“Your life will be consumed by absolute loss.  Then, and only then, will you understand what you have done to me.” – Raul Menendez, leader of Cordis Die

I have finally completed the campaign of Black Ops II.  Now, personally, though I do like CoD, I’ve always been more of a Halo guy myself.  And yet, despite my partiality towards Halo, I can easily assert that Black Ops II has perhaps the best story of all the CoD games- or, at least, one as good as the first Black Ops.

The stories for both the Black Ops games were written by renowned writer David S. Goyer; needless to say, both games have great, original stories.  The first Black Ops had linear, normal gameplay with a plot twist big enough to rival the twist of the most intricate soft pretzel.  So the developers thought “how do we outdo a story that had what is without a doubt one of the best plot twists ever?”

The answer is to have the player unknowingly choose the plot twist.

Black Ops II is the first game to feature an interactive story; that is, one in which the outcome is affected by player choice.  This game features multiple plotlines; each time the player goes through the campaign, he must select one plotline to follow.  Each plotline has multiple key moments at which the player must make a decision of vital importance; this decision drastically impacts not only the ending, but also the details of the plotline as it progresses.

So, yeah, Black Ops II is awesome.

Not only does this Mass-Effect-like gameplay generate an extremely high replay value, but each plotline has a few really good plot-twists that blow the player’s mind (some of the plot-twists are the same regardless of the plotline, and some differ).  In addition, the solid acting hypes up the emotion and really pulls the player into each situation.  Combine that with likable heroes and perhaps one of the coolest villains in entertainment history, and you get an experience that will leave you stunned with awesomeness.

Black Ops II seriously went out of CoD’s comfort zone and introduced many new aspects to the franchise.  This divergence clearly paid off, as the story is one of epic proportions and the other modes have unique twists also.  Thus, even though I’m primarily a Halo fan, CoD: Black Ops II is a must buy for any gamer who loves good stories, first-person shooters, cool villains, and Nuketown 2025.

Kudos to Treyarch for taking such risks.  Their risks resulted in a masterpiece.