Hey guys, Rambo here, with a Call of Duty:
Black Ops Cold War Zombies video.
Oof, that’s a mouthful.
In this video, I’ll be talking about 10
different topics relating to the Zombies game mode
that I think are worth tracking, just
sort speculating and reflecting on various
things as we near the release of the game.
Anyways, let’s get right into it.
#1: Who’ll be the Zombies Director?
One of the big questions surrounding Cold
War is who exactly will take over as Director
of the Zombies mode, the role previously filled
for many years by Jason Blundell.
Many people speculated that Lee Ross would
take over the position, given his past experience
as director of Infinite Warfare Zombies...
Kevin Smith: “I feel like I might hurl.”
... and his transition toward working for Treyarch
in 2019.
But just like Blundell, it was announced
that Lee Ross would also be leaving Activision,
thus eliminating the possibility of him taking over.
One solid guess is that the Lead Writer of
the Zombies storyline, Craig Houston, would
take over as Director for this game, given
his lengthy tenure at Treyarch spanning nearly
15 years, along with his many public-facing
appearances throughout the BO4 season.
Some people have casted doubt on this theory
of him taking over, citing his lack of managerial
and technical experience, though I don’t think that should necessarily disqualify him from the position.
Another possibility is that Craig continues
to serve as the face of Zombies in Studio Livestreams
and interviews and things like
that, while a team of Producers act as the
leaders behind-the-scenes during this interim
period where they don’t have a leader.
In any case, it’ll be important for them
to find someone who can connect really well
with the community.
Someone who is a little more accessible than Blundell.
A little more competent than Jimmy Z.
A little less salty than Lee Ross.
A little less creepy than Cameron Dayton,
A little more smart than...
#2: Regression to Fan-Service or Radical Innovation?
I made a tweet all the back in November 2017
where I compared CoD Zombie games to Star
Wars franchise, and I think I made a rather
prophetic observation by comparing Black Ops 4
to “The Last Jedi,” before either of
them had even released.
You see, Black Ops 4 Zombies with all its
so-called “innovation,” produced a lot
of divisive reactions from fans across the
spectrum.
Casuals and YouTubers alike weren’t pleased
with many of the changes made to core gameplay
mechanics, such as the overhaul of the Perk
System.
Many dedicated community members have requested
that Cold War reverts back on some of the
changes made with BO4, and for the game
to almost be like a Black Ops 3 clone of sorts.
The community loved their Black Ops 3, let
me tell you.
They loved stuffing their mouths with Mega
Gobblegums, and riding the dragon on Gorod Krovi.
This is where another Star Wars analogy comes
into place, as I think Cold War has the possibility
of falling into the “Rise of Skywalker”
category, where it does a complete 180, and
focuses on simple nostalgia and fan-service
in an attempt to win back fans who were disappointed
by the previous installment.
Now, obviously such a strategy can back-fire,
and I’ve long been of the opinion that Zombies
should try to evolve and change up certain
systems, in order to keep the mode fresh.
But I suppose there’s always a fine balance
that has to be struck when it comes to these
maps nowadays, or else you end up outraging
everyone on the CoD Zombies Reddit.
But I think CoD Zombie fans should be very
easy to win back.
Most of them, they want the game-mode to succeed, it’s not like they have some resentment toward this mode.
I could almost picture it in my head: the
Cold War Zombies trailer cuts to a shot of
the Juggernog perk machine, with the jingle
playing softly in the background, and
Unnamed Zombies YouTuber #7 leaps from his gaming chair and shouts, "Lads, the nostalgia is real!"
#3: Storyline Options for the Mode
I’m not a big storyline mark, so I’m not
going to spend too much time talking about
this topic, but there is some uncertainty
as to what exactly will happen with the Zombies
storyline in Cold War.
For a while now, there’s been rumors of
an Aether storyline reboot, which is the classic
characters that we’ve been following for
over 10 years.
In the most recent map, Tag der Toten, it
was heavily marketed as the conclusion to
the Aether storyline, and everyone cried,
and said farewell to Zombies, and acted like
it was the final map ever made for some reason. I dunno.
Anyways, so this Aether reboot rumor would
just mean we follow the same characters, but
with the existing storyline being wiped.
