Zombie Chronicles, a not so small dicussion.

So it's no secret that Black Ops 3 just launched it's 5th DLC, Zombie Chronicles on PS4 featuring "remastered" versions of Nacht Der Untoten, Verruct, Shi No Numa, Kino Der Toten, Ascension, Sahngri-la, Moon, and Origins for a price point of $30, not being featured in the Season Pass. Now after staying up all night and playing all of the maps excessively, I feel like I'm in a position to give my thoughts on the DLC. Now as a blanket statement, I LOVE this DLC and the way it beautifully remastered all the maps, but it certainly has it's issues. Now to start i'll go in order after I discuss blanket issues affecting all maps. This post is not intended to hate on Zombie Chronicles but merely to make you guys aware of it's faults in the hope you don't buy out of nostalgia. Now many of the positives aren't mentioned due to their blanketing nature, but not that they are certainly there. Also, please excuse spelling errors as they're almost guarenteed.

• Now it's worth noting that the maps all look astonishingly beautiful, except the WaW maps, which look like they're half assed as they lack the astonishing lighting effects of the BO1 and BO2 maps have. Also, none of the original wall-buys are in ANY of the maps, they were all replaced with BO3 gun, and the M1911 no longer exists at all, MR6 is worst best starting pistol after all. Now it's worth mentioning that all the old-school Supply Drop weapons like the M16 and Ghalil are in most if not all of the maps, with the box being primarily filled with BO3 guns aside from those few exceptions. Also, I feel like GobbleGums break a few maps in particular (like Nacht), just allowing you to become a god of space time as all the maps that were not designed in any way with balancing that in mind, leading to you being UNGODLY POWERFUL. One last blanket complaint, they got rid off all the Swastikas in all of the maps and replaced them with either the Iron Cross or the Iron Eagle, now while I can forgive the rest, that I just can't get over as I feel they're trying to disguise the genocide of the Jewish people by Nazi Germany in WWII and that I honestly cannot forgive as a history buff.
• Now onto Nacht. Nacht's new skin makes it look downright AMAZING and incites a feeling of unease for the first time in years in a zombie map, but the map is broken as shit. The spawns are screwed to hell with spawns taking several minutes at times, and that is if the zombies spawn at all. It took me 45 MINUTES to get to wave 10 because of this. Now they also added 2god mode GobbleGum machines and a WonderFizz random perk machine to the portion above the box room, with one GobbleGum machine being in spawn.
• Now Veruuct is also an outstanding map to look at and is the best looking of the WaW maps in my opinion (I'm going to stop mentioning look now outside of a few exceptions). Now aside from the blanket statements mentioned above I have few complaints about Verruct aside from the BAR being swapped for a Bootlegger for 5k points (Bootlegger is in the box :/).
• Shi No Numa is also a solid one aside from the half-assed graphical upgrade, with my only real complaint being how the zombies somehow turned into ninja gods and WILL SNEAK UP ON YOU, and it is damn near unavoidable as they make no sound most of time (this may be a bug, but I can't be sure so I had to mention it), I also noticed that the dogs in this map SEEM TO have an increase in their speed, now I can't confirm or deny this as I don't have any hard data yet, but It really does feel like that (and no, it's not because i'm in the water).
• Now Kino Der Toten is a beautiful beast of a map with the most intensive re-skin of all of the maps by a landslide. Not only is the skin changed but many of the special effects are as well, for example the teleport screen changed, and when it's cooling down you can clearly see steam coming off of the teleport pad. Now it's wort mentioning that the Alley got a complete re-skin, and is near unrecognizable as a result, good or bad is up to personal interpretation but I LOVE it. Now in terms of complaints I really have none with this map aside from the blanket stuff
• Now on Ascension I do certainly have some complaints. For one, starting off it's no longer Black & White, but is now an ugly Sepia tint that I am really not fond of in the slightest. They also changed the sound of the Gersh Device, and I just don't like the new sound at all. One last mention, DO NOT USE A PERKAHOLIC ON ASCENSION! YOUR PERKS WILL BE STOLEN! The worst part about it is that they only take the on-map perks like Jug, so if you lose them, you get left with 4-5 off maps perks without the ability to get the on-map ones back, so no Jug, think about that for a bit. Now one more mention for the BO1 maps as a whole, no PHD Flopper, it has been replaced with Widow's Wine. They said they did this because there is no Dolphin Dive, but that is a bullshit excuse and we all know it. I also hate how you get blasted with oversaturated colors to a new degree when turning on power.
• Now my main complaints about Shangri-La are with the map itself (I absolutely despise this mp and would rather have ANY other map, even Transit), but in terms of the BO3 version they've made some small adjustments that aren't even worth mentioning as the map is largely the same, but the visual upgrade is miniscule. Overall the objectively worst remaster out of the bunch.
• Now we have Moon, the big boy where a whole lot changes. First of all the remaster here is probably the most behind the scenes instead of up front, like how the Earth blowing up in the Easter Egg has changed so much in terms of the animation itself. Many of the post Easter-Egg visuals have changed drastically as well, for example the skybox after you go back to the Earth post Easter Egg has been fixed to show the moon instead of the Earth, and you can even see the NukeTown mushroom cloud if you look off the map. But I don't have many actual complaints about this one either, another solid remaster.
• Now Origins is easily the map I was most looking forward to, being my favorite map in Zombie history followed by Der Riese then Kino Der Toten, so in BO3 we have my trifecta of perfection. Now the map itself is very similar to the previous version with the obvious upgrades, but one thing I notices was that they renamed the Ice Staff to the "Staff of Water" when you have it in you inventory, they also redesigned the a few of the HUD elements such as the Staff part indicator (I don't like that one specifically). Now may of the iconic guns are their like the STG, MP40, MG15/08, and a few more, and the Mauser remains that starting pistol. Only complaint is that it feels like the Panzer Soldat has an increased movement speed and damage output, however this could be me comparing it to the Panzer from Der Eisendrache with that one being a straight up nerfed Panzer, meanwhile here they brought back the original. I also noticed that the snow effect looks slightly ugly, at least in my opinion. Overall Origins is a great remaster that is very very solid, but that could just be bias on my part.

Now the final verdict on Zombie Chronicles; It is a very solid DLC that features many of the universally best maps (overall in the community) as well as the most important ones to the incoherent mess of a story that zombies provides. But all the content is old content that millions of people have already played, and I find it difficult to justify the $30 price point attached to the DLC, even with the 8, a way through playing the maps I often found myself bored out of my mind, even though I LOVED these maps, it's just something about the BO3 formula that makes the maps less fun to play compared to their original counterparts. However that could easily be dismissed as "weariness of BO3" considering I have a significant time investment into this game, and especially the Zombies. Anyways look upon this and WATCH GAMEPLAY before you make a decision on the purchase, because it's a steep one that you may easily regret.