So yeah, what the title says. Am I the only one who finds most of the maps in the game fairly mediocre? Played about 3 hours of the MP now, and I just can't seem to remember liking any of them a great deal.

Am I right, or am I just crazy?

ill tell ya when i get it tomorrow.

@Dezztroy: Can you be more specific for those of us who haven't gotten it yet? Is it the graphics/location are generic, they're too open/closed, too vertical or flat? I'm not really a fan of vertical maps, and with all the mini copters and crap, I've been worried about verticality in multiplayer.

Probably better than Modern Warfare 3's, in any case.

@CatsAkimbo: I dunno, it's hard to pinpoint what exactly it is about them. They certainly look nice and have a fair amount of variet in them. Part of my problem is that they seem to be very enclosed and little more than corridors. Which I guess has been pretty standard for CoD, but hey.

Of course, this is not to say that I'm not enjoying the multiplayer. I definitely am. New class system is great.

I always feel that way at the start of a games life but the fact is they just take some getting used too and over time you will realize they are as good if not better, not saying this is the case this is just usually how it happens for me. i dont have the game yet and this will be the first COD i buy since MW2

@buft said:

I always feel that way at the start of a games life but the fact is they just take some getting used too and over time you will realize they are as good if not better, not saying this is the case this is just usually how it happens for me. i dont have the game yet and this will be the first COD i buy since MW2

I totally agree. I had a real "I preferred maps in black ops" moment in Modern Warfare 3, and they grew on me pretty quickly. The one that I still feel was missing was an ultra small map. I'm glad nuketown is coming back, and I hope they realize what made the first nuketown great.

Give it some time to learn the choke points and guns. A level the first week feels different later on. Also I think it is now human nature to try and hate something when any new COD game comes out.

Nuketown was so annoying on PC. I can understand playing it once in awhile, but like half or more of the servers at a certain point were devoted 24/7 nuketown servers.

Just dumb

I thought MW2 had great maps, and that BO1 had awful linear maps with very little verticality. I have not played MW3 or BO2.

@FoolishChaos said:

Nuketown was so annoying on PC. I can understand playing it once in awhile, but like half or more of the servers at a certain point were devoted 24/7 nuketown servers.

Just dumb

That and dumb shit like "only crouching" or "no jumping" makes me glad that they've fused matchmaking and the dedicated servers together. It's unfortunate for a lot of people, it seems, but I'm not one of them.

I hate it when this happens. It happens with me and Halo where I know the map is bad but I don't know why. Its that Brad Shoemaker trademarked 'Nebulous Feel' that is missing.

I've had that in spades with most of the Modern Warfare maps, not so much with the Black Ops stuff. Hope this is more in line with that.

@rebgav said:

From watching the IGN/Gamespot streams it seemed like they were going with typical CoD map design, three-lane structure around/through a couple of central kill-zones.

That's all I needed to know. That's what Call of Duty (and most good map design) needs to be.

Well, after some more play some of the maps are starting to grow on me. Raid has been quite enjoyable, specifically.

I hate Aftermath though.

I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that it's not the maps you used to play on. I skipped MW3, but I had several maps on black ops that I really liked because I knew their layout really well and because the layout was a nice match for my play style.

Are they? The last COD I played regularly was COD 4 (which had amazing maps). I bought MW 2 and BLOPs well after they were released, played a decent amount of the former and barely touched the latter. Mainly because the maps in BLOPs are absolutely terrible. Terrible. From a design and aesthetic stand point. I've watched a few multiplayer videos of BLOPs II and they seem a bit better. I haven't played COD in ages, but I'm really considering picking up BLOPs II at launch. Getting the itch.

They are pretty good, sadly Hijacked is pretty much Nuketown, the design of both maps is eerily similar... and I hate Nuketown.

Overall there pretty fair maps for better balance games

They are the worst in the series in my opinion. They are too small, or at-least don't have enough wide open spaces, it discourages any sort of long-ranged play, mid-ranged stuff can come into play but the SMGs dominate both mid and close range combat, so it doesn't really do much.

I like them all except for 1.

To be perfectly honest I don't think Call of Duty has had a solid set of maps since CoD4, virtually every map was quality. There are rare standouts like Nuketown since then but that is an evolution of Shipment's chaos from close proximity and even then Shipment was 10x as crazy. I can still remember most the names and general layouts of the CoD4 maps and I havn't played that game in probably 3-4 years. I couldn't name you a single map from MW2 or 3 and World at War may as well never happened.

That is not to say Black Ops 2 specifically is bad, they are perfectly serviceable maps but it is more of Call of Duty's ridiculous sight lines and everything is open from every angle so you can't do anything with grenades flying in your face or being sniped.

I think they're quite good. Much better than MW3, on par with BO1. I love Turbine, Yemen, Meltdown and Standoff. I can see myself getting tired of Hijacked, though.

Hope they bringnback Firing Range.

Bring back*. Fucking mobile site, can't edit.

I don't know. I like the maps, but the gameplay just doesn't do it for me. The way the guns are designed makes for a very fast paced game - which fits perfectly with the small maps they crafted. I don't like it though, because there are too many angles so it seems that you're most vulnerable when you slow down and think.

I rented it from Red Box yesterday and I have to say I actually liked the game. I found the maps initially to be dull except for Yemen and maybe two others. One map I didn't see until I got past level 20 which is Aftermath. I'm not a fan of Drone. It's not too bad but there is one long space where people just tend to snipe from way in the back where the forest area is. Really kills a large chunk of map from being useful for me. Hijacked and Raid were okay but just looked bland. If anything there are too many two story buildings with windows for people waiting for you to turn that corner. Overall it wasn't too bad and I'm actually enjoying the game. I hated the maps in MW3 and BLOPS.

edit: log = long

I kinda like the maps, the smaller ones especially are great.

