Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Vengeance keygen+cheatcode

Call Of Duty: Black Ops II – Vengeance (360) – virtual paintball

The third of Black Ops II’s four promised map packs brings with it zombie cowboys and ray guns, but is the first person shooter running out of steam?

There’s still one more map pack for Black Ops II to be released after this, and yet such is the yearly schedule for the series that Activision is already promoting a pre-order map for Call Of Duty: Ghosts. Called Free Fall, it uses the game’s new ‘dynamic map events’ to have you fighting in a slowly collapsing skyscraper. It seems a fun gimmick, and it’s not hard to imagine how some of Ghosts’ other maps might play out, but where does that leave Black Ops II in the meantime?

Even those with only a passing interest in Call Of Duty will know how its map packs work by now. Some may complain at their high prices but considering how many downloads there have been over the years they’ve maintained a remarkably high quality. None have ever been a complete waste of money, and while it’s equally hard to think of any that have risen above expectations you at least know what you’re getting each time. And if nothing else Call Of Duty is a franchise about consistency and reliability.

As such Vengeance includes four new multiplayer maps and, because this is a Treyarch game, a new Zombies map. As a bonus you also get a new weapon: the Ray Gun Mark II, although it can only be used in Zombies mode.

The new multiplayer maps are called Cove, Detour, Rush, and Uplink. Cove is a smallish map set on a tropical island seemingly inspired by Lost, including a plane wreck right in the middle and lost luggage scattered all around. It’s a fun theme but the map design itself is unremarkable, and if it was just set in a warehouse or some less distinctive location it wouldn’t stand out at all.

Detour is a much larger map and probably the best of the quartet. It’s set on a traffic bridge in the near future (which we thought Treyarch said they weren’t doing, but never mind) and despite its size the map is very narrow and the two levels of road packed with abandoned cars. The latter offer plenty of cover and the apparently linear nature of your approach means you have to think a bit more imaginatively about your tactics, and take good advantage of vertical movement as well.

Rush sits between the other two maps in terms of size and involves both an indoors and outdoors paintball course. Paintball seems an obvious theme for Call Of Duty (and it suddenly had us wishing for a Laser Quest map next time) and although the layout doesn’t have any big surprises it’s fairly good at discouraging snipers and focusing on close quarters combat.

As is usually the case one of the maps is a revamp of an existing stage from an earlier game, and in this case Uplink is a remake of Black Op’s Summit. The layout is very similar, but now instead of being a snow-covered mountain it’s a jungle-covered one during a rainstorm. That obviously changes both the atmosphere and the nature of the cover, although it’s hard to argue it’s either for better or worse as we don’t know anyone that ever really regarded Summit as a particular classic.

The new Zombies map is called Buried and is set in an abandoned mining town deep underground, which means… zombie cowboys! Rather than try and pay Clint Eastwood or some other more minor celebrity for their voiceover efforts the map features the original four characters from the TranZit map in the original game.

That’s slightly disappointing but the Old West town features all the enjoyable clichés you’d expect, including a bank, a saloon, and a gunsmith. Most interesting though is the presence of the gigantic ‘Max’ in the local jail. Let him out and give him a beer and he’ll smash down locked doors for you. Give him some sweets from the store and he’ll actually follow you around and fight zombies for you.

It’s a neat gimmick and although the rest of the map itself isn’t quite as inspired at least it lets you save your accrued points to use later, rather than having to start again from scratch each time. Naturally the Ray Gun also comes in handy, and once you download Vengeance you can also use it on any other Black Ops II Zombies map as well.

Of course none of this solves the lingering problem that Zombies mode itself is in desperate need of a complete revamp, but then the multiplayer maps don’t do anything to fundamentally change the competitive experience either. In fact especially compared to previous download  this certainly seems the least inspired of the Black Ops II map packs so far, even if none of the maps are actively bad.

But Call Of Duty’s downloadable content has never promised change, just more of the same for those that want it. And on that basis this is still another perfectly worthwhile release.

In Short: Not one of Call Of Duty’s better map packs, but there are still some highlights and plenty to keep fans playing for just a few more months.

Pros: Detour is genuinely good, and Cove and Rush are both perfectly competent maps. Buried has some nice ideas, even if it feels a little undercooked.

Cons: No real standout maps, and Uplink/Summit feels very much like scraping the barrel. Zombies mode continues to seem less interesting with every new map.

Score: 6/10

Formats: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC

Price: 1,200 Microsoft Points/£10.28

Publisher: Activision

Developer: Treyarch

Release Date: 2nd July 2013 (non-360 TBC)

Age Rating: 18

Thoughts? Eor l

Black Ops,