A plethora of systems, both contemporary and traditional, enrich the resurgence of round-based Zombies, making it feel intricately layered with mechanics to employ in combat. This adds to the dynamic and exhilarating nature of the mode.
By Phil Hornshaw on October 31, 2024 at 3:45PM PDT
The true highlight of any Call of Duty Zombies mode lies in its ability to incite a sense of urgency. As you advance through the round-based horde mode, you’re relentlessly pursued by the undead from every angle. The longer you endure, the more daunting the challenge becomes, forcing you into a frantic sprint across the map—your only goal being survival as swarms of zombies close in on you. The moment you pause to eliminate the horde, you hope to avoid the looming threat of a massive mutated villain lurking behind you. Black Ops 6 excels during these intense encounters.
The Zombies experience in Black Ops 6 marks a return to the tried-and-true format of four-player cooperative play, a concept pioneered by developer Treyarch in Call of Duty: World at War and refined with each iteration. The chaotic mechanics introduced in last year’s Modern Warfare 3, which awkwardly fused Zombies with features of the battle royale mode, have been discarded. Instead, Black Ops 6 delivers a familiar yet revitalized Zombies experience, integrating numerous classic and innovative elements that enhance gameplay in enjoyable, engaging, and challenging ways.
One of the most significant changes in Black Ops 6, particularly beneficial for the Zombies mode, is the introduction of Omni-movement. This new feature allows players to traverse the game world at consistent speed in any direction, whether you’re sprinting, diving, or sliding. This means you can shift directions instantly without losing any momentum, which is particularly useful when you’re trying to navigate through hordes of enemies while battling to survive, only to realize that the route you’ve taken is not as clear as it seemed.
Omni-movement truly excels in high-pressure situations, enabling players to skillfully alter their paths to evade foes and secure their escape from perilous encounters. This system injects a new level of dynamism into Zombies, making players feel incredibly agile compared to the slow-moving undead, and providing numerous options for quick escapes, such as vaulting over obstacles or descending staircases while still firing your weapon.
Despite these improvements, Zombies remains challenging as ever, presenting a variety of obstacles that ensure speed alone won’t guarantee survival. New adversaries like the spider-like Vermin emerge from regular zombies when you engage them, and they even evolve into airborne Parasites, altering the makeup of the undead hordes you face. Additionally, you’ll often encounter formidable foes such as Manglers and Abominations.
Upon its release, Black Ops 6’s Zombies featured two distinct maps, each offering a unique atmosphere. Liberty Falls is portrayed as a quaint American town set on a hillside, making vertical navigation a key element of gameplay, complete with intricate pathways that can become bottlenecks if you aren’t cautious, alongside ziplines that quickly transport you to rooftops. Conversely, Terminus is depicted as an expansive island prison concealing a secret laboratory beneath its surface. This map presents a more sprawling environment, allowing players to maneuver zombies in broad circles, and is surrounded by smaller islands accessible by boat, along with numerous underground tunnels that create a balance between open areas and winding corridors as you explore.
The primary objective in these maps is twofold: survive for as long as you can while exploring for hidden Easter eggs and narrative-driven quests. The gameplay varies slightly between the two maps—Liberty Falls begins in a more conventional manner, where players unlock doors to reveal parts of the map. On the other hand, Terminus features sections with dedicated generators that players must activate and protect from zombies to energize the facility and enable access to items like Perk Cola machines. Ultimately, both maps maintain the same essence as previous iterations, filled with secrets and stories waiting to be discovered while you utilize the Essence gained from defeating zombies to acquire weapons and enhancements.
In addition to the improved movement dynamics, Black Ops 6’s version of Zombies incorporates various systems, both familiar and new, that broaden your combat options and overall gameplay experience. Players can collect Salvage from fallen enemies to craft gear, use “wall buy” stations to obtain specific weapons and armor enhancements, and enjoy traditional mechanics such as Perk Colas and Pack-a-Punch machines, including a novel punch-oriented one named Melee Macchiato.
Returning from Black Ops 3 are GobbleGums—colorful gumballs that offer temporary enhancements. These are drawn from a pre-selected “pack” of options and can provide unique effects like teleporting you randomly across the map or generating useful drops such as Max Ammo or Insta-Kill. A key benefit of GobbleGums is that you can collect them as they appear and store them for later use. In addition to random pickups such as Bonus Points and Nuke drops, as well as purchasable Perks to enhance your character, these temporary buffs can give players a crucial advantage when needed.
