Perks are an integral part of Call of Duty’s online multiplayer – but those players who rely on certain perks to remain competitive might be in for a bit of a shock with Black Ops 2. As a way to make the game more balanced than previous efforts, Treyarch’s multiplayer designer David Vonderhaar has warned that he’s able to rebalance perks – and will happily nerf those that are being abused.
“Perks were pretty important for us to rethink, because they were getting too complex. You had perks, perk pros, perks that influence you, perks that influence your gun, perks that influence team mates,” he said speaking to CVG (via Gameranx). “We’ve simplified that so perks only ever affect your character, and more importantly, Black Ops II’s perks aren’t absolutes,” he continued, “In Black Ops our only balancing options were to remove the perk or keep it – now we can tune any perk by increments to nerf it or improve it.”
“I can nerf perks and I will, mark my words,” Vonderhaar warned. “A perk should never be something you need just to compete. A perk is ‘I got a parking spot,’ or ‘the soda machine gave me free soda.’ Your life shouldn’t depend on it. The community helped me understand that, and that’s why our new system has no absolutes. We can try to make it the most balanced CoD ever.”
I’ve never really worried about which perks I choose in Call of Duty…mostly because my time is generally spent being entirely dead.
Last Updated: September 25, 2012
