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Preview: A deeper look at multiplayer in Black Ops II

Hamza CTZ Aziz, Director of Communications
10:00 AM on 09.27.2012
Preview: A deeper look at multiplayer in Black Ops II photo


So we gave you a pretty extended detail look at Black Ops II's multiplayer not too long ago. It was a lot to take in, but guess what? There's more. So much more. In fact, Treyarch had us out for another visit just to see the rest of the multiplayer content.

There's going to be a ton of game modes, for the hardcore players to the more casual ones. Most importantly, Treyarch is looking to capture the segment of people who don't touch multiplayer at all by giving "ways for players to play who are intimidated, or maybe uninitiated," game design director David Vonderhaar told us.

"Call of Duty is a very popular online game. But we know for a fact that there are still people that don't play multiplayer. I want them. I want them to come play, and I want to do stuff to make sure that happens."

Call of Duty: Black Ops II (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U)
Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Release: November 13, 2012

First, let's focus on the core traditional experience. You can expect these game modes: Team Deathmatch, Free-for-all, Domination, Demolition, Kill Confirmed, Hardpoint, Headquarters, Capture the Flag, and Search & Destroy.

Hardpoint is the newest mode to be introduced into Call of Duty, and it's inspired by King of the Hill modes. It's a super fast gametype that will see players capturing a location for as long as possible before the location moves to a new area of the map.

Then there's Multi-team, which is supported in Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, and Hardpoint. Public matchmaking-wise, there will be a max of three teams of three, or three teams of four. Otherwise, you can do up to six teams on the custom games side.

Something I loved about the original Black Ops that I sunk more hours into than anything else from the game was Wager Matches. They're back with a new name: Party Games. You can expect Gun Game, One in the Chamber, Sharpshooter, and Sticks and Stones to return.

Treyarch is working on more gametypes for Party Games, and they're all designed just for players to have fun with. These modes blow up the traditional game rules, toss the create-a-class stuff to the side, and bend the score-streak system to maximize player enjoyment. You're still earning experience, leveling up your weapons and rank, and there is public matchmaking as well.

And yes, this means the crossbow and ballistic knife are back. The crossbow can be fitted with attachments like the reflex, ACOG, zoom, and dual-band scopes now. You can even fit it to fire three bolts at once.

Now these are modes best suited for the experienced players, so what about the players that are too intimated like David was talking about? That's where Combat Training comes in, broken up into three aspects, all of which are still tied into the core experience.

First there's Bootcamp, a mode where two teams will face off against each other in Team Deathmatch, with each team made up of three human players and three AI bots. You can rank up, and earn full experience points anywhere between levels one and ten. After you've reached level 11 you can no longer access Bootcamp.

Then there's Objective, where you can play if you're past level 10, but you only get half the experience points you normally would. Otherwise it's the same setup as Bootcamp with the human/bot team mix, just set on objective game modes like Capture the Flag.

Lastly there's Bot Stomp, where a team of six human players will be going up against a team of six AI bot players. You earn no experience points at all, and it really serves to let players experience the high-end game without the typical stress you'd get in a real match. It's a great way to practice on a Team Deathmatch and Objective-type modes. Plus, as David put it, "bots do not yell at you if you don't perform well. They don't get upset, and they're not racists."

If none of these public-style matches appeal to you, don't worry, custom games are back in a big way. "Quite honestly, custom games have haunted me since we put them in Black Ops," David told us. "They've haunted me because I've always wanted to -- and we finally did -- make sure every game mode can be customized in some really meaningful ways."

You can build the default classes, add in bots, restrict content, starts at 150% health -- everything can be changed in whatever crazy way you want. You can even alter the pick-10 system, limiting it down to just pick-3, or even going to the maximum number of items a player can carry with pick-17.

There's lots of ways to play, but you players looking to stick with just the public, official gametypes can finally rest easy as Treyarch detailed how Prestige will work. There's 55 levels, and ten levels of Prestige. Typically when you've hit the max level and been given the choice to Prestige, all your stats get reset.

Now when you level up to a Prestige opportunity, everything gets reset except for your weapon experience points, and your challenge progress. So now you can pick up your weapon progress from where you last left off and continue to raise its stats.

