I might be throwing my credibility into the fire with this score, but here goes. This is the best Call of Duty, and more than that, it's a reminder that the franchise used to be special. I know that there's a lot of zillenials who want a return to "the good ol' days" of 360-era gaming, let me make it clear that this isn't what I'm saying at all. That era was not perfect, nor does it deserve to be idealized, but I believe there is a kernel of truth in saying that Call of Duty as a franchise did nothing but go downhill after this game, for one reason or another. The futuristic games that came out after it were a jumping of the shark, and any attempt at a WW2 game was attempting to sell itself on the simple fact that it wasn't futuristic. Then, of course, we had the series' hard reset in 2019 with Modern Warfare, bringing the series into a more modern age (no pun intended) of gameplay, at the expense of a similarly modern live service model, which every game after it would follow to varying degrees of intensity, resulting in the "slop mill" that both long-time and new fans are at ends with today. Now, why am I giving this spiel about the series rather than focusing on Black Ops II? Well, because I feel like it's important to turn back the clock a bit and focus on when the game came out, back when Infinity Ward and Treyarch weren't merged into one being, with the sole purpose of mining out more profit for Activision.

This game came out when Call of Duty was at its peak, when it was an event, and that's reflected in the game's budget and, similarly, its returning gross. And they knew this was going to be the high watermark. The campaign is bigger and meatier than any of the ones that came before it, taking the timeline jumps from BO1 and expanding on that idea in a very organic, natural way that helps make this feel like a true sequel in the same way that BO1 was a sequel to World at War. Outside of that, the challenges in every level and customizable loadouts (and branching narrative!) made replaying missions actually worthwhile, and the missions themselves are honestly all top-notch. Sure, there's a handful of seventh-gen "playable cutscenes" that feel like time wasters, but the varied settings, the supporting cast, and the gameplay twists (flightsuits, shooting through walls, horseback combat, being a little spider robot) make every mission feel unique and fresh.

I feel like saying this about a CoD game is one of the most generic compliments you can give, but the gunplay in this is some of the best of the series. Every gun has a really nice weight to it, nothing feels like a peashooter (helped by the great animations and superb sound design), but there's also a very satisfying... "snappiness" that just makes everything feel so damn good, like I'm upset that I can only use 2 weapons at a time when the entire arsenal is fun to use. This is a universal compliment since, obviously, all 3 modes use (mostly) the same weapons, but the campaign has some especially fun gimmick weapons; if I were to give love to one in particular, it would be the sniper in the LA mission that lets you shoot through walls, it's such a good gun that it makes that mission a highlight of the game for me.

Outside of the campaign, of course, are the two other modes, multiplayer and Zombies. Now, I won't talk too much on the multiplayer since I try not to focus on those aspects in my reviews (since it can be so subjective) but I will say that the gameplay of every mode, nearly all the maps, and of course the guns are all so great that it can be a blast just to play against bots; I say this confidently, because I used to do it all the time. As for the Zombies... without tapping into my obsession with the mode, I'll just say that this game probably has the best mode of the series. Wildly experimental for the time while still giving fun experiences to people who liked to play simple, blowing the hinges off in terms of making the mode feel like more of its own beast and not just something tacked on after the fact, and in general having, pound-for-pound, the best lineup of maps in the series. Sure, other games may have singular better maps, but every one of them here range from good to perfect. It may have been too ambitious at the time, but I'll gladly give it its flowers in retrospect.

I'll be honest and tell you: yes, I did play this game growing up. Yes, it was the CoD I spent the most time with. However, I'm not one to let nostalgia blind me. I've come back to this game numerous times over the years with a fresh pair of eyes, and every time, I'm still impressed with how it gets everything right for a CoD game; for a shooter game in general. With this recent replay, it cemented itself as the best game in the series, and a send-off to the golden age of Call of Duty, intentional or not. It's sad that the series never reached this height again, but considering just how good it is? Maybe it's unfair to ask it to.