Another novelty for the series is the opportunity to modify your loadouts like multiplayer games before beginning each mission and a somewhat less linear narrative. It is the first installment in the series to concentrate heavily on unmanned drones and other forms of robotic technology. The story revolves around a new cold war between China and the United States over rare earth elements (REE) and Menendez’s manipulation of the market for them.

These future missions also feature an older version of Woods, who provides exposition for the 1980s backdrop. The future missions all feature the same antagonist, Raul Menendez, whose decades-long vendetta is the primary focus of the single-player campaign. Both of these characters can be found in the past timeline. The two timelines and the tale are related by the playable characters Alex Mason and Frank Woods in the past timeline and David Mason, who is Alex Mason’s son in the future. Most of the game takes place in the not-too-distant future, in 2025, although about a third of it is also set in the late 1980s.

Black Ops II is the ninth main title in the Call of Duty franchise and the sequel to the first-person shooter game Call of Duty: Black Ops.