User blog:Ebon Shadowshot/So Zombies is ending for 2 years...

Ok if you've heard me say anything about Zombies it's probably me complaining about how Moon was a shit excuse for a map story-wise and it ended on one of the most devastating cliffhanger I've ever seen, even worse than Halo 2 (which has a perfect campaign besides that and I will hear nothing else from anyone).

But I do love Zombies, each game has it's own strengths and it's own weaknesses and if I'll be honest the Black Ops II era has been fantastic and the series has taken hundreds of hours from my life. I felt like making a tribute to Zombies, for we won't be seeing it again until the next Treyarch game, which as far as I can tell will be in 2015 (assuming Sledgehamer Games will be making 2014's Call of Duty).

It's also a rather personal tribute, for I have made some friends through this Wiki and we might never be able to play Zombies with each over for Treyarch's next game: mostly because besides Vi everyone is getting a PlayStation 4 or a Wii U, whereas I'm getting an Xbox One (please tell me what's wrong with it now other than the "IT'S NOT AS POWERFUL AS THE PS4" nonsense that I have no care for or some random Microsoft bashing). I'll be damned if I play new Call of Dutys on my PC, too.

So anyway, let's go.

Nacht der Untoten


Nacht der Untoten was my first Zombies map, I've played it since mid-November 2008 because I used to play WaW at my friend's before I owned it myself (March-May 2009, thereabouts). To put it simply, Nacht der Untoten is a masterpiece of design, considering that it was put together at the last minute. It introduced the basic Zombies elements we still see today (Points, Power-Ups, Mystery Box, Windows, Opening Doors, Wall Weapons) and it was pretty damn well balanced map, too. There was an equal balance to positives and negatives to opening each door and it supported near enough any strategy. Heck it even wasn't an instant game over if you opened all the doors. However Nacht der Untoten's difficulty curve was much like Dead Rising 1's in that if you didn't bother getting the best weapons and learning all the Zombie's tricks then you were in for a gory night of death once you got passed the first 10 rounds. It was beautifully atmospheric too with it's good mood lighting and the layout of the map which would genuinely imply that your group have hastily put a few defences together at the last minute.

Nacht der Untoten was later introduced to Black Ops, possibly for the better but I honestly preferred the more primitive controls of World at War to it. It's also much easier to play on Black Ops which takes away from the difficulty curve somewhat, but it's definitely worth a go even with the glitched leader board (apparently I haven't played it despite the fact that I've played like 20 games of it).

Verrückt


Verrückt follows in Nacht der Untoten's footsteps of brilliant atmosphere and upgraded it with horrified screams, mood lighting and little things like Zombies having stitches in their brains. It also introduced Perk-A-Colas and even back then the definition of "Cola" has been limited (only Speed Cola, Stamin-Up and arguably PhD Flopper can be called Colas), as well as voiced characters, the Power, Bouncing Bettys and traps. The Marines had two generic personalities but it gave them a slight sense of parody, considering the fact that Verrückt seemed to be trying to combine the brilliant atmosphere of World at War's campaign with typical Zombies B-Movies from the Romero era it fit the mark. Unfortunately the map discouraged players being on their own so if you're not working as a team expect to have several chunks of brain to be removed by Usain Bolt Zombies.

Lullaby for a Dead Man was the first musical easter egg, and it's pretty good.

Shi No Numa


I've made it no secret that Shi No Numa is my favourite map from World at War, and for good reason. It featured Japanese Zombies, and it was the first map to play with the Zombies formula. Did you know that when Shi No Numa came out everyone was amazed by the fact you could go outside? Yet nowadays nobody is impressed unless there's a shiny weapon that fires large breasts at Zombie's brandishing miniguns. Whatever I still believe that Shi No Numa has the best map design of the entire game mode, a central building with four swamp areas between four buildings designed for the team players who hunkered down. The power being always on was a brilliant addition as it blended well with the random Perk Machine selection which allowed for a different strategy every game. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the WUNDERWAFFE? I love that gun, and back before the Pack-A-Punch Machine it was pretty amazing weapon on it's own right, especially if like me you knew how to avoid Zombies on that map. Shi No Numa also brought us Hellhounds which have become somewhat iconic in the series despite only making a few appearances after this map. Oh yeah and the introduction of the Japanese weapons was a nice touch, Treyarch, nice job.

