Revisiting Call of Duty Zombies (World at War and Black Ops)

[Music] the original Call of Duty way back in 2003 was a single-player World War 2 epic an ineffably loyal homage to the hectic excitement of Saving Private Ryan fast forward 15 years and blackops fall won't even have a single-player campaign instead going completely online alongside a new battle royale mode well I can't say I'm surprised because I'm not I'm disappointed because not only do I earn ironically enjoy Call of Duty single-player most of the time but out of all the games to replace a decades-old feature with it had to be the entry developed by Treyarch the Treyarch Call of Duty single-player campaigns are some of the most enjoyable and bizarre experiences I have ever played to demonstrate I'll just remind you that's the last game had you fire killer beez as a gameplay mechanic I do expect black ops 4 to be a decent package because Treyarch are quite good and providing lots of contents but the discontinuation of the solar campaign makes me sad it's all half the battle royale mode the multiplayer mode and the zombies mode so I'll still likely get it for that last feature because regardless of the quality of the overall game the zombies mode in infinite warfare and world war two were the best part of both games so that got me thinking can you enjoy the Treyarch zombies mode solo because at the moment there is a hint of single-player in terms of zombies but it's a bit unclear saying there's BOTS and single-player challenges like can you only do Sambi solo if it's with bots or in a challenge mode I'll find out when the game gets released but in the meantime I can only guess by looking at tray arks track record on the subjects but here's the thing there isn't really a wider opinion on the matter because why would you do such a mode solo and my answer would be that the serve as a baron and to measure the prospect of a black ops 4 zombie single-player mode I'm going to replay all the zombies maps solo and in their original format I will touch on rear elisa's but the bulk will be on the games they originally appeared on so let me take you back a decade when Treyarch and Activision unleashed the zombie honours and allow me to take you through this solo experience the call of duty zombie saga is a joke that saved a company it was a mode that wasn't meant to be and arguably shouldn't have made it past doodles at the drawing board stage it was originally made by a bunch of programmers on the company's time without authorization from anyone and it's somehow created a decade-old feature pillar that took six years to latch on to the two other core development companies of the franchise try arcs form a studio head now chairman mark Lamia has gone on record to say that it shouldn't exist as he tells it development of call of duty world at war was a difficult process having come out of the hell that was Call of Duty 3 which was developed in the span of nine months they were given a two-year development schedule for world at war they were struggling to find their voice as he says and that they wanted world at war to be a turning point the second of those two years were very difficult they were still getting used to new technology having swapped their proprietary engine for the now-standard iw engine used for all future entries they were behind schedule crunching like crazy and to make the stress worse Infinity Ward released Call of Duty for two huge critical and financial success they had to follow up a showstopper whose impact is still being felt in the industry today so suffice to say morale was extremely low one of the features of world art wall was the cooperative campaign mode which was basically single-player with up to three other players and Lamia said that a small team were taken technology created for that feature and prototyped different modes one of them was the zombies mode and word of it started spreading around the office apparently people in different departments wanted to pitch in and help out with this mode but Lamia wasn't on board when he found out he can't blame him this was something that was off-brand they were behind schedule with tough goals and deadlines it wasn't approved by anyone and today were crunching like crazy interestingly Lamia decided to do nothing he played the game and did nothing to it he didn't quarantine it he stop the organic information flow that attracted some insight at the development studio and its continued garnering attention it got to the point where Activision started play in the prototype reach into the executive level who loved it for the same reasons Treyarch did it was a welcome morale boost to the company but the problem was what to do with it while the mood was infectious and fun it didn't garner marketing faith PR and marketing loved the mode but wouldn't touch it the franchise leadership thought its inclusion would have been disgraceful and its inclusion had the potential of turning the brand into a laughingstock as Lamia puts it they would have thought we jumped the shark here's footage of the main villain in black ops 3 for unrelated reasons fortunately it was put into the game but under the condition that it would be treated like a nice little Easter Egg this meant no marketing this meant no visibility and originally it would only become available after completing the game there's no mention of it on the game's box art and I have a very good feeling that there was practically zero budget for the mode and the reason why I say that is because nacked Darren totin is rough its plays and feels like an updated prototype that's used the assets that were already made with the exception of the zombies design and some sound assets that could have been made in a day the map itself isn't an original zombies map creation but is instead a reused and slightly redesigned portion of the multiplayer map airfield no voice actor spouting dialogue no little girls taunting you no power no ability drinks just you three rooms and a mystery box sessions on average would be between 10 to 20 minutes averaging about 13 rounds I remember my time on this map fondly with friends but as a solo experience it hasn't aged as well as my personal stories linked with it the problems with this map can be boiled down to the fact that the environment wasn't designed with a zombie mode in mind there's a lot of clutter and support pillars that ensure there is a very dense amount of choke points and the more wide-open spaces don't give you an opportunity safely slaughter the zombies which is where the mode is at its best sure awareness contributes to the modes enjoyment but in this map it goes straight into twitchy territory and doesn't really allow some moments where you can be relatively calm it don't get me wrong I enjoyed my time on this map both in the past and during my