Black Ops Reflection: Map choices

[Mr. Jay]

Hi, I'm Jay, if you are not sure who I am.

With Black Ops 2 just around the corner, we can reflect back on Black Ops 1 and appreciate what it has done for us in the last two years or so.

Not all maps are created equal, some are higher rated than others. Jay was nice enough to compile a series of questions to reflect on Black Ops maps and user preferences.

Your personal favorite map?

Five. My first map and numerous excellent quotes. A great balance of difficulty and cooperation from your team. balanced box weapons, (No Thunder Gun) over all nothing to dislike about.

Least favorite map?

Ascension. No team effort, powerful wonder weapon creating unbalanced advantage. Ideal training spots are too far apart, too many glitchers, too many kids play looking for the Thunder Gun.

Best part of Black Ops?

NML. Very well designed. Despite many argue it does not effect over all game play, I have improved my game drastically from playing NML.

Best designed?

Five. Skill prevails, luck and/or box weapons will not.

Most fun with drunk friends?

COTD. I can't see, well me neither. Don't hit me! That's not me, that was George. Why is George playing us?

Favorite challenge?

MPL challenges on Five, Trench Gun Der Riese.

Funniest moment?

Verruckt, went down.

Friend: where are you?

Me: On the toilet.

Friend: by STG?

Me: no, I'm on the toilet.

Friend: by STG?

Me: I'm in the **** please report this topic, post ****.

Friend: no toilet in the **** please report this topic, post ****.

Me: no you killed my crawler I told you I got to pee. I went down in the **** please report this topic, post ****.

Friend:............

Most annoying boss preventing success?

George, excavator.

Creepiest place?

Basement Five. Absolutely eerie. My son refuses to go there.

That's all. Thanks for reading.

[perfectlemonade]

You never cease to amaze me, Jay. I'll give it my best shot.

Favorite Map?

Call of the Dead. Love the atmosphere, the eeriness, the characters, the requirement to work as a team to kill effectively.

Least Favorite Map?

Kino. Too dark. Crawlers suck ass. End of story.

Best Part of Black Ops?

Gotta agree with you here. It's No Man's Land for me. So addictive and it gives you this huge sense of accomplishment when you achieve a goal.

Best Designed?

Hmmm... you know, I really like Shangri La's design. Really tight corridors make for some intense gameplay.

Most Fun to Play with Drunk Friends

Never been drunk.

Favorite Challenge?

I'm gonna toot my own horn here, but Sally's on Deck was the most fun I've had with a challenge in a long time. 15 Rounds That's Easy is also up there.

Favorite Moment?

50 kill Pack a Punch. Met by a horde of zombie when trying to get my Sally's. Cutback BEHIND the machine. Achieved 300 kills that game.

Most Annoying Boss Preventing Success

Napalm zombie. THE FREAKING NAPALM ZOMBIE.

Creepiest Place

Quick Revive room on Verruckt. No question.

[MysteryMachineX]

Ooh. I'd like to do this too.

Your personal favorite map?

I like "Five", because it is unique among the maps. The characters are historical, which gives that nice retrofuturistic look even more extravagantly than Zombies usually does. The map is also significantly harder than most maps, making it a challenge. Also, since it comes with the game, it was always my favorite to play with random people when I feel in the mood for a chuckle.

Least favorite map?

I'd have to say Shangri-La. It's nothing personal. I love all the maps. It's just, it's hard to find an excuse to play Shangri-La. It's just so hard. Nacht der Untoten is on relatively the same scale, but Nacht der Untoten is classic. On Shangri-La, I'm always demotivated to play because of how soon I'll die, compared to the other maps.

Best part of Black Ops?

Expansion of the Zombies mode.

Best designed?

I think Moon was designed the best. It really was a culmination of everything we had seen prior.

Most fun with drunk friends?

I don't drink.

Favorite challenge?

I like doing the dual double-barrel shotgun challenge on Nacht der Untoten with friends.

Funniest moment?

Hm... humor... Not much comes to mind... There's probably something, just can't think of it.

Most annoying boss preventing success?

This is a slanted question. The only bosses are George and the Pentagon Thief. And just because of the bias, I choose Pentagon Thief.

Creepiest place?