The One is one of my favourite easter egg songs by the way.

Der Riese and Kino der Toten


Der Riese is... ok, I guess? It was pretty fun at the time but really the only thing I could say about it is that it introduced the Pack-A-Punch Machine and the Major Easter Egg (back before Major Easter Eggs became the objective of the map... sigh). It's got terrible level design, too many Zombie spawns and even with all that it's still too easy. This may be a cheapshot but even though it was in World at War I was expecting it to be less dull, Shi No Numa and Verruckt managed that. Sadly Der Riese introduced Samantha to the world and let me just say that Samantha is a cancer to the whole Zombies game mode, and it's one that just won't fucking die. Also WHY were the FG42 and the Wunderwaffe nerfed in Black Ops? WHY?!

Beauty of Annihilation was pretty sweet, though.

Kino der Toten is pretty much the same as Der Riese just with better level design, it had the Solo player in mind which I appreciate, but the map's just a little boring and it didn't have much longevity to it. The Thundergun is a pretty fun gun to use but I didn't see it as a successor to the Wunderwaffe or even the Ray Gun for the matter. The Gas Zombies really didn't bother me as much as it did most people. Quick Revive changing on Solo was a brilliant idea, though, after reaching 65 on Der Riese solo I appreciated being able to survive being downed once on Kino. 115 is overrated, too. It's good but not as good as the songs which came before it.

"Five"


"Five" was a very creative map and I find it baffling how nobody seemed to like it. I mean sure the Winter's Howl was a bit weak and it's level design was very corridor and choke point focused, but so was Der Riese and everybody loved that! "Five" was definitely more creative with the unique teleporter system and the Thief (I still think getting Bonfire Sale is the best feeling to get in Zombies). The characters were also well put together, even JFK's hilariously bad Boston accent and Richard Nixon is still one of my favourite Zombies characters. "Five"'s legacy will not live on, but I'll always remember it.

Dead Ops Arcade


I love Dead Ops Arcade. It gives me a good nostalgia feeling of Arcade games in it's simplicity, it changes the formula of Zombies to the point of actually changing the controls by restricting it to the two thumbsticks (or two buttons on PC I assume). DOA has a massive variety of enemies all with their own querks and a massive boss fight which ends up repeating the experience but with all the difficulty of Round 40. Enviromental hazards are a bonus too, especially the flaming barrels and the bulls. Unfortunately just like Arcade games the difficulty curve is merciless and so you should probably give up at around Round 15 if you want to preserve your sanity, I've only made it to 30 or 31 on Solo because conserving Lives (yes, the Lives system is in this, baby) is near impossible, especially on Co-Op in which your friends will steal your lives if they're crap. Dead Ops Arcade is my favourite map of the game mode, well co-favourite because obviously Dead Ops Arcade is an entity upon itself. DOA's brilliant retro soundtrack is also quite good and I'd recommend listening to it when you're not playing if you want to sit and imagine colours in your mind.

Ascension


Ascension, despite it's presentation, is just a mixture of Shi No Numa and Der Riese. It takes the exploration and four main areas concept from Shi No Numa and takes the horrible corridor, choke point and too many Zombie spawns theme from Der Riese. Now this is fine for the map, but when the Pack-A-Punch unlocking system is the exact same as Der Riese's (A central teleporter with three teleporter devices which are linked to the central one), I began to wonder whether Treyarch was actually trying. PhD Flopper and Stamin-Up are two of my favourite perks and I'm glad they made the final cut. Besides the introduction of the Space Monkeys which were ok I guess and by extension the Random Perk Bottle, Ascension has no identity of it's own and can just be skipped if you plan on doing a Zombies marathon. On the other hand Ascension is pretty fun and it encourages both Solo and Teamwork which, frankly, Der Riese and Shi No Numa didn't. Ascension also has a major easter egg which you may as well skip because besides one reference to it in Moon, it has no relevance to the plot, gives no achievement and it's reward is definitely not worth the effort (much like Minecraft).

