The Creation, Evolution and Exhaustion of Call of Duty Zombies
Call of Duty Zombies was one of my favorite things to play back in the Black Ops 1 days and although I never picked up any of the later games, I still have a lot of fond memories from that time. A few months ago I decided to go through all of the Treyarc made Zombies games and see how the gamemode has evolved over time.
Coming out of it, I had quite a lot of thoughts and even more questions about how the zombies mode ended up where it did, so I ended up researching a lot to figure it out. This video is essentially a combination of both of those things. A showcase of what has changed from game to game and also how and why it happened with some of my thoughts mixed in.
Timestamps:
(0:00) Intro/World At War
(9:43) Black Ops 1
(19:10) Black Ops 2
(35:04) Black Ops 3
(50:27) Black Ops 4
(1:03:47) Cold War
(1:13:04) Vanguard
Twitter: / marcostylenl
Twitch: / marcostyle
Discord: / discord
Excellent video.
bro i remember watching your zombie high round gameplay like it was yesterday ♥️
The one and only 💯
Relaxing end why you quited zombies
the undisputed zombies goat has spoken
Always know, you will always be a happy part of my high school era Relaxing, thank you for all the good pure gameplay videos.
It still feels so odd that Black Ops 3 turns 7 this year, and Black Ops 2 turns 10. Time really flies
Gonna be 2025 in 3 years
@@thetaminus2334 XD
@@thetaminus2334 ;-;
stahp. :
forcer you are in every comment section lol
Being an active player of WaW as the new maps and the initial zombies lore was slowly revealed was so much fun. I remember just endlessly replaying Der Riese with randos when I was 13, I never grew tired of it.
I was 10 and it was great i stopped playing after cold war and didnt even bother with vanguard
i remember looking through all of youtube for any lore videos i could find. good times.
@@mellomoose_yeah i was the friend in my group who knew everything about cod from glitches to estereggs since waw came out when i was 6 and was obsessed with zombies until bo4 and im not really interested in cold war
@@XgoodbyeX same i used to love glitches, and my love for zombies died out at blops4 it just didnt have the same feeling or atmosphere anymore
@@mellomoose_ yeah its a shame but im glad we got at least some good games before Activision bleed it dry lol
A lot of people probably weren't there for when Verrückt dropped. I remember the creepiness of the map, coupled with the new mechanics and tactics people were developing. The constant rumors and theory crafting. People saying the fountain in the middle was a turret that you could get to some way (I believe it was a turret but was inaccessible without noclip). Most teams of randoms would make it past the early rounds. Starting in separate areas was from one another was also jarring af. Ontop of that, your only communication was in the form of people with shitty af mics, who were rarely interested in working together, and usually would throw slurs at you and tell you to fuck off while their mom vacuumed the house or their baby cried in the background.
Those were the best days for multiplayer
There was a turret in the fountain. I remember watching video ages ago that showed someone no clipping to it. I wasnt there for the launch of verruckt unfortunately. I started playing world at war when Der Riese was new and spent most of my time on that map. I also remember the hanged man on shi no numa you could theoretically knock down with a grenade and he could kill you. It was just a rumor that turned out to be true like the turret. You can knock it down walk into it and it would just kill you on the spot. There were all sorts of cool and weird secrets in that game.
Man that set up, 2 on each side, racing to connect together. The creepy details and the sense of horror. So good
Verruckt was one of my favourites. Playing it with others though, people freak out and try opening everything when you don't need to and it caused a lot of problems overall. If you had 2 good players on one side and 2 bad players on the other, it just made people leave. Then you had unequal zombies on a side, earning less points also potentially causing problems, which is a shame. I really enjoyed it
sounds like a dude with no friends lol🤣
We really went from getting an entire extra gamemode at launch to entire campaigns missing smh
Bad trade off i agree….even tho i havent played a campaign for story / attentively since bo2
@@mjkoolaid1511 kinda the hard thing tho, that’s probably why they took out the campaign, people don’t really play it
Buy the battepass and dlc 🤣
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well zombies basicly was new campaign if you did follow storyline even though BO4 zombies story was shit, bc they did try to start new one before they had finished old one and now on cold war there is zombies making in BO4 our characters sacrifice meaningless
this just proved to me is that a simple passion project can turn really bad if a company tries to milk it and let the team to do what they do best
All the people involved in the OG games are either dead, or retired. This new batch of "Developers" are essentially slave labor. They don't create games they want anymore. They make games the man in the suit sitting in his high rise apartment thinks will sell. The video game industry has really become a cancer, much like the Marvel movies. Devs are underpaid and overworked and oftentimes rushed. So you get a shitty product released way too early and isn't finished for another year and a half. Indi studios are gonna take over AAA studios soon if they keep this business strategy or putting as much out as possible all the time.
