The First Strike map pack for “Call of Duty Black Ops” was a good map pack, But Teryarch’s follow up the Escalation Map made the first map pack look like nothing special. The Escalation map pack came available for public on May 3, 2011 exclusively to Xbox 360. The map pack cost 1200 Microsoft Points or 15 dollars it comes with 5 new maps, 4 multiplayer maps and one new addition to the very popular Zombies. The multiplayer maps are four new maps which are Convoy, Hotel, Stockpile, and Zoo.
Convoy, which is the first of the mutiplayer part of the map pack, is a whole different experience from the other maps. Convoy takes place in a city where the Russians had a failed attack an U.S. Soil. The map is a medium sized one it has many different main ways to go, which means that it has very tight choke points on which to control the flow of the other team. The map brings a whole new playing field for objective games like Search and Destroy because you can’t just stay in one spot and camp you actually have to keep moving that way the other team doesn’t come up behind you. But I think convoy is overall a alright addition to the Call of Duty Black Ops map library.
The next map in the pack is Hotel, a swanky hotel in the middle of Cuba on which you fight to control the rooftop. The map is a typical symmetrical map with two main buildings facing each other and three ways to get to each side you could either run through the middle of the map or take either one of two side paths. But the thing that makes hotel different from the other maps is that it has a new feature to multiplayer elevators! Yes elevators they may not seem like a big deal but they change up the map’s game play greatly. The reason the have such a great impact is because you have many different ways to get to the top but also the are quite which gives you the element of surprise, which is very useful against those camping noobs. In my opinion Hotel is a great map and the elevators change the battlefield greatly.
Another addition to multiplayer is Stockpile, which looks like a rural soviet Russian town but on the inside holds a WMD facility. Stockpile is a typical map for Call of Duty. Where you have one giant building in the middle and a bunch of them surrounding it but whats different about this one is that it has door that you can open and close in the main building once the are closed they stay shut for 30 seconds. This map pretty much sucks, it’s designed purely for campers.
The final part of the multiplayer portion of the map pack Zoo is an abandoned soviet Russian zoo. The map is medium sized it has long walk ways so there’s not really any C.Q.B here. The reason it is my favorite out of all the others is because you have the very high monorail and the underground tunnels. The monorail offers very good sniping spots with very good a view of a majority the map. The underground tunnels offer a very good way to sneak around the other team which is very key for the element of surprise. But when you put both the monorail and the tunnels together you have an unstoppable combo and you pretty much have a won game. Zoo is an great addition to Call of Duty Black Ops multiplayer and when put to great use its even better.
The final piece of the map pack and what I think makes it totally badass is the new addition to the very popular zombies. The new zombies map “Call of the Dead” takes place in an abandoned Siberian outpost where you and the rest of the cast are stranded when zombies come and take your director and turn him into one of them. The cast include Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead TV series), Danny Trejo (Machete), and George Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead) as the zombie director. Call of the Dead is like the typical zombies stay alive for as long as you can but the only difference is now you have George Romero chasing you around the map and trying to kill you. The map is pretty huge and filled with easter eggs and tons of guns to unload on the undead.
In my opinion the Escalation map pack is worth the 1200 MS points, I give the map pack a 5 out of 5.
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By Brent Butler