Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on PS5 Is a Multiplayer Classic Held Back by Its Price

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has arrived on PS5 as a native release, but Push Square's mini review lands a pointed verdict: the game is a genuine multiplayer classic that Activision is charging too much for.

The review praises Black Ops 2's core gameplay — its multiplayer still holds up as one of the best in the series, with tight gunplay and a pick-ten create-a-class system that defined a generation of shooters. The PS5 version is a native build, not a simple backward-compatibility patch, which means improved performance. PS Plus members get a 50% discount at launch, which softens the blow somewhat, but the full asking price is flagged as hard to justify for a game originally released in 2012.

Black Ops 2 launched in 2012 under Treyarch and is widely regarded as a high point for the Call of Duty series — its multiplayer, Zombies mode, and branching campaign all earned strong praise at the time. The PS5 native versions of both Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2 were announced and released in quick succession in July 2026, alongside a companion review of Black Ops 1 that Push Square called "one big rip-off" — suggesting the pricing criticism applies across both re-releases.

With the PS Plus discount available at launch, players already subscribed to the service are in a better position, but anyone paying full price for a 14-year-old game will want to weigh that carefully. Community reaction is likely to mirror the review's frustration — nostalgia for Black Ops 2 runs deep, but so does skepticism about Activision's re-release pricing strategy.