When I had enough of Call of Duty: Black Ops II's campaign, I decided to spend some time with its more fantastical mode, Zombies. These are my thoughts.

There are three game types: the story-based "Tranzit," the classic "Survival," and, less excitingly, the maliciously spirited "Grief." All overtly have the same premise: using teamwork, survive/kill the zombies. You get points for shooting the zombies or building barricades, which you can use to buy weapons, upgrades or vending-machine powerups depending on the mode.

The overall aesthetic makes you think Fallout—it's very 50's, but combined with some futuristic elements, if not fantastical ones. You can't help but wonder what happened—how did this world, which has rayguns, assault rifles, magical teddy bears and is bursting with lava get infested by zombies? What in the heck? Enter Tranzit, which apparently has some sort of explanation for what's going on.

I word it this way because boy, is almost everything but the "shoot zombies" part of Tranzit inscrutable. You start off on a small bus depot as one of the five available characters. The reason it's a small map, I'm guessing, is because it's one of many—from the depot you can take a bus to other locations.

You can stay in any one place for as long as you're able to keep shooting the zombies down. But the promise of learning more, if not enjoying a change of scenery, will likely entice you to hop aboard the bus. The single prompt that the game gives you (at first) is "turn the power on" - so you figure that you should go find out how to do that.

About that "what happened?!" investigation: as of this writing, after spending a few hours with Tranzit, I have no idea what's going on. In fact, were it not for the video that was posted on Kotaku earlier this week that explains what you're supposed to do, I doubt I'd be able to figure much of anything out on my own!

Get this: every map has a number of objects in them, which you're supposed to find and craft into other items. [EDIT: For clarification purposes, I'm aware that this is optional. I still feel the same—especially considering this is one of the aspects that sets Tranzit apart from Survival] The game gives you no indication that this is the case. Unless you're standing directly in front of the item, there's nothing to signal you might be able to interact with it.

This is a typical scenario: you get to a new location, and you try to hover over every single object on the map—because hey, what if you can pick it up? It reminds me of adventure games, where you're trying to find that one pixel where you can click, and then on top of that you have to figure out what random combination you have to put these items in to get a new one.

And when you figure that out, you still have to figure out what to DO with these items. How the heck was I supposed to know that that mannequin-turbine contraption is supposed to be put in front of doors so they can be opened? There's nothing gratifying about stumbling on the answer—I never felt like I "figured something out."

Once you memorize what's where and what combines with what, going through the maps relies on rote memorization—which can be confusing for anyone that's not in on how things work. I know I've felt like a lost puppy while following players who seemed to know about items that I didn't know about or what their usage was.

I imagine that other players felt the same as I rush through maps that I do know some things about. Its in the exchanges with other players that you realize just how little sense any of Tranzit makes, and that you either need a FAQ, a zombie-sherpa or dumb luck to get through it.

Apparently there's a Wiki that explains the story that Tranzit is supposed to. I honestly can't be bothered, and I'm typically a fan of subtle games. This isn't subtle, it's just obtuse. Don't take this to mean the mode can't be fun; the shooting part is still enjoyable and if you want to just hang out and take care of the undead, you totally can. But if the purpose of Tranzit is to communicate a story, then it fails.

This is a shame, because everything about the aesthetic tells me there might be something interesting here; I'm genuinely curious about what happened! It almost seems like Tranzit wanted to channel Left 4 Dead a little, what with the story, subtle storytelling and the unique characters—which remind me a little of the characters from L4D. But the story is hardlyCall of Duty's strong suit, and at best, the characters in Zombies are tired archetypes like "nerd." The nerd says really annoying things in a nasally voice. He is one of the better characters.

Ultimately if you just want to shoot some zombies, why not play the classic survival mode instead? Just your standard survive-as-long-as-possible, buy-upgrades-if-you-want-them and try-to-rack-up-as-many-points-as-possible game type. Nothing fancy, but serviceable.

Survival starts looking particularly attractive when compared to Grief. I have nothing good to say about this mode. It sounds like it might be a good idea, but the implementation is lackluster. Unlike the other game types, this one pits you against another team—4 vs 4. The name of the game type gives it away: you're supposed to grief other players. You can't do this in a directly, not exactly—like you can't shoot a non-zombie enemy down. But you can block their way, or you can smack them while they're trying to revive a teammate—to name a few tactics. You're supposed to outlive the enemy team this way.

The problem is that there is no way to coordinate anything, not as far as I can tell. Every time I've played, it's been a test of endurance—in the bad way. How long can you wait around until the enemy messes up and you have a chance of maaaaybe making something happen? Matches can last forever, and unless the other team is utterly incompetent, it's not difficult to revive someone and make sure your team keeps on trucking. But at that point, if the other team is that awful, there's no real joy in beating them. The times that I lost it was because I gave up.

