I could open this post with an obligatory excuse regarding the lack of updates. I could do that. I can also just go ahead and direct you to the Short Script for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 by clicking the link above. Or you can read it over at BeefJack, where it has pictures breaking up the monotony of a wall of text now and then. You can totally choose for yourself, which is something Treyarch tried to implement in the singleplayer campaign of Black Ops 2.

I've also reviewed Black Ops 2 over at BeefJack, which you can read here. At one point, I call out the game's villain, Raul Menendez, as being "almost too developed as a character. Over half the missions are meant to highlight the succession of tragedies that befell him and fostered his hatred of American interventionism and economic inequality, as well as his personal grudge against some of the protagonists."

These tragedies are detailed to the point that you actually get to play as Menendez during one of them, which is meant to evoke sympathy. Similarly, his status as "messiah for the 99%" plays off the contemporary themes of the Occupy Wall Street movement and is designed to make Menendez more than the average, card-carrying Call of Duty villain who is generally evil for the sake of being evil. In short, Menendez has a point, even though it's ultimately a cover for his sadistic and insatiable thirst for revenge.

It works, but only with previous Call of Duty games as a reference. In much the same vein, Black Ops 2's inclusion of branching storylines and multiple endings are new to this particular series, but nowhere near a novelty for the broader field of narrative in games. It's still a commendable effort, which my review reflects.

One last thing. Having recently seen Skyfall, it occurs to me that Menendez is actually very similar to that movie's villain, Raoul Silva. They are both Hispanic cyberterrorists who hold a personal grudge as a result of botched intelligence operations and hatch schemes that involve getting caught and brought to a very specific location where they can upload a virus. Even their first names are practically the same. And they both have some facial disfigurement, which looks like it has replaced the eyepatch as a visual indication of villainy.