solo revisit but its origins as a rogue fun project are clear as daylight there's a reason why the random weapon box is in the mode it's to inject some much-needed dynamism into this Easter Egg and I'd argue it's the reason why the mode persisted long enough to greenlight additional maps it's placed to the brains dopamine reaction while attaching it to something tense and mechanically satisfying while not being sinister the simple dynamic elements from the box alone is a game design technique that can be found in multiple games from loots oriented RPGs like destiny and Diablo to a much more depressing degree the loot box systems we see a lot of today I did enjoy my time on here but it felt very much like a prototype with the power of countdowns to the very simple design of it all it was fun but it was missing something due to the fact that this mode has to follow a different set of design rules to the multiplayer rules firmly established by the franchise for the morale boost and cash injection was enough to start polishing on something very very rough that could possibly eclipse the multiplayer mode great powers out even though this is technically the second zombies map this is the first map that truly feels like a call of duty zombies map and not just a released prototype verrückt was released in March of 2009 and considering the call of duty format Pak was arguably the most successful DLC of its time it was nice to see that activision had some faith in what was an easter egg a patch made the mode available without needing to completes the campaign and of the two trailers released format pack one verruckt appeared in one of them and completely occupied the other and to keep the murder and not just a rehash of what's worked before there were some changes that stuck and eventually became a core part of the mode the most obvious change was the size of the map nacht der toten had three rooms verruckt had 8 nacht der toten had a lot of clutter verruckt had some obvious choke points and some nice wide-open spaces Verruckt also cleaned up some things like the user interface with power-ups no longer be in a bunch of text but instead an easily identifiable icon and of course the power-ups that would be in every zombie map going forward there are a lot of things in this map that defined the entire mode huge Maps traps you'll never use except maybe one or two times personally and a lot more emphasis on hurting zombies together for a quick burst of pure slaughter sessions started to last longer and electricity was introduced that would be present in a good chunk of maps going forward this this is when the mode went from entertaining and started to ascend to greatness and to add to it more dynamism was added in the form of once again the random weapon box not content to spend hours giving you crap that you don't want like double-barreled shotguns and semi-automatic rifles you get at the start of a session now it has to giggle at you while its moves elsewhere despite my complaints about the damn box which meant I didn't get the regen until der Iser the minor changed in which the box will go to another section of the map after several purchases meant that players needed to change their strategy if they become dependent on it also the perk of cola machines was a masterstroke of design and in an additional optional objective if you have any intention of having a long singular session and all four of them would appear in future maps in some way speed cola increases your reload speed which is great for someone like me who has an affinity to light machineguns double tap root beer increases your fire rate which is great for me for the same reason Juggernog which increases your maximum health and is surprisingly not the most expensive perk you can buy and quick revive which does nothing at all it was very clear that spirit was primarily built as a multiplayer experience and as a result Treyarch seemingly didn't know what to do with quick revive for single-player sessions so just kept it in without any modifications if you by its congratulations you just wasted 1,500 points on nothing verruckt has aged incredibly well it has the complete basic template of the zombies experience and plane alone didn't stop it from being incredibly enjoyable but I did find a strategy that made a good chunk of my footage incredibly stale as I said before I prefer lights machine guns in particular the mg42 and browning and found a good spot to camp I was able to get to round 17 by finding a spot that's had the zombies come in via a long conga line and the mg42 reloaded very quickly it worked but it made for some very uninteresting footage so I said to myself that in the next round to make the material I have more varied I would fight from the other side of the map to the same spot so I went there started round 18 and immediately got stomped on look I didn't say I was good at this [Music] okay now we're getting into some really good maps I've previously said that's the mode felt like Activision wasn't completely behind it if you want a point in time where I can confidently say they gave Treyarch their full faith shi no numa is it it was at the forefront of their marketing it has arguably the best zombies trailer in the company's history and they hired voice actors to voice the mode for the next decade fred tatasciore Tom Kane steve blum and nolan north voice four distinct and recognizable characters and Treyarch kept on expanding and experimenting with the mode to create arguably the first entry in the zombie modes Golden Age the timing of the release was an interesting one well this was multiplayer had lost steam everyone was going back to call of duty 4 but the mode was still popular enough that a sizeable chunk of people myself included spent money on entire map packs just for one map in particular the amount of rooms available in comparisons have erupted was more or less the same it's the sheer size of them made this arguably the largest zombie map at the time I remembered everything quite vividly I even attempted to replicate an old glitch that would allow me to hold three weapons and it has aged like fine wine hated the lack of real wide open spaces and found a camping spot say hello to wide open spaces with multiple pathways and allow me to introduce you to the hellhounds the zombie mode is not shy of experimenting with new things verruckt introduced us to traps perks and power shi no numa introduces us to the hellhounds who will appear in some form or another in almost every other zombie map these guys spawn and instantly start charging towards you and their subsequent encounters demands that you run for the hills and try your damnedest to stop them it's near single-handedly ended camping tactics and spiced up sessions since you didn't know precisely when they would appear to get