I found myself either yawning out of boredom while playing Grief, or wishing that the game would end—because I didn't want to be a jerk and just leave. Also a shame: multiplayer modes that have you griefing other players, like in New Super Mario Bros, can be a delight. Making other people mad in a playful context is fun! Alas.

In theory Zombies is a great addition to the Black Ops II package, but everything outside of "Survival" isn't really worth your time.

I haven't played enough of Black Ops II to render a real verdict on how I feel about as a game, I can say for sure that I really enjoy the soundtrack. It's a cut up from past games in the series, an exciting, diverse blend of whirling orchestral parts, ethnic instruments and atmospheric electronics.

It shouldn't come as a huge surprise that the music is good—with the exception of Trent Reznor's main theme from the game, it was composed by Mass Effect composer Jack Wall.

I emailed with Wall to ask him a bit about the soundtrack, and how he went about setting it apart from past games.

Kotaku: Do you find that with a game like Call of Duty, it's tricky to create memorable melodies that won't get in the way of all the chaotic gunfire?

Jack Wall: Not for this one. Dave Anthony and Jason Blundell, the lead writer/director and exec producer for the game, let me know early on that they wanted to create a more compelling single player campaign from the very beginning. We got away with more melody to help tell the story this time out. I just went for broader gestures over top of the gunfire when I needed to, but there is plenty of thematic material in the sections in between to forward the story for the player.

Do you think that the whole "ethnic woman wailing dramatically" thing is getting overdone? Where did that come from, and why is it so popular?

That would depend on the singer and how it's used. Azam Ali is unbelievable and I could listen to her from now until the end. I worked with Azam for the Pakistan level. She has that ethnic sound, but you can't really figure out exactly what ethnicity it is when she's singing. Of course she is Persian, but you hear Indian phrasing mixed with Israeli elements and other embellishments that makes it a little less about where and more about vibe and feel. In this level you're doing something rare in Call of Duty. You're spying and gathering intel for a significant period of time. I wanted to do something moody. It's some of my favorite music in the game.

I hear Tabla in there - are there any other cool uncommon instruments in the soundtrack?

I did use some tabla in Pakistan. There are 14 distinct levels in the game of which Pakistan is one. I tried to create a unique palette for each of the 14 levels. I designed several electronic percussion beds and sounds. My assistant Alex Hemlock and I spent a few days recording odd bits of sound from dumpsters, pipes, fences, and other sounds in the environment around my house and then mixed them with synths using pitch envelopes and various other effects to get a cool palette to start with. Additionally I worked with many solo instrumentalists and other voices to achieve the feeling of "a few take on the world" motif of the Call of Duty: Black Ops series. Most of the percussion you hear is real people playing real instruments. I might add synths or effects to those to create a certain futuristic feeling, but I like using the real thing as much as possible.

When I'm playing a game, I want each level to feel like its own world that hasn't been repeated in the game yet. As you enter a new level, it should feel and sound different and fresh. To me it's not just about music, but what you are doing in the game and what it all looks like, and then how all of that works together. The music should help to make it feel like a distinct environment and give the player some new goodies to look at and to listen to and definitely something to feel.

Black Ops II spans multiple decades - where did you go for inspiration when coming up with the general sound?

Nino Precioso is a Nicaraguan lullaby that I reshaped to work as Raul Menendez' theme. It means "precious child". He is really the central character of the single player campaign and I just wanted to make sure that I hooked into him emotionally. The story surrounding him and his sister is really an important part of his character's motivation and I saw him as a 3-dimensional antagonist. He's not just a bad guy. He's had some bad things happen to him and his family. The music reflects that. Regarding the two very different time periods, I went for a more orchestral and acoustic palette for the ‘80s and a more futuristic palette in general for 2025. Some of the future levels are pristine and others grungy. The palette was further refined to reflect the vibe of the future levels.

How is Call of Duty musically different from Mass Effect?

Mass Effect is straight up sci-fi whereas Call of Duty: Black Ops II – even though a good chunk is set in the future – is more about reality or an extrapolation of what reality might be like in 2025. I think the visuals and level design influence the music and how you hear it as much as the music affects what you see in the game. The trick is to connect with the material you are writing for.

Did you ever worry that this soundtrack would sound too Hollywood and too generic? What steps did you take to make it stand apart?