Call of the Dead


Call of the Dead is the best example of paying tribute to something you love. It takes inspiration from the works of George A. Romero and in typical tradition, a Zombie appears, it spreads it's disease to everyone (even George himself), then a small group of survivors band together, stockpile weapons and take on the hordes in a very silly environment with dramatic music. As well as this, the map is very fun and is fairly well balanced, plus the map seems to mirror the story that the site is supposed to be a movie set (right down to electric generators dotting the map). The major easter egg is buggy at times but is quite fun, challenging and rewards intelligence. Assuming you're a fan of the Wunderwaffe you'll want to get it done because George will drop one upon death once you've finished it. George provided an additional challenge; you best avoid shooting him because he'll get angry and you won't like him when he's angry. However Call of the Dead has it's gripes, the fog while not too irritating was done to let Treyarch flex it's engine muscles and the V-R11 is only there to serve the Easter Egg and unless you are me you won't find it very useful. Call of the Dead is one of my favourite maps.

Shangri-La


Telling me that Shangri-La was poorly designed will likely result in an internet spanking. Shangri-La is a beautiful, creative and well designed map designed for people who like a challenge. Largely circular based, Shangri-La explores the opportunities of using elevation and the ability to descend to give players both the advantage and disadvantage against their Zombie foes. Whilst rather unforgiving in nature, the map clearly shows inspiration from cliché films such as the Indiana Jones franchise, exercising confusing traps and puzzles to exploit the often panic-ridden players who would stumble into one and become stuck, leaving themselves at the mercy of a low ammo magazine and multiple hungry Zombies. Even the two new enemies, the Shrieker and the Napalm Zombies were implemented for the purposes of exploitation to kill Zombies, the former letting out a shockwave to kill nearby Zombies and the latter leaving behind a napalm patch which would burn anything in it. Controversially the Monkey Zombies, whilst low on health, were rather hard to spot and had a tendency to steal valuable Power-Ups, but could exploited for such prestigous Power-Ups such as Nuke, Max Ammo and Random Perk Bottle. Shangri-La is perhaps the embodiment of unforgiving, it is not there to impress it's players, it's players are there to impress it. For this reason, I love Shangri-La, as such it is my joint favourite map with Dead Ops Arcade and "X". It's song Pareidolia is my favourite Zombies easter egg song.

Moon


Moon is an example of contrast. On one hand, Moon has arguably the best gameplay of the entire series, combining low and normal gravity seamlessly with a mechanic which allowed players to lower gravity in as many areas as they please (well, bar one). On the other hand, Moon's story is Hitler doing an impression of a Dementia patient. I've already banged on about it many, many times but Samantha, Aliens, Soul-swapping, breathing in space air, all of these things are just wrong and they aren't blended in well with what had been established previously. Oh yeah and the FUCKING CLIFFHANGER... ok I'll stop, I promise. Moon is a really fun map, but one of it's biggest flaws is that to get to a high round you pretty much have to do the easter egg, otherwise you will not be able to get your perks every five seconds. The difficulty curve, whilst not very tormenting, is still pretty refined, especially because the Astronaut Zombie has significantly higher health than the Zombie equivilant of the round, meaning that by as low as Round 25 he is pretty much invincible, so one should keep him alive on a low round and just learn to avoid him if you want to get high, or, as previously mentioned, do the easter egg so you don't lose your perks... but learn how to run through the map without dying.

A worthy ending to Black Ops, just a shame that it ended the way it did.

Green Run


Whilst creative, Green Run was certainly a disappointment. Taking notes from Fallout was a smart decision and it suits the map, however some things just seem off. Most of the map seems to have the 1960's as inspiration, but we occasionally get things such as a 50's Sci-fi esque Group 935 facility, a Jet Turbine that happens to be a weapon, aliens and a robotic bus driver. It's tone is a bit schizophrenic at best. It also shares a gift with the other Zombies team developed Black Ops II maps in that it has good ideas ruined by shit execution. Implementing a security system for people who want to venture into the fog is fine, but when you make it an out-of-place Alien thing that grabs your head, slows you down and makes it impossible to pass over massive lava pits without dying then you may as well delete the idea and start again. A Jet Turbine is good in theory, but making it only last 20 seconds without breaking and taking over a minute to recharge, as well as pushing you towards Zombies is surely a joke, right? Making the Pack-A-Punch available only to those willing to camp in the poorly designed corridor makes sense because it worked in "Five", but the process of opening the room (especially in Solo) is time consuming. It also introduced the 'TranZit' mode which let's be honest is NOT different to Zombies, but it did bring in Survival which actually did have different rules and would be fun if it wasn't on the dull parts of the map.

