Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is official, real, announced, and it's even got a new trailer (above). So why does it all feel like more of the same?
Sequelizing the highest grossing game of all time is a no brainer, but how do you create enough "new" to power all those sales figures over again? Acitivision and Treyarch have decided to take the first-person franchise to the near future, giving players a new view on the battlefield and a few new toys to play with too.
So why are there horses? And why do I feel like I sum up the entire game's plot before I've seen more than even 3 minutes of it?
Seriously, check this out: Black Ops II will be about a terrorist group that takes control of the drones and tech first-world nations have become dependent on. That's when a group of elite soldiers will utilize the older methods of war to combat the terrorists on their own turf.
Things will blow up. Guns will be fired. You'll control a whole bunch of vehicles, including a horse. Black Ops II will use the same engine. There will be multiplayer. What else do you need to know?
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the first title in the line of succession to actually see a little slowdown in the marketplace. Has fatigue set in all of a sudden? Are gamers ready to start skipping Activision's juggernaut once a year?
Maybe the competition has finally gotten the attention of consumers. Maybe things have grown far too predictable in the first-person shooter space. Maybe Black Ops II will continue the formulaic path set by MW3, Black Ops, MW2, World at War, and MW set before it.
Is it cynicism that drives us to joke about the eventual "innovation" a return to the World War II setting will bring? Whether you've been following the story thus far or not, is there a point to a single-player mode in Call of Duty anymore?
These questions and more will be answered after Call of Duty: Black Ops II is released on November 13th, 2012… or at least in the comments below.
