Ascension

Ascension is the eighth Zombie map that appears in the First Strike map pack, which was released on February 1, 2011 for Call of Duty Black Ops on the Xbox 360 and will be released a month later on the PS3 and PC. A release date has yet to be given for the Wii. It takes place in an abandoned Soviet Cosmodrome. The map includes Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Takeo Masaki, and Edward Richtofen and includes new weapons like the Gersch Device and Matryoshka Dolls, as well as new perks such as PhD Flopper and Stamin-Up and a new enemy (space monkeys) appears in this map.

Weapons

 * MPL (Off-wall) First door bottom floor
 * MP5k (Off-wall)
 * M14 (Off-wall) Starting room first floor
 * M16 (Off-wall)
 * Olympia (Off-wall) Starting room second floor
 * Stakeout (Off-wall)
 * Claymore (Off-wall)
 * Sickle (Off-wall)
 * AK-74u (Off-wall)
 * CZ75 (Mystery Box)
 * Commando (Mystery Box)
 * SPAS-12 (Mystery Box)
 * AUG (Mystery Box)
 * FAMAS (Mystery Box)
 * Galil (Mystery Box)
 * L96A1 (Mystery Box)
 * China Lake (Mystery Box)
 * Ballistic Knife (Mystery Box)
 * Crossbow (Mystery Box)
 * G11 (Mystery Box)
 * HS10 (Mystery Box)
 * HK21 (Mystery Box)
 * RPK (Mystery Box)
 * Ray Gun (Mystery Box)
 * Thundergun (Mystery Box)
 * Matryoshka Doll (Mystery Box)
 * Gersch Device (Mystery Box)
 * Death Machine (Power Up)

Trivia

 * If open the first door downstairs that leads to the room where you may go outside there is a Matryoshka Doll on the desk and when you hold "X" button near it you can hear it say "stop tickling me!"
 * The name of this map's song may be called "Abracadavre", because on PC the Game Over music filename is "mus_gameover_abracadavre".
 * The map will be seen in Black and White until the Power is turned on.
 * There is a rocket on the map, and it has been hinted that it will somehow affect gameplay.
 * The rocket must be launched in order to activate/find the Pack-A-Punch Machine.
 * The map requires electricity for perk-a-cola machines to work.
 * Game files suggest that Ascension was originally planned to be released on disc, but was later removed.
 * The spawn room contains a centrifuge which activates every couple of minutes by itself and kills zombies.
 * This zombie map could well be the largest yet. From the "First Strike" trailer it is visible that there is a Rocket Platform and a centrifuge.
 * There are three Lunar Landers that take players from one place to another.
 * After the usage of the three landers, players can launch the rocket in order to find the Pack-A-Punch Machine.
 * There are no Gas Zombies in this map, however the Space Monkeys do occasionally release the gas upon death.
 * The Centrifuge Room is the starting room and contains the Quick Revive.
 * If one looks at the First Strike trailer at 0:47, there appears to be a chalk outline of a sickle on the wall. It appears to be on a control panel for the Rocket Platform.
 * Confirmed, there is indeed a sickle that replaces the wall Bowie knife and can be held with Ballistic Knife.
 * It appears that some zombies will be wearing gas masks, and one could assume they were wearing it before succumbing to zombification.
 * If one looks closely at the space monkeys in the First Strike gameplay trailer, the monkeys are wearing different colored shirts. There was a green one, a red one, and a yellow/silver one in the trailer.
 * Some zombies are wearing spacesuits without helmets.
 * The four main characters' appearances have changed.
 * There are televisions next to each mystery box spawn to tell the player where the box is.
 * The Lunar Lander platforms transport players back to the Centrifuge room.
 * The game starts off in black and white filter. It will remain in this filter until the power is turned on, only then full colour and visuals will come.
 * Space monkeys replace Hellhounds as round-exclusive enemies.
 * When the player begins the 1st round, a russian voice can be heard saying "Please, help me! She's coming, the mechanism must be repaired!"
 * The artwork cover for Ascension, seen on the promotional poster for "First Strike", is clearly based on Inglourious Basterds.
 * Three teddybears holding sickles are located around the map. Find these and the song, Abracadavre plays. (Remember to hold X with your crosshairs on them to "find" them).
 * The first teddybear is in the Centrifuge Room. When you go up the stairs, right and on the end of that walkway is the first bear.
 * The second teddybear is behind a gate on the left, nearby the lunar lander with the claymore in the area.
 * The last teddybear is nearby the "Speed Cola lunar lander", past the Speed Cola, when you have the wall in front of you. Turn right and on top of the wall there is the last teddybear.
 * The song seems to be a remix of some sort of "Damned" (The menu song for zombies).
 * In order to get to the Pack-a-Punch Machine, the players must fly on all three lunar landers. This makes the rocket fly off into space and allows the players access to the Pack-a-Punch machine.
 * The PhD Flopper is the first perk to affect anyone (since it starts a nuke when you are downed).
 * If you don't get a perk then the space monkeys will not come.
 * There are Matryoshka Dolls of the characters scattered around the level, along with Teddy Bears holding Sickles.
 * It is the first map where zombies are seen jumping up to platforms. If a player is stood on the upper walkway of the first room, zombies will jump up onto the walkway to reach the player, this is possibly to discourage camping at the end of the walkway.
 * Zombies have also been seen doing forward sumersaults into the player, injuring the player and stunning the zombie as it has to get back up, this is a rare occurrence and is unknown what causes this.
 * This is the first zombie map set in Russia.
 * This is the biggest zombie map yet
 * The G-Force machine activates occasionally, Downing ANYTHING under it.

Video
thumb|left|300px|Skip to 0:43 for zombies trailer. Note: G force test machine thumb|300px|right|Musical easter egg song 'Abracadavre'