Call of Duty: Black Ops II

The team at Treyarch could have played it safe and Black Ops II would have sold well, but instead they challenged assumptions and pushed the series forward in awesome new directions. It’ll be hard to return to a campaign where I don’t have the ability to shape it, and I simply can’t imagine going back to the old loadout system now that Pick 10 exists. Combined with the host of subtle and overt improvements to the array of other systems, the additions to make it more appealing to Esports, and the more fleshed out Zombies mode, this is not just a fantastic Call of Duty game, but one of the best shooters of the last decade.

Killing Floor and Left 4 Dead offer comparable thrills, and arguably more refined mechanics, but this is nonetheless an admirable component of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2's formidable and mildly refreshed online package. Without it, the singleplayer's occasional innovations do little to elevate the formula from vapidity, or help forgive its unpalatable tenor.