Game Review (Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Disc Maps - 360)

Aftermath is one of the first maps many people saw in the game. It's a medium size map with a bunch of burning debris. This map looks quite a bit like a Modern Warfare 2 or 3 map in the way that it's designed and how it plays. It's not awful, but I have found nothing great about this map. Like Downturn in MW3, this map's a pretty big letdown. In MW3 I thought "Sweet! A New York map!" and it was awful. Now in this game I get to say "Sweet! A Los Angeles map!" and say just about the same thing. Meh. 3.5/5

Cargo is another one of the earlier shown maps. Cargo has a really nice feel to it, and it also plays well on seemingly every game mode due to its size and fairness to both teams regardless of spawn. It's not the best looking map in the game, but that's not what matters at all (I'll be bringing that up again in just a little bit...). Probably the most balanced map on the disc. 4.25/5

Carrier is terrible. What more can I say. It seems that in every Call of Duty there's that ONE MAP that I can't stand, and it's Carrier in Black Ops 2. The whole map is a clusterf*ck, and I find it super difficult to see enemies due to the colors of it. Most definitely a map I'd rather pass on than play in any situation, in any game type, on any day. Its only decent quality is the roofed portion of the map, and that part is tiny and pretty much completely insignificant for that reason. 3/5

Drone is a map that I feel will be very under-appreciated, and overlooked often. It's medium sized like many of the maps in this game, but it features a good bit of close quarters fighting as well as some long site lines. Drone is unique in that it has doors that automatically open up when you get near them in some areas. This is a fun map with a little bit of everything. 4/5

Express is the only map that I have noticed to have an "environmental hazard" ... at times during matches, a bullet train will speed through the map. Obviously, if you get in the way, you'll die ... so don't get in the god damn way, you turd. Express feels like Stadium from Black Ops 1 and Terminal from MW2 and 3 blended together. Why? It's mostly the aesthetics. Like Drone, this map has a good balance of long sight lines and some tight corridors. 4/5

Hijacked. Oh, Hijacked. How lovely you look. How frustrating you are to play. Had Treyarch decided to stretch this yacht out and widen it a bit, it would have made for a fantastic Black Ops 2 favorite, like Nuketown in the original Black Ops. Instead, it's a map with miserable spawns that causes rage-filled matches. The addition of the underground area should help, but it doesn't because almost nobody goes down there. In fact, I feel like few people even know it exists. Looks hot, but you'll rage a lot. That's Hijacked in a nutshell. I'll give it a fairly generous 3.5/5

Meltdown feels a lot like Nuke from Counter-Strike and Radiation from Black Ops. Not just because of the locales, but because of how sections of all three maps play. I'm not quite sure what  game types would be best here, but I do know that Team Deathmatch plays really well. Camping seems to be a bit of an issue on this map as opposed to some others, but the spots are obvious, and enemies can normally be picked off fairly easily. 4/5

Overflow is one of a few maps that doesn't come up all-too often in Black Ops 2. It has a pretty bland color palette and it doesn't look like it'd be much fun, but it just is. Overflow will likely go under the radar and be one of the forgotten maps in this game, but it's enjoyable. I'd much sooner pick this map over, say... CARRIER. BLEGH. 3.5/5

Plaza is another map that doesn't pop up in matchmaking often. I've also heard a lot of people groan when it has come up, and I'm not very sure why. I feel like this map both looks and plays like a Party Games map, but that's not a bad thing. It's one of the few maps in this game where you can run around the entire map and be effective with a shotgun or a hip-fired SMG. 3.75/5

Raid is just a really great map for seemingly any game type. Domination, Hardpoint, Search and Destroy... etc. It's not a map that makes me jump up when it gets selected, but it's suitable for anything. Not only that, but it's easier than most maps in this game to make call outs (Basketball court. Fountain. Kitchen. Garage), and that helps it. 3.75/5

Slums, like Overflow, is a map that doesn't look all that appealing, but plays wonderfully. I wouldn't be surprised to see this be a favorite disc map. Slums is a pretty small and very tight map with danger around just about every corner. You probably don't need me to tell you that if you're playing an objective game mode, you'll want to put on a Flak Jacket, because things can get pretty hairy. Slums is an ideal shotgun/SMG map as well. 4.5/5

Standoff is probably my most played map in Black Ops 2 for whatever reason, but I don't mind. It's not too bad. It's one of the bigger medium maps -- if you follow me -- and features a decent number of places for snipers to hang out. I find that Standoff looks like a map that could be in Call of Duty 2 or World at War. Makes for rage-tastic matches on Domination due to the ease to spawn camp, but it's treated me pretty well outside of that. 4/5

Turbine, correct me if I'm wrong, was the first map that Treyarch showed to the public. Byfar, Turbine is bigger than any other map in the game ... and that's unfortunate. I want more. The layout of Turbine is fantastic, and it seems that people don't camp too often on this map. This map has played well in some objective matches I've played, but it's best in good ol' TDM, I think. 4.25/5

Yemen will be another favorite of the community, I think. The map isn't very large, but there doesn't seem to be (m)any spawn issues on this map as opposed to some others, and it just has an interesting design that has made, and will surely make for, some great matches. Yemen's really fun and great on literally any game mode.

While most of my scores for these maps are average or slightly above, the overall collection of these maps is great. Treyarch had a better collection of maps in Black Ops 1, but this isn't a bad showing. I just have a couple questions. Where are the snow maps? Black Ops had a good number of them on-disc. And secondly, and more importantly, where are some bigger maps? Most of these maps seem to be very similar in size, and Turbine is the only one that I'd describe as large. I get that a lot of the community likes smaller maps where they can hipfire from any position and get a kill, but not everybody does that. I expect more large maps in DLC though, so I'm not that worried about it.

So that's it. As said, not many truly excellent maps, but only one that I truly dislike. Treyarch, unsurprisingly, has done a nice job for the most part compiling maps for this disc.

4.25/5