Nuketown Zombies


Nuketown Zombies is a Nostalgia Bomb. Treyarch could have just copy-pasted Nuketown and put Zombie spawns behind all the headglitching and camping spots, but no they redesigned it so the entire map is in ruins and all the headglitching spots have been bulldozed, blown up or covered in rocks, and the camping spots have all been made incredibly awkward to reach. Nuketown is basically just Green Run but on Nuketown, and the nostalgia comes from three major sources:
 * The map is obviously Nuketown so you can always go "I remember that!"
 * Occasionally noises from TranZit and Moon's easter egg are made, and Samantha is the Demonic Announcer until Richtofen takes over on Round 25, changing the Zombie eye colour.
 * Some of the Zombie models are the multiplayer models from Nuketown on the original Black Ops Multiplayer models.

Nuketown is difficult because just like the map it's too much of a clusterfuck and with the addition of the rocks and the fires it's a little awkward to navigate, and believe me when I say that this map will make you hate Zombies team mates, even more so than the ones you tried doing the Ascension Easter Egg with. So play by yourself or avoid your team mates at all costs.

Die Rise


So Lifts like to murder people now? Well that's actually quite funny and sarcastic on your part Treyarch. Die Rise is a platformer, I swear. Most of the games I've spent on it have involved jumping between buildings, across bridges, down to secret passages and being launched by tramp oline lesteams. Die Rise has an overly complicated easter egg that requires a little too much team work, but as a whole I find it very enjoyable, from the jumping to the lack of a need for the mystery box to the ability to convince random players to not shoot so you can get perk bottles to drown yourself in. Die Rise is also ridiculously easy but occasionally gets bored and throughs in a million Zombies in claustrophobic enviroments making for a rare tense feeling. The jumping is also very puzzle-like in nature what with the Trample Steam spots while also being unforgiving, hence why I call it "Shangri-La 2.0". Die Rise is fun, and I understand why people don't like it, but for me it's really good and I appreciate the effort put into it.

Mob of the Dead


Mob of the Dead is near perfect. All the ideas are well executed, the atmosphere brilliant, the characters flawed and well portrayed/written, the difficulty fair, the easter egg not required to do and having a satisfying ending, formula changed for the right ways. If you think Mob of the Dead is overrated, you are wrong. Mob of the Dead is brilliant and if you don't think so I highly doubt that you've played it. I don't want to explain how the HUD is awesome, or how the Afterlife mode is well implemented and unique, or how the Golden Gate Bridge is the perfect place for the soloist because it's just something I could spend hours doing, and I don't have the time.

Buried


Buried was a disappointment. It's not terrible but it's not really a good map. The return of the Trample Steam and the Turbine and good, and the Sonic Boom device is fun as a novelty item, but once again we fall into the trap of most of the map is centred around the Easter Egg. Also it's quite appalling how the Easter Egg doesn't even have an ending unless you get special ending, I did it and all I got was the reward, nothing happened. Mistresses shouldn't take 2000 points just by being in the same post code as you, either. New perk was fun I guess, and the Paralyser too. It has it's fun moments but it's just all too much ideas and too little polish. The benchmark had been set pretty high by Mob of the Dead, and Buried failed to surpass it. Buried also really hates solo players and will punish them with eight million Zombies on Round 6 in tight, claustrophobic environments. Good ideas, 1 2, crap execution, 3 4, could've been better, 5 6, wish that it made sense, 7 8.

So, that's Zombies. I predict that Origins will be fun, if a little schizophrenic. The story will be crap from what I've seen though.

--Ebon Shadowshot (Talk) (Contributions) 01:03, August 21, 2013 (UTC)