Additionally, you'll get a Prestige-specific unlock token, which you can use to unlock an item permanently so you don't need to grind to reacquire something you really like again, have extra create-a-class slots (up to five more), reset all your stats to start fresh, or get a refund of all your standard unlock tokens.

Each time you level up, you are given an unlock token that you can use to unlock a gun, or items for your custom class. With the refund option, you could be at level 24, decide you hate your entire setup, and use refund to get all 24 tokens back to unlock different content instead.

So what happens when you hit the max level of Prestige? You become a Prestige Master, and it opens up all the content. So there's a real solid reason to Prestige beyond simply bragging rights.

For those of you who do enjoy bragging like crazy, that's where Challenges come in. There are over 1,000 Challenges to do, and completing them gives you XP bonuses and a ton of cosmetic unlocks. 

Now you can get camouflage for every single weapon -- even knifes, shields, and rocket launchers. There's more camo options too, even stuff that out-blings the gold skin. There's a bunch of optic choices now, from standard stuff to funny choices, such as a curly mustache reticule called "The Steve," based on the mustache of the lighting director for the game. There's even a cool-looking Eotech zombie reticule, which you can apply to the actual Eotech scope featured in the game.

And what's Black Ops without the Playercard customization? The emblem editor is even more robust, featuring 32 layers and tools that let you copy, paste, flip, move, rotate, and scale objects. There's an RGB color mixer, transparency options, over 150 backgrounds, and over 150 shapes to to use too. And I know what you're thinking, but know that you can disable user-created content if you'd rather not be subjugated to all the penises and other lewd content.

Still with me? Good, because there's one last thing to talk about and that's Theater mode. Now, anyone can make a movie with just the push of one button with Highlight Reel. This feature will automatically create an edited film from the best moments of your last match. Once the reel is completed, you can go in to edit it or just upload it online immediately.

Your films can also use up to 20 clips now, up from 10 in the last game. Plus, you can merge your clip of 20 down to one, then add in more clips. You can merge a number of clips together, which allows you to make even better-quality videos now. Another new feature is the ability to attach your camera to an object and follow its path. So you can place the camera onto something like the Dragonfire -- or even a missile flying towards a target -- for better camera angles.

There's going to be a lot of social features as well. You can bookmark your last match with the press of a button to easily pull up the video footage without having to dig it up, there is a community section where you can see videos from the entire community or just your friends, and you'll have the option to up- or downvote videos.

Needless to say, there's absolutely a ton of content in the Black Ops II package. You'd need to have a screw loose not to see just how much Treyarch is putting into the game. They've completely overhauled the multiplayer features, and that's just one part of it. You have the single-player that will change based on your actions, the whole livestreaming initiative, and the Zombies mode, which very well could have been its own separate game. This is a real sequel in every conceivable way.


Preview: A deeper look at multiplayer in Black Ops II photo
Preview: A deeper look at multiplayer in Black Ops II photo
Preview: A deeper look at multiplayer in Black Ops II photo
Preview: A deeper look at multiplayer in Black Ops II photo




Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)


Oo.

Still playing Zombies and campaign before I touch the multiplayer, but it's looking much better.
I have no interest in the military side of the game whatsoever.

That said, zombies grief mode sounds far too good to miss out on. 2 teams surviving against the zombies, last team standing wins? Can't shoot the other team, but can make it more difficult? Now that's my kind of game.

Probably not worth the cash just for that, but when I see it a bit cheaper, oh hells yes.
I'm impressed with how much extra content they are adding this time, looks good.
I have to admit they have me intrigued with attempts to win over the uninitiated with this one. I've only relatively recently opened my heart and mind to multiplayer, and I have friends that would like me to play the next COD with them, but I have to admit it is a bit intimidating to go into a game like that where most of the players have been playing it for years across several games. I don't really care about being called names or whatever if I suck, but I don't like the idea of having to be carried while I learn. Pride, I suppose.
so is the support streaks system totally gone from the game? I actually really liked that system in MW3... because, yeah, I die a lot.

There's sure a lot to absorb about this new game though! So many changes!
@Elsa

Support is gone but the points for killstreaks are now completely score-streaks. Kills, assists, captures, ect are all counted towards your score-streaks

MW3 tried to implement this with points counting as kills, but it only affected certain things like taking down planes/sentries or caputring points. Any assist points were not accounted, only when you have Hardline PRO, and that only counts 2 assists as 1 kill, doesn't incorporate the actual number.

