SHI NO NUMA

First off, just wait until you guys get to see the Official Trailer for this addition to the game – it’s face meltingly sick. I’m not a Zombie guy, but that trailer is frickin sweet - heart pumping, fist clenching, amazingly cut and composed. Dude really earned his paycheck. I mean dam, we watched it 3 times and were glued to the movie screen each and every go around.

On to the map, and I’d be lying if I said I was looking forward to re-capping this. It’s a bitch to write about given it’s basically an entire new game all rolled into one map. And again, I will tell you I’m not a Zombie guy – I barely play ‘em and could give a flying you know what. But I’ll give the devil his due: this thing is freaking amazing, heart pounding, exciting, and terrifying at times. Yea, terrifying.

Instead of recapping as I did with MP Maps, I’m going to do bullets and explain each feature which I imagine is on people’s minds:

Trap: The trap is the glimpse of what you saw in the trailer, it’s a spinning guillotine of sorts that totally wrecks Zombies… if employed the right way. The way to use this is in the latter rounds, you kind of run a lap while dodging Zombies. Then, you lead the undead at your heels to that spot, pull the lever, and watch limbs fly. When employed in that way, it’s devastating and amusing as all holy hell. So, have them play follow the leader, then put ‘em through that ringer and laugh your ass off.

Zip Line: At one of the cottages in the swamp (yes, you go outside in this one), there is a zip line to get you to the 2nd story of the main complex. This can be used when in a pickle, or if perhaps you get a teddy bear out of the box, so you want to get out of Dodge and find its respawn.

Random Perk Machines: On this map, there are multiple cottages in the swamp that you have to open up in order to access the Perk ‘A Cola Machines. What you don’t know is which machine you’ll get. It’s random and adds an extra dynamic to the game.

Wunderwaffe DG-2: The new Power Weapon to go with the ray gun. This baby has limited ammo, kind of looks like the BAR, and shoots blue lightning which penetrates the targeted zombie(s) and spreads to adjacent ones. A great weapon to eviscerate a string of undead. You wait until the right moment to employ, there’s no spray ‘n pray with this baby. If you have a Ray Gun in your arsenal – the combo is top notch.

Hell Hounds: I can guarantee the first time you encounter these beasts you will dam near crap your pants. Personally, I screamed like a little girl, ripped my headphones off, and grabbed my chest – I was literally that scared. They come out of nowhere and frighten the hell out of you, no pun intended. I found the trick to coping with these babies, which come every 5+ rounds or so, is to back yourself in a corner, grab your rosary, say Hail Marys, and hope for the best. These things get on your ass so dam quick, that it’s crucial to have your back against a wall. They move like lightning and pack a nasty bite, so watch out. They are definitely ill-tempered, no frickin laser beams attached to their heads thank god.

As for the map, I’ll give you the quick play by play. You spawn upstairs in the main complex and setup window defense as usual until you accrue points. The Gewehr is on the wall, that’s a solid choice for your first purchase. After you’ve taken care of business you start opening routes to go downstairs, outside, to the swamp, wherever really – it’s up to you and your own strategy.

After that, it’s find the box and get to work on acquiring the Ray Gun & Wunderwaffe DG-2. All teammates can have a Ray Gun, but the Wunderwaffe DG-2 will be the sole possession of one individual on the team – that’s it. Hopefully the guy on your team that sucks doesn’t get it, lol.

From this point on you’re trying to get better weapons while opening the cottages to reveal the perk machines, all while fighting back the Zombie Hordes. One building in the swamp seemed to be a great one for defense, especially if you’re lucky enough to have the mystery box n there. In this cottage you have a Perk ‘A Cola machine & the electric fence that you can buy to cover the entire front, just like the balcony on Verrukt. Only 2 windows reside inside, so this seems like a solid spot to set up shop.

From this point on, it’s stay alive as long as you possibly can. You can run right at the Zombies with sprint and juke ‘em out. That seems to be a great tactic for lining them up at the Trap, or getting them ready for a Wunderwaffe DG-2 blast.

Other than that, I’m sure there are a million things that I’m forgetting – good thing other guys were there that I am sure will post recaps of their own. So, keep your eyes on the boards and sit tight, Thursday is just around the corner.

I’ll be straight, this Map Pack is great – well worth the 10 bucks. Truly, I’m not playing fanboy here, if it sucked I’d tell you. For me, Corrosion and Banzai are 2 of the best maps in the game now and Shi No Numa will be getting a solid amount of playtime on my console. Expectations were definitely exceeded.

So, hopefully this answered a few of your questions and wet your palate a bit. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you on the Battlefield.




SUB-PENS

This map is for the close interior fighters, leave your sniper rifle at home. A submarine splits the map in two and offers some gameplay within, including a middle route. On either end of the sub there is also a route to get around it to the other side of the map – totaling 3 main causeways if I’m not mistaken (there may be more in the middle).

Visually, the map is detailed and looks solid – it’s on the darker side obviously and has the weather aspect – but tbh, I really didn’t take much notice. Reflecting back, I’m not sure why – perhaps I was just too dam involved in winning the game.

This map is by far the simplest of the 3 in most regards due to size. There are a few areas where you can go upstairs and look out on the sub, so maybe the brave of heart will actually want to try their hand at sniping – that’s not my cup of tea, but hey… if it’s yours, all the power to ya.

