Black Ops 2: Nine Things Treyarch is Doing Differently

Black Ops 2: This is what's new

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has just been announced and with that announcement, its developers at Treyarch are laying to rest player speculation with some very hard facts about their upcoming game which is slated to see release on November 13 for the PlayStation 3, PC, and Xbox 360.

Players step into the roles of both Alex Mason, the protagonist of the first Black Ops title, as well as his son, David Mason, who in the year 2025 is assigned to protect the president.

Here's nine things you'll need to know about Black Ops 2.

9. Equality in the military

Black Ops 2 isn't just another dudebro manshooter. Part of the game is set in the future, and half the serving members of the military are women who serve in the front lines, the same as men.

Furthermore, the US President that Alex Mason is assigned to protect is a woman.

8. Overhauled multiplayer

The multiplayer is being entirely revamped as an all new experience, with staples like killstreaks and create-a-class seeing complete overhauls. Treyarch is paying a lot of attention to the professional gaming community to ensure that the new modes are competitive on a much deeper level.

7. Intelligent fiction

The story is being penned David Goyer, who wrote the three most recent Batman movies by Christopher Nolan. The story revolves around a villain named Raul Martinez who plots to turn the Chinese and US governments against each other by hacking into their unmanned weapons.

6. In-mission choice events

You will be given choices on how to execute certain missions, with choices as simple as opting to play the role of a sniper to provide cover fire for your allies, or rappelling down with your team to conduct a frontal assault.

5. Branching storylines and multiple endings

In Call of Duty games, the entire campaign structure has typically been entirely linear. Black Ops 2 will introduce branching storylines and choices through strike force levels, which allow you to choose the missions you want to go on.

You can get mission success or failure that actually plays into the story. If you fail, instead of getting a game over screen, the story goes on with a different branch. The mission carries forward with different branching stories depending on which missions you choose, as well as their outcomes.

4. Strike Force missions

Strike force missions are sandboxes with a variety of objectives and you can take over different members of your squad. You can play the game in overwatch mode and take tactical control of the battlefield—playing it from an elevated perspective as if it were an RTS game. Or you can choose to take on the role of a drone, or even an aircraft and fly around the battlefield.

3. Two time periods

The game spans over two time periods, with part of the game being set at the height of the first Cold War in the 1980s, and the second cold war, which takes place in the future. You will play through the eyes of Alex Mason and see how the game's main villain was created during the 1980s and come to understand his motivations.

Sgt. Frank Woods will retell Mason's story to Alex Mason's son (the new protagonist) through flashbacks, allowing the story to move back and forth in time.

2. Zombies

Zombies are back, and the mode is better than ever. In addition to the traditional wave-based mode, Black Ops 2 will also offer a variety of additional modes involving zombies. "Zombies is its own game," says Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia.

1. Futuristic setting

It's Call of Duty in the future. Treyarch consulted with futurist Peter W. Singer and retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North to set up the future history conflict and the advancements in technology that we can expect to see in 2025, with dramatic advances in robotics and drones. Rare earth materials are the new oil, and the plot of the game uses rare earth in its fiction.

It's not science fiction—it's science fact with a lot of geopolitical research put into it.