Call of Duty®: Black Ops II

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This game is goated

Black Ops 2 is the one COD game from that era that people point to when they want to argue the series used to mean something, and they're not wrong even if it's become a slightly tired argument at this point. Treyarch swung bigger here than anyone expected. Branching storylines in a Call of Duty campaign, choices that actually changed the ending, a villain in Raul Menendez that had more characterization than the entire roster of most shooters from that year. For a franchise that had largely settled into a reliable popcorn formula by 2012 it was a genuine surprise and it landed. The multiplayer was the peak of what Pick 10 loadout building could be, giving players enough flexibility to actually express a playstyle rather than just selecting from a menu of presets. Competitive COD still talks about that era fondly and with good reason. The problem is that going back now means contending with the weight of everything the series became afterward. Black Ops 2 exists in the rearview mirror of a franchise that spent the following decade chasing trends and losing ground, and revisiting it carries that baggage whether you want it to or not. Still a few bucks on sale is the right call if the nostalgia hits. The campaign alone is worth that price just to see what Treyarch managed to pull off inside the constraints of a yearly release cycle. Not something you'd replay regularly but worth having experienced.