We would’ve preferred Five and Call of the Dead instead. Trying to play Moon and Origins by yourself or with friends proves to be quite the challenge then, and while the maps themselves are aesthetically pleasing and have neat, experimental ideas, they remain frustrating by having you erratically run around and micromanage so many things. The latter works for Moon and Origins since they aren’t designed for camping, especially with enemies that force you to be on the move like Phasing Crawlers or the Panzersoldat. The former is usually expected with Nacht der Untoten, Verrückt, Shi no Numa, Kino der Toten, Ascension, and Shangri-la. This can tip to the point of favouring two expectations, with one about finding spots to hold out in for the remainder of a session, and the other focused on continuously running around in planned circuits.

The Zombies mode’s design philosophy over time can be boiled down to increasing complexity and size nearly every map has more features and open areas than the last. However, were they even worthy of being resurrected in the first place? This isn’t like Shi no Numa being ported to Black Ops with no touch-ups: the studio has remade these maps from the ground up, making their predecessors look unbearably blurry and bland in comparison. As a whole, taking time to revisit these maps unveils that Treyarch didn’t skimp on remastering, even with the sound design.

Black ops 3 chronicles