Modern Warfare 3 New Map DLC Review: Piazza and Liberation

Posted on 3 February, 2012 by Allegionary

Modern Warfare 3 New Map DLC Review: Piazza and Liberation

Any good?

by: Allegionary

©2012 Alex Hilton

Last week saw the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s first package in the Season of Content only available to premium subscribers of Modern Warfare 3’s ELITE.

This package dropped two new maps down to us: Piazza and Liberation.

So what are they like?

Piazza (aka Amalfi Coast, Italy)

Piazza is set in a seaside town in Italy so it looks much like the Seatown map, already in Modern Warfare 3. That’s not a bad thing: Seatown is my favourite map.

The city is built upon multiple levels moving up the steep hillside and there are many pathways and passageways between these levels so expect some sudden surprises when playing this map.

You may think that the multiple levels is a good thing for snipers but the reality is that with so many obstacles and not many ‘safe’ camping spots, this map forces people into the frantic fast paced action. There is no time to stop and snipe.

There are also some plazas in this map where the openness is death as each side of the plazas usually has an entrance, meaning that being caught in the cross-fire is a real possibility, especially if a turret is set up.

Even with a small number of players Piazza can still be a fun map as close-quarter fighting is the main type of fighting so bring a Shotgun as its time to blast some unsuspecting Italian umbrellas.

Liberation (aka Central Park, New York)

Liberation, the other map including in this first package, is almost a complete opposite to Piazza. It is a very large map with lots of bushes that snipers can hide in and kill unsuspecting players.

The map is set in a militarised Central Park in New York (don’t get our editor started with the obscene number of New York locations in games) with blown up vehicles and heavy weaponry spread throughout the park.

Two bridges cross a trench that is very perilous due to its a popularity and openess, and because many of the underground paths link to it.

This map favours the players with the more long-range weapons, so shotguns are not as useful as they would be in Piazza. Many times I have been shot by an enemy I never saw as sniper rifles are very popular on this map because of its large size.

There are also two machine gun nests at each end of the map which can be useful if assaulted but due to the foliage and the fact that they are pretty much open on all sides you end up dying more often than you get a high number of kills.

The action in Liberation is much more one-shot one-kill than it is in Piazza as the size and layout makes accuracy more important than holding the trigger and spraying bullets. People can duck between foliage and you can lose your line of sight to them very easily.

Any Good?

Overall the new maps released in the first pack add very different things to the arsenal of maps in MW3 as Piazza is a close-range heart-stopper while Liberation is a long-range head shot fiesta.

Piazza sees players get more kills and have more fun seeing 100s and 50s pop up on their screen, however in my opinion Liberation is much more suited to the tactical modes like Domination.

This is because it requires more strategy as the size means that if you die you can respawn far away from your objective and it isn’t just a ten second walk to get back to your objective.

However, both maps are fun in their own way and I am happy with the additions Activision have made to the multiplayer experience that is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.