If you were sitting in a pre-game lobby back in 2013, you remember the sound. That specific, slightly synthesized shink of someone scrolling through their weapon skins. Most people were rocking Gold or Diamond if they’d put in the hours, but then you’d see it—a weapon literally wrapped in strips of sizzling, marbled pork. The Black Ops 2 bacon camo wasn't just a cosmetic. It was a cultural reset for the Call of Duty franchise. It was weird. It was greasy. Honestly, it was a little bit gross if you stared at the textures for too long. But it changed how Activision handled microtransactions forever.
Before the "Personalization Packs" dropped in April 2013, your camo options were strictly earned through blood, sweat, and headshots. You wanted cool colors? You earned them. Then Treyarch decided to experiment with a $1.99 price point. They gave us choices like Graffiti, Benjamins, and Kawaii, but the bacon stood out because it was so fundamentally absurd. It didn't fit the gritty, near-future military aesthetic of 2025. It looked like someone had raided a breakfast buffet and glued the leftovers to an AN-94.
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The Design That Shouldn't Have Worked
The texture work on the Black Ops 2 bacon camo is actually fascinatingly detailed for a game running on seventh-generation consoles. It wasn't just a flat red color. It featured distinct white fat marbling and a charred, crispy edge that wrapped around the barrel of your gun. When you aimed down sights, you weren't looking at a red dot; you were looking at the charred remains of a pig.
Why did it work? Because it was the ultimate "BM" (bad manners) move. Getting killed by a pro player with a Diamond camo sniper rifle felt expected. Getting cross-mapped by a guy wielding a piece of breakfast meat was an insult to injury. It broke the tension of the game. You'd be sweating out a League Play match, heart racing, and then you’d see a bacon-wrapped DSR-50 in the killcam. You couldn't even stay mad.
Microtransactions Before They Got Weird
We have to talk about the context of 2013. This was the era where DLC meant map packs. You paid fifteen bucks, you got four maps and maybe a zombies level. The idea of "camo packs" was brand new. When Treyarch introduced these, they didn't put them in loot boxes. There were no "Supply Drops" yet. That's the part people forget. You paid two dollars, and you got the camo, three unique reticles, and a calling card.
The Black Ops 2 bacon camo came with a reticle that looked like a little slice of bacon. It was objectively terrible for precision shooting. It obscured half the lens. But people used it anyway because the commitment to the bit was more important than the K/D ratio.
Technical Limitations and Visual Quirks
The engine used for Black Ops 2—a heavily modified version of the IW engine—handled lighting in a way that made certain camos "pop." On maps like Raid or Standoff, where the lighting was crisp and bright, the bacon camo had a glossy sheen. It looked oily. If you moved into the shadows of the laundry room on Raid, the red hues deepened. It felt reactive, even though it wasn't.
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Compare this to modern CoD skins. Today, we have "Mastercrafts" that turn guns into literal dragons or glowing neon signs. They move, they breathe, they have animations. The bacon camo was static. It was just a wrap. Yet, it holds more nostalgia for the community than almost any $20 bundle in the modern Warzone store.
There's a reason for that. It felt like an inside joke between the developers and the players. It wasn't a corporate "collaboration" with a fast-food chain. It was just Treyarch saying, "Hey, what if the gun was food?"
The Legacy of the Sizzle
If you look at the games that followed, you can see the "Bacon Effect" everywhere. Ghosts had the Space Cats camo. Advanced Warfare went full-blown steampunk. But they were chasing the high of that first bacon drop. The Black Ops 2 bacon camo proved that players were willing to break immersion for the sake of personality.
Why It Hasn't Returned Properly
Fans have been begging for a true "Bacon 2.0" for years. We've seen similar skins, like the "Bacon" skin in Black Ops 4 or various food-themed blueprints in Modern Warfare II (2022), but they never quite hit the same. Part of it is the lighting. Modern games use physically-based rendering (PBR), which makes materials look realistic. Bacon in 4K looks like... well, raw meat. It’s a bit too realistic. It loses that "video gamey" charm that the 2013 version had.
Also, the original pack was universal. You bought it once, and you could slap it on every single weapon in the game. From the combat knife to the RPG. Today, you usually buy a "blueprint" for one specific gun. The freedom of the BO2 era is gone, and that's why the nostalgia for that specific pork-themed skin remains so high.
How to Experience It Today
If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can actually still play Black Ops 2 on Xbox via backward compatibility. Surprisingly, the servers are still kicking, though you'll run into the occasional modder. The store is still functional, too. You can still drop the two bucks to get that Black Ops 2 bacon camo and run around Plaza like it’s 2013 again.
On PC, the Plutonium project is the way to go. It’s a fan-made client that fixes the security flaws of the original Steam version and allows for custom servers. Most Plutonium servers have all the DLC camos unlocked by default. It’s the best way to see the camo in high resolution without dealing with the "RNP" (Reset Next Play) bugs that sometimes plague the official servers.
Expert Tips for Using "The Meat"
If you're going back to play, don't just put the camo on and call it a day. To get the full 2013 experience, you have to lean into the absurdity.
- The Knife Combo: The bacon camo on the combat knife is arguably the best look in the game. It looks like you're holding a very sharp, very lethal Slim Jim.
- Avoid the Reticle: Seriously. The bacon reticle is a death trap. Stick to the standard red dot or the "EOTech" style fringe if you actually want to hit anything.
- The Calling Card: Use the "Bacon" calling card that comes in the pack. It features a piece of bacon wearing sunglasses. It tells your opponent exactly what kind of player you are before the match even starts.
The Black Ops 2 bacon camo represents a specific moment in gaming history. It was the bridge between the "old" Call of Duty and the "new" era of heavy monetization. It was the first time we realized that we didn't want our military shooters to be 100% realistic all the time. Sometimes, we just wanted to shoot people with a piece of breakfast.
To get the most out of your nostalgia trip, start by checking if your old Xbox Live or PSN account still has the licenses. If not, the Plutonium client on PC is your best bet for a clean, modernized experience. Look for servers labeled "Vanilla Plus" to ensure the original weapon balancing is intact while you show off your pork-wrapped arsenal.
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Ultimately, the bacon camo isn't just about the meme. It’s a reminder that games used to be a little more playful, a little less concerned with "seasons" and "battle passes," and a lot more concerned with whether or not a gun wrapped in meat looked cool in a killcam. It did. It still does.