Call of Duty Black Ops 2 multiplayer - What we want from the future fragfest

In Black Ops, we loved how changing the first perk changed your character’s look, so we want that back. Not only that, let’s see some added aesthetic customization and unlocks to further distinguish ourselves from the fresh-meat noobs out there. We’re talking unique Ghillie suits, rank specific camouflage, new hats, maybe shinier boots, whatever.

Make these special class skins rewards for unlocking Prestige ranks for some real incentive to get to max Prestige. Nothing would be more satisfying than strutting-our-stuff in brand new fatigues knowing your victims are sitting on their Kill-Cams a few seconds longer to glare at our new duds..

Rumors have been swirling around concerning the way loadouts will work in Black Ops 2. The most convincing one being that instead of slots assigned for primary weapons, secondary weapons, and three types of perks, loadouts would be based on a ten point system. Weapons would have a specific point value, as would perks, attachments, and equipment. This would open up customization options allowing players to carry more weapons, have only perks equipped, or anything in between.

Again, these are all unconfirmed rumors so don’t get too excited yet. Lead multiplayer designer, David Vonderhaar, mentioned that players will get to “choose what’s the most important things to you, and forget about the things that are not important,” and this rumor sure does fit quite nicely into that mentality. We think this would be a refreshing way to change up the series’ loadout system. We’ll just have to wait to find out if the rumors are actually true.

This is Black Ops 2’s chance to really set itself apart from all the modern era shooters that have cropped up over the years. We’ve been shooting the same AK-47, MP7, M16, and 50Cal weapons game after game, and now we’re ready for something different. Blops 2 can bring in never-before-seen guns, prototype weapons, and futuristic ballistics that could never make it into any modern shooter.

We’ve already seen what some of the future weapons can be capable of, with sniper rifles that penetrate solid concrete and X-ray scopes that reveal enemies through said rock slabs. Weapons like these can completely change the way gamers play Call of Duty multiplayer and turn it into an entirely new experience for the series.

The first Black Ops weapon customization system had the “this is my weapon, this is my gun” mentality attached to it, allowing players to create weapons all their own by modifying the weapon’s attachments, creating their own emblems, and even carving their clan tag into the body. For Black Ops 2, we want to see that theme go even further.

We want Ghost Recon: Future Soldier’s levels of weapon customization. Switching out attachments is great, but now we want to break our weapons down into their core components. Let us modify the length of the barrel to affect mobility, change the stock to adjust our recoil, or switch out trigger mechanisms to change firing modes. Let us customize every aspect of a rifle, then we'd really feel ownership over our preferred killing devices.

Black Ops 2 is set in the future. And what sets future soldiers apart from their predecessors? Gadgets. Gadgets could change the game entirely. Using one gadget to counter another should be the name of the game. Getting shot through concrete walls? Deploy an X-ray scrambling device. Need to watch your own back? Drop a motion detector. Automated drone getting you down? Hack it and turn it against its master.

Come to think of it, Black Ops 2 story will focus primarily on the threat of cyber-warfare, so why not drag that theme into some of the multiplayer gameplay with hacking. Let us affect the environment, like raising bridges or activating automated turrets, by hacking into control panels in the map and forcing enemies into choke points. Special devices could be used to wirelessly hack into the opposing team’s Killstreaks and making them work for you. There are so many possibilities.

One of the missteps we mentioned in our Ghost Recon Future soldier review was that title’s environments never made us feel like we were in the future. Since Black Ops 2 is also going for a “near” future setting, the multiplayer maps should reflect the time period. We don’t expect desert or wilderness environments to look technologically advanced or have dramatically futuristic, cybernetic cacti, but when we get dropped into a partially destroyed U.S. city we expect to see some destroyed hydrogen-powered cars, flickering holographic street signs or advertisements for robot butlers. We just don’t want the multiplayer to feel like we’re in Modern Warfare 3 maps with shiny new prototype guns and EMP grenades.

Modern Warfare 3 brought Face Off mode to the series and the original Black Ops introduced many gamers to the wonders of Gun Game, but Blops 2 needs to bring something more than the stale, run-of-the-mill Team Deathmatch and Sabotage modes to freshen things up.

We say, stick to small group matches. We want to see more small-team, objective based games where we can gather up a few friends, develop squad strategies, and wipe the floor with our opponents in a highly competitive multiplayer match. Throw in objectives like escorting VIP players, setting demolition charges, or defending points of interest and we would be in for a good time.

Imagine Halo’s Forge World editor only in a Call of Duty. You could spend hours crafting your own personal maps, change game rules to fit your own morbid sense of fun and then share your creations online for all the world to enjoy. How awesome would that be? There would be maps replicating scenes from every war movie known to man, new game modes would be spawned, and a near infinite number of new environments and locales would be available for gamers to experience.