After a few years of quiescence, the blazar CTA 102 underwent a large outburst in the fall of 2012. The flare has been tracked from γ-rays to near-infrared, including Fermi and Swift data as well as polarimetric data from several observatories. An intensive GASP-WEBT collaboration campaign in optical and NIR bands, with the addition of previously unpublished archival data, allows comparison of this outburst with the previous activity period of this blazar in the early 2000s. We find remarkable similarity between the optical and γ-ray behavior of CTA 102 during the outburst, without any time lag between the two light curves, indicating co-spatiality of the optical and γ-ray emission regions. A strong harder-when-brighter spectral dependence is seen both in γ-rays and optical. The polarimetric behavior of CTA 102 during the outburst conforms with a shock-in-jet interpretation.