Welcome to Was It Worth It? This editorial will be written by all of us, but you might be wondering what exactly what this editorial is about. Well, think of it as a kind of review, but not your typical review. First off, this is a completely bias review, we are not going to pretend we are reviewing it fairly, we are answering the question of was it worth it to us. No matter how hard one tries, there is no such thing as an unbiased review. All reviews come from the perspective of the writer. Secondly, the reason this differs from a review is that we are going to be tackling the subjects from a different point of view. Like this one: Was buying the Modern Warfare 2 map packs worth it?

I think someone peed in the pool.

Before I start answering the question, let me inform you that I am a MW2 fan boy. Since the creation of the IW 4.0 engine for Call of Duty 4, I have fallen in love with the Call of Duty series. So when I heard that the new map packs were priced at $15 I was upset. I have purchased all the map packs from the previous games, one from CoD4 and all three from World at War, but $15 for a map pack seemed ridiculous. I was excited that they decided to bring back two maps from CoD4, especially since Crash was my favorite map from CoD4. Still though, the idea of paying $15 for three new maps and two repackaged maps from CoD4 seemed to me like a rip off. In the end I still bought it; after all, I am a Call of Duty fan boy. So after buying the first map pack I excitingly played them all day and I enjoyed them. Merely a month later and a second map pack was announced and I was faced with another $15 expenditure. End the end I spent $30 on six new maps and four repackaged maps from CoD4, and I now faced with the question, was it worth it?

When in doubt, use a rocket.

The first three maps, Bailout, Salvage, and Storm, are good. They aren’t anything special though, they really feel like maps that could have been released with the game. IE, Bailout is just Skidrow with a pool, Salvage is a snowy Scrapyard, and Storm is a small rainy Quarry with mannequins. So while I do like those new maps, they just are modified versions of older maps we have already been playing. It isn’t until the next map pack, Resurgence, that the maps get significantly different. Both Trailer Park and Carnival are completely unique maps to the MW2 series. Fuel could be argued as a bigger version of Rust, but it is unique enough to be a brand new experience over the older maps. Overall all of the new maps are great. I do have have my complaints, for instance, Fuel is an awful map for Capture the Flag and while I have more complaints, I won’t get into them all. The maps are good and if they were in a $10 map pack I would have been satisfied. Now what about the four repackaged maps? Crash is one of my personal favorites, and Strike and Overgrown could have easily been in MW2. My problem comes with Vacant, it is small and doesn’t really fit the MW2 system. Capture the Flag is also busted on this map. Killstreaks dominate too much because they have roofs they can easily shoot through, but make it hard for players to shoot them down without Cold Blooded.

Anyone got a light?

When you put it all together I got ten maps for $30. If I where to compare it to Halo 3, which released three map packs total and one free map, each map pack going for $10, I would’ve spent $30 for ten maps. What about the 4 old repackaged maps? Cold Storage and Blackout are complete remakes of older maps, while Avalanche and Ghost Town are “spiritual successors” of older maps, which basically means redesigns of older maps. What about other series, say World at War. WaW sold us three map packs as well and gave us one free map. However, they also included a Zombie Map for each pack, so there is the added bonus of that. So comparing it those two, does MW2 have anything comparable to other games? The difference between MW2 and WaW is very clear, 3 extra Zombie maps. However Halo 3 is different, both Halo and MW2 are very large series that sells millions and both packs offer the same amount of maps for the same price. One might say “Well Halo 3 has forge mode, which makes their maps more valuable.” I could counter with, well, there are far more modes and customizations in every game of MW2, so they have the same kind of balance. It all comes down to how many maps you get for $30 and it is the same.

Someone really needs to clean the streets of Strike.

So final decision, was it worth it? Well, I like the maps and others have paid $30 for 10 maps, so yea, it was worth it. Many could argue on the fact that other games offer better deals, like WaW, but MW2 is a different game, a more popular game. It might be vain of Activision to charge more for something that is popular, but economics isn’t that nice. People are out to make money. It wasn’t absorbingly overpriced nor was it a good deal, but it was worth purchasing, especially if you like to play MW2.