Black Ops II goes near-future and pulls it off with a sharply written 2025 and story choices that change the ending. Multiplayer remains one of the most played on 360 and Zombies steps up across the board.
First-person shooter by Treyarch and Activision, November 2012. Soldier David Mason navigates a near future to dismantle a world-threatening weapon. Branching narrative campaign, competitive League Play multiplayer and enriched Zombie mode with its own story. One of the franchise's most narratively ambitious entries.
Call of Duty - Black Ops II review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
Treyarch renders the robotic warfare of 2025 at eye level: armored quadrupeds, drone swarms and a Los Angeles gridded with elevated highways, every machine given a silhouette you can read in one second of combat. Opposite that, the eighties missions are fought on horseback in the Afghan mountains, and this equipment gap tells the story better than any briefing.
The opening theme is by Trent Reznor, industrial guitar and a muffled pulse that immediately set a darker tone than the rest of the series. Jack Wall extends that material across the campaign, weaving military brass with synthetic textures, while the Zombies mode gets its own credit songs, including a track written by Avenged Sevenfold.
Raul Menendez is written as the hero of his own story: the game shows the tragedy that shaped him and lets his charisma win over crowds and player alike. Around him, the Strike Force missions accept defeat instead of punishing it, a failure in the field being written into what follows. Few shooters have given their consequences this much weight.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
The sequel introduces choices that shape the campaign and a more tactical futuristic multiplayer, without losing any of its legendary snappiness. The Zombies mode grows further, for frenzied co-op evenings. Customising your classes and climbing the ranks stays fiercely addictive. Snappy, rich and superbly made, a multiplayer FPS that renews the formula with flair.
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Its branching campaign and Strike Force missions open the show, but the hook is the futuristic multiplayer and its "Pick 10" class system: ten points to distribute freely across weapons, perks and attachments, for endless customization paired with ranked League Play. Zombies grows with TranZit and the Grief mode, players versus players versus the horde. The AI stays repetitive, but the freedom to build pulls you in without pause.
European (PAL) edition of Black Ops II, a Treyarch entry that thrust Call of Duty into the near future and dared narrative branches, while cementing the multiplayer ritual and Zombies mode. Printed in enormous quantities in Europe, its collecting interest is low and rests on this status as a brand milestone rather than scarcity. A very affordable piece for fans of brisk shooting and franchise history.
Better with friends
Co-op Zombies is enriched here by Grief mode, where two teams of players clash mid-horde without being able to shoot each other, and by the ambitious TranZit linking its zones by bus. The competitive side gains ranked League Play, structuring the climb through divisions. The era's official servers are no longer guaranteed, but the thrill of sabotaging your rivals while surviving the undead remains a treat among friends.
Is Call of Duty - Black Ops II still worth playing in 2026?
Released in 2012 on Xbox 360, Treyarch's Black Ops II dares a branching campaign structure, with choices that alter the flow and the ending, a rare boldness for the series. The story, split between a 1980s past and a near future of drones and robotic weapons, gains in ambition. The sharpened multiplayer and the enriched Zombies mode extend the experience by dozens of hours. The shutdown of the official servers limits the online side. But the branching solo and local Zombies keep real appeal. For fans of military shooters and consequence driven campaigns, this entry stays memorable today.
