If you were left feeling a little underwhelmed by the first Black Ops DLC or if you didn't buy it in the first place, this is a very good place to jump in.
The price is, as always with COD, 1200MS points. But for that you get four multiplayer maps, which are Zoo, Stockpile, Convoy and Hotel, and one zombie map by the name of 'Call of the Dead'. The multiplayer maps are all nicely laid out and varied, and take place in some interesting back-drops.
Hotel is, what else but a hotel. If you liked High Rise from MW2, then you'll certainly like this. There are good sight lines from either spawn points, along with a total of four elevators, two on either side. These can either be excellent flanking tools, or complete deathtraps, it really just depends upon when you use them. Zoo is a very good map, with good, close quarters action and a monorail running around the left hand side of the map. Much like the elevators, it can be excellent for getting from A to B, but it's very noticeable. Stockpile is in a Russian controlled village, with Cold War weaponry decorating the scene. This is a good map for objective based games and for snipers, due to the long sightlines and the lack of usable cover. Finally, Convoy, my favourite. It is based on a motorway, and the middle of the motorway has caved in, providing a good avenue of escape should you need it. Another good map for snipers and long range weaponry (becoming a bit of theme isn't it), it has two walkways, about 50-75M apart, which are situated either side of the collapsed section. G11's and M16's are highly recommended for this map, or a SMG if you're a run and gun type of player.
Call of the Dead. This will be a relief to the many who were slightly disappointed by Ascension from the First Strike Map Pack. It's actually the first map to involve real celebrities as the playable characters. They are Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy fame, Danny Trejo from quite a few movies actually, Michael Rooker from The Walking Dead and the original Freddy Krueger, Robert Englund. The map is situated upon a lighthouse and a ship with a broken bow. You start off on a small island, looking into a large pool of water. From it rises an electrified, zombified, pissed off George Romero, who is wielding a movie studio light as his weapon. He can run after you if you shoot him, but for the most part he slowly trundles around the map after you, shouting at you "You can't run away... Ok maybe you can but DON'T!" He can also make zombies sprint at you, which in the first few rounds can be irritating, but by round fourteen this can kill your team outright. Another thing has been remedied from Ascension, the achievements. The achievements were incredibly easy and offered no replay value to the DLC, leaving many feeling short-changed. The achievement for this are much more challenging. There are two about the two new weapons (We'll get to them later) and two for sending Nikolai, Takeo, Dempsey and Richtofen to Paradise. This is essentially a huge easter egg which will require huge amounts of co-ordination to complete. It's even larger than the Kassimir Mechanism from Ascension, and that gave you no achievements. The two new weapons are a welcome addition to the game and feel very different and yet exceedingly powerful. The Scavenger is essentially an explosive sniper rifle. It shoots three hugely powerful rounds in a clip and will vaporise any surrounding zombies. When pack-a-punched this becomes the Hyena Infra-Dead, and has more power, more ammo, a thermal sight and generally more brilliance. The V-R11 is a much more tactical gun than the Scavenger. It has many odd and not that well known benefits. Yes, it does turn a zombie into a human, creating a running and screaming Monkey Bomb, but it's a lot more powerful than that. It can change George from berserk to calm and vice-versa and when pack-a-punch it it becomes the V-11 Lazarus, which has even tastier treats.When you shoot this at a teammate they becomes completely invincible for 15 seconds and has insta-kill like properties, which is superb when surrounded or in need to clear a crowd.
4.0