It may not hold the overt irony of Nazi Zombies, but the clever writing, frantic pacing and maddening dependence on teamwork make this the strongest entry in Call of Duty’s zombie series. Riding the undead bus into a sudden zombie apocalypse in the third pig’s house, Zombies, retains the arcade shooter framework that has built a sturdy following since Call of Duty: World at War and clears room for some sizable space additions. Not since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the game that changed the course of military first-person shooters, has the competitive online component had so thoughtful an architecture and such a wide foundation. Multiplayer chases the impetus of expertise, alienating its emergent narratives from the relatively shallow military double-crossing in the campaign’s mini-stories, and creating a subculture all its own. The shelter of a “branching storyline” can’t stand on its own for more than a few action-packed sequences. The blockbusting, roller coasting, set-piecing campaign pulls from both Call of Duty: Black Ops and Mario Party, sampling discrete chunks of explosive first-person shooter experiences that each require a small amount of explanation and no mastery. It hogties a campaign, multiplayer and a zombies mode together with mechanical rope, just daring the player to huff and puff it all down. Call of Duty: Black Ops II is like the neighborhood of the Three Little Pigs.