Bomb Squad is an absolute must on this one if you’re a run ‘n gunner like yours truly. There are just too many dam corners to check in the heat of battle, and douches will always get lucky enough to put one on that fateful corner which you don’t.

Headquarters played real well on this map, it was awesome to play HQ with everyone trying to win the game, rather than stroking their e-penis whilst inflating k/d ratio and disregarding the objective. A nice breath of HQ fresh air /Rant.

In retrospect, I wish that I’d have perhaps stopped for a minute to look around closer as I did with Banzai. But, oh well, so is life right? It’s a fun map, all 3 are to be honest. Banzai & Corrosion are definitely a cut above the stock maps.



CORROSION



Sick CTF map and great balance on S&D, this one was my favorite. It’s not an immense map in size, but the size it has – packs one a hell of a freaking punch.

I think of this one as a square, each side feels of the same size. On two sides there are railroad cars and such, which give you the left/right feel to the map – in CTF, the flags are in the middle on either ends of the map, the railcar sides are in between.

Anways, graphically this map is a much darker feel than the previous one played – it has the tone and feel of Roundhouse, which makes sense given the theater and railroad aspect. Things look “good,” nothing was out of place or made me take notice – on the other hand nothing made me “take notice” – hence “good.”

Gameplay wise, this map is superior. When I said it packs a hell of a punch for the size, I meant it, and that’s because there are multiple levels to the map. There are 2 distinct levels, the ground and second story – but, I offer that there is also a third level to it, which is in between. Tunnel ramps, stairways, railcar tops, etc. offer an in between level that makes it a hell of a lot of fun. There are an immeasurable number of ways to get around.

One great feature is a pipeline from a CTF base, you climb a ladder and can run along pipes above the ground, great route for capping flags and you can shove a Betty into it. It was rewarding to hear an exclamation, “REALLY CHEFS, really? You put a freaking Betty up here… I hate you.”

It’s hard to depict this map and the subsequent one as accurately as I did Bonzai, because simply, there are just too many twists and turns to relay a realistic impression. What I can say is on either side by the trains you can get from one side of the map to the other. There is also a meandering middle route that you can take. In addition, you can take an upstairs route on either side, which is between the middle route and the railcar routes. So, there are basically 5 main causeways that can be hopped on from one to the next.

S&D was also a personal favorite, the bomb spots and map design lend very well to this Gametype. Also, for those who like to do the spawn, cook, toss tactic… I’m pretty sure you’ll find your routes. I found one on offense that netted me a ton of kills – chucked one through a window and out an open roof to drop on guys heading upstairs on the other side of the map. Great times.



BANZAI

This map was the first we played and you get the impression that Treyarch was eager to show this one off right out of the gate. Everyone seems quite proud of it and it was dam near everyone’s favorite – including the Studio guys.

The screenshots on the COD HQ don’t really do the map justice. Visually, it’s hands down the prettiest of the 3. I took a look at the water, the field of depth was cool and the physics worked well which isn’t a surprise – that has been consistent since launch.

As for layout, basically I think of the map as a circle with the bridge on one side, and the what I will coin, “Main Tunnel” on the other side. Obviously the sides of the map are cut in half by the river flowing through the valley in the middle – but the entire middle is playable. You can walk in the floor of the canyon, enter tunnels on either side, and are actually relatively safe. I always try to stay out of the middle of any map, but given the main causeways are to each side (Bridge & “Main Tunnel”), you can cruise through there without much worry.

The bridge is nothing like Eder Dam fellas, it’s not a bad thing – but, I wanted to clear that up. There is only the main deck of the bridge that you can go on, not a second level underneath as was speculated. The bridge itself is littered with cars and boxes offering ample cover as you cross, which can lead to some serious dog fighting and nade chucking. In addition, there is a path on either side of the bridge to run down into the valley and then up the opposite embankment. So, you can choose to cross it, or go below. The trail chokepoints on either side of the bridge are prime Betty spots – so be aware.

The other side of the map houses the “Main Tunnel” which is a C shaped cavern that offers an extremely fast route to get from one side to the other. This is a great place to chuck some blind nades, simply cook one as you enter the mouth of the tunnel and blindly throw it around the bend. More often then not you get a kill, unless it’s JD, then you get a click and see the infamous + sign, lol. The tunnel has the two main entrances which are obviously on either side of the valley and riverbed. However, there is a 3rd entry point from the riverbed floor into the tunnel, pretty much midway through. This is a great avenue to take if you’ve been getting hammered by the enemy within and want to flank them.

On either side of the map are villages, one side seems to be better for snipers given it has a second floor building with a sort of sniper roost that looks down on the bridge. The entire map has a main road which goes through each village, over the bridge, and through the Main Tunnel.

We played War on Banzai first, which was top notch. The bridge and tunnel offer great chokepoints for intense flag capping action. CTF was well balanced, the flags are housed in the villages, on one side in a house right near the tunnel mouth – the other side is upstairs in the 2nd story building. It seems easier to cap when you defend the upstairs flag – if you have Extreme Conditioning it’s a quick sprint from the enemy flag, through the Main Tunnel, to the cap point. TDM is TDM of course, I racked up tons of kills at the aforementioned Betty spot and stayed in the valley for the most part to flank the enemy side to side.

Totally fun map, visually stunning, and balanced – which is key. If you’re worried that it’s going to be a sniper’s paradise, like say Creek… fret not, I used the Thompson all day and wrecked everyone that stood in my path.


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