you another thing I quite liked that sadly didn't make it into future installments where random Cola machine you open a door and you better pray it isn't the quick revive otherwise you're going to have a wonderful journey through the swamps it's a wonderfully designed map and wonderfully balanced with no safe gathering points I do have a criticism and that is that the big and entertaining traps seemed a bit rubbish in execution but it is otherwise a near-flawless map I thoroughly loved playing this and it is a perfect template on how to design a horde word map this map solidified zombies as a must-have feature and it was clear that going forward we were going to get pure gold [Music] we are at the end of world at war and we finally come to what is considered one of the most popular maps in the mode Treyarch went all out on this map since it's clear that the mode had a bigger more attentive audience than their multiplayer while call of duty for continued reign in the top of the multiplayer charts world at war was consolidating their resources to deliver something that would appear in black ops 1 and 3 they decided to polish what worked in shi no numa swore to make it better and play to the janky technology introduced in front the result is de riser tray arks send-off they went all out with this mode with the goal to give players the tools to survive longer than they did in maps past teleporters were added and so was the pack-a-punch machine features that on a mechanical level would continue to be implemented for the black ops series camping spots have escape routes that lead to potentially more danger and it's allowed for an entertaining and chaotic ROM returning to Durazo was incredibly entertaining there's a reason why this map has endured for a good part of a decade and that is that it's a genius Li designed location it's memorable by being simple yet challenging to corridors with teleporter rooms branching out from them with another one at the end of the electricity switch which itself opens three more pathways I especially love the pacing of the pack-a-punch machine it's the first thing you see behind a locked door but it's solution is so well signposted through environmental design and it makes you work for it it's makes retrieving an upgraded weapon all the sweeter when you see the progress of unlocking it de riser was about polishing and pathways and as such it is one of the most memorable and iconic maps in the entire genre we would see more maps that I'd argue are better and it was clear at the time that's the company had no idea what to do with the quick revive Cola but no map has the legacy of de riser it was to send off to what in the beginning was a feature that had a very uncertain future it's never left its roots as an experimental feature with Treyarch trying out new ideas every time it was what saved world its well from becoming completely overshadowed by its predecessor and it's gave Treyarch an identity they were the more experimental of the companies one that isn't afraid to add something crazy if it's meant standing out in the series the black ops series by feel is distinctly Treyarch not taken themselves too seriously in their presentation if it's meant delivering a more entertaining product and it's all started with a group of rogue programmers faffing around with co-op code I do believe Treyarch have a very special relationship with DES riser as if they felt it was an internal turning point it's possibly why they've immortalized it through re-releases alone and it's arguably the first map to come to mind when you think about call of duty zombies all they could do now is progress forward to the next game the mode got greenlit by Activision and they had some things they wanted to do and some things they must do they needed to continue experimenting with the formula while maintaining the easy-to-understand nature that preserves the fun they got a list of things that worked that didn't work and now they needed to learn from it overall world at war has two possibly three maps you can do comfortably solo and the one you can't is interesting to revisit just to see how far this murders come as a side note well this war was released in a time where fov sliders weren't as common if you have a problem with the 65 degree angle you can change it in console commands but the game has a quirk where it resets to that particular angle upon restarting the level to get round that you can use air fov changer program that I'll link below it'll save you a lot of hassle now on to black ops my current zombies record is about round 35 on the Xbox 360 version of kino der toten solo and replaying it's on PC has made me wonder how the hell did I achieve it might be age might be different system knob may be luck regardless I have some fond memories of this map and it's a wonderful introduction to Black Ops his interpretation of the mode unlike nacht der toten this map was available from day one without any restrictions and has included a lot of things world it's well got right the map was large and simple in layouts like the previous ones the pack-a-punch machine requires some efforts and intuition to get to and unlike other zombie maps I actually used one of the traps on the consistent basis there's a new perk Accola to mule-kick which is an odd name for an upgrade that allows you to hold a third weapon and since you can't hold more than four perks your choices come with a degree of strategy until you use up your third quick revive cola oh yeah they finally decided what to do with quick revive for the solar experience whereas other maps charged you 1500 points for literally nothing from black ops going forward the quick revive is simply 500 points and appears in the spawn room fairly consistently drinking it basically gives you an extra life when you lose all your health you go down for a few seconds then get right back up whilst losing all previously acquired perks and lose one weapon if you were unlucky enough to purchase mil kick and an extra gun the map design kind of reminds me of a rocket and riser in some way two floors two pathways except now we have a nice sensual way that's unlocks a possible pathway that you can use to slaughter your zombie cattle the areas you can unlock are decently sized and there's four notable choke points that sadly make one path more optimal than the other but as a first map it serves as an excellent introduction for those who didn't play wildest war remember Black Ops was the largest entertainments launch in history at the time the sales leap from world at war to Black Ops is staggering black ops sold double of what well that's war achieved on consoles alone which personally I didn't expect and I don't think Treyarch did either you get everything you need to know about what's going to happen in the majority of zombies