Activision and Treyarch’s first offering of downloadable content for Call of Duty: World at War turns out to be a real head turner as it provides three new maps that will have gamers back to earning XP during their campaigns through World War II. Offering peculiar environments, and detailed designs too boot, World at War Map Pack 1 gives gamers a reason to throw their disc back in their Xbox 360 tray and give the game another run. Let’s take a gander why World at War deserves all the interest and hype it has received. Of the three new maps, Nightfire is the cream of the crop. Catering to almost all game types, it’s a Berlin based level that provides players with an extraordinary amount of cover in the streets from the open balconies of buildings. This is truly a map that feels war torn and at the utter brink of disaster.
Having multiple stories to its buildings, players are able sneak around and manage several different methods of attack. There’s also the addition of Station, a smaller level that takes place on a Berlin subway station (hence the name). It’s been bombed to kingdom come and players will have figure out a way to find the best cover in it wide open spaces. Platforms are open to a variety of possibilities, so be warned that you are going to come across a lot of fire. Snipers will thrive on this map, so be prepared to fight through bullets from their excellent vantage points. The last of the maps is Knee Deep, a large Japanese village that is open to several different game styles. It doesn’t provide too much cover for snipers, so players who are sick of getting picked off from afar will be able to have a great advantage against long-distance gamers.
Activision and Treyarch have done a great job overall with three highly interesting maps that are vastly different than one another. But they decided that it wasn’t just enough to entertain their fans with new maps; they went one step ahead and added in a new map/scenario for Nazi Zombies mode titled Verrückt. New weapons and power-ups galore, players should be ready for a fantastic opportunity to earn points for killing, reviving and much more on the map. For power-ups, there are boosts to your reload and revive speeds; plus, there’s the ability to use electricity to oncoming zombies. While it’s not exactly Left 4 Dead or Gears of War 2’s horde mode, the Nazi Zombies mode has now received a small enhancement to get players to playing cooperatively together.
What’s the final verdict? Call of Duty: World at War’s first map pack – nonetheless titled Map Pack 1 – is top-notch material. Three maps and a fourth one that’s strictly used for Nazi Zombies mode, there’s a lot of new replay value added into World at War’s multiplayer modes. Don’t be surprised to see your friend’s list fill up with dozens of people playing World at War once more. It’s downloadable content like this that shows that developers care about their community. Here’s to hoping that Treyarch and provide another map pack before the end of the summer to continue to give their popular shooter an adrenaline shot every few months.