I know that people criticize some orchestral music for being "too Hollywood". However, I love film scores and I think many are really effective at creating a certain mood for the story to nestle into. And no matter what, the orchestra is such an amazing tool for creating that sort of connection. The major difference between film music and game music is that you really have to fight with games to score some subtlety into the music. Everything is about action and pumping up the fight. But in order for that to feel real, you also have to find your moments to score some emotional support into the story. For Black Ops II, those moments were within the cinematics and the connective tissue in-between the fights. Nino Precioso is the best example. When you hear that in the game, it almost sounds like source music – like Raul is playing the guitar and singing to his sister. I used different versions of that motif in some of the action cues such as "Savimbi's Pride". I also used different tonalities of Nino Precioso in various cinematics and intro movies like the scene where "Guerra Precioso" ("precious war") plays when you get to the Command Center level in the USS Barack Obama. This represents Menendez' darker side and what that means for the story. To me story is everything.

Any other interesting tidbits about making the soundtrack? Any small stories about writing it?

Because of the production schedule, I wasn't able to even see most of the cinematics and level intro movies before I did my final recording sessions at London's Abbey Road this past August. So I wrote a bunch of thematic material for those sessions that I could later edit into those cinematics when they were ready in September. I recorded all of the various elements I thought I might need – hits, swells, effects and themes. Then I created a "cinematics library" and began editing them all into the final timed cinematics at the end. That ended up working really well and I think they tie the score together nicely through the campaign.

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Thanks, Jack, for taking the time. You can get the Black Ops II soundtrack on Amazon and on iTunes, among other places.

"The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war." It was General Douglas MacArthur who said that, and his words are as true now as they were in his time.

The reason I know MacArthur said that is because I've read those words, over and over, as I've died in Call of Duty games. Every time the player dies in many of the past games in the series, he or she would be greeted with some gritty, hard-bitten truism about war, usually spoken by some famous general or politician.

I've never liked those quotes. They stand in often stark opposition to the comical, overblown proceedings of the games themselves, and they're salt in the wound of a tough death after a difficult fight.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
- Winston Churchill

Oh really, Mr. Churchill? I'm so glad you're here to tell me that failure is not fatal, as I reload the last checkpoint for the 16th time and attempt to singlehandedly take down that entire Russian platoon again.

"The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic."
- Joseph Stalin

Oh, how true, Mr. Stalin! Wait hang on, I need to leap off this cliff and grab ahold of the landing thingy of this helicopter before warping into the brain of another dude who is fighting off hijackers on a plane.

Thankfully, Black Ops II developers Treyarch have never quite taken to this practice—it seems as though the quotes are the realm of the other CoD developer, Infinity Ward. When I die in Black Ops II, whether I'm shot off a horse or stabbed in the desert, I see a dark, blurry screen, and then I blast away, back in time to the last checkpoint. The game doesn't try to inspire me, nor does it take it upon itself to impart some crucial words about the horrors of war.

And really, guys: Thanks for that.

How will future historians be sure that Call of Duty: Black Ops II was released in 2012 or thereabouts? Because its campaign had a shootout set to dubstep. It's short. It's a little silly. It's also the perfect time capsule moment.

According to a report on Siliconera, next year's Call of Duty game will take place in the same universe as Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare titles.

The site's source, related to the game's voice acting, is the same one who accurately leaked a ton of Sleeping Dogs info over a year before that game's release, so this is at least worth thinking about.

The report says the game will star "a battle hardened veteran in his mid-thirties with a nihilistic point of view" (I know, I know), features a flashback starring Soap MacTavish, and contains such riveting lines of dialogue as:

We've got KVA on the move! They're going to strongpoint the main gate, ETA two mikes! We're providing support for our heavy rollers! Ready up and let's move!

and

Goliath, this is Sentinel Zero One! We have enemy armor at the gate, hundred meters north of our position! Requesting close-air grid mark three-one-six!

None of which means a whole lot, though if it really is set in the Modern Warfare universe that would be a very disappointing lack of imagination (and bravery) on Activision's part.

We've contacted Activision for comment, and will update if we hear back.

Call Of Duty 2013 Details Leaked, Continues Modern Warfare Arc [Siliconera]

Needless to say, there are spoilers in both this video and post. If you don't want to know what the post-credit shenanigans are all about, feel free to move along.

Now that we're all clear, watch the above video with the most ridiculous post-credit scene I've been forced to watch, where two of Black Ops II's main characters (Frank Woods and Raul Menendez) are seen rocking out with the members of Avenged Sevenfold. It's an awkward, awful concert with a head-banging President Bosworth that looks a whole lot like Hillary Clinton. This is what nightmares are made of, my friends.

Some people love Call of Duty. Some hate it. Some are totally indifferent. And then, some enjoy dressing up as Call of Duty characters.

