Although it won’t release on Xbox One and PC for at least a month, the new Awakening map pack for Black Ops 3 arrived for PlayStation 4, bringing four additional areas to battle your friends in, along with a new Der Eisendrache Zombies map, once again featuring the characters from the previously released Giant map.
Keep these map tips in mind before jumping online.
Skyjacked
If this map looks familiar to you, that’s probably because it’s based on the Hijacked map that originally appeared in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Except, this time, instead of being parked in the water, you’re hovering above the ground a few thousand feet up. That means instant death if you drop over the side and don’t find a ledge.
Regarding this map, there are a lot of tight spaces to battle through, along with the secondary offices up top where snipers and some assault will have a field day on enemies below. However, make note of the ends of the ship, where you can now hop onto higher ground to gain an advantage over incoming enemies, as well as the gaping hole on the side of the ship, where you can drop in and surprise players running below deck.
Splash
This map, located within a fully loaded pirate theme park, is as fun as it looks. That’s because of all the action happening in the middle of the map, whether you’re coming out of an inactive water slide guns a-blazin’, swimming from underneath through the top lane to gain the advantage or sniping from the rooftops of a nearby pirate castle.
The top lane provides a promising opportunity for tight gun battles, and there’s a lazy river on the bottom lane, where you can slip and slide your way to glory as you put your enemies to rest. It’s a quality map that is sure to become one of your favorites.
Rise
Taking place in a construction site outside of Zurich, Rise will definitely get your attention, whether you prefer fighting indoors or outdoors. Aside from a busy area near the bottom right side of the map, you’ll find the terrain filled with plenty of tight lanes with a healthy amount of cover, along with small internal rooms where you can either set up shop as a sniper (watching for gunfire, of course), or run like crazy with an assault rifle in hand.
This is a big map, with most of the action regulated to that corner, but you’ll have ample opportunity to catch some soldiers off-guard as you make your way through the lanes and find higher ground atop some storage containers and trucks. Make use of the cover spots as well, like the concrete tunnel pieces that will help you avoid incoming attacks – but won’t necessarily save you from the enemies coming in on the ground.
Gauntlet
The Gauntlet map may be the most curiously designed of the four available within the game. Here, you’ll find three different kinds of terrain that you can utilize to your advantage – a luscious jungle on the top, complete with trees to take cover behind; a huge frozen tundra in the middle, with a narrow bridge sitting right in the middle of it all; and a rainy village on the bottom, complete with an alleyway where you can take part in a quick skirmish.
It’s a bit confusing at first, but the map is very large, and gives you lots of room to run around and formulate a strategy. Your best bet for CQC (close quarters combat) is right smack dab in the center, though the top and bottom lines will have more than enough traffic to score a few quick frags. It all depends on your style of play, but no matter where you go, there’s no shortage of action.
