Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 innovated on every front, and as a result, it became one of the most beloved games in the history of the franchise. Alongside the Pick 10 system, multiplayer had stellar maps like Hijacked and scorestreaks like the Swarm. It also introduced the series’ first ranked mode with League Play. Zombies brought a persistent perk system, ranks, and the flawed but ambitious TranZit, with some of the best maps ever released coming in the DLC season. Lastly, the campaign featured choices, multiple endings, and two protagonists from two eras of warfare. Throughout all these modes, the weapons served as a key strength.
Yesterday was the 10-year anniversary of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, with Treyarch’s title being celebrated by fans across the internet. While the iconic shooter is tougher to play nowadays than it was on November 12, 2012, as there is a sizable amount of hackers and the servers in Zombies are much less populated than they used to be, many continue to look back on the game fondly and dream of a remaster. In the meantime, it is worth celebrating the game’s approach to weapons to highlight just how balanced and varied the guns were.
Weapon Balance in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Multiplayer
With Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 being the first entry to really push League Play, it makes sense that Treyarch paid particularly close attention to weapon balance. Nearly every gun in the game was viable because of this, with few of them being truly broken. Players that wanted a balanced SMG could pick up the MSMC, while the Skorpion EVO’s absurd fire rate meant it was a menace up close. The M8A1 greatly rewarded accurate players, and the AN-94 is one of the strongest all-around guns in the history of the series. Shotguns and Pistols were viable, too, with the KSG and KAP-40 being unforgettable.
While all of these guns were popular, there were a few broken weapons at points in the game’s life cycle. However, instead of Treyarch letting these guns dominate forever like what happened with most of the broken weapons in the original Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it issued out patches and made adjustments. For instance, the FAL OSW was removed from League Play since it was unfair with custom triggers, and the DSR 50 was changed so that players could no longer quick scope easily. Though the latter change resulted in death threats for Treyarch’s David Vonderhaar, it led to a more enjoyable game for most players, showing that Treyarch was determined to keep things fun.
Obviously, no game is perfect, as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 fans will surely remember how the LSAT and Target Finder combo dominated lobbies, with Nuketown in particular being hard to play because of it. The SMR was also incredibly weak, being one of the only guns that was borderline unusable if players wanted to have a good match. Still, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 offers some of the most fair and balanced multiplayer the series has ever seen, with players able to thrive with a large variety of guns even though they look and feel so different from each other.
A Mix of New and Old Guns in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s Campaign
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s ambitious campaign not only offered a tremendous villain in Raul Menendez, but switching between two timelines meant Treyarch needed to include two completely different arsenals in the singleplayer mode. It did just that, with players able to enjoy some Black Ops favorites like the Galil (which was renamed to the Grav) in Alex Mason’s campaign. David Mason’s story featured all the futuristic weapons players would use in multiplayer, something that made it feel like players were truly seeing two different points in time.
The decision to feature two eras of warfare was a bold one, and it is something that the series has not explored since the second Black Ops game. Crafting two very different gun lineups and settings surely would have taken a lot of work on Treyarch’s end, requiring a tremendous amount of resources in the process. It ultimately made for a story mode with excellent gameplay variety, and it is yet another area where the game’s guns deserved some praise.
Map-Specific Weapons For Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Zombies
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Zombies is another area where guns were used to add personality. While there were standout Wonder Weapons like the Blundergat and the staves from Origins, what made each map special was the addition of unique guns for certain maps. Some of these weapons fit the aesthetic, and other times they simply made the mystery box and wallbuys for the various maps feel a bit more exciting.
Examples of this are spread all throughout the DLC season, with Nuketown being the only map to feature the M27, for example. The LSAT was an excellent wallbuy for Buried, as many surely remember the tough jump required to reach it, and the AK-47 was awesome to see within Mob of the Dead. Origins featured several exclusive guns, with the SCAR-H, Skorpion EVO, and KSG all able to be acquired. However, the best thing about Black Ops 2 Zombies’ weapons was the exclusive guns that suited the aesthetic of certain maps.
Buried’s Remington New Model Army was an awesome revolver that fit the old west theme of the map, while the Uzi and M1927 helped capture the mobster theme of Mob of the Dead. Origins once again thrived in this area, as players did not only get to play with the returning StG, but the massive MGO8-15 LMG and Mauser C96 that suited the steampunk World War 1 setting.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Shows How Important Weapons Are For The Series
Regardless of which mode players loved most, the weapons always delivered and served as a defining feature. This is why there was so much hype when the Peacekeeper became the series’ first DLC gun, or excitement to spin every map’s Mystery Box. Wherever they looked in Black Ops 2, gamers found guns that were fun and fair to use, and the game should always be something Call of Duty developers look to when crafting an arsenal of weapons.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is available now on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.