Here's a bit—but not all—of the internet's best COD cosplay. The outfits range from the earlier Call of Duty games to the more recent ones, like World at War, Modern Warfare 2, and the first Black Ops.

And yes, there are zombies.

So have a look at the above gallery, and try to suss out who pulled off the best Call of Duty. And check out Kotaku's review of Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Click the image's lower corner to expand to full size.

[Arinen]
[Domjiji]
[Katherine-Drake]
[luckysevenstars]
[MattDennie]
[missyunie]
[mrbob0822]
[ReijiKageyama]
[RunPiggyRun]
[Sasu-Jess]
[thechevaliere]
[Triturate]
[wfbarton]
[zahnpasta]

A reminder (this pic is from May) that when you fire up Black Ops II and about an hour in are greeted by horses, Activision's billions do not get you hand-animated horses. They get you this.

It's like Andy Serkis lay down and dreamed of Vladimir Putin...

Black Ops 2 preview [PC Gamer]

If you're about to settle in for 11 months of Black Ops II multiplayer, you'd do well to take this chart with you, as it shows just about everything you need to know about all the game's weapons.

Having spent four days doing nothing but shooting and recording data, pwnsweet and his brother can now tell you not only a gun's range and ammo capacity, but more important stuff like their damage spread and your movement speed while carrying it.

You can check out the chart in full detail below.

Black Ops 2 Weapons breakdown. Is it legit? [Hey, A Message Board, via PC Gamer]

Whenever a military-themed shooter comes out, the first thing many people say is "oh great, here comes another Call of Duty clone". It's a term used as a slur against a game, saying that it's not just copying another game, it's copying another game that for many has long run out of ideas.

Why, then, is it so hard for people who are copying Call of Duty to actually pull it off and do just as good, if not better, than Call of Duty?

The series has been the world's biggest and most popular shooter for five years now, the release of the original Modern Warfare setting a bar that no other developer, no matter how much money they throw at the idea, can match.

I think I know why. They're not appreciating what actually makes Call of Duty so popular.

I mean, they get the superficial reasons. Manly men shooting guns at stereotypical enemies of the West, high production values, lots of explosions. But I don't think rival developers, particularly Electronic Arts, look any deeper than that.

The thing that drives Call of Duty's multiplayer—and indeed, a lot of its singleplayer appeal—isn't necessarily the acting, or setting, or story, or even level design. I don't think it's even the multiplayer structure of perks and killstreaks. It's the feel of the gun in your hands. That's a hard thing to quantify, like trying to describe Mario's jump, but it's just as important: Call of Duty's "tight" shooting, and the speed with which you can snap in and out of your iron sights, is what makes the action of pulling the trigger so responsive and enjoyable in that game.

Some of the series' developers have acknoweldged as much, with Sledgehammer Games' Glen Scofield (who worked on Modern Warfare 3) telling AusGamers last year that the fact CoD games run at 60 frames-per-second "is our competitive edge".

Shooting in a Call of Duty game is something you're doing constantly and instinctively, so it's not as easy or as noticeable to pin down as more obvious things like characters and the visuals, but again like Mario's jump, it's the source of much of the drip-fed pleasure many gamers get out of the series.

In short, there's no game on Earth that shoots as well as Call of Duty. And for a shooter, that's important.

The other thing I think most rival developers miss, and this one's related only to singleplayer, is that it's not Call of Duty's reliance on scripting that is the key to its success. It's the way it hides that scripting.

You want to know why so many critics, and let's be honest most consumers think so highly of Call of Duty singleplayer campaigns? Because the scripting is done so well you often don't notice it. I mean, yes, instinctively you know it, but the games often do such a good job of propelling you with their level design, sign-posting and pacing that you rarely stop to care.

That's why instances like the hilarious "SHOOT THE HINGES" stand out, I think: because they're exceptions. Rivals like Medal of Honor are full of such moments, when the roller-coaster ride of scripting and pacing essentially breaks down, stranding you in a stage and pulling back the curtain on your immersion with a level. It's why those games are rightly criticised for being linear while Call of Duty is often (though not universally) lauded: simply being linear isn't always a fault if it's done well.

(Note: I've found Infinity Ward to be much better with this trick than Treyarch, who with tiring instances like the Vietnam hillside in Black Ops and the opening African level of Black Ops II show they're not quite as savvy).

So, developers, if you're making, or are planning to make a near-future military shooter, don't just copy Call of Duty's trimmings. All that macho bullshit and stereotypical action is the worst part of Activision's series, and should be the last thing you're copying. Instead, dig a little deeper and look at Call of Duty's bones. It's there you'll find the keys to the series' success, and the things you should really be trying to copy.