So I recently played and finished Mori, on top of speedrunning the map as well, as the easter egg, while being one of the most tedious and bland custom zombies easter eggs I've ever played, is still speedrunnable for a lack of a better word. Anyways, what I'll attempt to do here is review the map based on two premises: How good is it from a custom map perspective and a Treyarch map perspective? Because of this "treyarchy" nature, I'll also be a little harsher on it since it seems to build on Treyarch's map philosophy.


Positives:

- Aesthetics

One of the most defining parts of a map are its asthetics, and this map nails it! The map plays, looks, and feels like a DLC made in Black ops 4, which of course also has some pitfalls, which I'll get into in the negatives section. The map is absolutely gorgeous, and has a pretty contrast between the new temple/nature-like areas, and the more run-down areas of "Farm" and "Power Station." I also love how that whimsically coating of "Alpha Omega" is present on the map, and it actually fits the map really well, and as I mentioned before, it creates a contrast between certain areas of the map.

- Wonder Weapon accessibility... Mostly..

Borrowing a little bit from Cold War (I know Mob of the Dead started it, but it wasn't a trend), the Shrink Ray can either be built or found within the Mystery Box, making it very accessible for people who are new, and people who know the map alike. Obtaining the upgraded variants also isn't very hard, and best of all, the quests intertwine, making so that if one wishes to get the other variant, they can do it much easier without having to look for dynamite mulitple times.

- Trials that aren't mandatory.

While the implementation of the trials in coop is a joke at best (especially the mystery box and grenade kills one), they work very well in single player, as a nice way to get some extra perks, perkslots and cheaper upgrades.


Negatives (We're gonna be here a while....):


- No fast travel.

Starting with one that only bothers me slightly, there are no means of transportation on this map, other than the keypad code for Anywhere But Here, that you can only use once per game if I'm not mistaken. This makes traversing the map very tedious, especially considering the type of easter egg we're dealing with: Fetch quest.

- Poorly placed traps!

This map has an array of traps, all placed in poor places. Oddly enough, all the traps are in the spawn area of the map, instead of being scattered around like literally every other zombies map (including Custom maps. Look at Leviathan for inspiration!). The only one that kind of makes sense is the flogger, if it wasn't for the fact that Nova Crawlers spawn if you're at the box area on the spawn side of the flogger, meaning that it can't even hold off the enemies properly.


- Not so wonderful Wonder Weapons....

For a map that is relatively close quarters, you'd expect to have some good new weaponry that can easily clear the path ahead, but sadly, you would be mistaken.

Obviously, the Shrink Ray can hold its own pretty well, and is arguably the best wonder weapon on the map, but unfortunately, I can't say the same for the other three (Minus the Ray Gun).

The Gravity Ray (Purple Variant) on paper sounds like a really good weapon: A gun that turns one zombie into a gravity hole that kills other zombies in its vicinity, even through walls! The problem however, lies in its execution. Because you have to wait 20 seconds between each Gravity Hole effect taking place, you are left with a ineffective gun that barely kills 2-3 zombies per hit, if you're lucky.

The Refrigerator Ray (Teal Variant) is basically a slightly better Winter's Howl, that, like the Gravity Ray, can't kill a damn thing! Once again, the ammo appears to be a massive issue as well.

The Puke Ray (Orange Variant) is probably the best out of the variants, and still, it's, well... pukeworthy at best. The issues with this one is firstly that its tied to the mystery box, and secondly, that half of the time when shooting the zombies, they don't go into "Puke Mode," making it for a very inconsistent and annoying weapon to use, and the fact that you're forced to use it for the easter egg is even worse.

Also, a little thing I might add, is that if you happen to upgrade your Shrink ray before you do the gong step and shrink the crystal, then you have to get the original ray AGAIN! What you could change here, would be an option to change between the crystals from "The Kit," instead of having to hit the box again.

- Poorly implemented gimmicks that serve no purpose.

What I'm referring to here is mostly the plant system, which in Zetsubou was implemented really well, mainly because it served a handful of purposes. On this map however, it is completely useless, other than a few mechanics such as holding a zombie, killing zombies, and getting pod rewards if you want to wait 20 rounds for that.

