When I think of Call of Duty 4, I think of "variety". Most people tend to just play TDM, but COD 4 had a very healthy playlist for pretty much every game mode for a surprisingly long time. I think COD4 was at it's most fun in Domination, Headquarters and Ground War, and to that end, three maps come to mind: Crossfire, Strike and Pipeline. Crossfire is one of my favorite maps of all time, the reason for that is it's layout. The map forces you to flank instead of rushing down the street, like the single player mission it's based off, making for interesting matches in both TDM and objective. It is also a map where snipers get to have a lot of fun in, and I mean oldschool grandpa snipers, not quickscopers. Pipeline is similar, it's large size is what makes it fun. I remember most of the slaughter happening in one of the warehouses or in the local trainyard, altho the area between the two warehouses also tended to be a meatgrinder if an experienced player oversaw it, similar to the road in Crossfire. Strike is smaller than the other two, but it has a similar idea: You're required to flank as you will get your shit pushed in by snipers/noob tubers if you rush down the main road. The area by the monument is where some of the fiercest fighting in COD4 took place for me, especially in Domination. Honorable mentions go to Overgrown and Vacant, which I didn't actually like playing in objectives but I found to be perfect TDM maps.
WaW had a little bit different map design philosophy, that lies due to more primitive weapons being used and a few select large maps getting tanks. The more traditional TDM is played well in Castle, Courtyard and Upheaval, medium sized maps where any weapon was viable and accounted for, while the latter had very large maps seen in Seelow and Outskirts, perfect for Ground War or objective modes. Tanks introduced a lot to think about when building a loadout, you were rewarded for picking up explosive weapons and were forced to hide from the tanks if you didn't have them on you. Of course, you could drive them yourself, which added a whole new layer of planning for the map. Even without tanks, the map design was excellent and flowed well within all modes, especially the returning "War" mode from COD3. WaW might have been underrated, but at it's best it was just as fun and intensive as COD 4.
I actually didn't play MW2 as much back in the day, I didn't like the new action movie focus or the new overhauled multiplayer mode, so I stuck back with COD4 and WaW for quite a long time, missing out on it's initial yearly season. I did appreciate it later when I came back to it, tho. MW2 is the start of the large focus being put on smaller, more chaotic maps in my mind, thanks to popularity of maps like Rust and Terminal, however it also had a good selection of medium to large sized maps for objectives and Ground War, such as Scrapyard, Afghan and Highrise. Scrapyard and Highrise are symmetrical and face the opponents directly in front of each other, leaving many open lanes that lead to suicide if you rush straight thru and thus rewards flanking once again, while Afghan has a middle no-man's-land where anything goes, leading to most players flanking sides and having engagements alongside those flank routes. Snipers, LMGs, noob tubes, pick your poison as far as keeping the enemy at bay, but pretty much everything was effecting when running flanks. When I think of MW2, I think of large, chaotic objective games on those three maps, or plain TDM/Free for All on Rust and Terminal. Special shoutout goes to Favela, which isn't really good in any mode in my opinion, but it's always a chaotic time no matter how you play it, especially in Ghosts which is slower paced than MW2. I actually like that iteration of the map much more.
Black Ops brought back the more slow and methodical gameplay I liked from COD4, even if it did nothing to ground the series back to reality, most importantly it brought me back thanks to this game being the one that truly kickstarted the Zombies phenomenon. When I think of Black Ops, I once again think of objective maps and deathmatch maps: WMD, Havana and Grid for former, Nuketown, Firing Range and Summit for the latter. Grid and WMD didn't have as many open lanes as maps mentioned earlier, but they did have plenty of buildings to create engagements in. Plenty of fierce gunfights took place in those offices and warehouses, made it easy to camp strategically on objectives too. Havana was more similar to something like Crossfire, in a sense that you will likely die if you rush out into the street, forcing you to take flanks. As for Deathmatch maps, I think Nuketown, Firing Range and Summit are self explanatory. They've been ported over so many times to other games, and there is a reason for that: They are perfect for constant, close quarter combat engagements. While there is flanking routes in each one, you're going to be forced into the moshpit in the middle one way or another. I should mention that unlike with smaller maps in MW2, I found these three to be perfect for Search and Destroy as well.
A lot of people wrote off MW3 for being too similar to MW2, but I actually liked this one a whole lot better than MW2. I must have spend the most amount of time on this game out of almost any other at launch and after the fact, too. There is too many good maps I liked, but to limit it to only a few, I choose two smaller ones and two larger ones: Hardhat and Overwatch make for good close to medium range maps while Mission and Liberation are perfect large maps. All four of these are perfect for objectives, while TDM plays well on all but Liberation(unless in Ground War). These are very well designed, and I think made for objectives first and foremost. Each map has highly contested areas which reward team work and knowledge of how the map flows, while also being chaotic and unpredictable(Mission especially). Special mention goes to Liberation, which is yet another great map for grandpa snipers. You might wander why I didn't include Dome and that's simple: Not really that good of a map for multiplayer, altho it's pretty good in the underrated Survival mode.
