DLC #165 - Call of Duty : Black Ops 2 - Vengeance Map Pack

One of the few things I do actually like about Zombies is the level of creativity that goes into some of these maps.

Buried is a Wild West themed map that is located deep underground a processing unit. You begin the game by sliding in via a hole in the floor, exposing a huge underground utopia complete with tons of Wild Western authenticity. A saloon, bank and Sherriff's jail are all present set-pieces.

I was a little bit critical of Die Rise, for it's lack of key features that made the map a little bit too vanilla, but there's much more going on with Buried.

A new free-roaming NPC called Leroy, similar to Romero in the Blacks Op 1 pack, Call of the Dead, can be plied with alcohol and candy, and will assist you with killing zombies, as well as breaking down barriers without having to spend the points to unlock them. Witches can be found within the Haunted Mansion and Maze areas - They'll free you up of your points if they get too close to you. Weapons can be drawn onto walls with chalk, which allows you to freely distribute their availability around the map, and speaking of weapons, I personally love the addition of the Ray gun MK2.

The injection of variety in game mechanics makes it an interesting and fun map, and the trophies do have a heavy focus on these things, such as acquiring a perk for free, which is awarded for killing all the witches and accessing all areas with the help of your new friend, which is awarded for plying Leroy with enough alcohol to break through every possible barrier and make the entire map accessible.

The pack includes another 10 trophies, with the usual expectations applied. There's an Easter Egg to go after again, as well as a variety of different miscellaneous tasks of varying challenge, and the easier ones are generally not too bad with the ability to earn them as a solo player.

As was the case with Die Rise, the Easter Egg will require 4 players to complete which is also down to the final step of this process. This involves shooting a collective total of 84 targets within a strict time limit, and these pop up in specific areas of the map, designed in such a way that each person is responsible for overseeing an individual area, making it practically impossible for anyone to run this as a solo or smaller group player. I didn't find it to be hard at all, as long as everyone does their bit, but you just need to keep trying and you'll get it eventually. However there was something that did standout here;

Mazed and Confused - In Buried, survive an entire round within the maze on round 20 or higher.

The "Mazed and Confused" trophy, awarded for surviving an entire round within the maze on round 20 or higher, caused me some trouble. I originally attempted this solo a couple of times and I generally don't like tackling zombies on a solo basis, especially when the requirements are as demanding as reaching rounds as high as the 20's.

It's mainly a confidence issue - I get paranoid about suddenly being overwhelmed around every corner or just getting blindsided by a zombie and watching my attempt suddenly go up in smoke, with the realisation I have to start over and work my way back up. I'm way more comfortable in groups where I have the reassurance of other players to assist and/or bail me out within those previously aforementioned situations.

The group I did the Easter Egg with were kind enough to stick around and help me surpass round 20 within the maze area within the same game. The maze adds an extra level of complication due to the fact zombies can spawn out of nowhere from within the hedges, and there are alot of blind corners that can catch you out with an unexpected horde. When I ran this trophy solo a few times, I was caught out by both eventualities, causing me to have to start over - On the one attempt, I got to round 18, turned a corner in the maze to see a horde coming at me, and panicked straight into a dead end, which meant I'd unintentionally cornered myself with nowhere to escape, and lost me the game.

I'm sure I would have gotten it eventually, but those runs take alot of time to reach round 20, and as a solo player, it's disheartening to have to start from the beginning every time, so I was thankful for supportive teammates.

Some of the sub-challenges within these trophies are creative and provide alot of fun to go after, but the solitary trophy above did make for a reasonable challenge, albeit made significantly easier once run with a competent group. The peak of these packs is yet to come though.