While Zombies still begins with a pistol and requires players to find most of their gear during gameplay, Black Ops 6 introduces the ability to pre-set loadouts, allowing for customization of items that might be discovered or purchased later. Each starting loadout includes a Field Upgrade—an “ultimate” ability that charges over time, such as a Dark Ether beam capable of annihilating waves of zombies in a straight line or an explosive Energy Mine that targets foes within a specific area. Loadouts can also feature a dedicated melee weapon, and players can enhance firearms with attachments so that when acquired during gameplay, they fit their preferences perfectly instead of having random attributes.
Among the various customization options, there exists the Augment system, which allows players to equip specific upgrades that modify elements within Zombies. This encompasses everything from perks and ammo types to Field Upgrades; for instance, one might equip an augment for the Juggernog perk that grants bonus damage when health is low, or one that divides the Energy Mine ability into three mines instead of just one.
Before you can utilize augments, they need to be “researched,” which serves as the primary progression route in Zombies. Players can only research augments for one game aspect at a time, compelling them to prioritize what’s most crucial for their playstyle. Each element of the game offers three “major” and three “minor” augments, allowing one of each to be equipped for certain items. This results in numerous options for tweaking and customizing upgrades and power-ups according to individual preferences. The research system progresses slowly, as players can focus on only one augment path at a time; however, cross-progression means that whether you’re engaging in Zombies, Black Ops 6’s campaign, or multiplayer, experience for augment research continues to accumulate.
With a combination of loadouts, augments, and Gobblegums, alongside all the familiar elements in Zombies, players are presented with a significant amount of considerations, strategies, and customization opportunities within the mode, which greatly enriches the experience. There’s an abundance of configurations to explore that alter gameplay dynamics, providing ample motivation to continuously engage with and survive the two maps. This is before delving into the Easter eggs and narrative elements that interlink them.
However, a challenge arises within Zombies as it attempts to integrate these new features in a way that is accessible to newcomers or players returning after a hiatus. Historically, the Zombies mode has been tailored for a dedicated core audience, often leading to a convoluted experience that may alienate more casual players. The array of systems and recent introductions can amplify the confusion in a mode that already demands familiarity or a significant investment of time to unravel its mechanics. For instance, despite being aware of the augment system from pre-launch previews, I discovered only after launch how the system functioned practically and that I wouldn’t earn any research credit until actively engaging with its dedicated menu to assign a research task. No single aspect of Zombies is overwhelmingly complex, but the multitude of layers, systems, menus, and elements creates an increased complexity in an already intricate mode.
Treyarch has announced plans to introduce a “guided” version of Zombies following the launch of Black Ops 6, a feature that I’m particularly excited about as a casual Zombies player. Exploring the intricacies of Terminus and Liberty Falls in Black Ops 6 is, as always, very complex, which becomes even more challenging when playing with friends who aren’t hardcore Zombies enthusiasts. Attracting new players has always been a hurdle for Zombies, and the guided mode is expected to help bridge that gap. Currently, it’s commendable that Zombies in Black Ops 6 offers a deep and engaging experience, transforming the simple act of fighting for survival. However, it demands a lot of effort to grasp its complexities and details, especially for occasional players, particularly since it has been four years since the release of Black Ops Cold War.
Nevertheless, the revival of round-based, Easter egg-hunting gameplay in Treyarch’s Zombies is quite robust. It brings back familiar gameplay elements and systems that have historically worked well together. Instead of delivering a groundbreaking experience, it acts as a refinement and combination of existing mechanics, which allows Treyarch to innovate in map design and system interactions, rather than trying to force Zombies into a framework that may not suit it.
From augments to Omni-movement and Gobblegums, various elements enhance the excitement of battling through waves of zombies, even if your main goal is simply to eliminate as many as possible before executing a daring helicopter exfiltration. Although Zombies can feel a bit intricate, particularly for those new to the mode, Treyarch’s changes significantly enhance the experience, generating those thrilling, high-stakes moments of defending against the relentless undead that epitomize the mode at its finest.
