I'm really enjoying The Giant

[Hells Warrrior]

I'm enjoying the simplicity of the map (as was Der Riese) - the gameplay is straight forward with no nonsense required to get setup. It's a medium sized map and it has it's up and downs (more ups than downs).

So when BOI is out for XBox One backwards compatibility, I can see myself shoving the disc in and going back to playing some of the classic maps. Shadows of Evil is good but too boring, do this and that to get setup for pac a punch which can take a good 20 minutes. At least in The Giant getting the teleports has a reward for setting up pac a punch (teleporting).

It might just be me, however, the simplicity of the game is thoroughly enjoyable.

[NaBrZHunter]

My sentiments exactly. The Giant has rocketed to placement among my favorite maps of all time, including Der Riese, Kino, Ascension and Moon, to make a quick top 5. Those maps were TIMELESS. Definitely getting some good old fashioned slaying done ASAP. 

[TimelordAlex]

I'm not a huge fan of Der Riese or The Giant as in the map itself, but i play the Giant more than SoE - as that cannot be played with randoms, and if friends arent on, i cant play it. Lately i've been going full on BO1 MP for some reason, cant wait for BO1 on the Xbone, then I can stick largely on there. Least with the Giant i'm not spending forever to unlock PaP.

[InfestLithium]

If anyone says they don't like The Giant, then they simply don't like Der Riese and anything before that. Plain and simple.

To be honest, I was never a big fan of Der Riese myself...I guess all the overhype killed it for me and [considering I hopped onto Zombies during Black Ops] it was just simple like Kino der Toten, the first Zombies map I truly began playing. But seeing how they re-imagined a classic map to feel at home with slight revisions makes me happy. Gives you a sense of returning back one last time with the new twist of a chilling atmosphere, prolonged storyline, all the works.

Plus if the most recent The Giant trailer didn't make you horny then I don't know what will.

[PINNAZ]

I've been spamming The Giant since 2XP. I am at Prestige 2 level 25 (I think?) & have maxed out 3/4 of my weapon kit. Constant round 30's within an hour make for great XP. I think I maxed out the Dingo & some other Assault Rifles in a single game during 2XP.

 

I really only enjoy playing a full game for an hour or 2, a map that I can get setup on quite quickly & then survive for as long as I can. I am no high round player at all, so a quick game is a fun game. (I played alot of Town in BO2 for this reason)

 

I really got into Zombies in Shi No Numa, trying to get all the achievements there & then spent countless hours playing Der Riese trying to get the "Perk-a-holics Anonymous" Achievement (Survive to round 20 without perks).

 

I am still using those same strategies as I did in 2009!!! Start at the ledge of Teleporter Z-B, drop off, circle the Power are then go to the Catwalk. Then Circle back around using the Traps. And I am still having fun after playing it countless times for 2 weeks solo!.

 

I am really glad that The Giant is on Black Ops 3, as I know, if I want a quick game of Zombs & have fun, I can always fire up "DER RIESE"!!

[TimelordAlex]

I too got into the Zombies in the BO1 era, started playing it where my bro already had Ascension, so i gave Ascension, Kino, DOA and FIVE all a go, I realized why DOA was crap and didnt touch that again. I thought Kino/Ascension were ok, but what really got me was FIVE, man the awesomeness of that map, and the thief stealing my guns, had so much fun on that map, more than the others, hence it became one of my favourite maps. I was then hooked into Zombies and kept an eye out for any future DLCs, i then bought Escalation, Annihilation and Rezurrection.

[The Clay Bird]

It is a great map, and it really highlights what made zombies so popular, in its simplicity and balance.  The Blundell maps have completely lost the simplicity of zombies, and while people like the easter eggs, It would EASILY be possible to make a map that at its core is as simple as der riese, but also include a complex side quest, and little easter eggs

[Cheesegrater28]

Its just fun to hop on and really only worry about killing zombies. Saving up points to open doors, flip the switch, grab perks, spin the box, and just kill zombies. No need to really set anything up and just climb to 30+ as quick as possible. The formula was great then and still is now. And what also makes Der Riese and The Giant great is that there still is so much story hidden in it. You can simply kill zombies or take a breather to save a crawler and explore if you want. This is how most maps should play. Simple game play with a deep story and secrets hidden to find.

I really wish SOE would have hidden all the extra stuff. One reason is you never really get to enjoy the really well done 40's Chicago setting of the map because you're immediately hit with the otherworldly stuff. It would be nice to just sit back and kill zombies on that map with some old school weapons mixed in.

