Call of Duty entered the podcast game yesterday, announcing and releasing the franchise’s first official podcast episode. The CODPOD, hosted by Miles Ross and Stephanie Snowden, aims to give players a peek behind the curtain and relay important information in a longer format than usual COD marketing. Among the tidbits of news in the CODPOD was confirmation that Modern Warfare Zombies’ story finale will launch in Season 5 of Modern Warfare III.
The MWZ story could have been better, but it’s serviceable. It’s fun seeing Ravenov and Modern Warfare legend Soap McTavish interact, and newcomer Ava Jansen is an intriguing scientist who will almost certainly impact both the past and future.
Jansen’s potentially nefarious creation and the decision to kick MWZ off with the corpses of our beloved Reqieum heads (Weaver, Carver, Grey, and Strauss) seem to have struck a nerve with many, but I can’t say I’m in the same boat.
Non-linear storytelling in this way isn’t anything new for Zombies. I’ve been around long enough to remember the anger at the Origins ending cinematic. I also remember the excitement of the penny dropping in the Revelations intro when the context of Samantha and Eddie’s conversation finally arrived.
I’m not here to tell anyone who hasn’t enjoyed MWZ’s story that they’re wrong. But let’s wait and see where the finale and the Black Ops 6 launch maps take us before condemning the Dark Aether story to oblivion. The crucial context surrounding Requiem’s deaths and Jansen’s creation is missing. Context that may alter everything we thought we knew.
It’s worth remembering that Black Ops 6 Zombies is a direct sequel, picking up exactly where we left off in Black Ops Cold War. Dr Peck sends Maya Aguinaldo to Terminus Island to break out his “old friends” while an outbreak occurs at Liberty Falls, a location The Director has closely monitored. Project Janus is also hidden throughout Black Ops 6’s marketing and has its own space on the Steelbook Edition case.
This is important because it shows that throughout all the chopping, changing, and short deadlines of Vanguard Zombies and Modern Warfare Zombies, Black Ops 6 Zombies has remained constant. Treyarch didn’t write BO6 around Vanguard and MWZ; Treyarch wrote Vanguard and MWZ around BO6. So, in the worst-case scenario, where MWZ’s finale disappoints, we should all remain calm and trust the process. I’m happy to wait and see how the Black Ops 6 story turns out. Craig Houston and Co. earned my trust a long time ago. They deserve to tell the story they have been working on since (at least) 2020 without compromise.
Vicerimus Mortem.