Another option is the continuation of the Chaos
story, which are the characters featured in
a few of the Black Ops 4 maps like “IX,”
although fan-reception to those characters
was pretty lukewarm at best,
and the story
sort of seemed like Jason Blundell’s child,
so I think the Chaos crew may very well be
a lost cause.
I think fans will always have a hard time
accepting any new characters, which sort of
forces Treyarch to bring back the familiar
faces, right.
But at the same time, those characters also have
sort of worn out their welcome as well,
so they’re in a lose-lose situation maybe.
You know, Zombies is flopping, it’s like,
“time to pull out Richtofen from your back pocket," right.
It’s like, “Here fellas, here’s Takeo.”
Oh, I have an updated note on my desk.
Oh, while I’m writing the script and recording,
there’s more news leaking in.
Okay.
Well, it’s okay.
It’s not like I spent a week fine-tuning
the script, only for news to come out and
disregard my information.
It’s fine.
No, really. Believe me.
So apparently, there were some promotional
materials released on August 26h, and it seems
as if some of the Campaign characters will
be crossing into the Zombies mode.
I dunno, this image doesn’t seem very Treyarch-y
to me.
It looks like something out of WWII Zombies.
I don’t know, it could be good, but the
image itself is very uninspiring image for
it being our first look into the Zombies mode.
#4: Compatibility with Next-Gen Consoles
I think it’ll be interesting to see how
exactly Black Ops Cold War fits in with the
next-gen consoles that are slated for release
later this year.
Cold War will mark the first time that a Treyarch
game with Zombies is released alongside a
new generation of consoles.
It’s scheduled for a November 13th release,
but the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions probably
won’t be out until later that month, when
the consoles are finally released.
It’s sort of nice that there’ll be a Cross-Gen
bundle available for the game, rather than
having to buy the game twice.
However, let’s suppose I wanted to switch
consoles, right, and go from the Xbox One to the PS5.
If I wanted to play Cold War as soon as it was released, I have to buy it first on the Xbox One for $60.
And then I have to buy it again on the PS5
for 70 bucks just a couple weeks later as well.
What kind of bullshit is that.
Just release the game after these new consoles
are released, so people don’t even have to
consider making such a decision.
Anyways, when it’s all said and done, the
game will be available on a total of five
major platforms, which also means a greater
chance of competitive discrepancy in the way
that the Zombies mode functions across those
five systems.
For example, on a Zombies game-mode like Dead
Ops Arcade, there would be slight differences
for certain aspects of the game across the different
platforms, or even bugs that were exclusive
to just one system.
I don’t quite know if other Zombies maps
have historically had similar issues as well,
but I think it definitely could be something
worth keeping an eye on, especially when we
consider that the game will have cross-play
enabled between consoles, just like Modern Warfare.
Cockatoo: “Uh, Rambo, you could just play
Zombies on PC and that should be fine.”
Well, listen, I don’t really remember asking
for your dumbass opinion.
#5: DLC Model for Zombie Maps & Console Exclusivity
I’ll be curious to see how the Zombies DLC model works for Cold War,
since Modern Warfare and many other recent games have set precedent
for free Multiplayer maps post-launch.
And again, more news coming in as I’m
recording my video, it was also announced
that Cold War will have free Multiplayer DLC
maps, and apparently also free Zombies content
too I guess, although the wording of it is
a bit ambiguous I think, where perhaps only
certain Zombies stuff is free, where other
DLC might be paid, I don’t know, I guess
we’ll have to wait and see.
The thing is, there’s probably still a market
for paid Zombie DLC maps, especially since
there’s limited integration between Microtransactions
 and the Zombies mode, right.
Like, not many people are buying Liquid Divinium
and Nebuliu…
Nebulium? Nebulium... Nebulium Plasma.
I gotta give them props, I think they purposely
try to make this shit, like, confusing, the names,
so like less people buy Microtransactions
for Zombies, like I think it’s like the Treyarch
devs like trying to make sure no one buys
this stupid bullshit.
Where the hell was I?
I gotta find my place on my script.
I need my glasses.
Uh.
The thing is, there’s probably still…
Okay, I said that already.
