Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 interview: avoiding the sci-fi feel

Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia talks about the future setting and carefully balancing the plausibility with the future-tech nature of Black Ops 2.

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Five years ago, the Call of Duty series took a leap out of its traditional historical settings into modern day. Tomorrow, the series takes another jump forward in time in Black Ops 2, marking the first time the series has examined a near-future setting. This one change impacts everything from the storytelling to tools. We talked with Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia about how the studio approached such a radical change.

"We wanted to keep it feeling plausible and grounded as we were creating our fiction, but also make sure it's in service of the game as well," Lamia told Shacknews. "We try to become subject matter experts. That's easy when you're talking about the past, because there are books and you can talk to people." When it came to the future, though, Lamia said they relied on the expertise of author Peter Singer, who was featured in an early trailer for the game.

Sometimes, expert projections would predict changes that, while realistic, didn't feel realistic. "Is the world going to be full of energy based laser weapons or projectile weapons?" These are all things that we went through and debated." He also mentions that the sniper rifle, which charges for a more powerful shot, went through "numerous iterations" because in context of the game, it 'felt too sci-fi-ish.'"

Getting the feel of realism touched the vehicles as well, and especially the unmanned drones. "We did our research and our homework, and the first thing that came out [for the CLAW drone] was this thing that was a lot leaner and had a more animalistic form factor. That may be plausible, that may be a direction that technology is going, but what we had felt more grounded for the time frame and we went a different direction."

Meanwhile, the globe-trotting settings had to reflect the future as well. When visiting ancient structures, Lamia says they could create a juxtaposition. "This structure might not get torn down in the next 13 years, but in the interiors you have some element of future technology that will be available without changing the identity of the city." He also referenced a future-city in the form of a man-made island resort, which stands in stark contrast to ancient structures that have been modernized.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will hit PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 tomorrow. A Wii U version will be available next week.

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  • reply
    November 12, 2012 12:15 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 interview: avoiding the sci-fi feel.

    Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia talks about the future setting and carefully balancing the plausibility with the future-tech nature of Black Ops 2.

    • reply
      November 12, 2012 2:37 PM

      Anonymous being taken seriously and hacking something of value is sci-fi to me. Real classy, Treyarch.

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      November 12, 2012 5:14 PM

      I hope the snipers allow some no-scope and quick-scope action. Main reason why I played call of duty was because of the snappiness and feel of the "single well placed bullet" weapons (in cod 1 and 2 it was the bolt action rifles like the kar98k, in cod4 the m40a3 and r700). However, they nerfed quick-scoping in the last few cods because it pissed off too many people who couldn't, and didnt adhere to their mass-market noob-friendly/everyone-can-get-kills/spam-away agenda that they have been pushing more and more recently.

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      November 12, 2012 9:34 PM

      "Avoiding" the sci-fi feel? Then why advertise the fucking thing as futuristic?

      DICE did a fantastic job with 2142, made it fun and didn't get all anal about player perceptions.

      CoD can't die fast enough for me. This was a once great IP that ended up with too many fingers in the mix.

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        November 12, 2012 10:46 PM

        I fucking MISS COD 1 and 2 :(

        I loved the kar98, of course, I'm a pc player, well, was - I'm really on my xbox moreso these days, but I'm still debating if BLOPS2 is worth picking up...

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