@@jakemensik2842 or we are going to have another video game crash. I think the whole industry needs to take a break and rethink how they make games. I mean, Ubisoft is about to go under if they continue the monetization and crap game releases. Its only a matter of time before all the major AAA studios go under if they don't change how they make their games. People who make creative entertainment have to be invested and passionate about the project. Like you said, most new developers entering these major companies are not too keen on the features and direction these new games take which leads to unpassionate uncreative game making. Halo is dead, Cod is losing players at an alarming rate, battlefield is still trying to figure out how to make a game they have made 24 times, FPS in general is looking pretty bad. Only time will tell how this all plays out...
That’s the corporate cycle, take something niche and sell it, then dumb it down for the mass market, milk it till the original audience hates it and until it’s shit and repeat with something else
It wasn't already obvious with other things?
Cod zombies and tomb raider are some of my favourite franchises and yet both suffered a similar fate
I just want Zombies to go back to basics and develop upon what made it so popular. Keep the HUD simple, no jarring health bars, hit markers and medals.
They need to reignite the horror elements of BO1. They need to study it and understand ever aspect that made it what it was.
@@jamiehall-hanlon3104 Amen.
@@jamiehall-hanlon3104Not just BO1, they need to go back to WaW when it was actually scary. BO1, while fun, is where it started to get more campy. Granted, they were still cool and a few maps were creepy, like Call of the Dead (if you turned the voice volume down). But WaW was where it was at.
@@PANCAKEMINEZZthey just need to get rid of the bright and vibrant look that new zombies has, i already know *most* devs are glued to vibrant and colorful shit these days but just maybe we'll get a gritty new zombie game one day that matches waw and kinda bo1.
They also need to give us lobby options, even if it's just for private matches. For me, Zombies went downhill immediately with mini-bosses and special zombies. Just allow me to play with normal zombies only, no sprinters, and a meaningful mystery box.
My roommates and I played probably 1000 hours of Transit. BO2 Zombies was genuinely amazing.
Unpopular opinion, but I liked transit. The novelty of the bus was interesting, however, I'll admit the map could've been a lot better. What we got could understandably be seen as a disappointment.
@@urphakeandgey6308i like it with friends because its so chaos on the bus and stuff also my first cod zombie game was bo2 and i was like 8 and it was just magical to play with friends from school
yeah, was taken aback when he said transit was bad, for me, its always been my favourite, the amount of replayability it had was immense. Most maps you're in the same place doing the same thing over and over, but in transit, you could always mix it up by changing up your strategy, and the rng deciding what items you got (like the hatch) made it so you didn't just always do the same thing, sometimes you'd go to the top of the diner and get the knuckles and camp up there, sometimes you'd go to the powerplant area just to get the gun there (before going in the cabin). Sometimes you'd just screw around, etc. To this day I've still never beaten transit. And playing with other people makes it way more fun. Awesome map.
Transit was the downfall of zombies
@@Toastery7 same lmao, its one of my favorite maps
I’m so glad I got to have the original experience back in 2008-09. I was 13-14 drinking soda and scarfing down pizza- playing the OG zombies maps for hours.
The only games I played for 7 years was Bo2 and Minecraft. And half of the time playing bo2 was replaying the campaign, and the other half was playing thousands of hours of transit. Transit is by far the best zombies related thing produced. Every day I would just eat pizza while playing with random people on my Xbox360. It was the best
Yep, back when u used to bring your console round your friend's house and setup both your Xboxes and play multiplayer together. Back when you used to knock on your buddies house instead of texting them. Good times. I truly think phones and social media (even tho I love phones, fuck social media rho) have ruined the magic in alot of life
The amount of sugar and caffeine I was consuming in that time was ungodly.
@@ThatGuyCanmanNC what are you doing now? Would be nice and inspirational to hear you are successful, or at the very least are living life and whatnot. Asking as a 14 year old kid :)
Same bro, had to complete the campaign to unlock the zombies mode I think! Played WaW with my brother in law when when it first came out, back when most games had split-screen!!!
it's so bizarre watching a retrospective on zombies (at least waw, bo1 and bo2) when it only feels like yesterday being there waiting for new maps and watching easter egg solutions come out excited to try them with my friends
That's What im saying and im still fairly young
@@nononoohfuck nah bruh u old, **fortnite dances on ur 401k retirement fund** (lol I am 25 & this video made me feel ancient as someone who has gotten tired of the COD regular releases & hasn't played since BLOPS 2)
@@von... my story, basically exactly. Hello, fello traveler!
It's been a decade
It's because everyone is incorrectly using the term retrospective. It's a review. But the algorithm likes buzzwords which is why everyone did an iceberg a while back.
So much nostalgia. I would never have played a Call of Duty game if it hadn't been for the zombies modes.
Same, I was super into zombies as a kid and got bo1 zombies on the wii. As shitty as the graphics were, theres just nothing quite like blasting zombies away while holding your raygun sideways like a gangster
Same it's the only reason I ever buy a COD. This is why I haven't bought one since the mixed bag of garbage that was Black Ops 4. Bought Cold War tho since it seemed promising and its alright but doesn't have the same feeling.
@@jrzyxebo4 was great if you take out the remake maps, chaos story was amazing.