- Poorly designed temporary Pack-a-Punch

I know I might be harsh here, because it is by no means the worst that I've ever seen. In fact the map that most of this custom map is based on arguably has an even worse system. The thing I detest mostly about this system, is that it seems to be round based, meaning if someone accidentally kills that last zombie, you will be gassed and down, potentially losing the gun you were pack-a-punching. Otherwise it's an alright design, but mostly on the bad side.

- Monkey see, Monkey hear, Monkey jump off a bridge. Also, Nova crawlers again....

I can say safely, that out of all the "Treyarch Style" zombies maps out there, this one by far has the worst pool of enemies I've ever seen in a zombies map, and that's counting Thrashers from Zetsubou, Denizens, etc.

Let's start with the least annoying enemy: The normal monkeys. These guys barely have any purpose on the map, other than stealing drops and that one crystal drop. I honestly find these guys pretty alright, as long as they don't block me in the narrow walkways. They do steal your points though which is a pain in the early rounds, but otherwise, they aren't so bad.

Then we have the three most tedious and pointless counterparts: The angry monkey, The thief monkey, and the suicide monkey. The angry monkeys and suicide monkeys spawn during a dedicated round, which already in itself should tell you how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying these pieces of ♥♥♥♥ are. They're not difficult to kill, they're not intense to fight. Rather, they're finnicky to kill because of their hitboxes, and serve no other purpose than to stall out the mid game and give you a max ammo. I seriously don't understand why, on a map with a drop rouletting monkey, you would need a boss round. Poorly conceived in my opinion.

The thief monkey is basically like the ascension monkeys, except it locks down the perk, instead of making you lose the perk. The problem with this, is that it can happen mid-round, diverting your attention away, when it really should be on killing the zombies!

And of course, who would forget the four legged morons known as the nova crawlers? Not me, because they're in almost every horrible map Treyarch has ever made, and they serve no purpose other than to annoy the player. This is especially true on this map, especially because there are already monkeys on the map to begin with! Thankfully they only spawn from Picnic Area to Farm, and is otherwise not met anywhere else, but good God they're still annoying!

- The easter egg

Ok, I know i make it seem like the whole easter egg is bad, and that of course isn't the case, but the stuff that I dislike about it far outweights the positives I have for it.

Starting with the way the easter egg works. Generally, fetch quests can be pretty exciting, when they're executed correctly, which unfortunately I can't say for this one. With no transportation methods, running back and forth on this map takes freaking forever, so doing the easter egg can be an absolute drag.

In terms of the steps themselves, the steps that really kill it for me are the escort step, puzzle step, fuse step, and empowered fuse step. The escort step isn't the worst I've witnessed (*cough* Leviathan *cough*), but in conjunction with the horrible and lackluster enemies, it's a boring, dragged out step where it feels like nothing is going on.

The reason why I detest the fuse step is because of an oversight from emoX himself. When the woman tells you to get the fuse, immediately, what the player will do is try and find said fuse. Little did I know, as a new player, that you have to end the freaking round before the fuse spawns in on the map! I know it seems like a little thing, but imagine wasting 20 minutes looking around the map for a fuse, only to find out that you have to end the round to be able to find it. Absolutely poorly designed.

The puzzle step starts out good, with standing on the 4 stones, lighting up each symbol, and finding the corresponding slab to stand on, however this step goes wrong in the second part of it, where you have to step on the four slabs again, and then press the other slabs in the order that the symbols lit up initially. It's not difficult, it's not creative. It's tedious, and adds nothing to the step other than dragging out the already boring easter egg to begin with.

On top of that, the character that we're helping doesn't even appear physically, but can only be interacted with behind a door, and once you're done defending her, she just vanishes without a trace. Poor character development really. Another bad game design in that area, is the mist that cancels your life regeneration after you finish the bunker holdout step, with no warning might I add!




- Conclusion

So, while this map has some pretty neat stuff in terms of what a custom map can bring to the table, it plays very poorly from a Treyarch map philosophy perspective. The enemy types are underwhelming, the easter egg is mediocre at best with some dragged out steps that seem redundant. The wonder weapons, while cool on paper, are absolutely terrible and aren't even worth going for in the long run. So while it's a good feat in the custom map community, the final product is barely worth replaying, as it has little to no positive qualities outside of the visuals of the map.


Custom map score: 6/10

Treyarch map score: 1/10