Make all the jokes you want about Call of Duty and repetition, but it sure knows how to play off nostalgia.
Yesterday, Treyarch launched the Black Ops 3 Awakening DLC, the first of their 4 DLC packs for the latest instalment in the franchise. This being one of the best selling Call of Duty games, despite releasing only last November, it’s obvious why they would be using a strategy of homages to earlier, popular multiplayer maps in order to not only retain old players, but revitalize the popular elements of these maps to impress the newcomers.
“Great times lay ahead for players of Black Ops III, with both finely crafted new maps and reimagined multiplayer classics. And for Zombies fans … your commitment to us pays off all season long, starting with Der Eisendrache.” claims Mark Lamia, Treyarch’s Studio Head, and he is certainly on the money that this DLC has a fair mix of the old and new.
The DLC launched exclusively for the PS4 with 4 new multiplayer maps and a new Zombies mode for co-op players. The release date for the Xbox One and PC still sits about a month away at March 3rd.
The multiplayer maps start freshly nostalgic with Skyjacked, an overt revitalisation of the highly popular Hijacked map back in Black Ops 2. The changes are somewhat subtle, instead of the combat taking place on a luxury yacht, players will now find themselves on an sci-fi heavy ship hovering above urban Zurich. The tight, claustrophobic combat style is still present, with alterations made to the original map to allow for the future-tuning of it, alongside enabling the viability of the free-movement the Black Ops 3 multiplayer boasts with the parkour-esque elements. Make no mistake, it is a new map, but with a layout highly reminiscent of past victories for Treyarch.
Gauntlet is second in the Black Ops 3 Awakening DLC, and is very much the most intriguing of the bunch. It shows off perhaps Treyarch’s most intricate design, combining 3 entirely different environments into one map. With a “3 laned” structure, players can find themselves in rain-soaked urban combat, jungle, or a multi-level arctic firefight.
Splash is third, taking the conflict to an abandoned water park, and is certainly the most colourful of the maps on offer. One may draw comparisons in colour scheme to Rush from Black Ops 2, but not nearly as strongly as the original Skyjacked likeness. It mixes things up with typical park attractions, water slides, a lazy river, pirate ships and large underwater sections.
Fourth comes Rise, an icy map set in a construction site. It is multilevel, has both compact and broad areas, and allows plenty of opportunities not only to show off the freedom of movement, but to cater to any given preference of play style.
Finally, Black Ops 3 Awakening, as any given DLC for a Black Ops game would be skant not to do, shoots some zombies into the fray, with a continuation of the story engrained in the Zombies gameplay for Black Ops 3. A direct follow up to The Giant, Der Eisendrache (a slightly poorly translated “The Iron Dragon”) gives players an World War II Austrian castle, built on an “ancient site” wherein there is an “unspeakable horror where massive deposits of Element 115 have recently been discovered.” as Treyarch claims. Playing as the same characters from “The Giant” players can apparently expect “a variety of exciting plot twists and surprises as they survive waves of the undead.” So the standard affair with a story threaded into the mix.
For season pass holders, the Black Ops 3 Awakening pack is readily available on PS4, for everyone else with a PS4 who wishes to play it, it can be purchased standalone for $15 USD.