I still remember beating the campaign ( which was the first way to unlock zombies before the updates ) & it scared the hell out of me as a kid . I thought I entered some weird demon gaming world 😅😅
I thought I was still in the campaign 😭 it was terrifying!
I was so scared i quit as soon as I saw the first zombie. I didn't play it again until I got access to the internet. Good times.
i remember the switch between the standard black ops 1 menu and the zombies menu scaring the SHIT out of me as a little kid lmfao the way the guy in the top right stands up and leaves only to come back and start banging on the glass still haunts me😭😭
I can't believe the steam workshop wasn't mentioned in the black ops 3 section. I still play brand new custom maps in BO3 from the workshop, and they're awesome. In my opinion, that was the best addition to zombies ever.
probably b/c no one in the zombies community really pushed the modded maps like in the past games and as a result the wide spread community doesnt know about it/ remember it
@@0Heeroyuy01 I feel like I used to watch custom map videos on black ops 3 all the time
@@oz7586 i remember like the first couple mouths after all the tools were released there was a few guys watching the modding scene and they did a few videos on them but after about 6 mouths the custom bo3 maps faded away into the shadows like all the good cods have done
@@0Heeroyuy01 When good maps release there are still some publicity about them
@@jackoberto01 really? iv not seen shit about zombies in probably a couple years
The cross over of destiny community and zombies is surprisingly huge
Yup, im one of them. Played both from the start of each game 👴🏻
A true co op PvE shooter experience is something people were wanting for a long time and for awhile zombies was the best we got.
who plays destiny anymore lmao. anyone who still plays deserves the abuse. They should sunset everyones gear again any time now.
A large portion of both communities play both games and i find that really cool
@@Loser-oy8hz I’ve been playing since D1 beta. His sentiment is on point in a way although some words are flawed. (Like obv there are tons of people playing) Bungie has a track record (way before sunsetting) of making shit decisions and taking a long time (1y+) to course correct. Recently it’s been Sunsetting and the DCV removing purchases, but these are far from the only examples. Long time players have just accepted that Bungie will randomly make huge decisions that will fuck up part of the game, and you need to be okay with that. But not everyone is okay with paying 100$ a year for that type of experience and that’s reasonable. Games model is not for everyone
If I remember correctly, gobble gums weren't always free for the first one on each round. It was the first one per game or start at 500 points. I only remember this because when people were trying to farm Liquid divinium, I recommended trying to buy as many gobble gums as possible. I think they put a hard limit on how many you can buy.
You should have added a small portion of the video dedicated to modded zombies, specifically BO3, which is keeping the Zombies Community alive.
The first time I saw Elvis shake his rear end I was all shock up.
Lmao thank God he didn't
I miss the days of making friends with randos on Der Ries, Verrukt, Kino, Ascension, and all the other WaW and Bo1 maps. Time sure does fly
*Der Riese and Verrückt :3
@@johannisguardian529 I always fuck up typing Der Riese lmao. Verrückt I feel I'm the clear for, the fact that the comment was coherent while drunk is a marvel all on its own 😂😂
@@johannisguardian529 Goddamn typos making my explanation seem worse 😂
@@TheLazarusOperation
watching in horror as people miss out on window points and open the wrong doors
27:15 Flashback to when they planned 2 versions of Tranzit depending whether or not you did the moon easter egg
I think that would be amazing
wtf!? for an easter egg!? this is beyond attention to detail that devs does.
I still remember beating the WaW campaign and having no idea what was going to come next. And then after beating it, and the credits (if they play after beating it, I don't remember) but then zombies started. Out of nowhere and it was off to the races a that point. I loved it. Completely blindsided, a very pleasant surprise to an already fantastic game.
Kino Der Toten was also supposed to be a world at war map, but they waited for black ops. Another thing I want to add is that the easter egg songs have a lot of lore details that would only be confirmed years down the line. Lullaby of a deadman from Verruckt is sung by Samantha, for instance. This throws another ball in the "written ahead of time" camp.
More than likely they had that idea later and just added it to make the lore seem like it was thought out. Alot of the zombie lore was kind of just thrown together
Another example is apparently Monty's scarf can be found in multiple levels even pretty far back.
I loved black ops 1 zombies because easter eggs were not tied to core gameplay, you could just survive or do the easter egg challenges too. I think that was the biggest thing that changed.
Having radios and just little quick side objectives was where it was at!
That's what I miss about those games. With the addition of mandatory buildables it ruined the flow
Agreed. So glad I'm not the only one and that this sentiment is spreading. I remember complaining about it back in the day on Reddit and some forums and the only response you'd get was a sheep-like "they can't just do the same thing forever bro." I'm not asking them to "stay the same," I'm asking them to not force me to watch a 20+ minute guide just to figure out how to open up 90% of the map.
