A Look at Map Pack 1

Published March 20, 2009

Call of Duty®: World at War developer Treyarch has been hard at work crafting its first game add-on for the Xbox LIVE® favorite. Now, at last, Map Pack 1 is reality, available for download on Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Map Pack 1 weighs in with three multiplayer maps: the dusky hued, city-ablaze Nightfire, the subterranean Station, and the outdoor, Pacific Campaign inspired Knee Deep. Also on tap is a brand new, heavily upgraded Nazi Zombies map entitled Verrückt.

Nightfire.

Nightfire

Eager to try their hand at another nighttime map, Treyarch drew inspiration for Nightfire from the idea of a multiplayer match playing out in the heart of a burning city. This provides for some outstanding visuals, and at the same time, it solves a problem common to dimly lit maps. The liberal use of fire sheds enough light that identifying enemies is a pleasure, however, the tactically minded player can still find and use pockets of darkness to camouflage their presence and so get the drop on the enemy.

Queue up the Call of Duty: World at War
Map Pack 1 for download now.

In terms of gameplay, Nightfire offers equal parts indoor and outdoor environments as you scramble across broken streets and through shattered buildings. This setup makes Nightfire ideal for a game type like Sabotage, where defensible positions are to be had, but also where the several points of entry for each objective location makes launching an offensive feasible.

Station.

Station

Inspired by the subway sequence from the Campaign's Eviction level, Station takes place in a bombed-out subway station.

Design-wise, Station sports an almost entirely symmetrical design with the long, relatively thin subway corridor making up the bulk of the environment. There are also two flanking paths in the form of corridors that split off the tunnel on either side, leading each team closer to the other's spawn point.

Tactical placement can offer lengthy line-of-sight up and down each side of the tunnel, but equally strategic use of the train cars breaks up that advantage, while offering tightly focused, more easily defendable fields of fire of their own.

Station's enormous debris pile in the middle of the tunnel also makes it ideal for Capture the Flag, as each team fights for supremacy king-of-the-hill style to gain control of the spot, and then grab hold of the flag for safe delivery. The train cars and flanking paths make securing and scoring the flag an exercise in tactical movement.

Knee Deep.

Knee Deep

Knee Deep takes its cue from the game's much lauded Pacific Campaign, and appropriately, it is an entirely outdoor map. With wide swathes of long grass, rice paddies, and swamps, Knee Deep is riddled with opportunities to conceal your movement. This map also offers an incredibly wide variety of paths to common locations, so careful exploration is well rewarded.

However, while largely an outdoor map, the various huts and structures help to break up line-of-sight, making Knee Deep more of a mid-range combat map than you would initially think.

Perhaps Knee Deep's most interesting design choice is the U-shaped pathway that extends around its borders, culminating in a central bridge. This unique curved design adds a whole new dimension to the normally linear War game type.

Verrückt.

Nazi Zombies' Verrückt

Treyarch couldn't know just how popular their Nazi Zombies mode would prove prior to launch, but the rabidly enthusiastic response from the community helped birth Verrückt, the brand new Nazi Zombies map.

Verrückt takes place in a gruesome, abandoned sanatorium where the rooms and grisly instruments beg the question "What the heck was going on here?" It's also substantially larger than the original Nazi Zombies map, and while the new digs are impressive on their own, it's the tweaks to the game mode that really pushes Verrückt to new undead heights. For example:

• Zombie variance: No longer can you count on every zombie behaving in the same shuffling, arms-outstretched manner. Indeed, sprinting zombies have been added to the mix for greater variety, and of course, increased challenge.
• Perks-A-Cola: World at War multiplayer Perks make their way into Nazi Zombies by way of Perks-A-Cola machines, which dispense Perks unique to each machine. For example, the Juggernog machine grants instant access to the Juggernaut Perk, allowing you to take more damage.
• Trap time: Should you survive long enough in Verrückt to make your way to the asylum's power station, you can trigger the juice to light up the building, and activate some deadly electrified traps to help you stave off the undead threat.

With Nightfire's fire-based lighting and indoor/outside mix, Station's frantic symmetry, Knee Deep's outdoor variety and discoverable paths, and Verrückt's new take on the much-loved Nazi Zombie game type, the Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 1 delivers both variety and polish. Queue up Map Pack 1 for download from Xbox LIVE Marketplace now.

Article by Ryan Treit