Verruckt. All the screaming and crying everywhere. Eery instruments. Creepy setting. Uck.

[Mr. Jay]

Surprise surpise, replies!!!!!

Good to see actions from the few of big names left.

I was asked to return to help with the activities, but I see the activities are not lacking, just not from the so called legends. It just does not have the family feel to it anymore, without many of the guys we got to be fond of.

Lemonade we need to hook up, maybe on a week end or something. I normally do not like to game when the kids are active but we should party. Maybe DJ and Josh could join us.

I got a great idea for challenges, I try to down myself, and you three compete to revive me. Most revives wins.

P.S. Dont let way fool you, every night he's on Netflix watching Gangnam Style video learning the moves.

[TheDunbarian]

I wanna play, I wanna play!

Favorite Map

Shangri-La. The beauty, the mystery, the challenge, the bosses, and the Punter!

Least Favorite Map

I gotta go with Jay and say Ascension. It's just too easy. Not to say that I dislike it, it can be fun to play with friends or do a challenge on, it's just at the bottom of my list.

Best Part of Black Ops

Dead Ops Arcade Just kidding. The expansion of zombies overall, how Treyarch came to the realization that zombies, not multiplayer, is what's keeping their game alive.

Best Designed Map

Call of the Dead. Every aspect of that map flows so beautifully with each other. The way the wonder weapons interact with George, the freezing water, the sprinters, the fog, and just the overall feel of the map feels like its very own. Also, despite being almost as big as Moon, I don't feel like I'm trying to run around the world when I need to get somewhere else on the map.

Most Fun with Drunk Friends

Right, thing is, I'm 17...

Favorite Challenges

Gun Game and camping challenges are my favorite

Funniest Moment

My friend Riskys and I went to play with some randoms and met two brave soldiers who we deemed Dudeguy and Sharkbait. Might have had something to do with the fact that it was 1 or 2 in the morning, but it was quite a hilarious evening.

Most Annoying Boss

You are talking to a man who has loved every boss they've ever put into zombies except for one, so the following statement really means something: the astronaut is the dumbest hunk of lard ever to exist in this beautiful game mode.

Creepiest Place

Verruckt. Hands down.

[Electric Jesus]

Favorite Map

Probably der reise. It was awesome compared to the other WaW maps. Also kino was good, but from ascension onward they got all gimmicky and dumb.

Least Favorite Map

Probably shangri la. I don't dislike ANY map, but I like this the least. After cotd I started to miss round based bosses and hoped to see them here. Disappointed. I wanted it to get dark and scary again. Disappointed. I wanted a huge new map with loads to discover. Thoroughly disappointed.

Best Part of Black Ops

The little things. Wager matches, zombie additions, killstreaks, cod points and CaC systems, et cetera.

Best Designed Map

Probably der reise. It's combo of spacious labs to tight corridors and the general placement of stuff was epic.

Most Fun with Drunk Friends

What are these "friends" you guys keep going on about? What are they?

Favorite Challenges

The collector

The PaP collector

Acquire waffle weapons

Funniest Moment

NOTE: I have a severe case of gamer-AIDS. My doc says its pretty serious.

I was playing kino with my cousin. I got double hit through a window on like round 4. He ran around joking because there was only a crawler left. I kept saying "stop fooling around and get me!" he kept starting to revive me and then saying stuff like "sorry I'm overwhelmed by all these zombo's!" then he finally decided to get me. When he was about 2 feet from me I died. He ended up in the hospital due to a broken nose, caused by a PS3 remote to the face.

Most Annoying Boss

Astro-C*** S***ing mother ****er! I always run through a door in the bio dome only to have him on the other side. I scream RASHABLOOERMAGHERDHALPAAA!!!! Then ZAP! No jug, critical health. Then I'm all F*** you you astro-C*** S***ing mother F***er! Eat S*** and die!

Creepiest Place

Dead ops. I'm joking. Verrückt for sure.

[Jbird]

Your personal favorite map?

I would say Ascension. Even though it is really easy and there is barely any teamwork and I abosultely hate those midget monkeys, it's my favorite because you can train almost anywhere on the map and its one of the easiest maps for a high round.

Least favorite map?