@@urphakeandgey6308As much as I hate redditors, im assuming a lot of people say that is because a lot of people with that sentiment tend to want zombies to be Der Riese over and over again. I wouldn't call it "sheep-like" for wanting a game to evolve. Not to say you want the same thing obviously, im assuming you want a good balance of both just being able to survive and also have Easter eggs to cater to both types of players which would be pretty cool. But sometimes im tired of is people always making the same overexaggerated statement "Ermmmm I don't want to watch a 20 hour tutorial to open one door" because it really isn't nearly as bad as people are making it sound. Im assuming this mostly comes from Shadows of Evil because of the process of opening up areas and pack-a-punch. But literally you can open up 90% of the maps pretty much every other BO3 map without a tutorial. You don't need to do the easter eggs in BO3 to enjoy it and survive. The thing about BO3 is you can literally rock most weapons and they will be pretty viable thanks to the double pap AATs. It would be cool if they could find a good balance to please both audiences but I really think the "complexity" is completely overexaggerated. I feel like it doesn't really take that long to learn a map. Sure you may have to use tutorials 5o figure out some, but after a bit, you won't need tutorials because you know exactly what to do. Its like learning to not open one of the stage doors and Kino to make it viable training spot, its something you learn that becomes second nature. Just my two cents
Origins and Buried both have very special places in my heart. I played them with my stepbrother and my cousin so much. I can’t describe the feeling I get when I play those maps again. They are my all time favorites because of the memories I made while playing them
Same. My brother played those two maps all the time and it was how we mainly bonded when we were younger. I miss those days frequently
Yesir!! It hits different
Bro didn’t talk about Town :(
It is sad that the popularity of zombies really did symbolize the death of the authenticity and reverence COD had for veterans of real conflict. I don't blame them for going in that direction, as I had a lot of fun myself. It's just that I'll always remember COD 2 and COD4 as some of the most moving games I've ever played.
Can't speak for COD2, but let's be real... The Modern warfare series, first game somewhat included, wasn't exactly some "gritty realistic homage to wartime heroes." It was a bombastic, over-the-top, dramatized, Hollywood-esque of a story. Even WaW's campaign was leagues better in terms of representing war and the people who fought it.
@@urphakeandgey6308I mean Going from CoD4 to MW2 was the beginning of death of CoD
Honestly the past several games have had excellent campaigns. WWII is probably the best story I've ever seen from CoD, and the recent MW campaigns have been really engaging.
Call of Duty 2 was basically the last realistic game
@@randysterbentz5599"WWII is probably the best story I've ever seen from CoD"
I played zombies the most during BLOPS 1 & 2. I dipped after Die Rise and never looked back. I did not realize how much the zombies mode has changed over time. It may be nostalgia speaking, but I can't help but desire a simple zombie mode once again.
Black ops 3 was insane I would try bo3 if I were you
Yep, the simplicity was fun. When you had to do the same convoluted bullshit every game to just get a pack a punch every single game it got boring fast
Cold War exists.
Agree with another comment, should try BO3 zombies, thats the last time zombies were good. How many maps beetween all dlc 10/12? Was awesome.
The transition between black ops 1 and Black ops 2 was crazy, black ops 1 cut straight to the chase about killing zombies and had small secrets for fun until the last couple of maps that had story Easter eggs but it wasnt the selling point of the game mode, black ops 2 was so far from simple zombies it was insane, every map heavily depended on the story told Easter eggs to even be slightly fun.
What I learned from this video: -The peak of COD zombies was Bo1 for simple players and BO3 for advanced players -The best looking Easter egg was the earth exploding in Bo1 -The next best move for COD zombies IMO is creating simplistic maps in modern times
You said it brother
Bo3 moon simply looks better also chronicles fixes the fact that bo3 wasn't casual friendly so bo3 will always be the peak of zombies especially with custom maps
@@DazedRose115 exactly no matter what bo3 will be peak till a new zombies changed out minds.
imo bo3 is easiest to come out, you got double pap, extra health, fast slide spamming, gobblegums and custom maps 99% being shit except leviathan which has existed since cod 5 kek
@@DazedRose115 I disagree. There is a certain "ambance" to BO1 moon that is missing in BO3. While I like BO3 BO1 or WAW zombies is peak zombies to me.
This gave me the greatest nostalgia run of my life all these memories of me and my adult friends now from junior high playing these maps staying up for hours searching the EE guides and trying to do them
This is the first time I’ve ever heard that Tranzit was a generally hated map. I love tranzit, I always have. It’s easily my most played map just due to the bus mechanic making the whole game feel more horrifying and time based if you get left behind and watching your friends ride off into the sunset
yes. yes. yes. more of these video essays about games please.
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The effort you put into your content still shows. Amazing work Brad.
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His name is Brad Vickers
based pfp
BRAD? ISNT HIS NAME MARCO? WHAT
Kids will never understand how GROUND breaking the zombies mode was and how much of a shock and stray it was, Then when the DLCs dropped it added sooooo much more that people was going crazy. God I miss those days and glad to be apart of them.
Dirty Dog! remember
One of the biggest issues is that the zombies team being forced to make zombies for Vanguard messed up the story they were making in Cold War. Cold War had it so the zombies were leaking into a universe for their first time but having to go back to Vanguard that takes place in the same universe and act like zombies were already there just broke the story. I wanted to see more of how the Cold War organizations were going to handle bigger and badder threats with the possibility of old Zombie’s characters coming back but as how they are in the Cold War universe
I still remember waking up before school to download Black Ops 1 DLC as soon as it dropped, feels just like yesterday. Ascension will always make me feel that hefty nostalgic pain.
