CoD Black Ops: Escalation Map Pack Review

Treyarch released the second map pack for Black Ops this week – the Escalation Map Pack. It features four new multiplayer maps and one new zombie map/game. It’s a much better executed DLC pack than its predecessor.

Zombie Action:

The new zombie game is “Call of the Dead.”  It takes place during the filming of a zombie movie starring Danny Trejo, Michael Rooker, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Robert Englund, and directed by George Romero.

Things go along fine until the zombies show up and drag Romero into the freezing water.  Out of the freezing cold water comes Zombie Romero swinging a stage light!  Adding Zombie Romero is a nice touch, although it makes an already tough-to-manage zombie experience even harder.  Now instead of stacking your team in a defensible area, you have to keep moving to stay away from Zombie Romero.

In keeping with the zombie formula of yore, you still have to unlock debris to move on; you still have to rebuild barriers; and the mystery box is around doing what it does best.

The map itself is laid out in a manner meant to challenge and confuse you.  The falling snow and the fog add a layer of mystery and uncertainty. 

I personally feel that this is probably the best CoD zombie map to date due to the size and depth of the layout.  I’ve also seen a zombie coming down a zipline, which is probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in CoD: Zombies.  Also, there are weapons available that have never been seen in a CoD zombie game, but I’ll let you find those.

MP Map: Convoy

This map is set at a highway checkpoint at what appears to be a state border crossing.  There is a large elevated highway running North/South and a lower highway running East/West.  It’s a medium-sized map I would probably not like to see in ground war just for the simple fact that in a regular 6v6 game, you’re running into people very regularly.  Ground war would give it the nudge into ‘too many.’

There are plenty of alternate routes across the map, but it also might be a little unbalanced; the Black Ops team might find themselves in for a tough fight against even a mediocre team due to the building and route placement from side-to-side.  Each side has a similar amount of elevated places to shoot from, but the quality of the places and views offered to the Spetsnaz side are significantly higher and offer more cover. Even the paths up to the highway overlooks are quite different. Black Ops gets wood ramps and blue tarps for cover while the Spetsnaz gets cement stairs.  One you can shoot through. One you can’t.

Overall, I think it’s a fun map with a built-in challenge. 

MP Map: Zoo

Homage: respect or reverence paid.  That said, I think Zoo is a pretty blatant ripoff homage to Carnival in MW2.  Zoo is a very tricky map.  It doesn’t have any great sight lines or great paths through it.  It’s more of a Swiss-cheese map.  It has lots of nooks and crannies to traverse to get from one side to the other, and there aren’t generally any long range gunfights due to the lack of long sight lines.

Well, okay, there are a couple of places with long sight lines, but that’s the exception on this map rather than the rule.  Overall the map is pretty tight for 6v6, with lots of second-story areas to explore and exploit.  The monorail has seemed to be a popular destination for the sit-and-shoot gamer (camper).  Zoo has a lot of holes for people to hide in and not a lot of safe places to spawn if you have a good opponent. 

MP Map: Hotel

This is your typical two fort-style map layout.  It’s almost symmetrical with enough differences that you can pick up on which building you’re in.  Both sides have decent cover to cross from one end to the other, and good angles of fire from various places.

The neatest part of the map is the lowered bar in the center.  In a sense, it’s basically a turret.  The bar offers lots of protection and a nearly 360 degree field of fire.  The few games I’ve played on it, most of the time people tended to stick to the outdoors instead of the relative safety of the CQB environment in the hotel.

The hotel also has a new feature not seen before in the MP environment: elevators. The usefulness of those is based solely on your opponent.  The hotel has lots of entry and exit points, which makes for a fast-paced game if someone decides to hole up and think they’re holding the Alamo.

The map itself is detailed very well and has lots to look at. There are even a buttload of gold bars stacked outside for some reason.  I think Scarface lived there.  Just guessing though.

MP Map: Stockpile

Stockpile is the new WMD. Very similar ideas behind this map and very different executions of the idea.

Most of the fighting centers around a warehouse where the Russians are loading nukes into rocket nosecones.  The building features two doors that open and close via a switch on both sides.  Even with the doors shut, there are still lots of entry points on the building that don’t require giving anyone advance notice of your impending entry.

This map is medium sized, and you can run across it quickly.  It has lots of open buildings to use as cover and as means of safe travel.  SMGs are king here due to the small size and lack of long-range gunfights.  All in all, the map is easy to learn and just as easy to traverse.

Wrap-up

The Escalation Map Pack is a solid 4/5.  This map pack totally kicks the ass of the first one.

Call of the Dead exceeded my expectations and will probably get played more than the other zombie maps. It’s also fun to give whoever winds up as Sarah Michelle Gellar a lot of flak over her fine ass.

The MP maps will help breathe some more life into the CoD:Black Ops game, and bring a lot of people back for a while  As gamers, we welcome developer support, and I think Treyarch succeeded this time out.  It’s comparably priced to the other CoD series map pack downloads, and I think it delivers.