According to remarks from David Vondehaar of Treyarch, Call of Duty: Black Ops will ship with about 14 maps on the disc when the game hits on November 9th. I had the chance to try out some of the various new multiplayer maps and match types last night and came away impressed.
(More on Techland: Call of Duty: Black Ops Multiplayer Offers Theater Mode, Wagering and More)
The first multiplayer match type I dove into was called Sticks and Stones, I think. It was a Wager Match that happened on a snowy, desolate location and each player started with a set amount of COD points. Get killed and lose 100 points, take someone out and get cash back. But the best part of this match was the weapons loadout. Each of us was equipped with only a crossbow and a ballistic knife. Now, the crossbow’s been one of the more ballyhooed new weapons in all of the Black Ops hype and I was able to see why. It’s super-accurate and super-deadly and–since the arrows have explosive tips–a direct hit pretty much guarantees a kill. The crossbows we used had only three bolts for ammo, so you had to pick your shots carefully. And if you miss a shot at an opponent, the long reload time makes you a sitting duck. The weapon felt like it had a nice risk/reward balance built into it. I started off the match poorly, languishing in Humiliated status (because I’d lost all my money) but I actually came out on top of the round after notching up a bunch of kills just before time ran out.
My next session took place on the Radiation map, which is on a missile launch site. David Vondehaar of Treyarch said that this was one of the new game’s maps where players could interact with the environment and triggers things like the launch bay doors opening. Things like that will have tactical applications. But none of playing on Radiation tried anything like that because we were playing Gun Game, which is unbelievably frantic and tense. The rules governing the match type are simple enough. Every players starts off with a pistol and whoever Gun Game creates an interesting new dynamic where you don’t so much want to get a kill, you NEED to. And you need to do it fast.
You can quickly sink to the bottom of the food chain if you don’t keep with the other players. At one point I was running around with two measly pistols while someone was throwing down explosive damage with either some kind of grenade or missile launcher. However, if you get killed (twice, I think), you get demoted and your weapon type goes down a rung on the rank ladder. So, the playing field can vary quickly and there’s the possibility of a kind of a player-created balancing system. . There’s also a variant of Gun Game called Sharpshooter, where the weapons that you get are randomized. In Gun Game, you always get the same weapons as you progress upward through the loadout. Gun Game feels like it will be one of the more popular match types when the latest COD comes out.
Stay tuned for more info on Call of Duty: Black Ops as the game works its way to release.