Okay, I understand that there is a split in the community regarding this map. Some say it's ♥♥♥♥ while others say it's the GOAT. I want to be the person who is straight down the middle in regards to the good and bad.

I am first going to give my personal experience with this map, what I like about, and what I disliked. The next section will be in regards to what is definitively great about this map. The third section will cover what could be done to make this map one of the best. The final section will wrap up everything.


So back in 2022, when I had my old account, I was scrolling through the workshop and saw this map. It had a great title, a promising story, and plenty of features. I downloaded it and upon playing it, I noticed the mashups and, boy howdy, there was a ♥♥♥♥ ton of them.

The asthetic of the map was also very remenicent of die rise's verticality, Shadows of Evil's urban layout, and an common apocolyptic feel to the map.

The map also has a collection (but not all) of guns from BO1, BO2, and BO3.

One buildable shield, three wonder weapons, and a gobblegum machine.

Now for the easter egg. Oh boy, it's not for the faint of heart.
It took me around two hours before I was actually ready for the hard part of the easter egg.
Seriously, this easter egg is a ♥♥♥♥ tone of work.
Use a guide. Trust me. You'll need it.

The zombies models are taken from BO2 Buried with the exception of the female zombies. No special rounds so no gauranteed max ammos every 5-10 rounds. One special zombie; a normal zombie with a purple aura around it. When killed, it explodes like the fire zombies from Shangri La. Only found when completing the easter egg. Also, PHD doesn't save you from the zombies explosive damage.

Perks machines from BO1, 2, and 3. No custom perks, no one map only perks like vulture aid or tombstone (with the exception of electric cherry. Only attainable through the arcade perk machine on this map), or anything after BO3.

A random perk machine that costs $3000 for a random perk. Can only be used once per round. This, until you go down, extends your perk limit. When you go down, your perks are gone and your perk limit goes back to four.

The map is HUGE!!! There are many teleporters around the map that assist you when traversing the city.

The map does not game over you at random. This I have seen in many maps like the GOATED Kowloon map, but the great leap forward doesn't have that.


Okay, I think that about covers the basics. Now I'm going to dive into the nitty gritty, starting with the things that are definitively great about this map.

The maps astetic is incredible. A revamp a die rise and a stereotypical zombie outbreak in a city. Has both indoor and outdoor sections of the map with both training and camping play style options. The ether mode when doing the easter egg is both creepy and beautiful.

The mashup of guns in the box and the mashup of wallbuys are, in my opinion are great! Some guns, when pack a punched can sometimes have weird effects like extra speed (The kar98 with staminup is super speedy). The scavenger is a great wonderweapon for sniping in this map and there are plenty of safe points within a round to snipe/completely wipe out whole groups of zombies with it. The ray gun MK 1 and 2 are in the box and have the same qualities as they did in BO2.

The teleporter system is also incredible for escaping zombies and traversing the map. I like it a lot.

That's about all the definitively great things about the map that I can think of.
Now time for the part which I would love to get feedback on: the bad.
I'm not going to ♥♥♥♥ on this map for the sake of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I'm just praying to God that some changes are made because without feedback, there's no change. (Please author hear me out).

There's a perk limit. Okay... not a bad thing yet...
However, the only way to get perks past the limit is to get them SLOWLY through a machine. For ♥♥♥♥♥ sake, I can't express how much frustration I experienced when I had all my perks, went down, and after getting quick revived, realize all the work I did for the perks over a seven round time period went up in flames.

Another bad thing is the easter egg.

The easter egg is great from the start all the way until the soul boxes start.

Once the soul boxes start, you cant get any points AT ALL. This is a dreadful thing when you don't have money to rebuy perks, buy ammo, or even pack a punch. This soul box step doesn't end until you've killed the now sprinting, exploding, numerous horde that will wipe you out in one second flat.

The escort/soulbox step is the same way.

The reward at the end is mediocre at best. A bow and arrows.

And after the easter egg step is done, the exploding zombies continue to spawn in. And they are everywhere.

Another bad thing is the lack of attachments on the pack a punched guns. I know this is more of a personal gripe than anything, but only one out of many guns (that I have found) has a grenade launcher. The commando does have a dual mag and a red dot but that's probably the ONLY gun with more than one extra attachment.

The gobblegum system is meh at best. Not too many gobblegums that could actually get you out of a jam and the ones that do are rare and take a while to get. The gobblegum door is NOT worth ten grand.


That's all I can think of that's objectively negative about this map. Now, I'm going to advise some changes that could turn this map into one of the greatest custom zombie maps.

Again, these are COULDS, not SHOULDS.

The first one is changing the perk arcade machine.
I think a perk limit is great until the high rounds. Instead of random perks, let the player buy a permanent perk SLOT and not a random perk. As for Electric Cherry, I don't see a problem with adding that perk machine to the map. And while you're at it, why not add vulture aid or tombstone? Or even some custom perks like fighters fizz or ICU?

As for the Easter egg.
I personally think it's great.
A little bit of a grind, but it's fine.
I would like it if PHD could withstand the exploding zombies and that you earn points in the ether. The reward could be having the option of picking one of the four elemental bows or even the sword from shadows of evil. Maybe the custom perks could be a reward.

As for the wonder weapons.
I think the scavenger is a great idea!
I do suggest add something a little more CQB like the sliquifier. This could add to the die rise feel of the map.

Making a special zombies like dogs or prison guards that drop max ammos every five to ten rounds wouldn't be too bad either.



That's really all I have to say on the matter. Again, this map has more potential than ANY map I have personally played. It has the potential for more than eight players if you're running the AAE. The round based, large vertical and horizontal gameplay, and ease of playable areas is in my opinion one of the best ways to play COD zombies and that many creators including treyarch cannot do well. I still have ♥♥♥♥ tons of fun playing this map. Thank you for making this and thank you for reading this. Hope you are doing well.

-Agent_Timber