Gone are the days of jumping on aCall of Duty Zombiesmap with your mates, starting off with a basic pistol and slowly grinding to the highest round possible with pack-a-punch wonder weapons, and that makes me genuinely quite sad. It was initially just bonus content to a game that swiftly became much, much more than that. Basically, I’m not impressed with what I’ve seen from the newModern Warfare 3zombies gameplay, which we’ll go into but first, let me take you back almost 15 years.
Take a look at the new mode in action below.
It’s November 2008, my pal has just completed theWorld at Warcampaign and messages me on my Blackberry, telling me that there’s an extra game mode called ‘Nazi Zombies’. “You have to finish the story to unlock it, it’s awesome!” he said.
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Back then, the only map available was Nacht Der Untoten, a simple bunker where you hold out against waves of the undead. It was like nothing we’d ever seen before and was the start of a phenomenon. The iconic Ray Gun could be found in the mystery box, and drops like ‘insta-kill’ and ‘double points’ added to the arcade-like gameplay loop that had us all hooked.
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Other Call of Duty developers, such as Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, have tried to create their own formula for theZombiesgame mode, which I think it’s fair to say, hasn’t worked out well at all. TheZombiesthat we saw inCall of Duty: Vanguardwas embarrassing to say the least, a far cry from the arcade round based mode we know and love. Now, that’s not to say all modern iterations ofZombieshave been poor. In fact,Call of Duty: Cold War Zombieswas excellent. ‘Die Maschine’ took most of the old school features that fans love and mixed it with some slightly faster paced gameplay that we see in the more recent games. It wasn’t perfect but was a glimpse at whatCall of Duty Zombies in 2023 could and should be like.
Cold Waralso brought us the ‘Outbreak’ variant of theZombiesgame mode. This was where you’d load into a massive open-zone map with vehicles. You and up to four friends complete challenges as zombies continue to spawn. It was a nice twist to the formula that allowed for several hours of mindless entertainment before I wanted to hop back onto the traditional round-basedZombiesmode.
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This brings me to the present. Gameplay forModern Warfare 3’s Zombieshas been shown online and it looks to lack excitement and the mode’s infamous charm. One clip shows the player jogging around a vast, muddy field as the undead get a few swipes in - a giantWarzone-like map can be seen in the distance.
To me, it looks like a man in a suit who has never played a video game in their life has heard that gamers love open worlds and zombies, so the genius has put the two together to create the perfect concoction. Sadly, to myself and thousands of originalZombiesplayers across the world, that concoction tastes like the disappointment you feel when you finally realise you’ve left your pizza in the oven for the past hour. That’s very disappointing, if you couldn’t tell.
TheWarzone-ification of Call of Duty games has made Activision a lot of money but at what cost? A once innovative game mode has had its soul ripped out.Zombiesis nowhere near the game mode I fell in love with back in 2008. Simple, round-based, arcade gameplay is all we want. Let’s hope Treyarch can deliver in their next iteration, which will likely release next year in 2024.
Topics:Activision,Call Of Duty,Call Of Duty Warzone,Call Of Duty Modern Warfare