Most of the maps are pretty good imo. I am not a fan of drone or turbine. Turbine reminds me of Afghan from MW2 which I hated.

I remember liking all of the maps in the first Black Ops, but this game just has maps that make no sense to what Call of Duty is. I do like a couple like Plaza, Yemen, Slums along with maybe 2 others, but the rest I can see me not even growing to like over time. I can say that I still love Nuketown, but that will only be an "event" map in matchmaking now...

I agree, I don't find the maps in this game very good. Also I don't understand why people like nuketown, I hate that map.

Overall I'm not a fan of these maps. I like some, absolutely hate some, but most fall in the category of mediocre to me. And I agree with what people have been saying that most of these maps are too 'open', and have too many spiderwebbing paths connecting everything. Most of the time I die is because someone ran up behind me from a different path, rather than from in front.

I think CoD games are kinda bad.

The maps aren't very good in this game. There are maybe 3 decent maps in the whole game. After the first black ops I had faith that Treyarch could make good maps. I'm pretty disappointed. I have to say hijacked or whatever the yacht one is is probably the worst call of duty map ever made. Yes I played call of duty 3 too.

@shadykx125 said:

I agree, I don't find the maps in this game very good. Also I don't understand why people like nuketown, I hate that map.

I played that map on a Steam free weekend, and all it was was people throwing grenades as soon as they spawned, dying, respawning, throwing more grenades, dying, etc etc. I said to myself, oh, this is Black Ops 2? And uninstalled the game.

Blackops 1 had the best maps in my opinion, I really like the big maps in Call of Duty, small maps and Killstreaks are just chaos.

They're pretty good. So far I'm liking them better than MW3 which I eventually burned out on. Black Ops I think had more fun in the maps but there is still something about the MW2 maps that stand out to me.

@KillerClaw: I agree with you 100% on this.

I feel like the maps in Black Ops 1 were leaps and bounds above these.

They're are so many nooks, crannies, and entrances to them in all of the maps. There's no chokepoints or corners to back your ass into. Part of me respects that, but I kind of miss some of the meatgrinder hallways and sniper nests from previous games.

Does anyone else feel that these maps make the sniper rifles totally useless?

Honestly, I think these maps are just awful. Every single one is tiny and has 2 or three choke points where teams just mindlessly butt heads against each other. Also, there's absolutely no reason to use the assault rifles or snipers ever, because SMGs are so ludicrously powerful on every map. Combine that with the fact the spawn-system is borderline-broken, and the multiplayer just ends up being one big clusterfuck.

All BLOPS 2 multiplayer does is make me want to reinstall CoD4 so I can actually play on some half-decent maps with balanced weapons.

Say what you will but I feel the maps are more creative than ANY of MW3's

Having played the maps for a few days now, I like about 1/3 of them. The problem is that they feel too big sometimes for how many players are on the map, many of them have too many "oh, I came around the corner and gotcha" moments or too many hiding-behind-walls-or-in-windows spots, and the flow when running through them doesn't feel good.

It feels like they built a big sandbox and then threw a bunch of shit in there randomly without much playtesting to see just how well the maps worked all around. = /

@jakob187 said:

Having played the maps for a few days now, I like about 1/3 of them. The problem is that they feel too big sometimes for how many players are on the map, many of them have too many "oh, I came around the corner and gotcha" moments or too many hiding-behind-walls-or-in-windows spots, and the flow when running through them doesn't feel good.

It feels like they built a big sandbox and then threw a bunch of shit in there randomly without much playtesting to see just how well the maps worked all around. = /

I agree with those comments, the maps aren't well built or organized. I rather deal with MW3's BS than BOs BS. At least MW3 is consistent.

@jakob187 said:

Having played the maps for a few days now, I like about 1/3 of them. The problem is that they feel too big sometimes for how many players are on the map, many of them have too many "oh, I came around the corner and gotcha" moments or too many hiding-behind-walls-or-in-windows spots, and the flow when running through them doesn't feel good.

It feels like they built a big sandbox and then threw a bunch of shit in there randomly without much playtesting to see just how well the maps worked all around. = /

Agreed.

Funny thing is Halo 4 has similar issues. It's like they both put more time and effort into unlock systems and weapon sounds then cut corners on half the maps...the half that doesn't include recycled layouts, because that half is fine.

I've never seen so many people so quickly coming to a consensus saying, "Fuck this map!"

Aftermath, Cargo and Turbine are the worst maps in the game, mainly because it's so goddamn hard to figure out the rhythm on those maps. Drone, Raid and Hijacked are awesome, though.

@RAMBO604 said:

To be perfectly honest I don't think Call of Duty has had a solid set of maps since CoD4, virtually every map was quality. There are rare standouts like Nuketown since then but that is an evolution of Shipment's chaos from close proximity and even then Shipment was 10x as crazy. I can still remember most the names and general layouts of the CoD4 maps and I havn't played that game in probably 3-4 years. I couldn't name you a single map from MW2 or 3 and World at War may as well never happened.

That is not to say Black Ops 2 specifically is bad, they are perfectly serviceable maps but it is more of Call of Duty's ridiculous sight lines and everything is open from every angle so you can't do anything with grenades flying in your face or being sniped.

I'm pretty sure you're mis-remembering a lot of Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's maps. Half of them were fucking sniper funnels that were no fun to play.

For the most part I like the maps so far. Really the only one I straight up hate is Aftermath, no fucking idea where people come from on that map so I always get shot in the back.

Some maps I'm not a fan of on TDM (turbine) but am totally fine with on Domination. DOM actually makes it so you have a semblance of where people will be. I've also been surprised that there are actually some decent sniping maps.