It's been a few months since Activision released their first expansion Modern Warfare 2, the lackluster Stimulus Map Pack. However, in an attempt to continually make bank on one of their biggest properties, the company has released another set of five multiplayer maps titled "Resurgence" in the same vein, but with a little bit more shine.
While five additional maps may not sound like a lot (especially since two of the ones included are rehashed settings from Call of Duty 4), this time around gamers get a much better deal. The two maps that we've seen before are two of the best from CoD4, Vacant (the abandoned Russian warehouse) and Strike (the urban setting with the Monument in the center of the town). But as good as those maps are, it's the new ones that are really the highlights in this package.
Fuel is set in an oil refinery with multiple buildings to duck in and out of and has extremely long sightlines for snipers. Trailer Park has players running around a white trash paradise, with a ton of mobile homes and random industrial junk providing lots of cover. However, Carnival is the best of the bunch no matter what type of game you play; in addition to being the most visually compelling, complete with creepy clowns and broken down rides, its also offers some of the best perches of all of the maps available in the game. These best part about these new boards is that they actually feel entirely new to the game, whereas most of the original maps in the Stimulus pack felt like they were variations of single player locales.
In our culture the word "resurgence" may come with a negative stigma associated with it, but when it comes to video games, it finally has a reason to have a positive spin. These new maps should actually cause a "resurgence" of interest in the game, especially if you've lapsed in your attempt to go Prestige for the third time. If you skipped over the pricey Stimulus pack, Resurgence is going to set you back the same (and still somewhat hefty) $15, but this time you're more likely to feel like you're getting a better deal; at the very least there's a trip to the carnival in it for you.
