The last three weeks were lovely while they lasted. The air of positivity around Black Ops 6 Zombies has returned to the usual nonsense. Unfortunately, I’m not surprised.
Let me be clear: you are allowed not to like the game. If you have issues with it, you are free to voice them. However, there is a difference between expressing criticism and the vitriolic withering displayed by “fans” of Zombies on and off since the launch of Black Ops 4 in 2018.
I’m okay with takes I disagree with, but some of the things I’ve seen on Twitter today are unhinged. If I were a dev working on the game, I’d want nothing to do with the Zombies community ever again. Zombies means a lot to me, but it’s just a video game. Regardless of how you feel about Black Ops 6, take a deep breath, go outside, and chill out.
Some people are desperately trying to recapture the magic of playing a particular game at a specific time in their lives. I’m sorry to break it to you: it’s never happening again. Black Ops 3 is undoubtedly one of my favourite games of all time. I still get warm feelings when I go back and play it, but it’s not 2015 anymore. Call of Duty has evolved, and Zombies has evolved. You can argue if it’s for the better or the worse, but you can’t go back.
I reject the Black Ops 3 elitism despite it being my favourite Zombies experience. I don’t subscribe to the idea that what the Zombies Community wants is decided by a vocal minority of players stuck in the past. It’s tantamount to a fan chanting, “Play the old stuff!” at a band between every song of a show promoting its successful new record.
The Zombies Community is anyone who has played and enjoyed the mode, whether their first game was World at War or Modern Warfare III (2023). It existed long before the YouTube boom and is still here years after. I may be more knowledgeable about the mode and have more experience than many, but my opinion doesn’t mean more or less than theirs. And ultimately, Treyarch calls the shots. We should give feedback loudly, clearly, and respectfully, but we can’t expect the studio to bend to our every whim.
Cold War Zombies was a success for Treyarch. In Black Ops 6, the Cold War formula has improved, and the Zombies Team has doubled down on round-based zombies. By addressing feedback, adding features like Augments, and reintroducing old features like a playable crew and Gobblegums, it aims to combine what worked in Cold War with some of the highlights of past Zombies experiences. “Cold War Zombies but with more elements of Black Ops 3” sounds like the perfect pitch, and everything I’ve seen so far affirms that.
Are there things I’d like changed? Of course. No Zombies mode is perfect. No game is perfect! But it is so very simple to give constructive feedback. It’s something I always try to do. Whether I deliver helpful feedback is a different story, but it’s well-intentioned and better than “your game looks dogshit. I want old zombies back. This is warzone”.
The hyperbole has to stop. People are “boycotting” the game because the HUD shares elements with other Call of Duty modes. It beggars belief. Many – including myself below – have offered reasonable feedback that Treyach will hopefully act on. Throwing abuse at developers on their personal social media accounts or people who challenge your criticism isn’t the solution. If anything, it makes developers less likely to spend time interacting with the community and gives your cause a bad name.
Black Ops 6 follows the blueprint of Black Ops 1 through 3 by having two round-based maps at launch: Terminus and Liberty Falls. We knew from the original Zombies Reveal that Terminus is the more complex map of the two, while Liberty Falls is a smaller, more casual experience. This is the perfect combination for launch as it gives both types of players a map to concentrate on (those who care about the easter eggs and those who care more about survival).
Black Ops: Kino Der Toten and Five
The finale of what I’d consider “Phase One” of Zombies: two unique maps based on survival above all else. Ascension launched in DLC 1 with the first proper main quest, and the rest is history. Both were reasonably standard-sized maps at the time.
Black Ops 2: Tranzit and Nuketown Zombies
Tranzit was a sprawling mess of a map held together with tape and a dream. It was extremely ambitious and pushed the console hardware at the time to its limits. It had a main quest. Nuketown was a small, barebones survival map with perks and pack-a-punch. There was no main quest easter egg.
Black Ops 3: Shadows of Evil and The Giant
Shadows of Evil was a monster, combining learnings from Mob of the Dead and Origins into a lovecraftian nightmare. A phenomenal and complex map, it was balanced out by the simplicity of The Giant. A remake of World at War’s Der Reise, The Giant was a tried and tested map. It had the fly-trap easter egg, which rewarded the annihilator, and a bonus perk easter egg, but no real main quest.
The map’s size resembles that of a Black Ops 1 map, and if I’m honest, it’s bigger than I thought it would be based on the original description. I also suspect at least one more area is hidden to discover when the main quest is active. With tight choke points and multiple places to train, the map is Black Ops 1 all over!
