If you’re as totally addicted to Call of Duty as we are, you should have already downloaded the First Strike map pack released last week by Treyarch.
We’d been sitting cross-legged for days awaiting the launch and were lucky enough to be invited to test the new maps in a Grudge Match against NFL running backs Arian Foster and Maurice Jones-Drew – both of whom are very useful players (see separate Blog at www.eurotuner.com).
As one of the most popular games in the history of the gaming industry, Call of Duty: Black Ops has a huge following. In fact, it broke theatrical box office, book and video game sales records with $650 million sold in the first five days! As a result, the map pack should be similarly popular and profitable for the developers.
Available for 1200 Microsoft points – or about $15 – from the Xbox Live Marketplace, the First Strike pack includes five maps, which we’ve placed in ascending order of popularity.
Berlin Wall – this is our favorite map. Set in Cold War Germany, it includes a maze of narrow streets and two-storey buildings as well open ground complete with machine gun towers for the unwary.
The open ground provides plenty of long sight lines for sniping, while the multiple buildings give abundant cover for their stealthy moves. However, the narrow streets and multiple entry points give runners ample scope to find kills.
Inevitably, it’s a map that’s well-suited to claymores, so the Hacker Perk is advised in Berlin.
Having played it every day since it’s release, Berlin Wall continues to provide a dynamic playground for all styles of player, not favoring either snipers or runners. It’s snow-covered ground and detailed mapping also gives it perhaps the most realistic atmosphere of the new maps, if that matters to you.
Kowloon – another fantastic arena for first-person shooters, this Asian city skyline offers frantic action with its multiple levels and hidden doorways that mean you can’t relax for a second.
For the first time, the map also features ziplines for players to get from one area to another. It’s fast but leaves you vulnerable to enemy bullets since you can’t fire back.
We haven’t counted how many levels you can climb in Kowloon, but we’re constantly looking up and behind.
This is another map well suited to claymores thanks to its narrow pathways, numerous entryways and choke points.
Snipers can have a field day in Kowloon but it’s often short-lived because it’s almost impossible to hide in this map. Not matter where you hide, you’ll be seen from numerous vantage points.
Runners need to beware because there are simply too many places for people to ambush you. Therefore, the best tactic seems to be advancing with caution and picking off your targets as they present themselves, all while trying to ensure your back is covered. Not an easy task and why Kowloon is an excellent map.
Stadium – staged around a section of a sports stadium, this map offers a bewildering array of buildings and passageways to ambush your opponents. However, take care because movement through this map is fraught with danger – you simply never know who’s hiding around the many corners.
This definitely isn’t a map for snipers, since again there are too many sight lines to allow you to hide for long.
We seem to find ourselves pinned into the same areas of this map every time we play it. There is the similar mix of different height buildings and plenty of access as the previous maps, but it doesn’t seem to inspire the same level of frantic action.
It’s a good-looking map, but to date it hasn’t won us over with great gameplay.
Discovery – this is a great map, spoiled f by a huge gulley in the middle that interrupts play and simply doesn’t look realistic.
Otherwise, the combination of frigid buildings, bridges and catwalks invites players to engage in fast-flowing action. There are limited sight lines for sniping and too many entry points for them to relax for long, meaning the game is general fast-paced.
We love the attention to detail, such as the steaming heat pipes and building interiors. It’s definitely a map that’s growing on us, we just don’t feel it needed the gulley in the middle…
Ascension – this is one of Treyarch’s zombie maps. Unfortunately, we don’t play the zombie portion of the game so haven’t tried it. If you’re a zombie fan, it’s probably very good based on what we’ve seen before, but it’s not for us.