Remember how Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (opens in new tab) had a huge amount of its content leaked (opens in new tab) six months before it launched? It seems simlar might be happening with Black Ops II (opens in new tab), if a set of purported beta files and a (now deleted) Amazon posting are to be believed. Fear not though, there will be no spoilers spoiled here.
The gist of the report is that information from supposed beta files detailing campaign (opens in new tab) and multiplayer (opens in new tab) maps has found its way onto the internet. Originating at Se7ensins, the apparent leak details 11 of the former (with story synopsis details) and 14 of the latter.
The MP selection is listed below (with certain now-known maps ommited due to this leak apparently coming from an early build). The campaign details can be found through the first link in the paragraph above.
Above: The expanse of water surrounding this dock may or may not have been formed by leaks
- Carrier: “Chinese Supercarrier. Open engagements on the deck, with great close quarter fights through the hull.”
- Cargo: “Port of Singapore. Good for close quarters engagements and verticality.”
- Drone: “Hidden drone facility in the heart of the Mynamar jungles. Great long engagements down the center, fun close quarter fights through the facility.”
- Express: “Los Angeles bullet train station. Good long to medium engagements up and down the bullet train tracks.”
- Hijacked: “Luxurious super yacht. Frantic, yet controlled close quarters engagements.
- Aftermath: “Set in a ruined downtown Los Angeles after an invasion.”
- Meltdown: “Pakistan nuclear power plant. Battle for control of the nuclear cooling tower and the surrounding facilities.”
- Nightclub: “Floating resort in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Tight corners and angles throughout.”
- Overflow: “Peshawar, Pakistan. Great urban engagements in the flooded streets.”
- Raid: “Fight through this hillside mansion, in the Hollywood Hills. Hectic close quarters engagements.”
- Slums: “Run down section of Panama. Great close quarters engagements and tough chokes to fight over.”
- Socotra: Update: Originally “Yemen” as seen in the Black Ops 2 Gamescom live streams. “Urban streets of Yemen. Tight alleys and close quarters engagements.”
- Turbine: “Wind farm in the steep hills of Yemen. Fight across the different tiers and angles.”
- Village: “Border town between China and Kyrgyzstan. Classic engagements and destinations to fight over.”
And in another addition to what seems increasingly to be becoming the Black Ops II Bumper Leak-Themed Fun Day And Car Boot Sale ™, the game’s listing on Amazon has today been spotted (opens in new tab) as making reference to “The inclusion of Zombies in gameplay, both as an option for multiplayer, and as a campaign option”. Said listing has now been changed. Involvement of a phone-melting ‘conversation’ with Activision’s lawyers currently unconfirmed.
Whether any of the above will turn out to be true is of course going to be a simple case of wait-and-see, but with Zombies becoming an ever-more fundamental element of Treyarch’s Call of Duty games, and gaining more of its own internal mythology with each entry, a fully-fledged Zombies campaign would surely be rigorously unsurprising to all at this point.