BO2 had a load of great maps, too many to mention. I'm not going to talk about Raid or other fan favorites, as while good on their own I think they're overrated. BO2 is a terrific TDM game but it was at it's best in objective modes, thanks to how much weapons and gear you had at your disposal, mixed in with how smooth the gunplay was and how devastating the streaks were. Meltdown and Encore were a perfect example of the objective maps I am talking about, each having good flank routes but also central areas with the objective to focus on, while Grind and Yemen made for good medium sized TDM and Free for All engagements thanks to their strange layout that forced you to think about how you approach your battles. Say what you will about the current three lane nightmare the franchise is suffering from, but this is the game which proved how good these maps could be. Special shoutout goes to Slums, which is good for both objectives and deathmatch modes.
Ghosts is one of my favorite COD games of all time, in both Multiplayer and Extinction. I loved the new meta Multiplayer introduced and I love what they went with as far as balancing, gameplay mechanics and most importantly map layout. I already talked about maps having something unique about them, and while that's a neat feature it wasn't enough to save some maps from mediocrity. For smaller maps, I think Strikezone is king, with Dynasty and Showtime close behind. I think Strikezone is right up there with Nuketown as far as legendary small maps go, especially with the chaos that guaranteed care package KEM strikes and the new layout it brings after it's summoned. Dynasty and Showtime are small, claustrophobic maps with lots of corners that make it perfect for both small TDM and Free for All matches as well as bot matches, something that's a genuine game mode by itself this time around thanks to "Squads" game mode. You could play objectives on these three, but I found them to be better Deathmatch maps. As for objectives, I think Freight and Stonehaven are perfect, especially in Ground War. Freight could be a good TDM map in a pinch, but Stonehaven especially was just not fun if all you did was go for frags, meanwhile both were perfect for chaotic and heated engagements for objectives at any range. These two reward teamwork above all else, mindlessly rushing won't accomplish anything here.
Jetpacks changed everything in Advanced Warfare, and while there was a playlist for people who didn't like using them, they were designed for exo boosting first and foremost. Latter DLCs introduced grappling hooks for the new maps as well, only adding to the madness within them. Advanced Warfare was my most played COD game at launch, more so than COD4 and slightly more than BO2 and Ghosts. I knew that there wouldn't be much in the way of matches once BO3 came out, so I played it as much as I could, this lead to me knowing these maps especially inside and out. Smaller engagement maps were tricky to make in Advanced Warfare, since you could cover a whole lot more distance by exo jumping than just running, not to mention that everyone had unlimited sprint now. This lead to interesting changes in order to make the small to medium maps still feel as such without making them feel underwhelmingly small like Shipment, and I think Defender, Parliament and Terrace did a good job of doing just that. They're perfect for deathmatch modes, but also for objective modes, more importantly they are just as viable for players that depend on their jetpack as much as boots on ground players who instead tend to hide in buildings and pop out for quick outside engagements. For larger scale maps I liked Retreat, Climate and Fracture. Retreat was my favorite pre-DLC map and a perfect one in either TDM or objective, highlighting the best elements of exo movement while rewarding boots on ground gameplay as well. Climate and Fracture are great maps that each take advantage of exo movement in their own right, but they are also grappling hook maps as well. You have no idea how much fun I had in these playlists. While not as effective in Fracture due to it's large size you could easily cover a good portion of the map with a few swings, just like Spider Man. Climate, on the other hand, is a medium sized map with a circular layout, leading to one grappling all over the place and having constant engagements on all sides, on every height you can think of both on the ground and in the air. Special shoutout goes to Perplex, Drift and Urban, which while not really good for objectives are small sized chaotic maps perfect for TDM or Free for All. Perplex especially is some of the most fun I ever had in a Call of Duty game, since it's not only a small map but a grappling hook map as well. This would be an awful map for boots on the ground, but the verticality makes it perfect for both jetpack and grappling hook users. Fun fact: On the no-exo movement playlist, you still got grappling hooks in maps that included them, leading to a very interesting boots on ground + grappling hook meta game on maps like Perplex and Climate that you never really saw after this. I should mention that the game has several remakes of older maps, like Atlas Gorge(Pipeline) and Highrise, which are fantastic and make me wish the game was more active. You have no idea how different these boots on ground maps play with a jetpack or a laser gun, my best matches on those maps were in Advanced Warfare as weird as it sounds.
Black Ops 3 had a very different advanced movement system than the one in Advanced Warfare, which lead to it changing how map layout had to work once again. While fun in small sized engagements, I found medium sized objective modes to be some of the most fun I had in Call of Duty. I will mention Nuketown right now, since I think this is one of the more interesting variants of it thanks to all the advanced movement, but it also highlights how much of a grindhouse this map is when you try to play it seriously. As for more serious, objective minded maps, the ones I liked most were: Metro, Stronghold, Fringe(night variant), Gauntlet and Micro. Each one is a three lane map, with various highly contested frontlines and objective spots, making it perfect for both team play and lone wolf players. Micro has a stupid premise and a layout that I think could work without advanced movement, but it makes for some very contested objective games. I remember very good Domination games within it.