Its still a really good map, but it would have been even better if we had a power switch and regular PaP on the map. Have everything else, including beast mode and the non zombie enemies, hidden until we activate it  by doing a simple EE step or automatically start when we reach round 30. That way its an option for the casual player. The first couple of days could have been everyone playing an old school style zombies map. Then someone would have found a way to activate the EE which would be hidden instead of given to us at the start. This would turn on all the Beast torches, the WW, the swords, the hidden perks underground, the new enemies, and let us open the rituals. Then we could get the secret new PaP with the extra upgrades. This would have spaced out the EE a little better and given us a feeling like we got two maps in one. 

[DeathBringerZen]

1 hour ago, The Clay Bird said:

It would EASILY be possible to make a map that at its core is as simple as der riese, but also include a complex side quest, and little easter eggs

Moon had the perfect balance between standard play and side quest play where you could play a game without it but it greatly benefited the players to do it. It was not necessary and you didn't lose out on any of the games features without it but it was completely worth doing. The N4 maps in BO2 all had optional side quests that didn't affect a standard game but unlike Moon they were not worth doing so were ultimately a massive let down.

 

The campaign team maps seem to try to force the EE on the player and also make it that you miss out on important features if you choose not to do at least part or most of the EE. I will be fine with this being a trend if we end up getting 2 zombie maps with each DLC, 1 remake of a standard survival map, ie: Kino, Shi No, Ascension etc and 1 new map in their current style. If we only get 1 map though then I expect them all to be objective laden maps which is frustrating at times when you just want to get a quick game going.

[Tattoo247]

I'd say 95% of my progress in the game (prestige 1, lvl 28) has been from the Giant.

 

I agree Hells, it's the simple classic point of the game that I like. There are a couple of easter egg missions and they can all be done in one round. I have and always will love this map!

[TimelordAlex]

Agreed @DeathBringerZen. The Moon EE was perfect, fun to do, not too hard but took some working out, wasnt a necessity to do and you could PaP a gun without doing it, but there was a worthwhile reward at the end of it, it was an EE i could do every game and wouldnt bother me. All the BO2 EEs were disappointing though, tedious to do, at some points you had to do them to progress and there was nothing at the end of it, SoE has followed this as well and i'm not fond of it, especially as it makes the map not playable with randoms.

[Tattoo247]

4 minutes ago, TimelordAlex said:

Agreed @DeathBringerZen. The Moon EE was perfect, fun to do, not too hard but took some working out, wasnt a necessity to do and you could PaP a gun without doing it, but there was a worthwhile reward at the end of it, it was an EE i could do every game and wouldnt bother me. All the BO2 EEs were disappointing though, tedious to do, at some points you had to do them to progress and there was nothing at the end of it, SoE has followed this as well and i'm not fond of it, especially as it makes the map not playable with randoms.

All easter eggs except MoTD, I thought that one was pretty on point.

 

There was many, many times we wouldn't even be trying to do the easter egg, then realize we were on the last, or next to last step haha. I really liked MoTD in terms of environment,story,character, and innovation (reviving myself? yes please!)

[TheDunbarian]

I'm also loving the Giant a lot more than SoE, mainly because of the simplicity and the ability to just hop right in to a game, either solo or with randoms (mostly solo). I think over 2XP weekend, I went through an entire prestige entirely on the Giant.

The ideal thing for Treyarch to do would be to release 2 maps per DLC as many have suggested - 1 new, easter egg driven map, and 1 revisited "simple" map. This is unlikely though, so hopefully they'll work on making the easter eggs more optional in the future - I love SoE, but having to do so much of the EE just to pack-a-punch is pretty ridiculous.

[TimelordAlex]

1 hour ago, Tattoo247 said:

All easter eggs except MoTD, I thought that one was pretty on point.

 

There was many, many times we wouldn't even be trying to do the easter egg, then realize we were on the last, or next to last step haha. I really liked MoTD in terms of environment,story,character, and innovation (reviving myself? yes please!)

MOTD as a map i love, but i play Cell block more than MOTD as perks are already one, PaP is accessible easier, i would love cell block survival

[PortlyLlama80]

I am enjoying The Giant greatly myself, I started playing Zombies with BO1 but always loved Der Reise once I got the chance to play it, it was always my favorite map and I specifically went out and purchased the WaW map packs so I could play the original; I love SoE as well but The Giant is great for some more laid back zombie killing and easy high rounds; and is a great nostalgia trip.

[Kill_All_Monkeys]

I do find myself playing the Giant far more than I do SoE, but that's mainly because I only play zombies with friends now and SoE is too tedious to play solo for me. I'm also enjoying the one true challenge I believe The Giant to have, and that is finding multiple spots to train around in. I know a lot of the classic training runs but I've never really liked having to run around a map to train, I prefer running a tight circle within a single room/area. Makes for an extra and sometimes truly challenging layer of difficulty.