Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Split-Screen), 2-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local, System Link)

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: Activision Blizzard

.

Review:

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a First-Person Shooter released on PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U in 2012. This is a pretty feature-complete port of the version seen on other platforms, meaning it includes the entirety of the game’s Campaign mode, Zombies mode and Multiplayer mode… although of course as I write this in 2022, the multiplayer is going to be pretty much only via local split-screen.

Despite being a Wii U launch title, Black Ops II looks fantastic even by today’s standards. Detailed 3D environments and character models, great textures, beautiful-looking foliage, gorgeous water. If this game were re-released today on Nintendo Switch, it would be one of the best-looking games on that platform, despite being a decade old now. The game sounds great too, with fast-paced music to highlight the action, and solid voice acting for all the characters. The only real caveat I have to note here is that I did notice occasional places where the framerate skipped a little. Still, this hardly does anything to mar an otherwise superb experience.

When it comes to the gameplay, even a decade old Call of Duty game still plays beautifully. Players can opt to use the Wii U gamepad, the Pro Controller, or a Wii remote and numchuck (all of these feeling great except the Wii remote, which I found to be absolutely terrible). In addition, each of the game modes brings something great to the table.

The campaign mode takes place in the far-off future year of… um… 2025… where the United States is threatened by a man amassing a high-tech army to get revenge for America’s less-than-savory past actions, and players take multiple roles to explore the full story – both in the present and in the past. Those who didn’t play the original Call of Duty: Black Ops may feel a bit lost at some of the character dynamics here, but you’ll more or less get the gist of it. Besides, you’re here for the shooty action, right?

The campaign is largely linear, although Black Ops 2 does make it a point to indicate that your actions do have an effect on the story. This linear gameplay allows for some excellent showpiece storytelling that makes this game an absolutely fantastic adrenaline rush of a roller-coaster ride, but you definitely feel how “on-rails” everything is – if you don’t go or do what the story wants you to do at any given time, you’ll inexplicably fail even if you think you’re doing what you should. This is a minor complaint overall, but it still caused frustration here and there.

The Zombies mode is a more silly gameplay mode that plays drastically differently, and makes for both a more arcadey experience, as well as one where you’ll need to be much more careful to conserve ammunition where you can. There are a variety of different game types in Zombies mode, and while I would say none of them are quite on par with the rest of the game, they provide some nice variety nonetheless.

That leaves the multiplayer mode and… well, don’t expect to find anyone to play against online these days, but at the very least there’s some great split-screen multiplayer to be had here. In fact, this game provides multiple ways to go about playing in multiplayer. You can use standard split-screen, you can play two-player with one player taking the gamepad’s screen and the other taking the TV, and there’s even a System Link option that… I wasn’t able to test for this review, sorry.

All told, the Wii U version of Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a fantastic First-Person Shooter that manages to stand tall next to other versions of the game. The lack of online play means that the Wii U version of the game may not measure up to other versions that still have players online (I’m assuming they do, I’m not sure), but that’s made up for somewhat with the Wii U gamepad’s usefulness in local multiplayer. And while the on-rails nature of the campaign may be somewhat limiting, it’s still such a great action-packed thrill ride that it’s well worth playing through. If you have a Wii U and don’t already own this game on other platforms, it’s definitely worth a look.

tl;dr – Call of Duty: Black Ops II on Wii U is a solid port of an excellent First-Person Shooter that translates the experience of the game to Nintendo’s platform wonderfully. The online lobbies are empty now in 2022, but the campaign mode and local multiplayer are just as good here as on other platforms, if not better thanks to the Wii U gamepad. If you enjoy First-Person Shooters and haven’t already played this game elsewhere, the Wii U version is well worth getting.

Grade: A-

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Andy Miller, Exlene, Johannes, Homer Simpin, Ilya Zverev, Eli Goodman, Kristoffer Wulff, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Francis Obst, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}