Luck has certainly been shining on us the past few months, as we’ve scored several invites to map pack launch events for Call of Duty: Black Ops from game developers Treyarch.
For each launch, the company has invited sports stars to a grudge match shoot-out in a bunker deep under Treyarch’s California lair. This time around it was the turn of Jason Terry from the NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks and Rudy Gay from the Memphis Grizzlies. They’d take their rivalry from the court to the Xbox 360 with the new downloadable content.
We got a chance to speak to Jason and he confessed to being a committed gamer. Apparently he spends hours in the game, sniping from vantage points but usually prefers to go solo. According to the player, he rarely goes online, so Treyarch’s 12-player shoot-out was a revelation for the man who led his team of warrior to victory on the court and in cyberspace on this occasion.
Coming barely two months after the launch of the Escalation map pack, we were curious to see what the new DLC had to offer. We have to admit the maps are impressive and instantly play with fluidity. The layouts encourage movement and there is plenty of cover to avoid snipers and flank the enemy.
One of the more controversial elements is the Hazard map, which takes place on a golf course, but is actually a rehash of an older map from COD: World at War called Cliffside.
We spoke to David Vonderhaar, Game Design Director at Treyarch, about this map (you can see his response on our video at www.eurotuner.com and www.youtube.com/eurotuner). He claims it was developed in response to requests from game players to see some of their favorite maps return.
Rather than simply revive the old map, the developers have changed almost every element except the topography. So rather than being set besides the ocean, it takes place on a golf course with buildings, fairways and bunkers.
On first sight, you’re hard pressed to spot the similarity between the two maps, only the access points and pathways being the same. We certainly enjoyed playing it and critics should try the new scenery before condemning what is a dramatic overhaul.
The Annihilation map pack is available for download from Xbox Live from 6/28/11. The price is 1200 Xbox points or $14.99. this is the third map pack from Treyarch for the Black Ops game and they would make no comments on whether additional content would be made available before the launch of the next game in the Call of Duty series.
For more of our thoughts about each game, please keep reading:
Although we only had a few brief sessions on each map, Silo initially emerged as our favorite. It’s a huge arena with lots of buildings and sniping positions, but ample cover to evade the enemy and fire from cover.
The gritty Russian setting gives the game lots of atmosphere. You can almost here the mud sloshing under your feet.
The sniping points are plentiful but we imagine they’ll soon be avoided since there are so many access points to fire back from. You almost make yourself more of a target by heading for the towers and overhead spaces that seem so inviting at first.
The developers have added a number of pipes and underground tunnels to gain access to the most appealing areas, meaning nobody will feel safe staying put in one place for long.
Silo definitely works well for those who are prepared to put on some running shoes and slog it out in the mud, but it will definitely appeal to snipers who are intelligent enough not to remain in one place for long.
Reminding us slightly of Carnival from COD: Modern Warfare, drive-in has an open area in the center that inevitably becomes a bloodbath for anybody venturing into it. Most players use the buildings on either side to make ground, avoiding the snipers in the higher positions at each end of the map.
With plenty of cover but the constant danger of being flanked, Drive-in kept a fast pace but has numerous bottlenecks to provide a challenge for the more experienced players.
There are several two-storey buildings to shoot down on enemy players and lots of corners to leave claymores for the unsuspecting.
Again, this level will allow snipers to practice their art, but don’t expect them to be long-lived. Gaining height improves visibility, both for those your hunting and the people aiming at you.
We definitely enjoyed the open nature of the gameplay that Drive-in encouraged and look forward to playing this smaller map again. It has some of the energy of the current Nuketown map, but with a more generous acreage and less chance of spawn kills.
A successful overhaul of Cliffside from Treyarch’s COD: World at War, this map is set on the rolling greens of a Cuban golf course on a sunny day. The lighting is more dynamic, less moody than the other maps, but the long fairways mean you’re going to be at the mercy of snipers.
Just as with Cliffside, there are access routes to fight your way around the central killing zone, but these choke points can easily leave you exposed to claymores or ambush.
While there is abundant cover, don’t expect to remain in one position for long. The pace on Hazard is fast but always deadly.
When playing Hardcore Deathmatch on Cliffside, the teams would often be forced into taking cover, with nobody wanting to make a dash through the sniper fire. We hope Hazard doesn’t suffer from the same inactivity, although our initial experiences suggest players are eager to explore the new map.
Set in the notorious Area 51, around the hangar of an SR71 spy plane, this map draws players into the multi-level hangar for most of the action. The surrounding buildings have limited sight-lines, so you’ll need to enter the hangar either through the side doors, lower tunnels or over the aircraft itself.
The close combat is well suited to Capture The Flag games or Headquarters, etc where players need to hold strategic positions. In Deathmatch mode, we suspect the team holding the hangar will be hard to dislodge.
It’s a good-looking map with a few alien references thrown in for humor, but it doesn’t seem to have the flexibility of Hazard or Silo perhaps.
For players who love the Zombie levels, Annihilation has the exotic Shangri-La level that takes place in a shrine lost deep in the jungle. The map is intersected by underground caverns, deadly traps and dark secrets in shifting walls to keep the zombie-infested temple challenging.
As we’ve said before, we don’t really play the zombie content on COD, but fans will definitely enjoy this lush map that includes new weapons and hideous new ways of dying.