While we haven't gotten our first look at Raul Menendez, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Director David Anthony was quite keen on talking about the latest face of evil in Activision's franchise. Anthony paired up with The Dark Knight scribe David S. Goyer before development on the original Black Ops game had even wrapped.
Menendez is a multidimensional human being. That was the first place we wanted to start. We wanted players to understand the emotional conflict at the core of Menendez's actions, so we have players meet Raul Menendez as Alex Mason in the late 80s.
About one third of the game will be played as Alex Mason, seeing and understanding how this monster was created, to see what the monster is capable of.
I asked Anthony how much understanding would players gain from being a monster right alongside Menendez in these flashbacks, but the Director of Black Ops 2 was quick to point out that characters like Tony Soprano are just as relatable, but when they do something evil, the audience retains the ability to detach and revile the actions on screen.