Shi No Numa. I have never liked this map, I don't really know why. Maybe because half of the map is swampy water which slows you down and there isn't really a good spot to train at.

Best part of Black Ops?

Wonder weapons. I think that is what makes zombies what it is today. If we didn't have wonder weapons and traps, I don't think none of us would know what a 'rape train' is or fast high round strategies. We would just be shooting and trying to survive, which I like aswell but I think hoarding killing and repeating is better usually in my opinion.

Best designed?

Shangri-la. Very tight places and nowhere to train. I love it! It shows whos really good at zombies. Not a single random can make it to round 10 without dieing on this map i bet you.

Most fun with drunk friends?

None; never been drunk ;D

Favorite challenge?

I can't think of a specific favorite challenge. If it's a really unique challenge then that is what makes it good

Funniest moment?

When I used to only play with randoms..

Those were the days.

Those kids just crack me up at how bad they are!

Most annoying boss preventing success?

Cosmonaut on Moon. Makes training in anywhere besides biodome pretty difficult.

Creepiest place?

Shi No Numa when the easter egg song is playing.. :O

[MysteryMachineX]

Oh wait a minute. (I'm posting because an edit probably would've gone unnoticed.) I actually can fill in the drunk friend question. I was once playing online with some friends of mine. They were a nice couple, SHINOBIFURY777 and mommysakilla. They were married, and I played with them quite a bit. However, one time I was playing a game with them and their brother and it hit me that all three of them were drunk... It was an... interesting game. Pretty much just like hanging with a drunk person when you aren't drunk: something happens, they laugh and laugh, you wonder why they think it is funny. Humorous retrospectively though.

Btw, jay, apparently you are the only one thus far who drinks while playing :P

[TheSlushTurtle]

Your personal favorite map?

I like verruckt the best because of the few spots to train and bein seperated at beginnig. Shangri-la for black ops maps though.

Least favorite map?

Dead ops. Oh wait that's not a map,silly me. But yeah ascencion is too easy. Monkeys are the only thing even remotely hard.

Best part of Black Ops?

Doing the easter eggs is really fun especially with friends.

Best designed?

Shangri-la for sure.

Most fun with drunk friends?

Never been drunk but I'd assume moon would be with the moonwalking cosmonaut.

Favorite challenge?

First "room" challenges. Especially Call of the Dead.

Funniest moment?

Trolling randoms on moon by not getting on pad and hear them rage.

Most annoying boss preventing success?

Damn pentagon theif stealing my inventory.

Creepiest place?

Not sure,Shino I guess in swamp.

[Kill_All_Monkeys]

Your personal favorite map?

I would actually have to say Ascension. It's where I learned the basics of how to play successfully in zombies and when I started religiously playing it. I know many look down upon it as being an "easy" map, and they may be right, but it's where I learned to have fun.

Least favorite map?

Shi No Numa I guess, I don't really play it all that much so...

Best part of Black Ops?

ZOMBIES!!!

Best designed?

It's a tie between FIVE and Shangri-La. Both really require actual skill to survive into higher rounds and make for some interesting gameplay.

Most fun with drunk friends?

Well I would assume Moon because with my friends, we would never make it past NML.

Favorite challenge?

NML, it is constantly the one I have the most trouble with, which gives me something to strive for.

Funniest moment?

Let's just say some of my friends can come up with the funniest crap you could ever imagine, highly inappropriate, but extremely funny.

Most annoying boss preventing success?

I guess the astro-turd. I knew how to avoid him but most people I play with seem to have trouble with him. I will admit I've had my fair share of wtf moments with him though.

Creepiest place?

Nearly shat my pants when I first saw Sam's room in Kino with the giant bloody teddy bear. Other than that, the toilets in Verruckt.

[KarlMc89]

Your personal favorite map?

I would probably say Der Riese is my favorite map because its a fairly big map with a great layout and The deeply hidden story and small clues that lead to bigger clues made it even more epic.

Least favorite map?

Ascension for the same reasons as Jay

Best part of Black Ops?

The evolution of zombies

Best designed?

Shangri-La for sure, the narrow corridors make it challenging

Funniest Moment?

Seeing the astronaut do the dance and glitch and chase you whilst with friends drunk

Favorite challenge?

