Even though Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 hasn’t been announced — looks like that’s scheduled for May 1 — that hasn’t stop the Internet from jumping on juicy, leaked information regarding the inevitable sequel’s multiplayer components. Call of Duty rumor site Charlie Intel revealed yesterday evening a rather thorough list of perks and game modes for the first-person shooter. GamesBeat reached out to publisher Activision for confirmation and is awaiting a response.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":419833,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"A"}']Perks are unlockable and equipable upgrades players can use as they earn experience in Call of Duty multiplayer. They affect the game passively and allow for further customization of a character’s class and abilities.
Pretend that you’re playing a sniper. One available perk might enhance how often you cause critical damage when you attack. Another might make you invisible to others for a brief period of time.
This supposed Black Ops 2 multiplayer information is pretty unbelievable. Some of the available choices seem very goofy when you think about the actions they describe, like this one regarding knives (grammatical errors are from the source):
9. Bladesman – You have 2 knives in each hand instead of just one in one hand. (This essentially makes knives kill twice as fast.)
b. Pro – You have a chance of dodging the incoming players knife.
c. Elite – If assasin is active – kniving will be completely silent and not show on the killfeed, unless countered by audiophile elite.
By that description, the player has a total of four knives. Such vague and confusing wording definitely wouldn’t come from an official source. Other elements are not as poorly worded but reveal dubious design choices:
2. Escape Artist – When going prone, you feign death (You cannot shoot during)
b. Pro – When approaching death, the enemies crosshairs will turn to white, and your name will dissapear.
c. Elite – if Diver is active – You realistically fall into your feign death instead of diving.
11. Focus – Be able to shoot while sprinting, even at the deduction of accuracy.
b. Pro – Be able to shoot while jumping, even at the deduction of accuracy.
c. Elite – If stalker is active – when jumping, equipment does less damage to you.
These kinds of perks sound like they would be easily manipulated in-game and difficult to defend against. If you can customize your character to shoot when sprinting or jumping, why wouldn’t you use that setup all the time? Millions of players will likely have the exact same idea, and the resulting multiplayer experience would be monotonous.
Three game modes were also detailed in the post, and all of them sound sketchy.
Escort ~ A game mode in which you escort a player across three flags to achieve victory. The enemy team killing the player will result in a win for their side.
Split Spawn ~ A game mode in which you spawn from a hellicopter, and climb down to get to the ground. The player starts with 3 lives. One player can control the chopper to let you climb down in different areas, as well as shoot from the chopper. If the chopper is destroyed, players can no longer spawn. Players compete for a central flag that takes 2x as long to capture than a regular domination flag. Either the death of all opposing players or the capturing of the flag will grant you a win. This game has 2 rounds.
Equalizer ~ A game mode in which players are switched to the enemy team upon death. Players will compete for a flag, which when owned, open up a power plant to allow the player to customize their class in game, get new weapons, and put on a juggernaut suit for their team only.When there are 2 players left on a team, they are granted with the power plant automatically, and pointstreaks up to a 5 point requirement can also be obtained. If either of the two players die, they will remain on their own team. The team with the most converts (kills) at the end will win. If tied, whoever is currently owning the power plant will win.
Are these really details for a new Call of Duty game? We won’t know until Activision confirms the leak or denies the leak and later confirms the details in a press release. Whatever the truth may be, none of these changes sound particularly thrilling or well-balanced.