameplay
Departing from the notorious linear campaign style of past Call of Duty games, Treyarch has decided to take a non-linear and sandbox approach to Call of Duty: Black Ops II, (meaning no back-to-back missions with the same outcome every time replayed) instead the old linear style has been dropped in favor of "a more open ended campaign that relies heavily on player choice."

There will be significant points within the single-player campaign where the player is essentially given control over the course the game will take. It won't be a simple "A, B or C" choice either, it will be more expansive than that, for example, not protecting a certain character won't lead to a mission failure, instead it will change the course the game will take.

To help with the departure from a linear campaign are a set of special missions dubbed Strike Force. These missions are sandbox, and play similarly to a Real Time Strategy game. The player can assume the role of a commander, command ground forces, and on top of this, there will be the ability to go back to the traditional first-person and take part in the action yourself. The player gets to have a chance of taking control of many different warfare technology such as unmanned vehicles, jets and robotic automoblies. If the player dies in a Strike Force mission, the campaign will go on, keeping the record of deaths rather loading in the last saved checkpoint. The missions will go on to change the story, even change Menendez's plans. By the time the cold war ends the player will see that they have made the results different.

United States of America

 * Los Angeles, California
 * "The Vault"

Zombies
"If you like Zombies, you're gonna be really happy with what we're doing with Black Ops II. It's our biggest most ambitious Zombies effort—ever."

- Mark Lamia, Studio Head of Treyarch, confirming Zombies.

The Zombies mode from Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops is set to return in Black Ops II  with numerous additions and changes, such as it running on the game's multiplayer engine rather than a modified single-player engine which lets it support twice as many zombies and twice as many players as before and the inclusion of Theater Mode. It was confirmed that zombies will be recieving their own campaign. Rather than a 4-player co-op, the game has set to put in an 8-player co-op. While specific gameplay and story-related elements have yet to be announced, a promotional poster for the game depicts an unknown woman holding the head of a zombie, as well as a and a sword, which is hanging on her right leg.

Videos
Call of Duty Black Ops 2|Debut Trailer Villain Trailer - Official Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Trailer|Villain Trailer Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Exclusive Trailer E3 2012|E3 Trailer Treyarch Behind the Scenes|Behind the Scenes Behind the Scenes with Trent Reznor & David S. Goyer - Official Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Video|Black Ops II Interview with Trent Reznor & David S. Goyer Multiplayer Reveal Trailer - Official Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Video|Multiplayer Reveal Trailer

Trivia

 * This is the first game in the Call of Duty franchise that contains mountable horses for transport.
 * This is the first Call of Duty that Treyarch has produced and set in the future.
 * The game box cover has the character sitting in the exact position as the character on the first Black Ops game box cover, with both characters resting their arms on their knees in the same spots, the only difference being that the right arm is pointed upwards.
 * This is the second Call of Duty game to feature Hitmarkers in campaign mode, the first being Call of Duty: Road to Victory.
 * It is the third game in the series to feature hitmarkers in a gamemode outside of multiplayer. The first is Road to Victory and the second is Modern Warfare 3.
 * A prequel available only on the PS VITA has been announced entitled Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified.
 * During the YouTube section of the Villain Trailer, it says "Sign in or register" as if an account wasn't logged in, but the features you need an account for are there (Video Manager, Channel Settings, etc.). This is probably an overlook by the developers.
 * In the Multiplayer reveal trailer, all players reuse the third person sprinting animation from Modern Warfare 3. However, this can be a placeholder.
 * Some of the weapons in the multiplayer reveal trailer share the same firing sounds from weapons in Black Ops. These are most likely placeholders. These weapons include the Commando, Skorpion, SPAS-12, Strela-3, and Python.
 * Some features from Black Ops will be returning, like Dolphin Diving, Face Paints, Emblem Customization, and Custom Red Dot sights as seen in the multiplayer trailer. Also one can see the 15 Prestige icon next to an enemy's name. This is most likely a placeholder.
 * It seems Treyarch has changed the writing hand from left to right, in other words, the Combat Knife uses the right hand instead of the left and the Shock Charge is thrown like a Throwing Knife but in the right hand as well.