It’s no surprise that most Zombies diehards are drawn towards Terminus, but Liberty Falls still looks like a great time, and most importantly, both maps have a main easter egg quest and side easter eggs. That means Black Ops 6 is one of the most feature-complete Zombies modes to launch in a Call of Duty, second only behind Black Ops 4. However, Black Ops 6 likely won’t experience the number of issues BO4 had at launch (touch wood).
We also won’t be waiting too long for another round-based map, as Kevin Drew confirmed DLC 1 will launch before the end of 2024. This news gives the mode a great chance of starting strong at launch, but we’ll need to see if Treyarch can continue the momentum throughout 2025.
Confirmation of Intel’s return was a huge relief. I’m all for the increase in showing story events in-game, but the intel system allows an extra layer of depth to the story and lore of Dark Aether. It’s also much more engaging to read the transcripts of radios in the menu instead of looking outside the game. The issues people had with intel in Cold War weren’t because of the system but rather how it was used. I’m glad Treyarch was aware of that, and I look forward to collecting all the intel throughout BO6. I hope there are some difficult ones to hunt down!
“Marvel as I drive hundreds of nails using only my imagination!”
The reactions to Liberty Falls took me aback because I loved the gameplay trailer and thought the map looked fun from the gameplay footage. Sure, Terminus has more meat on the bone, but that’s what I expected and makes sense, given the “one complex, one simple” launch strategy that Black Ops 3 used. That said, I do have some feedback and nitpicks that I wanted to cover.
The HUD is clear and informative – as all good HUDs should be – but it does lack personality. It’s a luxury rather than a necessity – and certainly isn’t a dealbreaker worth crashing out over – but it’d be good to revisit it. I understand the intention is to synergise the HUD across all modes as much as possible, but giving the player status bar a bit of a Zombies edge goes a long way for the mode’s identity.
The HUD change when a player uses the Mangler scorestreak looks great, and I’m hopeful it could be promoted to the main HUD at least. It’s a little thing, but seeing each character’s head is a nice feature. You could also argue that the Warzone-like status bar works better for the Mangler streak since you start tearing zombies limb from limb like a Warzone sweat!
There’s also a bit of confusion over how customisable the HUD is. It’d be good to get some clarification on whether medals can be turned on and off. I’d also like to see that implemented if that isn’t currently an option. I enjoy using the medals when I’m working on grinding out camos, but I’d like the ability to turn them off when I’m first experiencing the mode. They lower the immersion a little.
It might be a me thing, as I haven’t seen anyone else say it, but I wasn’t a big fan of the font used for the subtitles. I found it slightly challenging to read, though that could’ve been a stream issue more than anything.
The interior locations of Liberty Falls, like the Comic Shop and Bowling Alley, look great, but the map is much more overcast than I expected. The lighting in outside areas is pretty grey, so a bit more sunlight wouldn’t go amiss! It’s almost like it can’t commit to being too light or dark. The best example I can give is that the outside parts of the map look like Alpha Omega before turning the power on.
For all we know, though, something similar to Alpha Omega happens during the quest that transforms the town’s look. It’s a little suspicious that the Dark Aether has only taken over the Church. I reckon there’s more to this map than we’ve seen thus far. If that isn’t the case, I hope some lighting changes can be made.
The new Wunderfizz machine is excellent for open-world modes like Outbreak and MWZ, but it’s too overpowered in round-based Zombies. Once available, it renders the individual perk machines useless as a player will always head straight to the Wunderfizz and buy all their perks back instead of the traditional “perk run” around the map.
I hope something can be done to prevent players from spamming the machine. Making repeat purchases more expensive or limiting the Wunderfizz to one perk per round per player would help. Force us to decide between a more expensive perk at the nearby Wunderfizz or risk travelling all across the map to get the perk at the regular price of the standard machine. The convenience of the Wunderfizz should come at a high cost to prevent us from laziness!
The armour not auto-plating like Cold War is disappointing. I wonder if there’s an augment for a perk that changes this. If so, it might end up being a crutch augment. It’d be good if auto-plating could return as a base feature – or even as a trait of Tier 3 armour.
That’s all I’ve got! Overall, I’m very excited for Black Ops 6 Zombies. Cold War is narrowly behind Black Ops 3 as my favourite Zombies mode, so I feel like I’ve lucked out a little. Do I expect to be happy with every gameplay/story/creative decision? No. Every iteration of Zombies has things I’ve liked and things I haven’t, but almost every time, the whole ended up greater than the sum of its parts. I don’t know what else to tell you if you’re still whining and pining for Black Ops 3 on social media. I genuinely hope Treyarch can win you over, but it’s been nearly ten years; maybe it’s time you moved on.