Zombies is how I used to bond with my older brother. He played origins, buried, tranzit, nuke town, and kino der toten, and I’d just sit there and get scared but talk about the game and the maps. He doesn’t play zombies anymore and I miss the time we had when he played Black Ops. Thank you for this video man. It reminds me of when my brother talked to me about the games
You should try to play se zombies with him
Aw, you reminded me of when I used to play these games (and tons more), with my own little sister. She never played, she would always watch and ask questions. I miss that :( now we’re all grown up, and don’t see each other much.
I had the same sort of journey, as a socially awkward kid CoD was a huge barrier-breaker and zombies was how I spent time with people from school and made long time friends back when I didn't have many. Good memories 🎉
@@raxxtv1998giggling cos i remember always watching my older brother play and nagging him to let me join even though i SUCKED so he’d begrudgingly hand me a controller then all i really did was walk around fixing barriers and getting downed at round 4 or something lol what a nostalgia trip
i just turned 21 and i’m pretty much in awe and saddened now that for my entire childhood and coming of age, CoD was with me. From the squeaker days of mine with WaW to the muuuuch less squeaky days of Bo4 (why did jason blundel do us like that) these games owned me. i haven’t played new CoDs other than at friends houses since. every new edition of zombies was too unoriginal and uninspired while the IW games have barely been able to keep footing til just now with MW2 remastered. it’s all sad to see and it’s something i hope we can get them to turn around.
Bo3 is when zombies started to feel like such a task because of having to look at hours worth of tutorial videos to play the map properly. Most of which involved doing a bunch of random shit that would otherwise be impossible to figure out on your own. What made zombies fun was the simplicity.
I think BO3 zombies is perfect. It’s not really complex at all to do the base gameplay mechanics on any of the maps. What’s complex is the Easter Eggs, and that’s the point of them. They are supposed to be grindy and hard to find
@@bigsplash6055 Yeah, I definetily share the same opinion. BO3 Zombies was just goated. Ofc I played WaW, Bo1 and Bo2, but BO3 was just this kind of game with "basic" machanics, new mordern graphics and some stuff to do if you want. The PaP-Steps are neccessary in my opinion because it would have gotten lame so fast. For me the perfect game. I was so hyped up on Bo4 but they fucked up the gameplay so hard. Imagine Bo4 maps with Bo3 mechanics. Holy this would have been nice
Die Rise was the most fun I've ever had in a full man team, high rounds, lots of laughs, lots of glitching and bug using and late nights!
Surely you mean der riese
There’s way too much quality and effort put into this gem of a video for it not to have millions of views. Making it my mission this week to share with all my friends. Absolutely outstanding work here. Thank you marco!!!
Wow, you have a million friends? Very cool
this vid is just a random guy that spent $1000+ in the past 10 years giving a basic explanation of a mid gamemode people realistically cared about for 1 or 2 years
Zombies has been such a huge part in my life over the years. Thanks for the video. Very well done!
This was a fascination view, since I personally jumped off the zombie train after Tranzit and never came back. Was fun to see all the new iterations and changes they made, even though some of those changes should have never ever released.. Guess this is the end of Zombies since they found their new cash-cow in Warzone now.
Zombies is a great example for the quote, “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.”
Whoaa
The thing i dont understand is why they decided to change it up way too much most of the people enjoy zombies like they were up to bo3 they just shouldve stick to that
THANK YOU for adressing Gobble Gums. For years I've said exactly what you said, and I've been met with personal insults and the classic "just don't use them". But what these people don't understand is that "just don't use them" is an insanely weak argument. If we followed that, you could have a "insta win" button in every game, because you "don't HAVE to use it". It doesn't matter if you use Mega Gumballs or not; the fact that they exist makes so many features pointless. In BO1, I did the Shangri-La easter egg where a monkey turns a Max Ammo into a perk every game. It was risky, but getting a 5th or even 6th perk was worth it. In BO3, I did it once and never again. I felt no satisfaction, because the game has a main gameplay feature where you can get it all by the press of a button. So why go through the trouble? Why min-max points anymore when you always have the option to just get everything for free? It doesn't matter if you "choose not to use them" because having them existing at all ruins the entire point of many features.
This a fantasic video! Brought me back to the good old days of going over friends houses and playing zombies all night. It is wild how complicated zombies got though, for sure a reason I eventually stopped playing
A great and well put together documentation of the whole Treyarch Zombies journey. I can tell there was alot of effort put into this video, Awesome video!
this is an incredible video well done
Indeed
COD zombies is easily one of the greatest gaming accomplishments in history or ever will be. Absolutely legendary of a game mode.
This is an incredibly well done video. So many other videos talk ONLY about the map content, but you show the story of the development team and how their passion or lack of went into the project. It gives a more holistic perspective of the zombies story! Thanks!
Kino is my favorite. My cousin and I spent years honing our zombie-killing skills on that map. Good times!