Now in BOP you can physically be a support unit, with more stun charges or grenades, as assists are just a smaller score to your streaks, but the points will still count. You can actually play as a squad without being pissed at your kills being stolen (to a degree).


I will miss the support killstreaks though, I really enjoyed just rocking Counter spy plane/ballistic vests with hardline pro while using a shotgun. Good times when I didn't care about dying. The EMP was also one of my favorite point streak, but that's coming back in Black ops 2.
@Jack... but the primary difference was that support streak points were retained on death... score-streaks re-set on death don't they?
@molamolacolacake

Yeah, I'm sort of a CoD sophomore now (playing Black Ops for over a year) and the best advice I can give to a newbie is to learn the maps. Always stick to the perimeter of the map so that you only have to worry about people coming in from front and behind and to one side, and learn to make use of effective cover when in gunfights if you can. Treyarch makes pretty good maps so if you learn the maps you've learned the most important thing in the game and the rest will attend to itself with some time and practice.

Black Ops' biggest problem was its bland and redundant gun variety, hopefully they've addressed that here, I'm eagerly looking forward to this, it's very refreshing to see a game like this release with a shitload of content when every other publisher is trying to find new and inventive ways of cutting content out and selling it to you for a fee.
It still boggles my mind just how many people play CoD but who do not play its multiplayer. Or of they do, it's locally split screen. Boggles. My. Mind.

Well to that then, Prestige Master, here I come.
I might actually pay for the Wii U version of this.
Man, I really would like to get into Call of Duty, but they just will not ever make game modes or maps that would appeal to me. I'd love for more team oriented game modes with maps developed specifically for those modes and not shoehorned with team deathmatch maps.

Call of Duty rakes in so much money every year and they have many developers all working on this series, but they still keep releasing essentially the same game every year.

The way I see it, they have an opportunity to corner the market on what the Battlefield's of today provide while also keeping fast-paced, casual team deathmatch on small maps in lockdown. Why not seize that opportunity to pull customers away from those games and have a large foothold in every part of the market? They've already been expanding their way into co-op shooters with the ever more complex zombies and spec-ops. Why stop there?
Honestly, I think I'd be more likely to play against bots if they WERE racist.
@riotcontrol

Because if you try to be good at *everything* you wind up being good at *nothing*. Honestly, as someone who has only played these games in the last year (Black Orps and Modern Warfare 2), those were both heavily team-oriented games. As in, if your team sucked you would still likely lose even if you were decent-good. When you play with at least one other person your game goes way up than if you're just by yourself hoping the randoms you play with know what the fuck they are doing.

Honestly, I can't see any foundation in either the idea that CoD doesn't cater to "team-based play enough" OR the whole "it's the same game every year" argument. First off, a sequel is SUPPOSED to be similar to the game before it. The game before it was the foundation and the sequel should only EXPAND on that. MW2 expanded on CoD4, and Black Ops was an attempt to fix all the shit that was wrong with MW2 (which is why it's a VERY different beast from MW2), and just as Black Ops 2 is trying to expand on and fix the shit that's been wrong with the series as a whole since the first Modern Warfare.

And as for the whole "Battlefield market", it's called "Ground War".
Dafuq?

This is sounding absurdly fun.... gotta love on overabundance of options.... what's the world coming to when CoD is innovating / adding things to the FPS formula, instead of pairing it all back and locking it behind DLC?

Awesomesauce....
" they still keep releasing essentially the same game every year. "

I thought people stopped coming out with horseshit like this? RiotControl clearly knows fuck all about shooters, or the 'market'.
daaaang, that's an ass-load of customization. I can't see myself getting this for anything but the Wii-U
when im playing COD i mute every mother fucker, i dont wanna talk to bitches, i just wanna play :D
This looks awesome enough to bring me back after barely touching MW3's MP.
I hope their solution for inappropriate "Gamer Tags" isn't turn them off. I should not have to turn turn them off and not see my friends tags as a "solution" to jizz, scat, and nudity.

Also, I hope the official HARDCORE modes restrict "M203 grenade/launchers" as antipersonnel. There is nothing HARDCORE about being a noob-tuber.




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