..Call of Duty: Black Ops II..

PARTIAL REVIEW | ? Comments |

After playing a few games in the new Nuketown Zombies map released for Call of Duty: Black Ops II, I would have to say that I would only recommend downloading it if you've already bought a season pass. As a stand-alone map for the Zombies mode, it doesn't stand well on its own, taking the popular map and its close quarters focus and changing it for the worse when trying to adapt it to the Zombies mode.

Nuketown Zombies is a new zombified version of the popular map, taking the aesthetics and applying it to the original Nuketown map from the original Call of Duty: Black Ops instead of this year's sequel. The familiar pristine, all-American setting has now been destroyed by a nuke and charred mannequins eerily stand in place as zombies come out of nowhere. Looking in the distance also shows a mushroom cloud, and the map now has the feeling that it's actually an island, if you look into the horizon.

Since this map is familiar to the players, the focus now is unlocking areas of the map and being able use shortcuts honed over the years, which is where everything falls apart. Initially, the map is shut off, with simple shortcuts being blocked until enough points are earned to unlock them.  The map definitely has a unique feel to it compared to the other Zombies maps, but it takes too much effort to unlock different areas that don't really reward the effort taken to earn points to access them.  I was disappointed to spend 3,000 points to remove the barricade near the bus, only to see that it just stopped me from having to go around the bus and gives access to four new weapons.

Expanding the map through unlocking doors to the houses makes random weapon boxes available to use, and the zombies don't seem to come to the backyards too much, which gives a bit of a breather when overwhelmed. While playing, I just couldn't shake the feeling that the map's initial starting point had plenty of sections that make it easy to fend off the hordes of zombies, and with two weapon purchases readily available, why not just stay in the starting point and leave the rest of the map alone?

Nuketown Zombies is a nice as a supplemental map to the Season Pass available for Call of Duty: Black Ops II, but it's a purchase I would avoid if I were not purchasing the Season Pass. The map's great starting point and paltry rewards for opening up more of it makes it more of an appetizer to the array of content coming next year.

Akil Henry   Followakilshohen Akil is a big fan of video games and music, specifically fighting games and R&B. Other interests include game design, and comedy. His background in game design combined with his unique worldview and sense of humor makes him someone to follow.

[View Call of Duty: Black Ops II images / screenshots +]
[Watch Call of Duty: Black Ops II videos / trailers +]
[View more Call of Duty: Black Ops II articles (news, previews, reviews) +]
[View Call of Duty: Black Ops II cheats / guides +]