Call of Duty: Black Ops II Review You're probably familiar with all this: a disgruntled terrorist with plans to crush America meets a bunch of rowdy marines with thick necks and gravelly voices in a jet-setting adventure marked by boisterous set-piece spectacle and gratuitous explosions. Call of Duty: Black Ops II attempts to shake up its recognisable formula by catapulting players into 2025 and offering branching narratives, but in a game that is so reliant on its orchestration it is no surprise that developer Treyarch's end result feels like it's following the same old script. Still, predictability doesn't mean Black Ops II isn't exciting. This is a punchy, loud adventure marked by its explosions rather than its subtleties, and Treyarch has stopped off in the world of 1980s action movies on its way to 2025, with many levels revelling in the bygone age of cheesy neon tints, autonomous technology and military generals who love nothing more than a good old swear. Coincidentally, the 80s is where half of the six-hour campaign takes place, as you return to original Black Ops protagonists Woods and Mason as they establish exactly why villain Raul Menendez wants to set loose America's army of reprogrammed military drones in the future. Occasionally you're given a choice, such as saving one of two characters, and Black Ops II's campaign features a surprising versatility with its player-led decisions. These affect the cutscenes rather then the game, however, which still boils down to an unflattering reductive template: enemies pop up, you shoot them and move on. Repeat until end credits. Perhaps this is why the campaign tries so hard to be bombastic, and Treyarch's repeated attempts at courting modern day controversy jar slightly in a game that, for the most part, seems to be obsessed with creating an 80s action film. Even less successful are the five strategy-themed Strikeforce missions, which conjure up an unflattering display of horrendous AI and are, thankfully, skippable for everyone save those looking for the narrative's best conclusion. With the near-futuristic setting comes an array of snazzy military contraptions that will mostly benefit Call of Duty's extraordinarily active multiplayer community - stun sticks, whizzy futuristic optics and powerful drone ordinance. Along with this comes a customisable 10-point loadout system designed to provide players with a level of flexibility unseen in previous games. Adversarial multiplayer is exciting in all the organic ways the campaign is not, and Treyarch's main success with Black Ops II is its ability to drive its frenetic infantry skirmishes over 14 maps. Despite attempts to soften the game for new players, however, the harsh learning curve remains as impossibly steep as ever. For many, playing against others will be what drives them forward: Call of Duty lets you boot the game automatically into its multiplayer options for a reason. Finishing off the package is another entry in the ever-popular Zombies mode, a four-player co-op campaign that elegantly wraps its B-movie presentation around exploration and wave-based survival. Don't make the mistake of confusing the near-future setting and the attempts at branching narrative for innovation. It's more like Treyarch has had a spring clean and got the decorators round: Black Ops II is still ostensibly built on the same foundations that powered 2008's Call of Duty 4 and every annual instalment of the series thereafter. The thrill of Call of Duty's rollercoaster ride is starting to diminish, then, but few will feel too short-changed by buying this year's ticket.