Call of Duty: First Strike

             I recently purchased the Call of Duty map pack and have been able to play it for the past few days to kind of get an opinion on it. The pack is a five level pack consisting of The Berlin Wall, Discovery, Kowloon, Stadium, and the new zombie level Ascension.  The pack is exclusive to Xbox 360 as of right now but will be coming to PS3 in March.  For fifteen bucks you get these five new maps and in my opinion I would have to say it is worth it. I was a little skeptical to fork out the money especially since I have heard mixed reviews from different sources.  I intended on buying the map pack just for the zombie level but as I’ve played the other maps I have really started to like them more and more. To give a brief breakdown of the levels:

Berlin Wall: Personally it is my favorite of the new level’s it’s a level more or less broke into two sides so great for any kind of team battles.  It is a medium size map that is imaged after the Berlin wall. It has a no-man’s land that runs through the center as a divider. It has several builds in which to hid in and shoot at the streets below which are very fun.

Discovery: This level is a snow-covered level with a couple two-storied buildings and several small crates and vehicles to hide behind. It adds a nice element by having a few of the snow-covered walkways to be destroyed. This level like Berlin Wall and Stadium is a pretty good level if sniping is the way you like to go. Several of the buildings have really good vantage points one the center bridge of the map and also there is a railing that goes from one side of the map to the other and has a great view but no where to really take cover so it doesn't make for a good place to camp. 

Stadium: This map is about the same size as Berlin Wall and consists of several building in the edges overlooking a central point. I really enjoy this level as well, you have a lot of hiding spots and there is one area in one of the buildings that is good for straight up firefights. There are a few places that I wish they could have fixed such as one building that could have had a great vantage point but they stuck a a/c unit up there which renders it more or less useless, but it is still a really fun map.

Kowloon: The only map that I don’t really care for. This map is about medium size with a ton of different buildings on different levels. I find it almost impossible to play here without getting mad about it. All the different buildings seem to have four or five entrances so it’s becomes a problem to try and watch your back, but also trying to keep moving without the shelter of a building leaves you sticking out like a sore thumb. This level is definitely my least favorite; hopefully it will grow on me though.

Ascension: The next chapter in the Nazi zombie story line has you in a Russian space facility. It’s the biggest zombie map to date and it is massive! They have taken away a few things while adding more such as monkeys to replace the hellhounds and the crazy scientist, as well as two new perk machines. The monkeys are much more annoying than I was hoping for, how they work is only show up after you get a perk and after that they try to destroy the machine which will make you lose your perk. If you are able to kill them before they take any of your perks you will get a random perk in addition to max ammo. As far as the zombies so they are more at lower levels, they are slightly stronger than on the other two maps, and have to ability to dodge or roll to avoid getting shot.  With how big the level it is, it makes it very confusing to get around at first but once we got the hang of it we really just stayed in one area. They replace the teleporter with a Lunar Lander, which takes less time to recharge and has saved our butts way to many times. The monkey bombs are replaced with the Gersch Device, sucks zombies into a black hole, and the Matryoshka Dolls, a bouncing bomb that keeps exploding. It is really fun once you get the hang of it but the size still seems to become problematic and my roommates and I were disappointed that they didn’t give us a few new guns.

   All in all I would have to say this is a great map pack to pick up even for fifteen bucks. Although with five maps that’s about three bucks apiece so really it’s not so bad. Tell us what you think about it and what’s your favorite level? Also if you have any strategies you like to use please let us know.

Pictures from:

Call of Duty: www.daxgamer.com

Discovery: www.codforum.com

Stadium: www.gamebolt.com

Berlin Wall: live.drjays.com

Kowloon: www.bifuteki.com

Ascension: www.wegotthiscovered.com