*broadcast error*
Modern Warfare could sort of get away with
free Multiplayer DLC maps and free Warzone
because of the money people spend on other
items related to the modes, whereas Zombies
doesn’t quite have that same revenue stream
from Microtransactions.
Going back to BO4 Zombies for a moment, the
DLC Model for that game had some serious issues
that people rarely mention.
For the 1st time ever, Zombie DLC maps couldn't
be purchased individually.
So, a map like Ancient Evil comes along, and
I was sort of looking at it, and I was like,
“Hey, you know, this map kind of looks decent.”
Jason Blundell: “Ancient Evil.”
Craig Houston: “Ancient Evil.”
Indiana Jones: “Ancient Evil.”
But oh, I couldn’t buy it alone, I had to
spend 50 bucks for all the maps in order to play it.
My response was, “Black Ops PASS.”
The Black Ops Pass was an all-or-nothing model
which deliberately encouraged purchases towards
the beginning of the season, when none of
the fans knew which maps were going to be made.
And since many of the purchases probably came in
early into the season, there was logically
not much incentive for Treyarch to devote
resources to later maps.
And of course, we ended up seeing remakes
as the final two maps.
And when it comes to Cold War having potentially
free Zombies maps, I don’t mean to spin
the good news of it being free, into somehow
being bad news, but with free Zombie DLC maps,
I could see it falling into that same pithole
as BO4’s Black Ops Pass, where there'll be
little incentive to release maps frequently,
or to make sure that they're really well-polished
and worth the consumer’s money.
Because people are not going to be like, “Oh,
man, why did I buy the Season Pass,"
or, "Why did I spend 15 bucks on this map, and it’s riddled with bugs on launch."
Instead, it’s sort of going to be like,
“Eh, it was free, like, we can’t complain, fellas."
Well, I’m still going to complain!
Another thing sort of related to this topic is the Timed Exclusivity of content for Call of Duty games.
With Black Ops 4, PlayStation was getting
content one whole week before both Xbox and PC.
But the thing with Zombie DLC maps is that
they’re best experienced when they immediately
come out, rather than a week later when most
everything about the map is already figured out.
But granted, 1 week is preferable to the typical
1 month exclusivity that existed for many years,
but I think it needs to go away altogether.
And I believe Modern Warfare was a step in
the right direction, as I believe they got
rid of that 1 week bologna, but instead they
still had a deal with Sony where PS4 users
would get the MW Survival Mode an entire year
before Xbox and PC users.
I mean, I don’t think many people care about
Survival, so it’s sort of whatever, but
hopefully they don’t do that with any of
the bonus modes in Cold War.
*thud*
#6: Potential Bonus Modes for the Game
One thing that I like about a lot of the Black Ops games are the bonus game-modes included for Zombies.
Of course, as many of you know, I’m a really,
really big fan of the Nightmares mode, and
also a bit of a fan of Dead Ops Arcade 1 & 2
as well.
And there’s also Grief mode in BO2 which
I played a lot as well back in the day.
Now, I’m not trying to sound uber-optimistic
here, cause that’s sort out of character
for me, but I think there’s actually a decent
chance that both DOA and Grief will appear in Cold War.
I know, I know, blasphemy.
Save this clip, humiliate me with the “Curb
Your Enthusiasm” theme when none of these
game modes ever return for another 12 years.
For DOA, there were some files found by a
data-miner on Twitter which suggested that
DOA would be in the game, and would likely
be unlocked and accessed via Warzone, rather
than being unlocked through something like
the Campaign Terminal in Black Ops 3.
In case you’re wondering how Warzone and
Cold War are connected, essentially Warzone
is going to carry over into the next CoD game,
and probably be the staple Battle Royale for
the franchise in the foreseeable future.
If DOA was indeed unlocked via Warzone, I
think that would be very good for its popularity,
and hopefully it would then become permanently available in the Main Menu,
after you unlock it just once in Warzone.
Again, I’m not trying to get ahead of myself here, I recommend that fans of the mode
temper their expectations.
Until we see the mode in front of us, it’s
all speculation.
James Hetfield: “Just so you know, we are
big in the Zombie community.”
If there is DOA included in Cold War, I think
we may very well see the Cosmic Silverback
from DOA1 make a return as the main Boss,
given the Cold War setting and also the Silverback’s
existing character model in BO4’s Blackout
mode.
