Finally, after months of hearing nothing but news on the single-player campaign and the storyline behind Black Ops 2, we’ve finally been given a glimpse of the real meat of the game—the multiplayer mode. The new multiplayer trailer gives us a glimpse of the weapons we’ll have to play with when the next Call of Duty game is released on November 13th, along with the exciting killstreaks and attachments that will enhance our destructive power.
We’re introduced to several new weapons in the trailer. The first looks like some kind of electrical grenade. We see electric pathways flowing through the body of a nearby fighter, disabling him when the device goes off. During this moment he is immobilized and can be easily shot down. Then we get a preview of that gun that can shoot through walls—and see through them as well. It turns out you don’t get a clear view of the enemy soldier or the terrain behind the wall. Instead, what you see is still the concrete wall you’re facing, but you get a glimpse of ghost-like outlines which show you where the enemy soldier is behind the wall. The attachment also helps us to spot enemies through smoke. After that we see a turret which seems to slow down the enemies beyond its path. From behind the turret it is easy to kill them.
We get another look at the flying robotic drones that we’ve seen in the single-player campaign, and it turns out they’ll be part of the multiplayer mode as well. They are controllable, and you can get a bird’s-eye view of the terrain and your enemies when you are flying one. They’re also pretty easy to shoot down from the looks of things—assuming you notice one before it blows you away, of course. Along with the drones, there are also cool ground-controlled drones like the A.G.R. The A.G.R. utilizes machine guns and rockets and can be player controlled, just like the flying drones. While we got to see some exciting new weapons and futuristic technology in the trailer, we also saw a lot of our favorite weapons come back including sniper rifles and other familiar guns.
What’s really attention-grabbing is arguably the end of the trailer. After the trailer appears to be over, there’s a little extra footage that seems to play out like a sports match replay with live commentary. This is pretty surprising, but no one is sure what it means at this point since neither Activision or Treyarch have commented on it. It may just be a cool demo playing off of the current popularity of virtual sports simulator games, or it may be a preview of some kind of new competitive gameplay feature.
Fans and critics are plenty excited about the new trailer, and once you check it out, we’re sure you will be, too. Hopefully this is just the first of many glimpses we’ll receive before the game is released in November. There’s a lot of great stuff in store, and it looks like this game is going to deliver on its promise to unite the future with the past. The futuristic technology doesn’t take Black Ops 2 far outside the sphere of our past experiences—instead it seems a way to add a few exciting new twists to a tried and true formula. This will enliven the experience and make Call of Duty fresh again, while still delivering the familiar combat action fans love.