Modern Warfare Remastered Variety Map Pack Review – Classic Maps, Classic Price Gouge

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered Variety Map Pack Review

As an extra bit of content for Modern Warfare Remastered, this Variety Map Pack comes at an extra cost, on top of the Season Pass. There are a few good aspects of this map pack, but there are also a few parts where it just falls flat. Now, some players may question whether this is worth the price, and quite frankly, it depends on the type of player you are and what you’d like to get out of this Variety Map Pack.

Let’s dive right into the maps. There are four remastered multiplayer maps included in this Variety Map Pack, all of which have been redone nicely to the graphic standard Call of Duty fans have become accustomed to. The four maps included in this map pack are: Broadcast, Chinatown, Creek and Killhouse. While the maps all have a youthful feeling to them, and they have been revitalized well, it would have been nice to see even more textural changes made and a bit more colour added to each of them.

Broadcast is a redesign taken from the campaign mission “Charlie Don’t Surf.” This map is a favourite of mine in this map pack, as it gives players a nice blend of confined spaces within the news building, and open sight lines on the outskirts of the map. Broadcast truly defines what it means to play Call of Duty, in the simplest terms, melding the chaotic close quarters with the wide open sniper lanes.

Chinatown is a remake of the Call of Duty multiplayer map “Carentan.” It is set in a downtown district, and combines the bright neon signs and Chinese umbrellas with the dark and dreary streets at night. This map offers a great mix between the run and gun and the camp and snipe styles of play. The open streets are deadly for those run and gunners, as cover isn’t always easy to come by to escape the sights of the snipers hiding in the buildings. This map is an easy favourite, as it takes the very best of a classic game, and gives it a feeling of youth.

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“The 10 bonus rare supply drops are really the best part of the Variety Map Pack, as they offer a ton of new customization, gun and outfit camos, and characters that players would have to spend a lot of earned depot credits to pick up.”

Creek is an extremely open village that is a sniper heaven. There is a ravine that divides this map in two, high cliffs, and a few buildings that don’t offer much cover from the snipers. This map, truthfully is awful, as there is no way to get anywhere in the map without being seen by these camping snipers. The sight lines are way too open, and there is no real cover available to try and flank the campers. This map also doesn’t seem to have been re-textured much either, as it is all quite bland and void of any colour besides the natural browns and greens. Without the new sights and scopes found in the newest COD games, this lack of visual variety really makes it hard to see your enemy.

Lastly, Killhouse offers the exact opposite of Creek, giving players a very close combat experience. It is so close quarters in fact that a random grenade can and will kill you at any given moment. This map is also home to the tubers in the game, as rockets and grenade launchers are the only thing that really give you a leg up over your enemy combatants. This map allows for a real sense of chaos, and run and gunners should expect to feel right at home. Of course, considering this is a very small map, there are also a few sniper perches to be aware of, if you are indeed a person who likes running head on into the fight.

The lack of players in these maps may be due in part to the price point, or maybe some people just haven’t picked them up yet, however because the player base was so small, with less than 5% in the Variety Map Pack matchmaking, the teams were often very uneven. There just aren’t enough players to balance the teams fairly, and the matches are often less fun as a result. If you are more of a casual player, you will likely have a hard time going up against the avid gamers who wanted these four extra maps.

Now, let’s talk about the cause for concern for many players: the price for these four maps. At $15 for four remastered, not new, multiplayer maps, it is a bit steep. Of course, this map mack is being marketed as premium content on top of the season pass, however this is the price players would normally fork out to receive a DLC for a new Call of Duty game. In fact, this is exactly the price fans will pay for each of the four Infinite Warfare DLC, if they opt to go that route, instead of the season pass. If we break it down, and compare it to a new DLC map pack, we can find all of the flaws in the price point.

The content available in a new DLC offers a redesigned fan favourite map, as well as three brand new ones. On top of that, there is usually an additional zombies map, and sometimes even some extra supply drop or customization content available as well. Part of the problem I have with this Variety Map Pack is the marketing. If this had been marketed at $15 for 10 rare supply drops, with an additional 4 remastered maps thrown in as a bonus, it would be an easier pill to swallow, because the selling focus isn’t on the four maps that should probably be included with the season pass already.

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“While the maps all have a youthful feeling to them, and they have been revitalized well, it would have been nice to see even more textural changes made and a bit more colour added to each of them.”

The 10 bonus rare supply drops are really the best part of the Variety Map Pack, as they offer a ton of new customization, gun and outfit camos, and characters that players would have to spend a lot of earned depot credits to pick up. If people wanted to purchase these supply drops with COD points, instead of earning the depot credits, a pack of 2400 COD points costs $26.99. With these COD points, players can pick up 12 rare supply drops. In this sense, this map pack is a steal of a deal because you get 10 rare supply drops for $15. I don’t know if I was lucky or if the rare supply drop rate is just really good, but I picked up a lot of great loot from these supply drops, including four out of five rare characters!

The four maps added to the game have been revitalized well, and you get bonus content in the form of 10 rare supply drops, but with the minimal map texture changes and the unfair team pairing in matchmaking, the ultimate question is: is this Variety Map Pack worth it? If you’re someone who absolutely needs to have every map of the game, or if you’re one to buy COD points in order to increase your gear/rewards, then it makes sense to pick this Variety Map Pack up. If however, you don’t consider yourself to be an avid Modern Warfare Remastered gamer, it’s probably best not to waste your money on this additional map pack. Unfortunately, the biggest problem here is not that these maps are being offered as a premium map pack, but that it is an expensive addition for a bit of new customization and some redesigned old-age maps.

*** PS4 code provided by the publisher ***