maps right here it's pure mechanical refinement except for one notable exception in black ops zombies maps there's a noticeable trend and feel that Treyarch are trying out elements that eliminates close quarters herding and campaign and it's clear that they are continuously experimenting with the formula in this game the crawling gas zombies are introduced if you kill them they'll admit a gas that disorients your vision and speed so if you're planning to do the herding tactic be prepared to encounter those choke points I kind of like it actually it breaks the monotony by having you focus on your feet testing your awareness by limiting your visibility it's a small change that adds another layer of strategy when they could have just kept to the status quo but Treyarch are an experimental Bunch they're not guys I can comfortably say stay religiously to a formula otherwise each map would feel very monotonous outside of the visuals but kino der toten is a pretty good map in general it's didn't reinvent the wheel but it's a great starting point for the influx of new players bound to purchase black ops after modern warfare 2 success [Music] [Applause] this might not be what you were expecting the original zombies mode was born out of some people toying with code it didn't tamper with the main mechanics too much and was ultimately a successful branch of the franchise dead ops is a strange addition black ops was already a pretty good package with arguably the most creative creates a class process in the series a theater mode that was a staple of the Halo franchise and a campaign that's was shamefully entertaining Dead Ops is pretty much a strange yet intriguing cherry on the cake top-down twin-stick shooter with weird mechanics that deviated sharply from the core gameplay structure that's we were used to by now it's janky but still entertaining in its own way but the map design is really basic until the latter stages where it just gets frustrating if you enjoy twisting shooters then this will be your cup of tea and even if you aren't it's still interesting to play Plus the soundtrack kicks some serious ass [Music] sadly it's often forgotten and treated more as a side note and we wouldn't be getting another one of these until four years later since the merge didn't really catch on people didn't go on black ops to play dead ops unless it was with a bunch of friends with the same goal in mind but it's not that good solo sadly but it's not the mode you return to black ops 4 in fact you don't return to black ops zombies for kino der toten either when you think of black ops zombies you think of five [Music] bloody hell where do I start with this map hundreds upon hundreds of hours of my life on zombies were spent on this map alone all my friends had this game and we either played to the campaign or used the sneaky cheat code to spend all our time on this map we slaughtered possibly millions of zombies in our entire career and the nostalgia surrounding this map is almost intoxicating it's the most memorable sheerly because of its presentation you play as two presidents Kennedy and Nixon a Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Fidel Castro and just saying that means that the level is going into classic grindhouse film territory it's going to stay that way as the plot is kill zombies inside Pentagon I know the zombies mode isn't one that takes itself seriously at all but the premise alone has this subtle tonal shift that makes its experience stand out and this was the level where Treyarch decided to experiment with the established formula again they themselves have said that's with each new map they wanted to escalate from previous maps and find new ways to freshen up how we play zombies the main change to five was the thief which replaces the hellhound round instead of charging up to kill you the thief instead runs up teleports you to the pentagon's third floor and takes the weapon you were hold in a way if you chase him and to successfully kill him you get the stolen weapon back and you get the fire sale ability which makes the random weapon box appear at all its designated locations and will cost 10 points as much as I missed the hellhounds the thief was a genius way to mix up the gameplay you're not thinking about what spots you can deal with this unique enemy in your thinking which weapon out of the 2 or 3 you're currently holding is best to kill this guy quickly and killing him requires a lot of running you can kill him before he gets to you but he'll just run it you faster if you fire a shot at him and the death machine is your only option it's still intense and it breaks the monotony of having zombies then hellhounds at an interval rate I say this slight change is a welcome one also the Easter Egg featured a probably my favorite of the bunch three telephones and suddenly Eminem is blastin a high-energy song with pink that fits the tone perfect slay it's also my favorite Easter Egg because it's precisely that a nice little extra that doesn't affect gameplay in any way and having the song blasted at you as you play a historical figure inside the Pentagon shooting zombies is just magical it's a good thing too because the map design itself is a bit rubbish I did like playing it's on here but it's one of those maps whose presentation is really the selling points go around and ask people what they liked about five and they'll say it's in the Pentagon and you play as Nixon there's that fifth guy and Eminem the three levels themselves are pretty near at best you'll be spending all your time on the main floor because it's the only one that'll give you a chance at killing zombies because the first level is too narrow and the third floor is a complete deathtrap there's too many narrow corridors and doorways so if you head towards one and a zombie just happens to come around to the corner kiss that's quick revive drink goodbye there's lifts which is a neat idea and it's going to be a basic concept Treyarch will eventually return to if you play on your own it's an OK experience with eminem be in the highlight of the whole thing but it's a style versus substance argument and that's you foria the easter egg gives you leaves what comes after with a strange sense of emptiness so there's a map in the black ops multiplayer called launched and it was quite entertaining it was one of my favorite Maps actually and if the battle royale mode in black ops 4 is bringing back old elements then I hope this map at least make some sort of cameo appearance someone at Treyarch thought it would be a good idea to take that multiplayer map tear it apart and repurpose it into arguably one of my favorite zombie maps of the series so here's how the level starts you descend on a rocket the colors turn grayscale welcome to ascension a level with a few twists and turns there's an