Or at least somewhere that likes Cuba a lot – and who likes Cuba more than bloody Cuba? Treyarch recently posted an informative behind the scenes video that broadly discussed how Black Ops 2 will push the gaming envelope so far that it knocks into the bar that they’re also raising, so that the bar raiser and the envelope pusher start to argue about who has right of way. Hidden with that video were some tantalising clues as to the setting of the game’s popular zombie mode. I’ve done some investigating, and everything’s coming up Cuba.
“The map will be bigger than any map we’ve ever done,” claims Treyarch’s Jimmy Zielinsky, a man whose job title is genuinely ‘Creative Lead, Zombies’. “It’s about just making it more open for the player, more choices, things to do, it’s going to be exciting.” As his deliberately unspecific optimism rattles around our ears, we’re shown the screens of level designers as they tweak geometry and float around in-progress levels. It’s here we find our biggest and juiciestCuba-clues.
Doesn’t that get your suspicion gland pumping? If you’ll forgive the quality of the image (a screenshot of a video recording of a screen displaying an unrendered andincomplete level), it clearly shows the face of Fidel Casto (a playable character in the previous game’s zombie mode) set against the standard of his glorious little communist island. But perhaps this is just a Cuban-themed bar, you argue? After all, Cuban-themed bars are a very popular sort of bar, aren’t they? I’m sure you’ve been in loads of them, those “Cuban-themed bars” that are everywhere according to you. Poor detective work, reader! Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got even more sleuthing to do. Exhibit B is below, a piece of concept art briefly shown in the video.
Is that not the back halfof one of those sort of “Cuban” looking cars? One of the iconic ’50s yank tanks that swarm the sun-drenched streets of Havana? It certainly looks like it to this eagle-eyed Sherlock-beater. Could Cuba be one of the maps being introduced in Black Ops 2? The clues are there.Something I can’t account for, however, is the tiny appearance (really, squint)of the English word ‘Bank’ in the next screen, a distinctly non-Spanish word that probably has no right being in Cuba. Perhaps it’s a placeholder until they can fit the word ‘Banco’ in there? You may draw your own conclusions.
The less said about that ‘corn dogs’ sign the better, too. What you reckon? Are we Cuba Gooding? Or Cuba… Noping?