An introduction to 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 2' with Treyarch Studio Head Mark Lamia

Treyarch Studio Head Mark Lamia introduces us to the futuristic world of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Want to hear about the new Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 from the man in charge of its development studio? We sat down the Mark Lamia, Studio Head of Treyarch, to learn how we got from the end of Call of Duty: Black Ops in 1968 to the sequel's late 1980s and 2025 settings.

"While most of the game takes place in that future setting," says Lamia, "you're going to be reliving part of the the first Cold War in that late 80s period through the eyes of Woods, who, of course, you played alongside with in Black Ops."

"It's a direct sequel to Black Ops," says Lamia. "You're going to play as Alex Mason from Black Ops [...] It's a generational game. You're going to play as David Mason, the son of Alex Mason, in the future. And you're going to visit Woods who is telling you about a time when he and your father met the villain of Black Ops 2. You're living out that part of the Cold War where you see through their eyes how this villian, that is going to be central to the story of Black Ops 2, comes about. You're going to see what his motivations are. And in that future time period, that's when you're going to see just what this villain is capable of."

Lamia discusses the Reagan Doctrine, the franchise's fiction and working with The Dark Knight screenwriter David Goyer.

[Listen up, commenters. Black Ops ends in 1963, during a flashback to the Kennedy Assassination. So don't give me guff! Okay, you can give me a little guff.]