initial focus on elevation but it's designed in a smart way you're going to be using these small rooms as a temporary pathway and the developers clearly knew that so to make use of them they placed the power switch at the top of these rooms that may sound like a criticism but it really isn't the main focus of this map is on elevation and high spots and considering the starting rounds insert this subtle if unintentional message through these brief rooms it's a design I can really appreciate almost every room and area has a second floor of some kind right from the beginning there's new stuff added of course such as the Gersh device that I didn't really use and two new colors were introduced one is PhD flopper which eliminates fall damage and explosive damage from grenades certain naturally I bought it just to demonstrate its effects and never bought it again and the more useful stamina which increases your sprinting speed and duration personally this was the most useful of the two and I would highly recommend it if you plan on doing the hoarding tactic it's a level that finally balances presentation with design and some parts of the environments are wonderfully thought-out subtle a Packer punches back but behind a sealed door that can only be unlocked after use in each of the three transport rockets at least once after that you launch the main rocket which then opens the door between you in the machine but the design subtleties begin from the moment you hits the power switch you can see the rockets get into position and after using one of the flying jeans a little noticeboard flushes how completes the rocket is you need to launch it via a button so where would you go to activates the rocket back in the power switch tower of course it's actually really amazing I didn't remember how to unlock it and I'm actually questioning myself if I originally did get pack-a-punch when I first downloaded ascension years ago if it sounds like I'm being a bit shallow it's because there's a lot of elements in the map that are shared with the others good map / Cocoa's a transport gimmick presentation I've mentioned it before especially that's last one in fact I couldn't really think of a criticism outside of the PhD flopper doing a bad job at conveying what it actually does stamina up increases stamina Juggernog increased health from the juggernauts perk of multiplayer speed Cola increases reload speed double tap root beer self-explanatory I only found out what it was after checking the wiki because at first I thought it was the ability to emit a shock wave after performing a dolphin dive and surprisingly it was but only after diving from a certain height so it's got a case of too many small things in one whole package since the best perks are the ones that don't require much thought so it was looking like ascension would be my favorites map at the bunch kohler with stress aside that was until the special round happened so throughout the mode there's normally a special round designed to break up the same enos of shooting zombies and in this case it's space monkeys and they are really really really annoying and not in a particularly entertaining way they don't initially charge it to you they just try to take away your perks via attacking the machines that served them to you problem is that the machines are spaced so far apart that there is not enough time to go after them all you can try as you might but outside of the introductory rounds good luck it also doesn't help that they are frustrating to kill if you attack them at the machine welcome after you and hits you with a dizzying AoE attack relentlessly and because they are so small and scurry around on the floor it's means shooting them dead becomes a especially in the latter rounds the best tactic is to use the Zombie rounds to hoard as many points as you can and when the monkeys arrive just camp outside of quick revive you see if they take your perk away and you kill them you don't get that perk back and if one of those perks is quick revive too bad the game only gives you three bottles before they teleports away so you can lose two quick revives to the monkeys and upon purchasing your third off it goes and when it does your best garden mule-kick since it's the most expensive and one of the most useful perks in the game it's a giant blemish that is not optimized for the solar experience and I know this because I honestly did try to save all the perks but it was not meant to be it's a shame because ascension is a joyous map to be in smartly designed great aesthetic and a great journey to the pack-a-punch machine it's just sad that it becomes tedious in a nanosecond that's the sound of reentry [Music] if you are a fan of zombie media in general you owe it to yourself to watch Jorge Ramirez back catalogue from Night of the Living Dead - Dawn of the Dead the man revolutionized the entire genre without it we wouldn't have max Brooks is fantastic book about the complexities that would surround such an event which is still one of my favorite books of all time alongside that we have the zombification concept in 28 days later written by Alex Garland who would later write and produce tread my favorite film of all time and the film was directed by Danny Boyle a critical darling across multiple genres and who also directed the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics and let's not forget the media juggernaut that is the Walking Dead a franchise of successful graphic novels one of the most decorated television shows at the moment and its numerous video game titles Merle and Daryl in a game what can be better than the call of the dead is a zombie horror fans wet dream this is a nervous style versus substance map but the sheer amount of genre fanservice is euphoric it has dry comedy it has past and modern-day genre icons and George Romero portraying the central gimmick of a zombified film director wheeled in a mangled spotlight to devastating effect I think this map is pretty damn cool even when not factoring in the fan service it's an Arctic adventure separated into two distinct halves ice outpost and the shipwreck and both can be accessed by land or by air zip lines can be used by yourself zombies and Romero there's no special round since you are stocked constantly by Romero forcing you to adapt your hoarding and camping tactics there are spots which I feel are pretty poorly thought-out like the lighthouses main staircase which is so thin that you better count your blessings there isn't a zombie halfway up but it's a bit like ascension in that you only go up it for one purpose and are likely to never go through it for the rest of the session oh and there's a new perk a cola Deadshot daiquiri daiquiri drink it and it increases your hipfire accuracy which may sound useless but it really isn't I found it's more