2012 video game
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a 2012 first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch and published ๐ธ by Activision. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on November 12, 2012, and for the ๐ธ Wii U on November 18 in North America and November 30 in PAL regions.[1][2][3][4][5] Black Ops II is the ninth ๐ธ game in the Call of Duty franchise of video games, a sequel to the 2010 game Call of Duty: Black ๐ธ Ops and the first Call of Duty game for the Wii U. A corresponding game for the PlayStation Vita, Call ๐ธ of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified, was developed by nStigate Games and also released on November 13.
The game's campaign follows up ๐ธ the story of Black Ops and is set in the late 1980s and 2025. In the 1980s, the player switches ๐ธ control between Alex Mason and Frank Woods, two of the protagonists from Black Ops, while in 2025, the player assumes ๐ธ control of Mason's son, David (codenamed "Section"). Both time periods involve the characters pursuing Raul Menendez, a Nicaraguan arms dealer ๐ธ and later terrorist, who is responsible for kidnapping David in the 80s and later sparking a Second Cold War in ๐ธ 2025. The campaign features non-linear gameplay and has multiple endings.[6] Locations featured in the game include Angola, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, ๐ธ Pakistan, the Cayman Islands, Panama, Yemen, the United States, and Haiti.
Development for the game began soon after the release of ๐ธ Black Ops, with Activision promising that the follow-up would bring "meaningful innovation" to the Call of Duty franchise. Black Ops ๐ธ II is the first game in the series to feature futuristic warfare technology and the first to present branching storylines ๐ธ driven by player choice as well as selecting weapons before starting story mode missions. It also offers a 3D display ๐ธ option. The game was officially revealed on May 1, 2012, following a set of leaked information released during the previous ๐ธ months.
Black Ops II received mostly positive reviews from critics, with praise for its gameplay, story, multiplayer, Zombies mode, and villain, ๐ธ but its Strike Force missions had a mixed reception. The game was a commercial success; within 24 hours of going ๐ธ on sale, the game grossed overR$500 million.[7] It had remained the largest entertainment launch of all time until September 2013, ๐ธ when Take-Two Interactive announced that Grand Theft Auto V had grossedR$800 million in its first day of release.[8] It went ๐ธ on to sell 7.5 million copies in the U.S. in November 2012, making it the highest-grossing game of the month.[9] ๐ธ A sequel, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, was released in 2024.[10] Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, set ๐ธ between Black Ops and Black Ops II, was released on November 13, 2024.[11][12]