Zombies has evolved quite a bit from its humble beginnings, in ways both good and bad. Treyarch began to lean further into the meta-narrative of Zombies, turning Easter eggs into full blown story elements. Perks and weapons have iterated and changed to varying degrees of success. Sometimes Zombies would be just the right amount of absurdity that was fun to play, while other iterations have been overcomplicating the arcade mode to its detriment. Call of Duty 2020 has a chance to supplant Modern Warfare, and Zombies could be a big part of that.
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Call of Duty’s Best Arcade Mode
The charm of playing Zombies in Call of Duty is its easy-going nature, and that it’s a versatile gameplay experience depending on how players want to tackle the mode. There are those who wish to compete and survive for the most rounds as possible, as well as those who just want a rest from the breakneck pace of standard Call of Duty multiplayer. Zombies was originally designed so that it would be an arcade-style mode that didn’t really have any particular significance for player progression, but was fun and easy enough to stand on its own. Newer Call of Duty games started to lose that simplicity over time.
The different iterations of Zombies in the later Black Ops games started incorporating a lot more progression mechanics over time. Perk distribution was shifted and changed heavily in Black Ops 4, moving many integral Zombies perks into a version of the Create-A-Class system that was specific to the co-op mode. All of a sudden the inherent challenge of Zombies was removed entirely, and the game became far more complex and easier for no discernible reason. Call of Duty 2020 needs to rediscover why Zombies’ simplicity made the mode so endearing for fans. Adding complexity just adds more complexity for the sake of complexity, without understanding that not every mode needs more features to keep it fresh, made Zombies less enjoyable as a result.
Keep Zombies Simple and Fun
In that same vein, extending simplicity into the Zombies metagame would be a worthy change as well. Whereas the characters and atmosphere of Zombies was largely built on caricatures and Easter eggs, there was also a tongue-in-cheek meta-narrative taking place in Zombies’ background that players eventually discovered. Average players just in it for the fun rarely took the time or effort to discover the existence of this story, but for hardcore fans it slowly became very popular. Enthusiasts enjoyed the campy and absurd nature of the Zombies storyline, but eventually the story took center stage in later iterations.
Eventually the entire goal of a Zombies map basically became developing the metanarrative throughout each match. Rather than making it an optional but rewarding side activity, basically unlocking a lot of the special rewards throughout a Zombies match slowly became much more obtuse and time-consuming. Rather than taking a simple process of swapping the DEFCON levels in “Five” or recognizing the pattern on “Call of the Dead” to activate Pack-A-Punch, the process turned into this whole extra-curricular quest like in Black Ops 3’s “Shadows of Evil” map. While the Cthulhu/Lovecraftian theme of the map was genuinely unique and fun, forcing players to discover some obscure summoning process for Pack-A-Punch doesn’t make the process any more rewarding when the goal is just to survive. Zombies should be simple and fun, allowing for players to jump in and out without needing any complex map knowledge.
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A Return to Roots Would Be Best for Zombies
For a short period, the other Call of Duty games wanted to emulate what Treyarch discovered with Zombies. There was the inclusion of the “Extinction” mode in Call of Duty: Ghosts that basically served as a new take for the horde mode by Infinity Ward. Of course, this type of mode didn’t pan out for Infinity Ward’s flavor of Call of Duty games, but different co-op modes like Spec Ops did serve in the same vein as Zombies did. Now that Warzone has seen immense popularity, Infinity Ward (and Raven Software) has its own secondary multiplayer mode, albeit as a battle royale it’s become far more successful on its own. This is why Zombies could be Treyarch’s surprise hit.
Zombies should be able to stand on its own as well. The mode doesn’t necessarily have to blow up Warzone’s popularity for it to be successful, but as a sizable portion of Treyarch’s Call of Duty games, this next iteration of the mode should be strong. Many rumors have stated that Zombies is returning to basics for a lot of mechanics, and frankly that’d be the best route to take. Whenever Zombies focuses too hard on making it a deep or engrossing experience goes against the original spirit of the mode. Anything that makes the mode simple and easy for all players is what makes Zombies generally so widely enjoyed by the fanbase.
Call of Duty 2020 is reportedly in development.
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