Wall guns only challenge or the shotgun challenge

Most annoying boss preventing success?

George Romero he's just annoying :?

Creepiest place?

Verruckt need I say more :shock:

[bbobs2]

GREAT THREAD AGAIN JAY!

I am limited as I don't OWN Ascension, COTD or Shangri-La but have played them elsewhere so I know little about them other than watching vids etc.

Your Personal Favourite Map?

For now it will always be Der Riese even though I've been having some bad games there lately, Verruckt is a close second though so it could change.

Least favorite map?

If I had to choose it would be NML (if you count that as a map). It is a great map and I have been playing it a lot recently (solo) but it's been irritating me how I can't get to 100 kills (74 is my record which annoys me to). I'd like to think I'm a decent player as I can train and revive very well. It's just the ways I die which really pee me off :evil: DOGS are one irritation, so is the bloommin mustangs, I rarely PAP these as I just can't use them, I blow myself up.

Best part of Black Ops?

If this wasn't zombies specific then the campaign story! If it is then I would have to say achieving the Moon EE with three randoms! This was also the first time I officially completed a BIG EE It felt good!

Best designed?

All maps are AMAZINGLY designed to play to different play styles, if you twisted my arm then it would have to be a toss up between Five and Der Riese, Five has all the different levels and the basement is the most chaotic place, if someone downs on another floor many peoples reaction is to run into the teleporters, the best thing about this is they're random so you could end up playing the teleporter game which is great fun!

Der Riese is just great, the whole linking of the teleporters making you run from one end to the other is great, it would've been better if it was bigger but it is a good designed map.

Most fun with drunk friends?

N/A, don't drink.

Favorite challenge?

I don't tend to do challenges, I need others to do them... I may try the one door challenge later and see what happens, I'll keep you updated.

Funniest moment?

I enjoy it when you troll 10 year olds with mics on Five by leaving them by using an elevator, their responses make me laugh. I'm normally a team player so if there aren't any whiny kids then I'll let them in to leave them with a train of zombies :twisted:

If I'm feeling especially devious (you know when you're in those moods to just have a good time instead of focusing on higher rounds) I also enjoy running trains into people on Five by running into a tele and hopefully going into the basement and watch the person run into the way any I leave them with my zombies. It is rare I do this but at times I just find it funny.

Most annoying boss preventing success?

The astro on moon (the only one I've got with a boss) if he gets in the way of my trains through a door way (as in IN THE DOOR WAY) then that's game over... done, can't go back and if I get caught then I either get swiped by all the zombies and die or get teled then die.

Creepiest place?

Shi No Numa, ever since I heard the EE (the recording voice) and the song (the part before you activate it saying "I know when you're sleeping") just always leaves me on edge, I feel like something is going to happen...

[Tom852]

Your personal favorite map?

Moon. Most complex, most interactive structures, most possibilities (such as gravity yes or no and what strategy do I use based on gravity state).

Least favorite map?

Did you say AScenion Jay?? Nananananannaa!! Ascension is great!!

My least favorite is Verruckt! Yes I'm a weird guy, ain't I? The reason is just the opposite of the above: NO interactive stuff. Just you, some guns, zombies, some perks and a power switch. And the box. That's it. Boring...

I don't mention Nacht, cause I even don't see it as a real zombie map (yes, hit me), just a fun challenge without jug. Kino is on the same level like Verruckt, but I just like it bit better. Shi No is great cause of the design, I like it

I kinda feel in danger after saying this, but whatever...

Best part of Black Ops?

Can't tell you a specific part, it's just great all over.

Best designed?

As said, I like Shi No Numa's design a lot with the pure nature. Hut, trees, it's cool. But the best designed map is - damned I really forgot the name - you know the jungle map with the crazy easter egg. That is just a feel as you would really discover an old temple in the middle of the jungle! Just gives me a tomb raider feeling, I love it.

Most fun with drunk friends?

COTD, absolutely

Favorite challenge?

Reach a high round on a map in solo or coop (really).

Funniest moment?

Wow sooooooo many, I can't decide.

Most annoying boss preventing success?

I think I'd mention the thief.

Creepiest place?

Seriously none, I focus so much on progress and strategy, that I do not feel in any way creepy.