As most of you know, IW released the Variety Mack Pack on the morning of the 4th; I woke up just as it came out apparently, wonderful! I was so amped when I started up the game, I knew Carentan by heart so Chinatown was butter at first (hint, hint) and the other maps didn’t take too long to get used to; overall I feel my purchase was justified and I’m pleased by it.

Remember Carentan from Call of Duty and Call of Duty 2? Welcome Chinatown: Infinity Ward has rehashed it with a lavish, distinctly Chinese (duh) decor, as well as a couple new windows and doors. While it may not be anything specifically new, it’s a special map. The sprint feature makes the map seem A LOT smaller than it was in CoD/2. In case you didn’t play CoD or CoD2, it’s a tight map with lots of buildings and windows featuring many CQC battles.

Lookin’ familiar?

Creek is a large, open, forested map with a small neighborhood at the highest point of the map by the Spetznaz spawn. The map features lots of high sniping points, a dry creek, a caved tunnel to get from one side of the map to the other quickly. The SAS spawn has a high ridge and an empty riverbed from around from the Spetznaz spawn sweeping around the ridge to the SAS spawn. Every time I play on Creek, most players snipe, and why not? It contains tons of vantage points over certain places. My problem with this map is if the Spetznaz is organized, the SAS will have a VERY hard time flanking their position. There is limited cover in the field which separates one side from the other directly from the other, so it’s pretty hard to escape/pretty easy to pin. By far the best looking map (or anything) that I’ve ever seen on a video game.

High-definition beauty.

Broadcast is my favourite map. It’s taken from the mission ‘Charlie Don’t Surf,’ specifically the TV station part. This is my favourite map because there are tons of ways to get around the map, there are multiple pathways to maneuver and flank around; that makes it AMAZING for Search and Destroy, which is my favourite game mode. The map is mostly indoors, there is a balcony overlooking a parking lot and 3 houses outside the TV station. Despite this map being derived from the campaign, it’s a great one and it’s one that I will not tire of for awhile.

The broadcast room is often isolated.

Killhouse is one map I know I won’t play too much; it’s limited to Free-For-All, Team Tactical and Cage Match. It’s a small map (about 2 Shipments in a rectangular shape) with numerous walls and rooms for cover and a sniping tower (which is almost useless) in the middle of the map. For what it’s limited to, it serves it’s purpose well, it’s a great FFA map. Coolest (or worst) thing about Killhouse is that airstrikes can go through the roof, as can helicopter bullets, luckily there’s some overhead cover, but it’s scarce.

RUN TO COVER! AIRSTRIKE!

At first Creek frustrated me to no avail, but I’ve found out the best spots to snipe and it’s all fun now. It was hard to get around Chinatown, despite multiple pathways and buildings, but I found ways to get around that. My point is if you don’t like the maps at first, give them a chance, they’re all great.

Overall I feel that my purchase was justified, I will have fun with the maps for sure, I just can’t wait until IW molds the maps into the regular playlists. I’d give the pack as a whole a solid 8.5/10. Any questions? Leave a comment.

Yours truly, x MadCowDisease.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 12:55 am and is filed under Call of Duty 4. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.