Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies Hands-on Impressions
At its core, Call of Duty’s Zombies mode is all about survival, but that isn’t why players keep coming back. It’s a rich, deep experience filled with Easter eggs, a currency system, power-ups, camos, strategy, and all sorts of crazy weaponry. Fans love it, and I definitely consider myself a fan of the mode.
Many were disappointed with Modern Warfare III’s Zombie mode. It was just too much of a drastic departure from the traditional round-based experience. I don’t think many were ready for it. I didn’t mind MW3’s open-world-style zombie map at all. It grew on me after release to the point where I found myself enjoying blasting up in the sky with a scorcher, making my way to the center of the map where I would grind out challenges, beef up my weaponry, consume all the perks, and head on into the Dark Ether. It’s fun and has a lot of room for growth. And it’s also clear, it wasn’t for everyone.
Black Ops 6 promises to return to the style of play that made this mode successful. Yes, it’s all about survival again, but it’s also so much more.
Just like previous round-based zombie games, the difficulty ramps up as you progress. This was evident in my playtime with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Zombie mode at Call of Duty Next. It’s hard to say whether this Zombies mode is any more difficult than previous ones, but one thing is for certain: that giant open-world zombies mode from MW3 is long gone.
Managing your currency remains a critical aspect of the game. This hasn’t changed. Buying doors that open up the map and gaining access to all sorts of upgrades is key to your survival. Exfil returns as well, which is great for those who don’t have an endless amount of time to fight the waves of the undead. That’s the thing about Zombie mode: if you have a good squad, you can play on one map for hours.
There will be two launch maps. The map we played at Call of Duty Next was called Liberty Falls. Terminus is the other map, which we did not play, but it is apparently quite different from Liberty Falls—a “night and day difference,” according to the devs at Call of Duty Next.
We were told Terminus is a deeper experience that is harder and more claustrophobic. Liberty Falls, on the other hand, is intended to be a map that is easy to learn but hard to master. It’s also a blast. I only played the map a few times, so I barely scratched the surface. That being said, even in the limited time I had in this mode, I am loving what I am seeing so far, and I cannot wait to fully sink my teeth into it at launch.
Like previous zombie modes, there is a bit of a story. You arrive in Liberty Falls, where things have gone sideways. When you arrive, you team up with your squadmates, essentially trying to stop the zombie outbreak but also figure out what is going on. There is a little more to it than that, but you get the point.
The map itself looks fantastic, set in the 90s with all sorts of slick-looking set pieces. It’s a busy map with lots going on and plenty of points of elevation.
It also has amazing weapons like the Thrustadine M23 (also called the Jet Gun). This incredible weapon acts like a jet engine, sucking zombies in and shredding them. It’s a pretty cool weapon that doesn’t break. You just have to manage its overheating capacity, given it has a long cooldown.
There are also perks you get from vending machines scattered across the map. There is a slick new melee perk that packs a serious punch. It replaces your gun butt with a lethal punch that sends zombies flying. It’s interesting to note that this also ties in nicely with Black Ops 6’s dedicated melee.
Dark Flare is a new field upgrade, which you’ll be able to select as part of your loadout when you go into a match. It’s a super-powerful, penetrating beam that just annihilates any zombies that come into contact with it. If you are new to zombies in Call of Duty, the dev team recommends you load out with Dark Flare.
There is a machine in the world called the Arsenal. This machine will speak to you. If it notices that you’re running low on firepower, or if your weapon is underpowered, it’ll call over to you and direct you to upgrade that weapon. It’s a neat little one-stop shop for weapon upgrades that helps you survive the waves of zombies.
The consumable buff system called ‘Gobble Gums’ is back. It’s all about adding that extra layer of strategy. You’ll still pack your loadout with a pack of five gums, but you will still have to go find those gums at these machines.
Another new addition to the Black Ops Zombie mode is that you can play in third person, which gives you a little more situational awareness, but personally, I prefer playing in first person. That said, it is easy to toggle with the pause menu.
Some other cool additions to the mode include:
- Shared door buys: If you can only afford half a door, you can pay that, and someone else can come in and help you out with it.
- There is now only one type of Salvage.
- There is no Pack-a-Punch menu.
- You can join a friend’s progress at any time.
- Self-revives are limited to three.
- You can purchase armor upgrades at wall buys.
- You can unlock many camos.
There are also now game-over outros. Up until now, when you died in Zombies, you just fell over, and that was it. Now, depending on what enemy and where you were killed, you’ll play a custom outro cinematic. If you fail Exfil, you’ll also get a cool outro cinematic. In the outro I saw, the Mangler leaped onto the helicopter and absolutely demolished it. It sucked that I died, but it was a slick little cinematic nonetheless.
There is also a new “directed mode,” which is all about helping players understand the story and keep them more engaged. As the name indicates, it will actually guide you through the main quest completely through objectives. So you can kind of just chill out, get comfortable, and power up enough until you start the main quest, which then caps at round 15.
It’ll definitely be a nice return to round-based Zombies action when Black Ops 6 releases in October. All those addictive elements are back, and it sure feels like there is enough new to keep players engaged and coming back for more.
