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

Treyarch hasn’t gone into detail on any of Black Ops 2’s multiplayer features, but they have mentioned that they will be making some significant changes. Will it stick to the established Call of Duty multiplayer formula, filled with perks, killstreaks, and persistent unlocks, or will it be something entirely different?

We’ve only seen a portion of Call of Duty Black Ops with Treyarch showing tidbits of the single player campaign, but not a word has been spoken about the series’ most popular mode, multiplayer. The developers have been extremely tight lipped, revealing no details on player progression, weapons, or perks. But we’re not going to wait for them to finally speak up. We have our own wants and needs. So, we’ve decided to put them right here for you to scrutinize or lovingly adore.

If Black Ops 2’s multiplayer mode isn’t your cup of tea, check out our article on what we want from Black Ops 2 Zombies mode.

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.

We have a love/hate relationship with Killstreaks. They started off on the right foot, being a nice little bonus for not biting the dust too often, but now they often take over entire matches. Some players get more kills with their streaks than they do with their guns, and that’s just not right.

We’re not saying Treyarch should do away with Killstreaks entirely, they should just trim the fat. Make them rewarding to earn but keep them from being the overused, overripe boot that stinks up every multiplayer match we jump into.

Instead of having a list of 27 different killstreaks, reduce them down to seven to ten good ones, and bring the game back to its shooting roots, not the “press a button and get a bunch of kills” trend we’ve been overindulging.

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.

COD games shouldn’t be played like a twitch arena shooter with players being spawned in the match surrounded by enemies. They’re best played when fighting to break an enemy line, not when you’re constantly getting stabbed in the back. That’s why we are hoping Treyarch steers away from the chaotic Modern Warfare 3 style maps and sticks to layouts that have players butting heads from the front rather than spawning amongst one another.

Like we’ve mentioned before, Treyarch could give the environments a little more personality by allowing players to interact with them. Let us press a button to activate a building's security systems then a squad of security drones comes out to ruin the opposing team’s day. Having the maps be interactive could not only help keep the sneaky, lone wolf players from crossing enemy lines easily, and help keep the immersion of being in a futuristic time period - which brings us to our next point.

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.

That’s everything we want to see from Black Ops 2. Do you think we missed something? What do you want to see most in the multiplayer modes? For some, Blops 2 has been one of the more intriguing titles to come out of the series. So, what are you hoping comes out of the next multiplayer outing? Sound off your suggestions in the comments.

If you are looking for more information on Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, be sure to check out our Black Ops 2 preview and our Call of Duty Black Ops 2 game page.