Thematically zombies went downhill after moon and never recovered the same magic. There were some great maps after moon but they didn't feel the same for me
Yep. BO2 Transit was something different but it didn't have the same feeling. After BO2 I lost interest entirely.
Bro what? maps like Mob and SOE blow moon out of the water
Bo3 was like the peak of zombies in my opinion and thats coming from someone who started playing call of duty with BIG RED ONE back on the PS2
Thematically? The EE ending is great, but other than the Biodome and No Mans Land, the entire map is just washed up boring grey palette, with most of the map being a facility. There are many more maps released after that are thematically and visually better, this is just nostalgia talking.
Ur tripping
I was around from the very start, i remember zombies being a rumor at school and i didn’t believe it until i went over a friends house and played it for myself. And then to get the map packs and see all the innovation of the mode like you talked about, we literally saw a masterpiece be put together before our eyes, every idea they had was amazing and became staples of the mode. There wasn’t anything like that in gaming and tbh there hasn’t been anything like it since and i’m just so glad i got to fully experience that with all my friends as it was brand new in 2009. The later games zombie modes never touched nazi zombies IMO, that mode was the greatest. Cod 5 is easily a top 3 cod game, i miss those times.
Quick correction. I’m kinda a zombies nerd and played a lot of WaW Verrückt. The original still featured nameless marines. From the wiki: “In World at War, the players are the Marines, while in Black Ops and Black Ops III, they are the rest of the Ultimis crew, who were first seen in the World at War version of Shi No Numa.” The characters had voice lines because you were playing the black ops version of Verrückt. In my own opinion, it seemed slightly untrue to World at war Zombies to use footage from a different game even if it was the same map. If you take constructive criticism please make sure you double check your facts and get relevant footage for the game being talked about. That said, the video was still enjoyable. Thank you for making it
never played any cod game but this video had me hooked from the beginning, awesome editing, commentary and showcase of what you're talking about :) keep it up
You know mob of the dead's alcatraz island was a really good location when it became a blackout and warzone map
This felt like such an amazing tribute to call of duty zombies. This game mode grew alongside me in my childhood and I couldn’t imagine my life without it. Spent the most time and grind on black ops 3 zombies. Also your samples hidden in this documentary like the phub intro music I’m call of the dead had me rolling 😂
If you can’t imagine life without a game you need to invest into new hobbys
I heard a story once that one of the original zombies creators found an animation of a character running on fire for one of the soldiers in WAW, and thought it looked like a zombie animation
Maybe it’s just a mixture of nostalgia and my love for verticality in games, but it made me very sad to hear that people hated most of the BO2 maps, especially Die Rise. On a more positive note, I will say that this video has made me want to re-download BO3 and play some Shadows Of Evil again…
This was a fantastic video! I especially liked the way you framed Cold War; I was never the biggest fan because of the reasons you mentioned, not feeling like it was “true” zombies, but the way you described them leaning into what was different instead of just trying to go back to the old systems really made me appreciate it in a different way. Really fair, nuanced analysis without leaning too far in either simplistic direction. Awesome job!
Thanks for making this video, I had almost forgot Zombies ever existed. BO4 literally ended my love for the mode, as a solo player who likes to experience the EE's blind I had hoped the 'cheats' would help me in that respect but it was just a really frustrating experience overall I never even cracked the first maps. Hopefully Treyarch can bring it back one day.
Same only maps i did the ee on were 9 the mansion map and tag
@@mjkoolaid1511 dead of the night
Why you play solo?
@@myhonorwasloyalty Because some people like that?
I didn't like bo4 but at least I can say there was a lot of passion. That team wanted to create a zombies masterpeice and I think the overthought things a bit in design. Also the reason I strongly dislike cold war. It's more fun, but for the first time it felt like zombs was made to fill a quota (like the multiplayer) instead of really passionate people creating something
I will forever think and say that die rise is one of the most underrated zombies maps of all time. I LOVED every minute i spent with that map. Same goes for zetsubou, but that one wasn't nearly as negatively met as die rise. Zetsubou is still very underrated though.
This was an amazingly well produced video! Well done , and thank you for updating me on the lifecycle of my favorite childhood game :)
I’m surprised you didn’t mention double pac in BO3. getting to high rounds was so easy when you could simply shoot 3 bullets into a train and have dead wire kill half the zombies
that is one of the things i hated the most about bo3. double pap, very good guns with double tap and gobble gums made it too easy
@@cakes9962then just don’t use them. Simple
@@Breds_5 i do not use them and still too easy
Man I’ve always loved zombies. Used to spend hours and hours every weekend with the boys playing on kino and der riese, then continuing our tradition in black ops 2 with buried, and mob of the dead. Great vid Marco!
Bro, I genuinely loved Tranzit, and still do. I had so much fun playing that mode, especially watching videos on it. The most memorable video I remember on Tranzit zombies was Seenanners, and his crews first reaction to the fog creatures which were hilarious.
Oh good ol Nanners, good times
Amazing video. Hopefully Treyarch and the zombies team have enough time to make a quality zombies experience for 2024.
