With just 20 eliminations left before my team tastes the bitterness of defeat, I find myself cowering behind a bookshelf on the second floor of an empty model home. It’s barely been a minute, but this is the longest I’ve managed to stay alive on Nuketown, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s newest map. Finding safety didn’t come easy — I did so by the skin of my teeth, dodging sniper fire and grenades being lobbed at my spawnpoint from across the map. And despite my modest personal win, the circumstances are still dire. I’m too pinned down to run back downstairs, too unskilled to dare peek out the window behind me. On the lower right side of my screen is an endless scroll of names being eliminated from both sides, a constant reminder of just how unprepared I am for my current situation.
I inch my way back toward the staircase that led me here, hoping to catch some unsuspecting and overly aggressive enemy off their game. Instead, I hear the distinct buzz of an RC car speeding up the stairs and toward my face. I can practically hear the driver chuckling at my desperate attempts at survival before they blow me to smithereens like a Looney Toon.
After my sixth game fleeing from my opps instead of engaging with them, I called it a day and returned to Black Ops 6’s many other playlists. The shift was immediate. On maps like Rewind and Skyline, I could be a contributor to my team instead of a liability. The reintroduction of Nuketown, one of Call of Duty’s most iconic multiplayer maps, was supposed to be a momentous occasion. Unfortunately, the community’s 14-year head start learning every nook and cranny of this classic meant there was nothing for me, a Black Ops newbie, to enjoy. I was simply fodder, a stepping stone for the other team’s next unlock.
For the uninitiated, Nuketown is a compact Call of Duty map beloved for its mix of long- and short-range possibilities. There are wide-open sightlines for snipers, with a counterposition for each of those vantage points. The model homes allow for up-close confrontations between teams vying for control of the windows that overlook the center of the map. In the middle of all the chaos are a few solid places (like the school bus and the bed of the shipping stuck) to plant your feet and pick off enemies rushing toward the opposing side’s spawn area.
It’s easy to understand why Nuketown has had the staying power that it does. It’s an ingenious, near-perfect multiplayer arena. It’s a flexible map, conducive to the occasional one-on-one as much as Call of Duty’s standard six-on-six. There’s a reason every Black Ops game has featured some variation on Nuketown since the subseries began in 2010.
What I didn’t account for was what the return of such a classic would mean for a sweet summer child like myself. Scores of thousands of players have logged an ungodly amount of hours on Nuketown. They’ve memorized every floorboard of its model homes, every concrete slab on its cul-de-sac sidewalk, and every blade of green in its lush backyards. They learned long ago how to bank an explosive off benign surfaces, ensuring that it lands at the feet of an unsuspecting player running back into the action. Snipers know where to get the perfect drop on the opposition, and their teammates know how to protect their blind spots from encroaching enemies.
Not since playing Dust 2 with my uncle on Counter Strike have I felt as helpless as I did over the weekend.
There were some external factors at play here. This past weekend was a double XP event for those who logged on. This undoubtedly lured the best of the best to return to their old stomping grounds. And what better and more efficient way for those players to take advantage of double XP than playing on a map they already know?
Monday morning, I tuned back in to retry my luck. With the majority of people likely heading back to work in the wee hours of the morning, I might stand a better chance. My suspicions were rewarded. Not only did I score a few eliminations, but my team earned a single victory in the three matches I played. These games were hard-fought. But victory was at least a possibility.
To be clear, I wasn’t having a bad time in Nuketown over the weekend. I found myself laughing at just how useless I was to my teammates. I even commiserated with teammates who had similarly bad luck on the classic map. I’ve made my peace with not being a top-level player long ago. These days, I’m just glad to be in the room holding my starter weapon and doing my best Max Payne impression.
However, jumping into Nuketown was the starkest reminder of where I belong on the totem pole when it comes to the biggest multiplayer game in the world. It was also a hilarious showcase for how high the skill ceiling has become for Call of Duty.
As a multiplayer map, Nuketown lives up to the hype. Black Ops 6 is a better game for including it in its expansive collection of maps. But newer players might want to avoid Nuketown-centric playlists, especially during double XP weekends.
