While there are many conversations regarding which Call of Duty is the best overall game, there should also be a focus on the maps across these. One of the most infamous and popular Call of Duty maps was of course Nuketown. A small map consisting of two houses, two gardens, two buses in the middle, and not much else. The map could be seen as Black Ops' answer to Rust, the incredibly small map from Modern Warfare 2. Nuketown also became so popular that it had its own game mode where every game only had that as its option.
Over the last decade or so there have been different iterations of Nuketown each with their own unique style and some gameplay improvements. Some went for a futuristic design that rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way, but can you ever top an original?
Black Ops 3
With each Call of Duty after Black Ops, the games, weapons, and maps became more and more futuristic. This is one of the elements that divided gamers as there is a fine line between having cool attachments for weapons and making something completely ridiculous.
The Nuketown version in Black Ops 3 was incredibly bright and flat in design in everything from the buses to the houses, with the addition of random pulsing lights on the ground. Also, adding the boosted jump, and other easily unlockable perks, makes positions such as the balconies on the houses a much less advantageous position.
Black Ops Mobile
The mobile version of the game largely resembled the original version of the map from 2010. With a fast-paced environment, fans could relive the excitement from the original map from anywhere in the world (with a good network connection).
However, as can happen with mobile games, the drawbacks of this map, was not anything about the map itself but more to do with the platform that it was played on. Traditionally, the skills aren't exactly transferrable from console to mobile as it is a different way of playing, making some expert players not as fast as they are on PlayStation, PC, or Xbox.
Black Ops Cold War
Sticking with a more authentic design is Nuketown '84 in Cold War. The map feels slightly more like a western and the town is essentially, and appropriately, a ghost town. The jeep at the side of the map that players use for cover has also been made smaller, making it slightly easier to be killed behind.
The spawns of the game also flip incredibly fast. Usually, if players were to spawn on the other side of the map, they would have time to perform a sweep and kill at least a few enemies, but with the faster spawn switches, this is slightly harder. If you get too bored of switching sides every 20 seconds, there is still the infamous Nuketown mannequin easter egg players can try.
Black Ops 4 Standard
The version of Nuketown in Black Ops 4 added a wintery feel with some extra snow in this map. Also, the buildings had also been slightly re-designed, again adding something slightly new and different. There was also a Zombies map of Nuketown in Black Ops 4.
Killing an enemy in Black Ops 4 also took a bit longer to do. For those who are used to running around crazy and killing an enemy every 3 seconds, it makes the map slightly more skill-based as opposed to the chaotic repetition of sprint and shoots that some players are used to from the other games.
Black Ops 4 Blackout
The Blackout edition of Nuketown has a lot of previously unexplored areas of the Nuketown map. The bunkers in the back garden which have been in place since the original map in 2010 are finally open and players can jump down and explore the tunnels below.
With areas such as Storage, Power, and Diner this map shows players what life is like for the inhabitant of Nuketown should the bunker need to be used. This map also lets players explore outside the standard two Nuketown houses.
Black Ops 2 - Nuketown 2025
The second version of Nuketown in Black Ops 2 came just before the overly-futuristic design of Black Ops 3. It was a middle ground between the original and the Black Ops 3 map and also had improvements in the gameplay when killstreaks were switched to scorestreaks.
As aforementioned, the design was a middle ground and obviously isn't an actual depiction of what 2025 will look like but is more what the vision of the future looked like to someone in the mid-1900s. Did the look work? That is a subjective answer.
Black Ops Original
Everybody usually loves an original and the original version of Black Ops is no exception. With it being the first of its kind, the original Nuketown kicked off the addiction to the map so much that it eventually got its own playlist titled "Nuketown 24/7" where every game was played in Nuketown.
The other versions of the map that followed, were more enjoyable and better received the closer they resembled the original map, compared to the futuristic designs of Black Ops 3.
