14 DAY TRIAL // After officially unveiling Call of Duty: Black Ops II to the world earlier today, publisher Activision and developer Treyarch have started to reveal the first details about the game’s online modes, including the competitive multiplayer and the cooperative Zombies ones.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is set to reimagine the first person shooter series, both in terms of story, as it’s now set in the near future, and in terms of actual gameplay, with Treyarch claiming that a full-fledged overhaul was done to the long-running engine that powered previous games.
After releasing the gameplay trailer with the new shooter, Treyarch has started posting the first details about the online modes in Black Ops II.
While an actual reveal of all the new online features is set to happen later this year, the studio’s multiplayer designer, David Vonderhaar, promises that a huge array of changes will be implemented in the new game.
According to the Treyarch designer, two major factors will be taken into consideration in Black Ops II’s multiplayer, in the form of eSports competitions and social networking.
The studio’s head, Mark Lamia, also chimed in, saying that the new shooter would once again have a deep integration with Call of Duty Elite, the online service that made its debut in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 last year.
Lamia also said that the cooperative Zombies mode would be greatly improved upon, as opposed to the previous iterations from Black Ops 1 and the much older World at War.
"If you like zombies you're going to be really happy with what we're doing with Black Ops 2," Lamia said. "It's our biggest, most ambitious zombies ever.”
While actual details aren’t yet available, it seems that the engine for the Zombies mode has been overhauled and might allow for more than four players to face off against the Undead Horde.
Expect to see even more outlandish scenarios, as the success of the Zombies in Black Ops 1, where players controlled the likes of John F. Kennedy or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has prompted Activision and Treyarch to invest more in the experience.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is going to receive more details in the near future, probably at E3 2012 in June and until its release on November 13.