beneficial to spray and pray towards large groups since aiming-down-sights slows you down the big gimmick aside from the presentation is romero himself no matter where you go he will follow via the same paths as the zombies only much much slower there's also fog that comes in every now and then but it's not really a big cataclysmic event like the special rounds of previous levels it doesn't change much except your visibility a fair amount really the big criticism I have is over the Packer punch I've mentioned many times before that getting the pack a punch requires work Durazo demanded you link the teleporters kino der toten wanted you to connect the teleporter every time you wanted to gain access 5 which I forgot to mention before wanted you to flip several switches that'll allow you to use it for a set amount of time and I've already gone into detail in how to get it in ascension in Call of the Dead just wait that's all you do at some point red thunder will crack and you just have to look at the lighthouse to find which body of freezing water you need to jump into the only work required is that you need to unlock the door to it and even then one of the possible locations is the spawn area this was also the first map where the Easter break had a bit more of a prominent feature fortunately you can skip it but it's a bit hard to ignore its possible existence especially if you are familiar with the reoccurring characters in the series the easter egg started to get a bit more confusing to achieve without a guide at this point and call of the dead is a great example of that shift fuse fine if a little difficult to find initially destroying the security systems hard to find but at least I knew what to do and how retrieving the weird rod okay now it gets a little difficult to follow you have to fiddle with the boats steering wheel and levers then a submarine appears then you need to get this weird weapon that turns a zombie back into a human then you have to kill him before you reaches the top of the house soon after you get the rod fortunately this is something that can be ignored and your reward for completing it is just an achievement and the Wunderwaffe which may sound like something hugely beneficial until you realize you cannot switch weapons and after using all the a No you don't get the Wunderwaffe back but after a lot of time without the weapon in the previous maps you learn that it's best to find a basic weapon on the wall and rely on it in this map I learnt that the mp5 about to be an upgrade it was surprisingly effective in the later rounds despite that call of the Dead is still one of my favorite maps but that comes from a man who appreciates the work of the highlighted characters and George Romero I am a fan of each of their work I watched Spy Kids again just to see Danny Trejo for God's sake and I admit that you might have a different experience with it if you're not a passing fan of these guys George Romero's sadly passed away last year and as weird as it sounds it makes his appearance in this mode all the sweeter I'm really happy that he has at least one appearance in the mode that saved Trey arks image and wouldn't have existed without him shangri-la has a bit of a bad aura surrounding it it's normally considered one of the worst Maps ever made and is normally ignored by the larger community in preparation for the section I decided to find out why this map is so low and the reasons I got back after my research showed some interesting results but nothing out of the ordinary that can't be applied elsewhere it's a hard map see shi no numa it's closed quartered as hell C nacht der toten there's specific areas that slow you down seek all of the dead even though I heard that the reception of the map has improved over time its reputation has not the common complaints were that it was a hard map that there's no reliable area to hoard zombies and the Napalm and screamin zombies are on welcome additions guys a difficult map doesn't make it bad by default call of the dead and she no Numa where difficult Maps with plenty of close-quarter spots and the latter didn't have a reliably safe hoarding space and I agree that the Napalm and scream of zombies are unwelcome because they actually disorients your vision and sense of direction but they are relatively easy to kill plus I don't know what to tell you guys except you suck because this map is ridiculously easy simply go to the beginning of the minecart track with one weapon of choice and one weapon be in the MLP you can buy on the wall nearby have Juggernog speed revive and stamina and you can horde the zombies there and guys the map isn't good because it's difficult the map isn't good because it's a surprisingly shallow and dull map with not a lot to do in it even though it looks great aesthetically actually playing it was a drab experience despite the supposed action going on the screen there are things that are unique to it like the minecart and the waterfall as well as the volcanic jumps but it's not much for a map that feels quite small some of the best maps in the mode tend to make the world you play in quite large even if in actuality it's relatively small and with the exception of nacht der toten each release has done a good job in reinforcing that sense of a wider world shangri-la lacks that feel and the map is surprisingly easy for a close-quarters map in fact the only reason I died was because I decided to pop inside the small nearby cave a few too many times the pack-a-punch machine had a nice start with it being out of your reach akin to durai's er but getting to it feels too easy you turn on the power fine to the pressure pad sticking up stand on it and that's it a clock starts upgrade your weapon the coop did this so much better with everyone needing to stand on several buttons before gaining access to the same thing but solo lacks that challenge there's also the mud pits arguably one of the most baffling design decisions I have ever seen in the mode playing zombies is at its worst when luck decides your fate and the mud pits are the only part of the map that rely on pure luck you stand on the only solid surface on your side and you follow the path to whatever destination its lead you to you can't rush through the pits spurts you walk extremely slowly and you can't jump to save time oh and there's a chance that's going down the solid path will just lead you back to where you started the map isn't a mess it's just really dull to play and as silly as the roller-coaster minecart is it's not enough to rescue a surprisingly empty feeling map despite the reception of shangri-la both at the time and in retrospect there was still enough interest in the mode to dedicate an entire map pack to it 5 maps were released and four of them were the world at war maps with some minor changes all the maps