Infinite Warfare wasn't a game I spend much time on, I bought into the hate and frankly, I was busy playing year two of Black Ops 3 instead. Still, I think it's worthy of a mention, very underrated game that I wish was still active. First of all, the game features several MW2 remastered maps like Terminal or the one based off Afghan, and they're all terrific. Very nice to finally see these maps with exo movement, just like their Advanced Warfare counterparts. As for original maps I liked, there are two that stand out for objective players; Crusher and Retaliation. Both are good for TDM as well mind you, but I found these two to be the most fun in gamemodes like Hardpoint or Domination. I actually found straight up Deathmatch to be more fun in Infinite Warfare than in Black Ops 3, thanks largely to it's more unique arsenal, where as Treyarch went by the numbers for their game aside from maybe the loot crate weapons. This lead to me playing a lot of 6v6 TDM, well that and because the servers are dead and not much else is being played. Three maps come to mind for me: Grounded, Altitude and Scrap. Grounded is the one you will be most familiar with since it's not a DLC map and sadly nobody really bought the DLC aside from Zombies players, but the latter two are still phenomenal. Speaking of DLC, credit where credit is due, just the base maps themselves are fine, not a single bad one. Fitting, since that's all you will play if you fire up the game today. Special shoutout goes to Precinct and Throwback, two of my actual favorite maps since they both play well on any game mode, with any build and have some very heated objective games.
Just like with Advanced Warfare, I spend more time on BO4 than any other game, aside form maybe BO2, especially at launch. Some people may hate it, but I absolutely love it, I wish this way of playing the game would be explore more in later titles. This one had a lot of returning maps thanks to the development hell the devs went thru not giving them time to make a lot of proper ones, so maps like Nuketown, Summit, Jungle, Slums and Firing Range are staples of BO4. Special shoutout goes to Jungle Flooded, which actually changes how you play the map, and is great for objective modes that force you to take a swim or to cover the river from land. As for the brand new maps, only one is really good for deathmatch and that is Icebreaker. Great three lane map that makes it surprisingly easy to spawn kill/trap your opponents if they don't know what they're doing. As for larger objective mode maps, my favorites are: Frequency, Gridlock and Arsenal(sandstorm variant to limit engagements outside or force people to use thermal optics). Each one of these is three lane Treyarch at it's finest, with Gridlock having quite a lot of space between the lanes to make the engagements even more chaotic. More importantly, each one of these has frontlines, drawing very clear hotspots and letting players choose if they want to throw themselves into the meat grinder of flank for better results. I want to quickly mention Seaside, a map I have a strange relationship with. I don't think it's all that good in most game modes, however it is perfect for several ones: Barebones playlist that disables OP operator abilities and makes Seaside play more like a traditional COD map, Control(which is a new game mode and seems tailor made for this map specifically), and in special, limited time modes like Infection. Seaside Infection(and Grind Infection, Grind being just as good of a map as in BO2 btw) was some of my favorite time in BO4.
I did not play a lot of MW4, I already said I had a bad experience with it after some time. Great first few weeks mind you, connection issues not withstanding(something that only got worse, from what I saw), but once the honeymoon period wore off, I went back to COD Mobile for a little bit. Not a lot to say on that one BTW, I believe all the maps in that game are just ports of other maps, very good mix of IW and Treyarch maps btw. As for MW4, I only played up to Season 2, so I can only talk about the maps I played. Second, all the remade maps are terrific and some of the best in the game(Aside from Shipment), also all the Ground War exclusive maps are fantastic and I found my limited time with the game spend most on those, especially Karst River Quarry since that one was in the beta. For the more traditional new maps, I found myself enjoying two types of maps: One suited more to TDM and ones for objectives. For the former, the ones I liked were: Shoot House, Azhir Cave, Hackney Yard and Rammaza. Each one is small, but not small enough to feel like a grindhouse map, like Shipment or Nukedown do. Each one of those maps requires you to adjust your playstyle to them based on gamemode, how good your team is and your loadout, which I guess is too much for some people since I hear nothing but endless bitching about all of these aside from the brainless "Shoothouse" made specifically for the Treyarch audience. I will say I do like the inclusion of doors, it helps out campers sure but it also servers to protect players from mindless rushers who now have to think about their engagements more. As for objective maps, Grazna Raid is the go-to and maybe Aniyah Palace if you can find a 20v20 lobby or something, that map is unplayable without at least 12v12 lobbies. Grazna Raid reminds me of something you would find in either COD4 or MW3, an excellent objective map that offers an entire sandbox worth of various engagements depending on game mode. Aniyah Palace is more akin to something like Strike, where players get funneled into various alleys or buildings and grind for the objectives while other players flank, the chaos stems more from how many people are playing and how large the map is than anything else, which gives it a fun little middle ground between traditional multiplayer and the new rebooted Ground War which resembles Battlefield more than the previous entries of the mode.
