The latest DLC for Ghosts has arrived, but you could excuse many for not really caring at all.
The last few DLC packs have seem to center around one big thing and that's the team order killstreak, but other than that nothing really new has happened in the world of COD: Ghosts.
Sure many will get enjoyment out of the maps on offer in this DLC pack, but for me Ghosts lost it when gamers decided "Hey, screw walking around maps guys, let's just sit in the corner and camp our way through a 10 minute game". This does not seem to have changed since I left the game a few months back either, as the whole time I spent playing these maps to review I came across the above guys nearly a dozen times, infact every map I played.
For those corner sitters or guys who put up with the above habit for their deep love of COD please do read on.
Four maps join the fun of ghosts with the Invasion DLC, with a new episode of the much under loved Extinction also included.
The maps see a familiar old friend return with Favela and three new maps joining us with Departed, Pharoah and Mutiny.
Departed is set in Mexico and is themed around the day of the dead celebrations, so this brings a ton of colour and cover to take advantage of.
The map itself has quite a neat layout, with the outer lanes of play being both tight and well covered, with the central parts having a more open feel to them, but still having cover if needed.
The most active part of the map though is the section where a big house can be found, with many taking advantage of a hard to reach room once camped deeply into.
This did tend to make it a battle to take over this room when playing team deathmatch, as I'm one of those guys who, when seeing someone camp I do go back again and again until I get the job done.
Other than that though, Departed never really had a stand out feature other than the bright look the map has to it.
The team order in this map is that of a walking dead mariaichi band.
These squad members will grow in force with every kill you get and they will fire their pistols at anyone stupid enough to get in your way.
These are pretty weak though and can be easily taken out with a well placed semtex, so not a very long killstreak.
Favela falls into a category I love to hate, with the term "fan favorite" being put about all rather easily when it comes to map packs these days.
Yes Favela was an alright map in my eyes, but putting a bit more grass in it and a few other eye pleasing visuals still does not take away from the fact that it could have been a new map in its place. I'm a gamer who would much prefer a new map, but if they feel like making old maps available then doing so for free, as chances are we've already paid for that map in a previous game.
Back onto Favala and nothing has really changed apart from the grass having a better grassy look to it and a few Brazilian related TV screens around the place.
The old places that were well used on it previously still run true for this version of the map, so expect the outer square of the map to be used for sniping and the building close to the center to be well camped in.
The team order is nothing to get excited about either, with the AC-130 making a return.
Favela is in for being a "fan favorite" but for me the same hatred of being camped shot by a guy hiding in a broken shower made me remember why I also hated it in equal measure.
Pharoah is set in an abandoned archeological site in Egypt and has the feeling of a must look around each corner type of map.
All the corridors have a tight feel to them around the outer part of the map, so around any corner and enemy could surprise you.
Also in these parts are rooms that not only house some sort of artifact but also a torch you can put out to open a room at the back end of the map.
When I did this I was given a loki for my troubles, but only doing it once I can't confirm if this will be the case for you.
The team order on this map is one that gives you all perks, so in terms of having a wow factor it is pretty weak which can be said likewise for my overall feeling on this map.
Mutiny has the whole Assassins Creed on a foggy night look going for it with the main focal point being a pirate ship settled in the docks, which gives you a pretty open look out to the map.
The map is pretty small if you took the ship out of the equation, with the map only then having a few rooms and bridges as the main focal point.
The games I've played I've seen one room in particular used by those with the knowledge of camp, which can be found at the bottom of the top right of the ship.
This room pretty much gives those with a good lean a pretty good view of the main stairs used in the game, and with only two ways in you can pretty much cover it alone.
The other areas used most are the ship itself and the bridge in front of the ship, and that's about it, other than that nothing truly stands out.
Team orders in this map give you a couple of choices with both ghostly pirate men being at your beck and call, or a rather handy ghost ship that will fire cannons onto random places at the map.
The Extinction series is COD's take on an episodic adventure, which if being honest has not done as well as say the Zombie modes seen in previous games.
That of course was the work of Treyarch, so of course Infinity Ward wanted to try their best at having some sort of decent co-op mode, sadly from what I've seen this has not happened.
You see an episodic adventure for me is something that grabs you right from the start and leaves you dying for the next installment, which for me just has not happened.
That's not to say the mode is not fun, as it sort of is, but not to the point of fans dying to playing it in each DLC pack.
The mode is pretty much the same on each release with the only change being a new location, a new boss and some new enemies to shoot.
If you've played previous episodes you will know the layout of each experience Being get your drill and drilling sections of the map, which after doing a few and some sort of small battle you move onto the next section. This has not changed for awakening with your drill now needed to scan artifacts in the opening section while fending off enemies from previous encounters mixed with a few new ones such as Gargoyles. Your quest is to take down the defensive barriers that protect the ark and retrieve a bioweapon known as The Cortex, which is all great for those who've put time and effort to remembering the story, but for those drop in and out guys like me it will mean nothing.
We can still enjoy shooting aliens while ranking up, so we have that at least.
Onto the experience the game gave me and without my usual co-op buddy around for this one I ventured into randoms territory.
The COD community never let my expectations down in this team-based adventure though, as they did what they do best and make a part fun experience just flat-out annoying by going lone wolf. This lead to playing super short games with me getting down to the objective at hand only to find my team mates the other side of the map hunting for all the goodies that the map has hidden and then getting downed by the incoming alien swarm and expecting me to then go a help them.
I ended going into a solo game because of this reason, which when I did I actually got to enjoy it a whole lot more.
Away from that annoying online gamers though the adventure is very pleasing on the eyes.
The look of the place that the game is set in looks to be that of something you expect to see in a far off planet in Star Trek, with a colourful and bright look right from the get-go.
It almost had that Borderlands look to it, and with playing the previous episode on some pretty uncolourful places it was nice to see a bit of colour injected into it.
Summary: For those that have moved on from the series this map pack is no need to return back. For those that have stuck with it though and desire more content, then buying this is a no-brainer.