I don't think many people actually play single player here, but that's all I play. I just finished the last 2 or 3 levels in the story this morning. I don't think I've ever said "this is fucking retarded" so many times in one sitting. Even for Call of Duty, it's bad. The big, dramatic moments just fall flat because they're so stupid and unbelievable, even by COD standards.
There are a few times where you have to make a choice, and that might have an effect on the ending. I've only played it one way so far.
Spoiler:
The whole point of the game is to take out Menendez. How many fucking times does he get away? At least twice, three times if you count the flashback where Woods throws the grenade that kills his sister. Apparently Hudson was keeping him alive, and Hudson gets Mason killed. Then Menendez kills Hudson for no reason. And then it turns out Salazar sold the Americans out, and surrenders voluntarily with no explanation. What the fuck is going on here?
And the voice acting. Holy shit. It's out of time, for one thing. Even in a heated conversation there's massive delays from one character to the other. And the tone is often different. Section (why can't we just call him Mason? Why does he have to have such a stupid fucking name? It's not a secret who he is, and no one else has a callsign.) is the worst. With explosions and gunfire and danger all around, his voice never wavers. From debriefing to battle, he's exactly the same. The best is when he's talking with Admiral Briggs. Same situation, two absolutely different emotions. Just like in real life. Admiral Briggs does remind me of the guy from the Iron Eagle movies though, so he has that going for him. And he says "cocksucker" a lot. Which, when said about a man, implies that he's a homosexual. It seems odd to basically hear a character calling people fags, without there being some amount of outrage these days.
There's this British computer dork or scientist or something too, that's so goddamn annoying. Especially since it's done on purpose. Because he's foreign, he has different slang. And at every opportunity, he uses them. Need to go back to England? "I need to leggit back to England." Someone left the back door open? "Some tosser left the back door open." Bloke, wanker, bollocks, it's all there! Just like they talk in real life! HE'S ENGLISH! GET IT? Fuck!
Then there's little things. Eventually you find yourself protecting the President. And the President is a woman. Which in 2025 is probably a reasonable possibility, but it falls in the same category as the English guy. Fake realism. The other thing is some ship (battleship, aircraft carrier, I don't know) is called the USS Barack Obama. It might be a little presumptuous to think that in 13 years he'll have a ship named after him.
It's nice to see New York get spared for once, as Spoiler:
Los Angeles
takes a beating. Although it looks nothing like it does in real life. You'd think that since the whole point of attacking that city was because of the Spoiler:
opulence
it represents, that it might look more like Spoiler:
Hollywood.
You'd be wrong though. It just looks like any other generic city from the future.
And finally there's the departures from the typical COD experience we've had in the last few years. We finally get custom loadouts. And we get drones. And some of the enemies have invisible camo. If you liked Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, you'll love the new features in Black Ops 2. Because that's exactly what it feels like. With a little bit of Frontlines: Fuel of War thrown in. It's not a bad thing, it's just funny how similar it feels.
The last departure, and one that I hate, is the Strike Force missions. They're not really part of the story, but they are kind of. You get control over every unit, and your job is to hold or capture objectives, or protect VIPs. The problem is the AI is horrible and they won't help you at all. You'll have to do the whole thing yourself and hope that maybe at some crucial moment your team mates will break out of their stupor for half a second and save your life.
I'd give the story a 4-4.5/10. Of all the COD games, since COD4 when I started playing, I'd say it's the worst. Awful voice acting (except for the guy who plays Woods; he's pretty good), awful attempts at creating drama, awful plot points, awful portrayals of real life interaction. There's no real sense of any meaning to anything that's happening because it's all so ridiculous. It just isn't believable, and you spend the whole time wondering what bullshit is coming around the corner.
Thank you for not reading.
Quote
Originally Posted by DonJuan