You always just roll up once a month drop a banger video and then dip. Bravo, this was a beautiful video and it was awesome to feel so nostalgic about the franchise.
BO3 zombies is amazing. I waited to buy it until about 2 years after release because I was pretty burnt from BO2 and Ghosts. I was walking in the woods one day to get away from my crazy parents (I was just out of high school then) and I came across some random teenagers and somehow we got to talking about Call of Duty. I had been out of the loop for a long time and they were telling me about a massive map that combined a bunch of other zombies maps into one (revelations) and the dragon and the giant snow castle. I was blown away by what I was hearing. I saved some money and got a new PC and a while later I bought BO3 with all the DLC and was blown away. No regrets. I only play for zombies. Amazing game.
Really appreciate the effort that’s clearly gone into making this. For me it highlighted just how many zombie maps i haven’t played! One thing that did strike me is that it’s clearly a very demanding blend of elements that does make the zombie mode fun. It was interesting to see the developers try new modes to change things up, only to get roasted by the hardcore fan base. One thing that I would liked have gained from the video is what you would have done with some of the less enjoyable maps, what would have improved it or some changes you’d make. All in all, great video!
Tbh black ops 2 has all the answers that could’ve been expand upon in 1 map alone which is buried. It doubled down on perma perks, wonder weapons that effected gameplay and not just only killing, chalk wall buys, using other forms of progressing the map other than buying doors, the slight overpowered nature of the map but when you slip up you can slip up big, and the small little things to do for a casual player that can be spread by word of mouth.
Plus being able to more the box and re roll with Leroy plus vulture aid and the wonder weapon just made buried one of my favourite maps also the weapon locker and bank
I’m honestly super glad you made this video. I feel like I missed out on the black ops 3 zombies experience but this video puts it all into perspective.
Thank you so much for this amazing video man, doing finals rn and studying this is such a good video to have playing meanwhile, but it keeps dragging my attention away from studying lol
You manage to suprise me again and again. First Halo and now you come out of nowhere and hit me with a video about my most loved franchise from 10 years ago. Bravo Sir Brad Master of varied Content House
It works now, sorry you had to go through so much to fix the video not playing. But thank you for workings through the bugs to get this great video working, keep it up!
Can confirm it works for me.
Awesome video, great summaries, wonderful! Wonderful trip down memory lane towards the beginning for me having stopped play call of duty at black ops 3.
big props for the comitment to make such a long video. But tbh it really just shows that you are experiencing most of these maps for the first time and for someone to truly make a proper retrospective, they would need to be more aware. I mention that because you often miss a lot of things that were key to zombies, like the story itself in waw, bo1 and bo2 is something that really made it have an impact, since it was so barebones and full of mystery people talked about it for years.
LFD1 was my first ever game on PC. Used to play coop w a buddy of mine who sadly ain’t around anymore but introduced me to gaming, zombies and COD. RIP STINGER01 Love You Bro ❤
Please continue making more of these! I LOVE these documentary style videos of certain topics/video game franchises
wow. that was such an awesome experience right now. i left Cod after BO3.. i think i played a little bit WW2?? not sure. BUT WOW. i cant say how many hours i spend on zombies. Going for the 100 rounds on every single map. sometimes failing at 70+ or even 99 due to an error and trying the 7-9h journey once again the day after.. wow :DD Seeing Mob of the dead for the first time.. or staying home and not going to school because the new zombies dlc dropped.. or even further back.. playing zombies the first time.. Five.. dying 10 consecutive times at round 3 because the zombies slightly started to sprint. or cowering in the five elevator with a friend in splitscreen.. These are the memories i do have about this game mode and i will never ever forget these. I sadly lost my old account with the digital version of BO3 but i really consider buying it again just for the nostalgic moments.. thx marco for revieving this emotion of joy once again :)
I'll never forget how special WaW-BO2 zombies was to me and my friends, my favs being WaW-BO1. I'll never forget looking up easter egg guides for Der Riese and one of them having a random jumpscare from "The Exorcist" for literally no reason LMAO. I miss these days, Zombies felt so much more real and scary. Modern zombies just feels too "quirky" to me, like a shitty MCU Movie lmao. Those classic easter egg songs never fail to give me chills, nothin was quite as hype as being on round 20 and hearing your friend activate that last piece to the easter egg that you all saved for the special moment.
Your last sentence sums up one of my favorite experiences in zombies. So glad to have experienced that point in time
I appreciate the COD video as I've been immersed into Warzone and mainly rebirth. I've never been big into the zombies but 2 of my sons have been and it was cool to see the history and how much it's changed over the years(for better or worse)... Also, great to see you make content again! I'm sure you're keeping up with all the changes coming to the various streaming platforms, it'd be cool to see a youtube stream in the future.
