Also, in honor of it being 115 day; what's your favorite Zombie map?
I don't think I ever played a "bad" Zombies map aside from Beast From Beyond. As for my favorite, I can't say. The wonderful thing about Zombies is that every single map has something unique to it, even the least notable ones. This makes each map it's own beast with nothing like it, even the generic survival maps in BO2 are unique among one another(Bus Stop is similar to Nacht in being a minimalist map, Farm has one place to camp and it gives you more resources to work with at the cost of only having two wall weapons, Town has everything and offers the typical Zombies experience in it's most compact form).
I guess I could go by game, to make it more fair:
For World at War, Der Riese is the obvious choice since it is the most complete map with most to do. Verruckt is a close second and my personal favorite for how frantic it is, but not in World at War. Those sprinting zombies can go fuck themselves, glad they were gone for years after Verruckt. The Black Ops variant was much better thanks to this.
For Black Ops, I think my vote would have to go to Ascension, not just for being the first proper Easter Egg map but for it's atmosphere, new gadgets, for the fun you can have flopping from the staircase where you buy it from, and the monkeys introduce a very unique twist on the map and force you to think about which doors you want to open(you want to make it harder for them to steal Jugg, Quick Revive as well if you play solo).
For Black Ops 2, I would chose Buried. It's a close call with Mob, but there is too much hassle going around there to unlock the most basic necessities, and it's hell running thru these hallways in later rounds, when your weapons don't do shit and you have a horde on your ass. Buried is a wide open map that lets you unlock and craft whatever you want, even put your own wallbuys wherever you please. The wonder weapon also lets you do a lot of skipping around and even if you don't have it, you can access some areas thru shortcuts if you know where you're going, even without buying doors. Then, you have the giant who adds even more strategy with what you're doing. In a way, this is the same philosophy Treyarch brought into Tranzit, but this time it's done right, albeit on a smaller scale. Hell, even the Wonder Weapon is just the Jetgun but better, this is practically what Tranzit was supposed to be. Let's not forget that this is also the end of classic Zombies, this is where the original trilogy ends. Jimmy Zelinsky would leave after this map, and it would be Blundell's show from here on out, for better or for worse. This is the last map that has those oldschool zombies vibes.
For Black Ops 3, it would have to be Shadows of Evil. It's Mob, but better in my opinion, and it's a launch map at that. It's a mix and match of best aspects of zombies, and a playground to try out the new mechanics alongside The Giant. Fantastic map, it's just a shame that both Morg City and the characters don't end up really contributing to the story, unlike the mobsters.
For Black Ops 4, it would have to be Classified. This map feels like a true Black Ops 1 era map, and a love letter to old Zombies. It is also Five done right, and a smaller, less complex map compared to others in Black Ops 4 that just lets you unwind when you don't have a few hours to do all the necessary steps to unlock pack a punch or upgrade the wonder weapons like the other maps expect of you. It is not an easy map however, quite the opposite, it still has the problem Five had where you don't have a lot of good training spots so the map gets really hectic real quick. The only real downside is that they didn't re-use classic round change sounds and instead we get these stupid, cheesy jazz ones. If the game was moddable, this is one of the few things I would change.
Side games also have quite a few winners. For Advanced Warfare, I would chose Carrier. This was the first time we fought human enemies in Zombies and when we were forced to do multiplayer objectives within the map, something that would get re-used in some easter eggs later on. The symmetrical design of the map was carried over from Verruckt, meaning that both in solo and coop you would start on different sides and unlock different set of doors, only to reunite at the power switch. I always loved this idea and it's a shame it didn't make it into more maps. This map also introduced. Wonder weapons on this map kicked ass, you had teleport grenades that were both useful as weapons as well as gateaway tools, you had the repulsor that worked like grenades as well, but instead of throwing anything you create a wall of sound like with a Thunder Gun, being able to kill all the zombies around you. Lastly, you had Limbo, a laser gun that you could use to kill anything within a horizontal or a vertical line, very useful in the close quarter interiors of the map. Let's not forget the absolute banger that was the easter egg song here
As for Infinite Warfare, it would have to be Attack Of the Radioactive Thing. I liked the 50s theme, and the general design philosophy and atmosphere made the map feel like a Black Ops 1 era map, kind of like Classified. M.A.D was pretty much a Black Ops era Wonder Weapon except shittier, made up for that with the ability to get more ammo for it without dependency on Max Ammo, Change Chews were introduced in this map, which essentially brought back Pack-A-Punch ammo from Black Ops 3, and of course who can forget Elvira? Oh, and this map wins the award for the most convoluted, un-intuitive, absolutely retarded and next to impossible easter egg of all time, which is saying a lot. If you know, you know, let's just say that without a genuine Chemistry degree you're pretty much fucked.
Anyways, I could go on like this all day, I think you see why I can't just name *one* favorite. I haven't played Cold War yet and unless Vanguard drops to less than 15$ I doubt I will ever play that one. As far as I'm concerned, there is a fantastic selection of maps just between the games I listed and I will need convincing to give more money to Activision. Anyways, happy belated 115 day.
