14 DAY TRIAL // Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 may seem like yet another installment in the tired old franchise, but it’s actually one of the most innovative iterations in the series, introducing quite a few new things in its single-player campaign.
We’ve already talked about the pretty good story and the many choices offered to players during actual levels.
Now, it’s time to discuss one of the most controversial features – the Strike Force missions.
Besides wandering through Black Ops 2’s different levels, following squad mates, defending others, and wielding either turrets or actual vehicles, you also get to order troops in certain levels where you lead a strike force team that needs to accomplish certain goals.
These objectives range from protecting certain buildings, to keeping convoys safe, to rescuing VIP targets, or assaulting various enemy installations and taking them down.
While these scenarios don’t seem out of the ordinary, you actually command your squad just like in real-time strategy games like Command & Conquer or StarCraft II.
In case you want to be right in the action, you can take control of a squad member, whether he’s an actual soldier, a stationary turret, a flying drone, or a hulking CLAW unit.
While the core idea of these Strike Force missions sounds great, its implementation doesn’t work all that well, mainly because of your squad’s AI.
When tasked with moving to certain areas or assaulting the enemy, your squad mates will easily run into gunfire and get themselves killed.
As such, it’s pretty much mandatory to take control of the situation and guide your dim-witted teammates towards the actual objectives or defend your goals in front of enemy attacks.
Besides offering a welcome change of pace, the Strike Force missions also impact the story as, depending on your success or failures, the end of the game and the journey leading up to it can change dramatically.
Did you enjoy these special missions in Black Ops 2 or did you just skip them in favor of the regular single-player levels?