David Vonderhaar, Treyarch game designer, recently stated the obvious about Black Ops 2, but since so many people balk at the prices of video games these days, we thought we’d reiterate. “You get into the multiplayer and there’s a huge stretch, from combat training for the new player all the way up to league play,” Vonderhaar stated. “There’s all sorts of stuff in between. And Zombies is now almost a game by itself. There’s more value here than you’re going to find anywhere else. I think we’re doing all the right things to ensure that there’s a huge range of experience. I think it has immense value for a game.”
Why do video games cost so much these days? Usually game designers point toward the technology as the main constraint. Games are simply so advanced now with graphics and performance that they cost a lot to develop. That’s not to say that they don’t pull in a healthy bottom line, but can we really fault them for that? Maybe we could if they were offering less, but Treyarch has gone above and beyond the call of duty (yes, pun very intended) to try and provide gamers with something which is actually worth the $60.00 Activision is charging.
Black Ops 2 seeks to satisfy every type of FPS gamer who could possibly pick it up. If you love single-player campaigns but in the past have been annoyed at how short they typically are, you have a single-player mode with branching storylines which gives you hours more single-player game time than you’d usually experience. If multiplayer is your thing, you’ll find a ton of game modes and hugely enhanced game mechanics offering more balanced game play than past COD titles. And now the zombies mode (which is actually three modes) is like another separate, huge component. TranZit is practically a whole other game. You could feasibly charge a lot more for it by simply making it a separate Activision title, but instead it’s simply thrown into the Black Ops 2 package. Since Black Ops 2 doesn’t cost any more than some of its predecessors, this is actually very generous.
From the sound of things, Black Ops 2 could probably keep most gamers entertained forever. While we still haven’t heard any news of Modern Warfare 4, odds are that most of us will still be exploring the features of Black Ops 2 when the next COD game comes out in another year!