received mule-kick verruckt has you spawn in the right room instead of the left the hellhounds in shi no numa don't instantly spring towards you but instead go on their patrol speed likened erisa the random box has black ops weapons instead and mercifully the quick revive drink is actually useful it was a minor update with some changes that made sense but I said that there were five maps in the of actionpack alongside the rear Elisa's there was one new map [Music] moon is canonically the last of the maps despite the menu order and as the grand finale for black ops zombies Treyarch decided to go all-out by experimenting with oxygen zero-gravity and having it to take place on area 51 and the moon Treyarch themselves called it's a season finale it was hotly anticipated and it was available for free for those who got the game special editions since this came with the remastered maps it's launched there's a sense of change with moon and I did enjoy it but there's no way you can play its properly without recognizing the Easter Egg that is at its core one of the big problems with shangri-la is that while there were things I thought were neat its design exists solely for the purposes of the Easter Egg and co-op as such there wasn't much to do in that map solo and Moon has sort of the same problem it's Easter egg is primarily co-op but there's an obscene amount of busy work solo and going to retell the steps it takes to complete the Easter egg in fall and mix it in with my thought process and for the purposes of transparency I'll admit straight up that I turned on God mode and no clipped constantly you'll understand why in a moment first step turn on the power this is where you'll starts figuring out some quirks of Moon that I thought were thematically cool I was on board with us being shown the pack-a-punch straightaway but wasn't on board with speed Cola and Juggernog only been available in this area and their appearance is also randomized it's not a shi no numa situation where when it appears it'll stay there until the end of the session in this case the coin flip happens every time you enter area 51 and it's Kang gets frustrating there's a lot of things you need to know before entering moon-like you need to put on a helmet instantly and the zero gravity sections do take some getting used to so you fight through the corridors turn on the power and you are ready to begin your Easter egg journey second step run back outside and take part in a game of Simon this was the moments where I was originally weirded out because you're not erected to these computer panels whereas ascensions transport system activation was required to get pack-a-punch the transport system work or features of the map and played into the survival aspect of the mode the Simon machine appears one of the time and it's a matter of ensuring you have enough space between you and the nearest zombie to complete it step 3 pack security so beyond the cool-looking pyramid is a laboratory and you need to hack the four panels on the wall you do this by finding a small gadget somewhere in the area hack one of the panels for 500 points then run around the room to hack four different panels in 60 seconds now we're entering absurd territory step 4 wait for the digger to breach a specific tunnel if you're fortunate enough this will already be done but that means you can't go through that particular tunnel until you stop it from digging you do this by going back to the arrival room and tack in a panel and it's that that's points that you'll realize that's the hacking gadget replaces your helmets that you need to stay in the vacuum of space for a good degree of time sir you'll sprint over there hack the appropriate console and put your helmet back on now I'm all for dynamism and having the digger potentially block paths until you rectify it is a neat idea that I'd totally be on board with if it wasn't for this little gadget this thing actually disrupts gameplay while adding precisely nothing but tedium sure it's useful at the packer punch machine where it raises gates to keep the zombies out but you can only do that once per game you can open doors cheaply but it takes over 30 seconds that is a one-sided trade-off that's incredibly frustrating and it gets a lot worse step 5 escort the ball fortunately this thing doesn't have health but the step itself highlights the biggest flaw of the process shoots the ball follow it shoot it again when it stops and continue until the ball itself sits on a satellite dish you need to get it down but can you guess how you do shoot at it but not with bullets not with ray guns but with a warp gun that you can only obtain from the random box I guess that you want the Easter Egg to be central to the map especially considering the results but it's the best way to completely ruin the excitement to that process is by inserting random chance to it the wave gun isn't the worst offender but so that will come later you shoot the ball with the wave go and continue escorting it until it gets to the pyramid step 6 kill zombies there's a tube that needs to be filled with Souls but it can only be done if the zombies are close to it out of all the steps this is the one that's more closely fits the mechanics of the game since the area of effect is small you need to put stat herding skills I've previously shown to good use once that is done flip the nearby switch and Samantha appears you get the death machine step 7 retrieve some plates this step just baffles me to no end I seriously cannot imagine a design meeting where this moment was pitched and agreed upon you go back down to earth through this easy to use and access teleporter and your targets of these plates how do you get them first you throw a grenade to dislodge them then you throw something called a Gersh device that's was previously introduced in ascension except you don't have it and back to the moon you go trying to get my hands on that device initially took me over an hour which consisted of spamming random boxes a ton of teddy bears and shadowplay crashing but I got the device returned to earth activated it teleported back with the plates and it's there where you discover that you need another utility grenade to move those plates to the other side of the room because of course you can't just pick them up with your hands step 8 assemble the computer back to the random box you go meaning more running around to the other side of the map when the box decides to go for a walk more spam in the unlock button and a moment where you come to resent the death machine because it's won't allow you to open the box but you eventually get it after an ungodly amount of time and you head over back to the panels and throw the utility grenade it's works and it's placed upright but you need to connect that to the computer back to the lab to