Call of Duty has certainly cemented itself into the online community as one of the largest names in the gaming. Each year, Call of Duty comes out with a new game in it’s alignment. Black Ops II was highly anticipated by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world , but on the release day in late November, it certainly did not live up to expectations for many.

I caved in and got the game a few weeks after release date for one thing in mind, online multiplayer. When I got the game, I found it quite enjoyable. The graphics were far better than 2011’s Call of Duty: MW3. Every so often I would find myself frustrated from a gamer’s biggest enemy, lag. Lag is when your connection is less superior to the people you are playing against, and it shows. You lose control of your player, the screen freezes, and 9 out of 10 times, you will die from the enemy that is not experiencing any lag.

These laggy games were not a big problem and I’d simply back out. But around Christmas time, when many Christmas “noobs” got the game, I had the a very frustrating experience. I would lag every game I got into. I am a better than average player, but level one noobs would get shot by me more than enough times to kill them, but they would turn on me and then shoot me twice in the foot and then I would die. Treyarch calls this new installment “lag compensation.”Players with better connections get the advantage over all others with less superior connection.

Lag is my biggest problem, but is certainly not my only. Just to list a few. Head glitching,where a player ducks up and down a barrier and is not seen, was a big problem in other COD installments and was supposed to be not as relevant in BOII, but I feel it is worse in this game more than any other. Camping,staying in one spot for an entire game, was supposed to be virtually eliminated in this game with exceptions in perks. Players had to be moving when the UAV was up to not be spotted, this was good at first for experienced players because of the constant UAV spam, but Treyarch made it so UAVs cost more,from a recent update, and they are rarely put up. This made it so people can camp to their hearts content, which is extremely aggravating.

As a runner up issue to lag, spawns are another huge problem in BOII. Spawns are where you come back to life after you die. Before the game was released, game designers said that they would make it so you have time before you engage in a gunfight. But in the game, spawn trapping is the easiest thing to do. I have been spawn trapped in almost every game mode, so I finally just decided to play free-for-all just so I am not spawn trapped. Multiple times throughout the game, I would spawn and immediately get killed by a random person just walking by and not intentionally spawn trapping.

Overall, the game was a bust. Activision had graphics and good guns going for them in online multiplayer, but lag and multiple more issues made the game frustrating and unenjoyable. I can’t say I recommend it especially for the $60 price tag, actually, I regret it. Save your money and don’t buy $60 of frustration.