Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Call of Duty: Black Ops II pushed the series noticeably further into the future for the first time, interweaving two timelines — retro missions from the 1980s featuring veteran Alex Mason, and a futuristic 2025 campaign pitting the United States against private military technology seized by the traitor Raul Menendez. The key new feature was a branching story with several possible endings, shaped by the player's decisions and by success or failure in optional strike force missions, where tactics and failure alike could affect the course of the entire campaign, including which allies ultimately survive it. The futuristic arsenal included controllable drones, escort robots, and exoskeletons, expanding the classic military action with elements closer to sci-fi, without the game losing the characteristic pacing and clarity fans of the series were used to from earlier entries.

On the Xbox 360, the game ran on an improved version of the previous games' engine and offered, among other things, strike force missions viewable from a bird's-eye view with the option to directly control units, a first for the series. The zombie mode continued as an elaborate story mode with its own mythology, and for the first time offered a larger, tower-defense-style map, while the multiplayer introduced the Pick 10 system, letting players freely combine weapons, perks, and equipment as they saw fit. The music and sound design underscored the contrast between the retro wartime past and the cold, technological future, with transitions between the two timelines accompanied by a distinct musical style and color grading.

At the time, the game was very well received, with critics praising the ambition of its branching narrative and its multiplayer innovations, making it one of the series' most commercially successful entries. Today, Black Ops II stands out mainly as a bold attempt to bring elements of player choice and alternate endings into a very conservative series — something later Call of Duty entries never repeated to the same extent — and many players still remember it as one of the most ambitious entries in the entire franchise.

Why play: Thanks to its bold combination of player choice and alternate endings within a traditionally linear series, it stands as one of the most ambitious entries in Call of Duty.