Let's look at Black Ops.

I'm not a fps guy, never have been. So, I figure it's time I give one of 'em a try! I picked Black Ops 2 'cause it was the one that I happened to have the easiest access to so there ya go. So, I've decided to take a look at the only multiplayer map available to me at the start of the game: Aftermath.

Aftermath loading screen image.

From what I can tell, the map takes place after the events of the Cordis Die chapter of the main campaign in which LA pretty much gets put in a military blender. (Or Michael Bay got a bit overzealous or whatever)

The map basically consists of (From left to right) A small set of stores, the remnants of a skyscraper and a parking garage. Team 1 spawns at the parking garage while Team 2 spawns in the set of stores. The map consists of three paths vertically as well as horizontally. This allows for more variety and sneaking into enemy territories as you have to protect three paths at three different points as you advance through the level.

One thing I noticed as I was running around the level is that every vantage point has a counter vantage point. For example, in the image above, you can crouch behind that piece of the building and shoot off people who try to cross in front of you or run up the hill to you. However, if you go to the second floor of the parking garage, you can shoot at the person who is camping out in the middle building entrance.

Or, as another example, you can camp out inside this bus which effectively lets two people completely cover an entire section of the level. However, you can be sniped from very far away as the bus is elevated above a straight shot of level on either side.

An interesting feature of the level itself is that every parked car, police car, and ambulance is destructible once per match. This adds destructible cover which I really like. Just look out when flames start coming out of the vehicle! At that point, you can either keep shooting the vehicle to make it explode faster or just let it explode on it's own in about five seconds or so.

Now, you have your typical features of an fps game: Sprinting, knifing, weapon cycling, class selection, crouching, jumping, vaulting, tea-bagging. However, if you rack up enough kills without dying, you can unlock a special ability! In order, from bottom up, they are: A drone that shows where your enemies are located on the map until you die again, an airstrike that you can call on your enemie's location, and and Amazon.com drone that you can fly around the map and kill people with. The cool part is, if you die after getting one of these items and you haven't used it yet, you can still use it when you respawn!

One other useful feature of the terrain itself is how it constantly changes elevation. The entire map is never flat. Even when it seems it's flat like, for example the streets, there are still cars, collapsed parts of buildings, ramps, and stairs to upper levels all around you! This allows for there to be variation in the shooting matches so you never feel like your pinned down. You can always change your elevation to be advantageous!

Now, I apologize if this look at Black Ops 2 seems a bit on the beginner's side. I was always in the camp of friends that always wanted to play Smash Bros. Not stylized militaristic fps games. From what I've seen/played in the fps genre, it's really the little things that are impressing me: I am a big fan of how graphically intense the games can get! I was super impressed with how beautiful the distortion and spec on the plaza fountain on the Merc's spawn point was! Here's a quick video:

Dang! I wanna make something that looks as cool as that! We'll see!

Until next time!