Modern Warfare 3’s fourth Elite Drop is a good entry. | DestroyRepeat

The month of May has been a very busy month for the Call of Duty developers because they had a huge, huge update for Call of Duty Elite subscribers. Activision and co. introduced Face Off to the world. This update was so huge, that Activision and co. not only introduced a new mode, they introduced not two or three maps, which is a usual number for Elite Drops, instead for the month of May, Call of Duty Elite subscribers got seven maps. To be sure, two of the maps were free for everyone, but collectively, Call of Duty Elite subscribers got a big one. PlayStation 3 owners had to wait, as usual. I flashed my Call of Duty Elite membership and downloaded the maps. My thoughts are…

MW3 Spec Ops Drops:

Iron Clad: I think that this is one of the worst Spec Ops maps released to Call of Duty Elite members. In this Spec Ops Mission, not only are you supposed to kill any soldier that comes in your way, you have to control the Tank that’s guiding you. Not only do you have to pay attention to your own health, you also have to pay attention to your tank’s health.

I want to make sure you understand that while I love new experiences, and I understand what the developers were trying to accomplish with Iron Clad. In this instance, I think the developers should’ve been a little more concious about casuals. This map isn’t really casual, it’s aimed at hardcore Call of Duty gamers. While I am hardcore into Call of Duty. The map seems a little busy to me.

My major gripe with the map is not the map itself, instead, it’s the hit detection. When trying to kill soldiers in front of me when the tank moves to a climax position where you have more than one soldier throwing bombs, and shots at the tank. I try to kill the soldiers with my tank, but it seems to intensify the problem. What’s worse is that the AI is trying to be hard. While it’s good that AI is tougher, at this stage it’s not ideal. I would have moved that difficulty level to later parts of the map. At this point, I gave up and moved onto…

Kill Switch: This is the best Spec Ops maps released to Call of Duty Elite subscribers. It has everything: Good map design, good enemy placement, excellent variety. You start off with a silenced MP5, and as you go along, you will position yourself in many different places, such as sniper position, therefore, you’re going to use a Sniper Rifle at some point. You’ll then go into a Reaper and help your comrades advance. And the best part is; all of this flows seamlessly, as if you’re really part of the action. Kill Switch puts you right in the middle of a story, and not just another Spec Ops map.

MW3 Multiplayer Drops:

Oasis: I don’t play this map a lot because the map rotation at the time I played it was limited. I wish this rotated a lot more because it’s one of the most beautiful-looking maps in this batch of Elite Drops. It’s also well balanced. A very well designed map, I must say.

Face Off mode: Face Off has it’s own playlist. There are three matchtypes available for Face Off at this point: 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, and 3 vs 3.

Lookout: For a map that’s not free, and being paid for by people who bought Call of Duty Elite, or people that bought the Content Collection 2 package, this map is worthless. I mean, whoever designed this map didn’t fix those spawns. Nope, every time you die, you can expect a player to respawn just where he died. You’ll die every time you kill, and trying to advance to the next spot. This is mostly a run n’ gun map, but snipers and other types of players can play, but not in the most effective way. It’s like this, if you’re going to snipe, you need to take the upper hill, which is where more sniper coverage is. If you want to camp, use that same spot because you can see pretty much the entire map from there. And the worst part is, for players on the ground, there isn’t a good way to counter. Not even flanking your grenade there will help.

If there are more than 1 sniper, or camper, there will be a battle for taking that spot. I’ve seen it, and I’ve done it. It’s challenging. For a lot of people I think this is a bad thing. It gives the other person disadvantage.

Getaway: I think this is the best Face Off map yet. It’s a beautiful looking map, well designed map. All types of players can play in the map, except maybe for the sniper player. And the best part is you can use the water as a hiding place for a few seconds. It’s a very unique map. For an Elite Drop, I find this small innovation refreshing.

Erosion (FREE): I absolutely hate this map. I don’t know where to start. Really. I think Erosion is the epitome of a map that’s not well designed. The map design makes the spawns stand out like a sore thumb. I can’t count how many times I’ve died just because someone spawned a few feet away from me. You’d think because of the way Erosion was designed – camping is a perfect weapon for the map. Nope. Not even close. This isn’t a run n’ gun map, either. You have to worry about the second floor or the third floor depending on where you are in Erosion. This is an okay map for Snipers, just keep in mind that anyone can come from the side and kill you at any time. But that’s what makes Erosion so bad; no one is really “safe” in Erosion.

I don’t remember many KillStreaks being used in here. When a KillStreak is being used, people hide, making the KillStreak useless.

Aground (FREE): I think this is the worst map in Call of Duty history. I know what Aground is trying to accomplish. Aground is intended to be a run n’ gun map, but fails because of the spawns. When you have a map like Aground, where half of the map is wide and open; you end up making Aground more or less a “one-sided” map. Sniping in here is supposed to be easy, but it’s not, because the other side of the map has covered a player’s body to the shoulder level. The other problem is that there isn’t a perfect place to hide for the sniper. When I first played Aground, I found the middle of the map to be a very vulnerable spot for them, so I tried to find the closest area that has a dark shadow onto the sniper position – Guess what? I stood out like a #@^&ing sore thumb to the other player regardless of what I intended to do! AGH! But a more experienced sniper can stand on an open, and vulnerable spot and not be killed. WTF. Seriously.

This map is a run n’ gun haven but not in a good way. This is not a good camping map for your typical camper. There are only a few camping spots available that the camper can rack up kills and be done with it. That’s how bad it is. Not enough variety in here.

If you’d like to know how I felt about all of the maps that have been released thus far, here they are: First Drops Piazza and Liberation, and Second Drops Overwatch, Black Box, Black Ice, and Negotiator. I have recently released my impressions of the Third Drops Foundation and Sanctuary.

Stay Tuned for more impressions of Modern Warfare 3′s maps in coming weeks and months. The content drops so far are part of the content season that Activision is holding throughout the entire year.