The best Call of Duty map has never been played by most of us

What is the best Call of Duty map of all time? There’s an argument to be made for the chaos of Rust, the flow of Terminal, and even the atmosphere of Hijacked, but for my money, one in particular takes the top spot. Nuketown does everything right: it has a great concept, tight and fast spawns and more than enough sight lines for all types of players. However, we were on site at the nuclear test site for the first time 14 years ago. In fact, it’s been so long since a Treyarch developer says not many of us have actually played it. Fortunately, Black Ops 6 will change that.

There have been six versions of Nuketown over the years, one for each mainline game in the Treyarch series, leading up to Black Ops 6. Call of Duty Mobile, Zombies and other versions of the FPS game also featured the map, but each for the main series The entry itself underwent a fairly drastic redesign. So if you haven’t been playing Call of Duty for as long as I have, you probably didn’t start with the original version of the map from the ’50s.

Black Ops 6’s ’90s setting means Treyarch can bring back the original feel of Nuketown, and that brought expert level designer Adam Hoggatt to a realization. Most Call of Duty players have probably never touched it.

“I recently realized that probably a large percentage of our players have never experienced the original [Nuketown]says Hoggatt. “That’s why I’m thrilled that with Black Ops 6 we can recreate the original Nuketown with the same magic as the original, but better looking.”

Personally, my favorite version of Nuketown is Black Ops 2 Zombies. The tight spaces make for a messy session reminiscent of Nacht Der Untoten, and the zombie’s eyes turning blue on turn 25 is still one of the best twists ever. Anyway, I’m really glad that Nuketown came about, and it turns out that the original was actually a happy accident.

According to Hoggatt, Nuketown was not on Black Ops’ production schedule. Instead, they pursued an idea that was floating around the team. “I just started building,” Hoggatt says in the same IGN interview. “It wasn’t on schedule, I just thought, ‘I’ll do it because it’s too cool to pass up.'”

Well, I for one am glad we got the card, even if it was a happy accident. However, keep in mind that you won’t be playing Nuketown on day one. The Black Ops 6 Nuketown map will arrive upon release, but you really don’t have to wait long.

If you’re ready for the new Call of Duty but don’t know exactly what to expect, we’ve rounded up all the Black Ops 6 Zombies maps and the best Black Ops 6 loadouts to get you started.

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