The Story
Screenwriter David Goyer (The Dark Knight, Superman: Man of Steel) returned to help Treyarch develop the time-bending tale, and create what both parties believe will be an unforgettable villain in Menendez. Lamia can't help but remind me that Goyer was responsible for Heath Ledger's Joker.
Both Masons will receive help from Frank Woods who somehow did not die in the original Black Ops. In that game's campaign he tackled villainous Victor Kravchenko, who was wearing a belt of live grenades, out a window. Hidden intel in Black Ops hinted at the possibility of Woods being alive at a POW camp in Hanoi.
A very old Woods is still alive in 2025 and a narrator of sorts in Black Ops 2. He explains what happened in the 80s while on assignment with Alex Mason and why it matters in the game's present.
Woods has an ongoing story of his own, and though it's unclear, the Treyarch team hinted at a major third-act reveal imagined by Goyer. Maybe I'm way off, but could Woods have been brainwashed in Hanoi like Alex Mason was in Vorkuta in the original Black Ops?
Anyhow, in the late 1980s, which will be roughly a third of the game, you will see how Menendez becomes a monster of a man, and in 2025, you will see what he's capable of. It's rather unsettling.
What's most important, though, Lamia tells me, is believability. "We gotta be grounded," he repeats time and again, like a holy mantra.