14 DAY TRIAL // Black Ops II might be a direct sequel in one of the two sub-series that seems to define Call of Duty at the moment, but the developers working on the game know that they need to make serious improvements to the single-player component in order to satisfy players.
Mark Lamia, who is now the boss of Treyarch, told Gamasutra during an interview that, “We spend a lot of time trying to figure that out. When you're in a franchise, you have to pay attention to a lot of different things, since you have people coming back year after year.”
Call of Duty is a series that is always under pressure because the teams working on it need to both keep the tone that the fan base is used to and to innovate a little in order to make sure that the franchise is not described as stale.
Lamia believes, “For the campaign in particular, we know there have been come criticisms there, where people have said, 'Gee, it'd be really great to have some choice elements to the game.' But we know, without a doubt, that people love that cinematic experience that's heavily scripted.”
Since Black Ops II was announced, one of the most interesting pieces of information has been that Treyarch is introducing a branching campaign structure, where gamers will be able to affect the ending of the game based on their performance in certain crucial battles.
These are called Strike Force levels and they will be intertwined with the well-known scripted sequences that Call of Duty campaigns are now known for.
Lamia says that the Strike Force concept offers some replayability for the single-player component, but never forces gamers to hit certain performance targets in order to progress.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II will be launched on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the PC on November 13 of this year.