Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Game Review (Call of Duty: Black Ops II Uprising)

It's been out for a little while now, but I never got around to reviewing it. I wasn't as excited for Uprising as I was for Revolution simply because I've recently lost some interest in Black Ops II and just haven't played it all that much the past two months or so. Just like in the last review, I won't bother reviewing the Zombie map -- in this case, Mob of the Dead. I realize that's, for a lot of people, the biggest part of these map packs, but I tend to never get around to play Zombies. I've heard some great things about Mob of the Dead, and all signs seem to say that it's the best Zombie map in the game. Anyway, on to my interest, the multiplayer maps.

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Encore: This map takes place in England, and is set primarily around a stage. Encore, for the most part, offers many medium-range firefights, but there are a couple close-quarters areas on the map. I don't think Encore is the most interesting looking map, but it's laid out decently. Without a doubt, the center of the map is the main attraction here for gun battles -- imagine that! If you're a sniper, this wouldn't be a mad map choice to whip one out and see what you can do. The map size itself is about medium, but a sniper would not be an awful choice. On the other hand, I wouldn't really recommend a shotgun or an SMG, but to each their own. A respectable map -- I'd like to play it more to form a better opinion, but for now it gets a 3.75/5

Magma: Another map with an environmental hazard ... if you're too stupid to guess what it is, it's magma. This is a pretty interesting map, but I can't decide if I really like it or not. I'm not sure if it's the spawns or the map design or what, but I find myself running around the map quite often without seeing (m)any guys. Magma, I don't think, is a very big map, but it plays like one because there's a lot of "downtime". It looks good, but I'm not completely sold on it yet. Overall, a pretty average map. I should also add that I didn't find the magma to factor into the gameplay at all in the matches I played. 3.5/5

Studio: I didn't realize it until just before researching the map before playing it that Studio is a remodeled version of Firing Range from the original Black Ops, which proved to be one of the most popular maps in that game. While I liked Firing Range a good bit, I figured it would be just as overplayed in Black Ops II as it was in the first game... and I was right. Nothing against the map, but it ALWAYS gets chosen over the other three maps in this pack, it seems. Essentially, the map is transferred from a Firing Range to, you probably guessed it, a studio set in California. While it's not very war-like, I think it looks awesome. A castle? An alien set? A Western set? It makes calling out enemies much easier, and makes the map more interesting. 4.25/5

Vertigo: The map I knew the least about, Vertigo immediately think, "Damn. That's a bland looking map." Vertigo takes place on a rooftop, and it's really a map with nothing but whites and greys. While I was thinking it'd be a "meh" map that would involve randomly scurrying around on one level of a rooftop, I soon noticed that there was an inside section to the map that I thought automatically made the map a notch above what I thought it would be. Vertigo has medium-short sightlines, so an SMG would be optimal on this map, though I've seen plenty of people do pretty well with a shotgun on this map (especially in the middle of the map), and I also enjoy using assault rifles. Doesn't look too great, but it plays pretty well. 4/5

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If I was a bigger fan of Zombies and had people to play with, I'm sure I'd absolutely love this map pack. As I got the Season Pass for the multiplayer maps, I'm satisfied. While there are really only three *NEW* maps, I don't have anything to complain about here. As it turns out, the Firing Range remake, Studio, is probably my favorite map of the four -- despite the fact that it will be voted for until I vomit. I think the maps in Revolution were probably more interesting and fun to play as a whole, but this is a solid offering. The one thing I'm disappointed in is the lack of a gun in this pack, for one reason... if Treyarch had the plan of only releasing one gun as DLC, they should have "gone out with a bang" by releasing it as a part of the final map pack. I'm not knocking down my rating of Uprising for that reason, but it's a bummer. If you like Black Ops II and its multiplayer, you shouldn't need me to tell you to get Uprising. Better yet, if you don't have it yet, get the fucking Season Pass and download Revolution right along with it.

4/5

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