The Future Is Drones: Black Ops 2's Multiplayer Reveal
After months of speculation and feverish, sweat-stained worry, Activision's finally seen fit to set the world's mind at ease. Turns out, the new Call of Duty game will have multiplayer after all. That's right: multiple players. And I think I might have spotted a gun or two in there as well. Activision won't confirm or deny that one just yet, though, so Black Ops 2 still has a very good chance of being a first-person slap-fighter. Right then. That's the part where I spew vitriol about the obtuseness of big-budget videogame ad campaigns out of the way. So yes, here's Black Ops 2's first multiplayer trailer. It has some pretty neat-looking gadgets, including some kind of microwave beam and, of course, so many drones that you'll keep thinking the word "drones," and eventually it'll lose all meaning to you. Drones drones drones drones drones.
Hm, that's a lot of shiny new toys. Pulses that let you see through walls, the aforementioned microwave (?) emitter, new grenade types, drones that can punch right through riot shields, other drones that fly solo and rain down death from slightly above, and other other drones numerous enough to blot out the sun and herald the beginning of a dark age in which wars are won based on which side is nursing the fewest stubbed toes.
It does look admirably different, though. Well, at least, for a Call of Duty game. I'm not quitting my job to make an epic, months-long journey between 67 major retailers to make sure I get every pre-order item in anticipation or anything, but these items do look to vary things up a fair bit. Granted, I see "balancing nightmare" written all over a few of them - which is made all the more disconcerting by the heavily implied e-sports overtone of the shoutcasting bit at the end. We'll see, though. At this point, I'm mostly grateful that Treyarch's at least doing something new.