Ladies and Gentlemen, we won. The Black Ops 7 T.E.D.D. operator’s reign of terror is over. He has been caught and compromised to a permanent end. Thrown in the dustbin of history; snuffed out before launch; never to return.*
I jest a little, but I am glad—and surprised—that the change was made. T.E.D.D. is a fan-favourite character with an iconic look. The nod to the Alpha Omega blueprint in the vault edition was neat, but the execution was… not great.
Instead, we now have a gorgeous interpretation of his original design with a Dark Aether kitbash: wonder weapon limbs and melted “skin” that has never looked so good! I’ve always been a fan of the mechanical man since he first gave me my marching orders on the Tranzit bus in Black Ops 2, so I love that he’s still relevant. He’s that perfect level of wacky that Zombies thrives on.
There are even relatively positive sentiments outwith the Zombies community. It goes to show that the majority of players aren’t clamouring for ultra-realism in Call of Duty, rather operators and weapons that fit the universe. Zombies may be a bit much for some, but there’s a clear difference between characters from it and some of the monstrosities found in the Black Ops 6 shop.
Treyarch’s tweet suggested further changes to the Vault Edition will be made known soon. I’m keen to see them, but the main order of business this week is the BO7 Zombies reveal. I’m looking forward to catching a glimpse of more locations in the launch map and gaining some sort of insight into whatever the hell is going on with the story after Reckoning.
There’s a fair bit of disappointment that the only information we got today was the T.E.D.D. change. If I’m honest, I wasn’t expecting new info every single day, but I can see why people thought that’s what “Week of Zombies” meant. It was a poor choice of words, for sure. The Gamescom COD Pod was part of a livestream, which is a break from the regular format, so I’ll give the hosts some grace. I’m not a fan of sneakily editing the VOD, though. You’re going to get dugs abuse regardless of what you post, so you may as well engage with the fans who care and are paying attention. Trust your community!
I hope communication in Black Ops 7 improves over Black Ops 6. The recent “Dev Talk’ video with Multiplayer Design Director Mark Scronce was a positive sign. Hopefully, we get a few of those with members of the Zombies team, too.
I’ll no doubt have more to say later in the week, but for now, I’m off to play some more Cronos: The New Dawn. What a game, btw. True Survival Horror.
*Watch it come back in a bundle lol.
