DLC #170 - Call of Duty : Black Ops 2 - Uprising Map Pack

After having now played through 8 different Zombies maps/experiences across 2 Black Ops games, the level of creativity is something I have to give out some serious credit for, despite not always enjoying Zombies as an overall experience.

These packs have taken us far and wide. Different eras in time, different references to popular culture and different game mechanics to suit the themes these maps are based around.

Zombies in Uprising is set in within the famous walls of Alcatraz prison, and even includes an Easter Egg where you have to attempt a prison break - A nod to the popular culture of belief that genuine prisoners of Alcatraz island have attempted to escape on numerous occasions.

The "Mob of the Dead" also references the cast of gangsters, all taken from a variety of different mob films, emphasising an obvious theme throughout. It's good fun, and if you understand the history behind Alcatraz, or have a penchant for gangster films, you'll be hooked in. 

There are also a number of different game mechanics added in with this round of Zombies.

For the first time, death isn't treated in the conventional way. Instead, upon death, you'll be given a second chance through Afterlife mode, where you'll control a ghostly spirit of your own character, and if you can find your downed body in time, you'll be able to revive yourself from beyond the grave.

In a clever twist, you can also purposely trigger Afterlife mode in order to perform certain actions that you can't when alive. These include restoring power to perk machines, mystery boxes and traps. You can also access certain areas of the map only reachable in Afterlife and clear zombies quickly with the use of electricity as an offensive weapon.

The mode also sees the introduction of prison guard, Brutus, a terrifying presence who spawns in at random and will relentlessly hunt you down as a bigger, stronger and faster version of the traditional zombie. He's slightly reminiscent of the Panzer Soldat from Origins. Other smaller additions include the new perk Electric Cherry, which produces an electric shock with area-of-effect damage each time you reload and the Blundergat, a new weapon combining the mechanics of a Blunderbuss and a Gatling Gun, which can be crafted from parts at a crafting bench. Extremely fun to use too.

Alcatraz is also a very perilous map, full of close quarters action that can get you into trouble at any given moment. Narrow walkways and dead ends around the prison cell area, confined rooms and even limited space in the very few outdoor areas in the dock and rooftop. There were plenty of hairy moments when hunting these trophies down and it creates genuine tension.

Speaking of which, the trophy list adds a further 10 trophies as part of this final zombies experience, though the overall challenge isn't too daunting.

The Easter Egg is a little bit unusual here, in the sense that, the required steps will strive towards finding 5 parts in order to build the plane on the roof, and once done, launching the take-off sequence to escape the prison. This is one variation of the Easter Egg, and will net you the "No One Escapes Alive" trophy. I managed to get it done within just 6 rounds.

However, the plane will crash land and you'll end up back inside Alcatraz, and instead of collecting plane parts, you'll need to collect fuel tanks to refuel the plane and take-off a further 2 times, which earns you the "Making the Rounds" trophy, but again, I was only at round 9 by the time I'd done this.

Finally, there is an alternative way to complete the Easter Egg, whereby you can break the cycle and experience a different ending than just looping the map. If you engage the plane take-off in Afterlife mode, you'll end up having to revive yourselves in Afterlife once you land the plane on the bridge. However, whichever person is controlling Albert "Weasel" Arlington will revive as a target for the other players, and killing him earns everyone the "Pop Goes the Weasel" trophy.

As I said, it's a little bit unusual, and may need to be done across multiple games, but the steps are incredibly easy, and don't require you to venture too high into the later rounds at all.

However, there was still a little bit of resistance here that lay away from the Easter Egg related trophies;

Full Lockdown - In Mob of the Dead, Brutus completes his patrol.

The "Full Lockdown" trophy, awarded for allowing Brutus to complete his patrol, requires you to tick off a list of objectives where Brutus has to destroy a variety of different objects around the map in a single game.

Brutus will spawn in at random, and is noticeable from most parts of the map. When you can't see him, you'll hear his footsteps and the screen will shake to indicate his close proximity, and if he's close enough to certain objects, he'll destroy them. There are 9 objects for him to destroy in order to fulfil this trophy. These include 5 perk machines, 2 crafting stations, any single mystery box and the Plane frame located on the roof.

He spawns amongst any normal zombie wave every 6/7 rounds, but if you can keep him alive, he'll spawn in with every wave, which does help, as the rounds will climb quickly as you wait for him to respawn and this will naturally make it tougher to survive the longer this continues.

You'll basically need to reduce the wave to the final few zombies and drag them around the map with him. Every time he gets near the objects, he'll destroy them, and all you need to do is effectively lead him around the map to the relevant areas where these objects are located. It does sound simple enough, but you're still having to fight off zombie waves in a very congested map, as well as ensuring you leave a couple alive to allow you to complete the patrol quicker.

I did also find it very buggy. Brutus will regularly run straight past objects he's meant to destroy and zombies waves will just randomly end if you perform certain actions, such as use the Gondola or Plane which are quick ways to get to different parts of the map. Brutus will still spawn in, but a new wave will start, which heightens the risk against the trophy as you're having to compete with a fresh horde every time this happens.

I dragged one attempt out to round 18 once and then died with just 1 object left to destroy, purely because Brutus wouldn't focus on the plane on the roof. As I ran a new wave in circles, I eventually got overwhelmed, died and left feeling cheated by the buggy AI.

I did manage to get it within another couple of attempts, but I have always found it hard to stay motivated with zombies mode when you have to start right from the beginning at wave 1 after losing loads of progress, which goes for any trophy-related challenge I've ever attempted within zombies mode.

It did recently come to my attention that I'm not entirely done with zombies - A misconception I was carrying through this entire clean up process for Black Ops 2 as I made my way closer to the end of the experience. I still have unfinished business with Call of Duty : World War 2, but that's a venture for another time.