Is Black Ops 2's Alternate Reality Setting Risky?

After making a Tebow reference to one of Black Ops 2's screenshots, Leviathyn.com's Jason Fanelli thinks the setting for the new Call of Duty might be a bad idea. Alternative reality games haven't faired so well lately. Is this a risky move for the franchise?

[tdogchristy90]

Idk

To be honest part of the reason I enjoyed mw1-black ops was for the different settings, modern, ww2 (waw), and Vietnam. To me this future setting just looks like something I can get from any other futuristic shooter. Add that to the fact COD overall quality and enjoyment for me has been faltering. I just don't think I can buy into this.

[iamnsuperman]

I am not keen at the moment because the trailer sucked. It was one awful trailer. I was expecting a better trailer from a COD game. A futuristic setting could be interesting but defiantly risky. Just a shame the trailer wasn't that good to show how interesting a futuristic setting could be

[GraveLord]

But there really aren't many futuristic multiplayer shooters out there that are actually....fun and addicting. Crisis 2 sucked. BF 1943 is dead. Ghost Recon looks great but that is in the third person....

[Kingdom Come]

You obviously don't have a 360 if you aren't mentioning Gears of War or Halo. How about Killzone and Resistance... And being third-person is hardly a negative when practically every game that releases now is an FPS.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

It's about time CoD did something risky. One thing is for certain. People can no longer say "it's the same game every year" now.

Maybe now we'll see less games trying to be like CoD now that CoD has finally had a noticeable change.

[MattyG]

"Going the alternate future route is a risky gambit." How can it be alternate future? Does the author know how the future will play out? And the comparison to Turning Point isn't entirely relevant. I don't think that there is any history tweaking going on here. And a futuristic setting isn't very risky. especially not for COD. People will buy it because of brand recognition alone, plus, it looks interesting.

[BigManFanelli]

The game maintains that the Cold War never ended, at least it seems that way, hence the term "alternate future." Cold War's over in the real world, right? That's all I was getting at, though I appreciate the constructive criticism.

[MattyG]

Oh ok. I undertand now. I didn't hear that. From what I heard this is Cold War 2. I guess we'll have to wait to find out! :)

[Hazmat13]

this storyline is gonna be awesome much like how i was for MW3 storyline it will be fun! fuck multiplayer.

[guitarded77]

I agree... I still buy the annual CoD title for the campaign. They really do make a great FPS campaign even if the MP is not my cup of tea. And in all honesty, I don't dislike the MP, just too many people don't know how to play, which ruins it for me... They don't understand that every game mode is not team deathmatch.

[Game4life]

thats kinda why my favorite mode is usually free for all. You don't typically have those people. At least I never see them. The only team based mode i likedever is kill confirmed. Free for all in mw3 honestly was terrible for me

[frelyler]

Hey at least they are trying something different. I almost *&^% my pants when I saw they were using an original idea in a COD game. Pigs do fly and Hell is cold.

[additup28]

i havent bought a cod game since modern warfare and this actually peaks my interest a bit

[-MD-]

I haven't bought a CoD game since Modern Warfare and this doesn't peak my interest at all.

Trash franchise.

[gtxgamer2]

i just wanna play zombies with the new guns (:

[soundslike]

OMG CHANGE!

[Fylus]

Where?

[Dan50]

Red Alert had an alternate history and it was AWESOME!

[Cennus]

I gotta agree. Red Alert is greatness. Tim Curry for the win. Also, Yuri was awesome.

[Kingdom Come]

Until I see in-game footage I'm going to presume it wasn't a risky move, if the game itself still has the same milked gameplay, with little innovation, then Treyarch in a way are playing it safe, drastically changing the setting as a method of tricking people into making presumptions that the gameplay itself is different. I wonder if Activision will try to continue their milking of the dated engine when we hit next gen...?

Also, I'd like to add that the Kamikaze style jet shown in the trailer was initially going to be a Killstreak in World at War but was taken out, so they are utilising four year old ideas for this game...

[ChunkyLover53]

Honestly it seems like your dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. Had they made it straight up Black Ops 2 and kept it in the same setting people would have complained. They change it around and make it futuristic, which is something no COD has done, yet people still complain about it.

Non linear campaign looks pretty good, and I'm sure zombies will be sick as ever.

I actually think more people are angry that the game looked good, rather than for reasons like franchise fatigue.

[xPhearR3dx]

I'm angry they're using the same engine. Had they had the balls to try something new with the gameplay itself, I'd buy it in a heart beat. Maybe next year.

[ChunkyLover53]

It doesn't look like the Black Ops Engine at all to me. If anything it looks like they are using a modified Modern Warfare Engine.

Its the end of this generation, I wouldn't have expected much of a change up. I will say that its not true that the engine hasn't changed at all. There isn't any Quake code in the game and they do update and modify the engines each game. They try to get 60fps from the games, which is important from the style they capture.

[xPhearR3dx]

They can say they modified it all they want. MW2, BLOPs, and MW3 all play EXACTLY the same. Until I see advanced graphics, new animations, and gameplay that actually feels different, I won't believe a word they say.

[WillGuitarGuy]

Homefront's future? Remember how similar that was? That was crazy.

[artdafoo]

This not some big step forward, stop acting like they're takIng some giant leap forward cuz theyre not. Take MW3, replace Russians with robots and you get Wack Ops 2. Even parts of the trailer looked like MW3's trailer. This is just another re skin job on the same old COD engine. Oooh they got horses this time ! Too bad they look like they've already been dead for a weak before they rode them into battle. They need to take this series out back and put it out of its misery same as those horses, lol.