It was awesome to see the history of every zombies map I’ve played come to light, and hear about the lore of the franchise. Very well done, and very entertaining! :)
I've never been so invested in part of a game franchise I've never cared about before, brilliant video, well paced and informative for newbies like me 👌
That's some wild Bo4 revisionist history, I remember that game falling off so damn hard after Blood of the Dead was "released" and people slowly started turning on it, in addition to the constant crashing and Blue screens that simply booting up the game caused. Bo4 never really recovered after Dead of the Night
Still my favorite one other than bo3, it was my first cod zombies and I'll always appreciate how easy it was to do my first ee (ix btw)
The quality is truly out of this world. I hope you will upload more of these video essays. Maybe this will be your new video type after TD and Destiny. Cheers for the future Brad.
Going back to childhood like this on a Brad Garlinghouse video really makes me nostalgic. Thanks for all your work. It really touched me deeply and I'm not gonna lie, at timecode 32:38 it really hit me hard with the music on the origins statues after seeing the giants foot. Damn melancholic. Great work !
Not to mention that origins intro had A7Xs song Shepperd of fire
idk, i rlly loved cold war zombies personally, felt refreshing, fun, and enjoyable to play casually with friends 🤷♂
I used to play solo for hours doing Easter eggs and high rounds. The first map that really got me playing tons was mob. I loved the way that Blundell and his team took a fictional spin on real life places and events. It’s sad to see that we still haven’t gotten an original map that doesn’t use a leftover layout (fire base z) or isn’t just a campaign mission.
Dude this video is really impressive, as someone who has played zombies since waw it was great to go back through and relive the ups and downs of the franchise. Also something people havent mentioned too much, your subtle comedic edits are hilarious 😂
Hey, Marco. This is simply amazing how much effort and attention you put into your documentaries. No doubt, this is some of the best content on the topic on YT. I am now watching the video again and leaving this comment as my small contribution to promoting your content. Stay persistent!
Awesome to see you enjoyed it that much. Thanks!
Thank you for the video, very very interesting retrospective. I really hope the lacking effort put into Vanguard's final two maps has been due to the studio focusing on their next project, in order to have a fine and more polished zombie mode in 2024, let's hope so!
Amazing video. Sure did bring back a lot of nostalgia and also inform me a lot on what's been going on with zombies in the second half of it's life. I started in the beginning with with WaW Zombies. I was always more into the multiplayer part of CoD, but zombies was always a really fun side mode. I stopped playing around the beginning of BO3. That's when it felt like things were starting change a bit too much and get more complicated. You felt like you were only getting 50% or less of the game-mode if you weren't great on following all the Easter egg stuff. That's where i really lost interest. It's a bummer thinking about it as i was watching this video because a lot of it looked really fun, but they just kept trying to do too much sometimes. After watching this all, it seems like they need to find a good a balance between the last 2-3 zombie games they've made. They all seem to have some really amazing parts to them, but there was always something holding it back. Arguably the experiences are better than all previous games, but just going a bit too far in some manner. I hope the next Zombies game is good and i may get back into it after 6-7 years.
Never expected this sort of video from you Marco, damn. Love the zombies series.
Not gonna lie. Black Ops 4 was such an enormous disappointment I completely forgot it existed because I blocked it out of my memory.
I love your presentation style. The flow of this video rocks. Just thought you should know that :D
Black ops 2 zombies was really the greatest comeback in the history of comebacks. It started out with the abomination that is tranzit, then continued with nuke town and then a map even worse than tranzit, die rise. But then we got mob of the dead, possibly the greatest map of all time, and that was followed by buried which was also quite amazing. After that we also got origins, which while it’s not really for me personally, its still a great map that was almost universally loved
Another thing worth noting about BO4 Zombies and the normal zombies team leaving halfway through is that there was little financial incentive to keep them on that game. They stopped having the normal dlc pipeline with $15 packs and only allowed you to buy the $50 season pass for the game. So most of the people who were gonna spend money on zombies already did on release and the season pass didn't even have multi-player maps either if I remember correctly.
The game did have multiplayer maps post launch in the season pass.
The Mr RoflWaffles part was straight gold😂 I thought I was the only one annoyed by his intros when I had to watch the Easter egg tutorials
The graphics/art style for kino is incredible. My favorite of all the maps.
I remember playing these maps like it was yesterday.... damn. Watching this all these years later a lot more grown up and a lot more cynical made me realize that they more or less just tried something, didn't work and then went back to spamming what did work time after time. Its how the zombies mode eventually ran out of steam imo, they relied too heavily on doing the things that people wanted over and over again, like relying on the classic characters for too long. Just feels like a piece of cod has died and will never come back to us, which the teenager in me just weeps over, the amount of time and love I put into zombies was just so crazy looking back. All good things must come to an end my father once told me and this very much feels like that. Hopefully the two year cycle might save us but with the lack of effort they have for COD now.... I just can't see it.
always a pleasure when marco uploads crazy how far the ride has been since the OP Div 1 builds that i started watching him on to the Destiny content to now these massive think pieces i love them and loved zombies, what a great upload
There is no denying the utter quality and charm for the beginning of Treyarch Zombies. Figuring out the steps of the Easter egg by word of mouth, training strategies, and of course the glitch spots all made the experience incredibly comprehensive.