find a wire which is surprisingly not as egregious as the previous steps back to the computer and plug it in now all you need to do is insert a magical Roger helped getting called the dead into the way wait where's the rod where the hell is the rod no joke this seriously happened I spent two hours initially get into this point with minimal no clear pain only to find out that I don't have the one thing you need to progress through this story and this isn't because of choice of character either I was plain as Richthofen who starts with the rod in co-op and the game didn't bother telling me that I couldn't complete the Easter Egg solo I thought it was a bug at first or I somehow drops the rod by accident but it was a deliberate design decision by Treyarch to get rid of the rod and stringers along you could have just not had the panel's spawn back on earth guys that's why I wouldn't have had to waste nearly two hours of my life switching between different locations on the map trying to find utility grenades I was shattered at this point but I wasn't gonna let this game beat me so I got a handy little mater that did one thing and that was give Richthofen the rod I had to restart the game several times before I play it as the character and even then I had to redo the whole process I did have a good amount of luck obtaining the items needed but it was still a slog switch Simon panels digger Egg whop gunned kill switch random boxes retrieved panels random boxes transferred the panels why a computer and finally I inserted the rod Jesus Christ step 9 press F no joke you need to keep pressing F on this computer terminal until the rod starts glowing it's pretty tedious and since the zombies are come in that means you are going to get distracted by your survival instincts after some time the rod is ready step 10 kill more zombies again like before this is a nice step since it challenges your ability to hoard zombies this time you need to do it to four tubes once done place the rod onto the pan and you get all the perks in the game except quick revive because Treyarch likely anticipated as modern the game to get past their progress wall step 11 more Simon this is the first time you actually get some explicit instructions that are understandable throw the QED on the panel and the orb should be gone go back outside and play a long game of Simon step 12 transport the orb hello again random weapon box great to see you again gets the Gersh device throw it on the orb the missiles behind you launched congratulations you destroyed the earth and completes it the Easter Egg solo [Laughter] that's last run where I know clips like crazy lasted for an hour and that's with my suspicion that's the modded files sped up the random box sections I don't understand how anyone could have done this without a guide I don't know how the first person discovered this convoluted process to destroy the earth I almost think Treyarch inserted instructions on how to complete it but they also made it impossible to complete it solo if he puts the time and effort in to legitimately completes it you could have just had all the perks but the quick revive being given to the player after completing the second killing step we would have been fine with that and we would have understood as well because these perks last until the game ends in co-op nuts when the player gets beaten down but when the game ends it just punishes solo players while making the process extremely tedious and what's worse is that the map is actually alright I didn't like the astronauts on these and the pack-a-punch machine is almost insulting ly difficult to use but there's some good ideas here like the fact you can accidentally blow open an entire compartment if you use explosives or the Raygun too much zero gravity is both tense and fun the jumping pads are shamefully entertaining and the general layout is complex without going insane there's about 11 areas in the map and each one has something unique about them whether it be the biodome the laboratories or any of the outdoor sections unfortunately it's bogged down by the fact that the level was clearly designed around the Easter Egg and neglected to convey how to complete it through the mechanics of the game I did enjoy it while I was taking it on as a zombies game but its core reasoning for existing and amount of hassle just left me exhausted it's not a journey I recommend you take solo and does a zombie map it's alright overall I enjoyed most of my time on black ops zombies it showed trey arks willingness to experiment with the mode some worked some didn't and somewhere outright terrible only shangri-la I had a mixed time with and my complaints about moon are really isolated to the Easter eggs design black ops marked arguably the peak of the Golden Age of Zombies with great locations great design cool presentation and an open willingness to make each one distinct in some way I say this now because the mode didn't get much better than this [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: LHudson

Views: 138,809

Keywords: Review, Black Ops, Analysis, LHudson, Treyarch, Call of Duty, Der Riese, Gameplay, World at War, Call of Duty Zombies, Activision, Black Ops 4, COD, Zombies

Id: y7vlaI2fGTY

Length: 59min 59sec (3599 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 26 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/iSlayMightyBees]

Call of Duty is a guilty pleasure of mine for multiple reasons. Treyarch has always been my favourite developer of the series and the zombies mode is the main reason why. The evolution of the game mode has blown me away. It's now a staple of the franchise. The mode has had its side steps with maps here and there but the amount of care that goes into crafting each map really shows how creative Treyarch is as a studio. There is a lot of heat surrounding Black Ops IIII and for good reason but as a zombies player I can't wait to have 3 maps at launch (4 if you get the season pass) and jump back in to one of my favourite pick up and play games.

[u/Niptin]

I put hundreds of hours into Zombies on WAW BO1 and BO2. I lost interest after the COD series after BO2, but I've been seriously considering picking up those three games for PC on sale.

Activision just needs to stop being so greedy and lower the price on games that are 10 YEARS OLD.

[u/amd752911]

Believe it or not, one of my favorite gaming experiences ever were just completing the black ops 3 easter eggs with friends.

[u/Spartan2842]

To me, the introduction of Zombies in World at War was the high point. Everything after got more convoluted and too complex for me to care.

Me and the guys in my dorm would stay up all night seeing the highest wave we could get to in WaW. I tried playing the one in the most recent CoD and there is just too much going on to keep me interested.