Call of Duty: Black Ops II gets trailer showing multiplayer mode

Activision’s flagship first person shooter series is all set to release the latest version titled Call of Duty: Black Ops II later this year. Recently, developer Treyarch and publisher Activision have released a new trailer for Black Ops II that shows off some of the multiplayer gameplay. While the basics don’t seem to have changed much from Black Ops or Modern Warfare 3 with the constant action and rewards for doing almost anything, there are some interesting things such as some of the sci-fi stuff in the game, counting mechs and what appear to be EMP grenades.

Earlier, Activision released a new trailer for Black Ops II. In the trailer, Raul Menendez is idolized as the Messiah of the people, yet underneath the surface lurks an insidious mastermind hell-bent on global insurrection. The game was announced earlier this year. While Black Ops II looks like any earlier Call of Duty game, it’s interesting to see that Treyarch have now added a bit of open-endedness into it. This doesn’t mean the franchise is now in open world territory; it means that players will have a choice in undertaking certain missions and the story will then play out depending on the choices they made. At the same time, these choices may also affect the fate of some of their squad mates.

The future of multiplayer seems to be Black too

The previous game in the Call of Duty series was Modern Warfare 3, which was released last year. While gameplay stayed very much the same as previous iterations, the stakes had been raised significantly, as the game’s protagonists had to deal with the looming threat of World War III. If you have played previous CoD games, specifically the Modern Warfare series, Modern Warfare 3 will be familiar territory with non-stop balls-to-the-wall action and cinematic set-pieces.

The Call of Duty series originally dealt with events during World War II. After the unsuccessful Call of Duty 3, developers Infinity Ward shook things up by making Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This game saw a large amount of success and sealed the fate of World War II based shooters.

After Modern Warfare, developers Treyarch made Call of Duty 5: World At War, which took the series back to its World War II roots. The game went for a more violent and gruesome depiction of World War II and added new weapons such as the flamethrower. The game also added a new game mode featuring zombie Nazi soldiers.

After World At War, Infinity Ward took back the reins of the franchise to create Modern Warfare 2. The game was released amid many controversies, like the No Russian level which had the player take on the role of an undercover CIA agent infiltrating a Russian terrorist cell. The level consisted of the player and the characters walking through a Russian airport and gunning down innocent civilians and police officers. Another reason the game became infamous was for the PC version of the game not having many of the options gamers on the PC need or want, such as a developer console, a slider to increase the field of vision and the lack of dedicated servers for the game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is set to release on 12 November 2012 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. If the previous titles in the series are anything to go by, the game will cost around Rs. 3,000 across all platforms.