Cockatoo: “Well, Rambo, the Cosmic Silverback
is dead, don’t you know, did you ever play the game?"
Yes, I played the game.
My theory is that the Cosmic Silverback rises
from his grave in the opening cutscene, sort
of like Jason Voorhees or something, which
would be fitting since Cold War releases on
Friday the 13th.
I dunno, maybe it’s a bit far-fetched, but
I don’t think there are too many cool Adjectives
that start with the letter “C” to describe
the Silverback anymore, so we’ll just have
to settle for “Cosmic” again.
The other mode that I said might also return
is Grief.
The reason I say that is because Blundell
was open to the idea of bringing back Grief
at the beginning of BO4, and I think there
were leaks and rumors that said Grief was
being worked on, and would release alongside
the remasters of TranZit and Buried.
Which again, more rumors and leaks, those
maps were scrapped for BO4, and are supposed
to release sometime during Cold War.
However, if Grief mode does return, I don’t
think it’ll play exactly the same as the
original version in BO2.
I think they’ll make a few tweaks to the
way that the mode functions.
Another mode that I could see sort of returning
is the Gauntlets mode from Black Ops 4,
since they supported that mode throughout the entire
BO4 DLC season.
Other games modes like Turned and Rush were
pretty much dead on arrival, so I don’t
see those modes making any sort of comeback
in Cold War.
Cockatoo: “Well, Rambo, I’ll have you
know that I’m a top 20 Rush player on PS4…”
Well, maybe I don’t give a shit.
#7: Potential Launch Delay and Decreased Efficiency
Related to the Pandemic
Due to the Pandemic, on March 16th, many employees
at Treyarch began working from home, rather
than reporting to the Studio on a regular
basis.
With such a change, there are of course a
couple of possibilities.
One is that the developers feel less crunch,
and perhaps the new Working From Home experience
helps spark some creative ideas for them.
The alternative is that Working From Home
has the potential to decrease their efficiency,
or limit what they could do on certain aspects
of the game from a technical point of view,
in addition to employees missing out on some
of the collaboration and problem-solving which
is unique to face-to-face encounters with
colleagues.
But by all indications, such as this tweet
from someone in the Engineering department,
it seems that Treyarch is doing a really good
job at making sure that the developers have
been comfortable with the transition over
the past few months, but there’s no denying
that the existing working conditions have
already affected the game in some capacity,
as the marketing campaign for the game was
delayed all the way into August.
As for the infamous Zombies QA Testers, I’m
not quite sure if they’re showing up to
the studio or not in order to do their job,
but if they’re working from the comfort
of their homes, the testers are going to run
short on excuses if the game is riddled with bugs.
#8: A Return to Form for Leaderboards?
I made a video on this topic last year, so
I’m not really going to spend too much time
on this point, but in Black Ops 4, the in-game
Leaderboard system underwent a massive overhaul
which saw the removal of basic and essential
stat categories like “Rounds Survived”
on a particular map, and even the elimination
of global entries for any of the stat categories.
In my opinion, it’ll be very important to
address this issue with the Leaderboard system.
If MW could get it right, surely Cold War
could follow suit and bring Leaderboards back in style.
Oh, look at that.
BrownMagician #1 on Warzone.
I guess some things just never change.
Black Ops 4 also had a feature called the
Black Ops Authenticity Stamp System, or the
BOAS System for short.
If you don’t know what that is, I don’t
blame you, as I don’t think anyone ever
checked it out, as it was rather pointless
and redundant.
But I could see the BOAS system making a return
since they probably already have the technology
for it already in place, and ready to be implemented
into future games with little effort.
#9: Creative Vision of the Co-Developers
According to a Kotaku article from May 2019,
Cold War initially started as a Raven Software
title, with Sledgehammer Games supporting them.
However, due to tension between the two studios, Sledgehammer was tossed aside
like unordered broccoli, and Treyarch was brought in to clean up the mess, which was a pretty drastic move
on Activision’s part, considering the move
changes their recent pattern of having each
studio develop games on a 3 year cycle, rather
than just 2 years.
I mean, a game like Black Ops 4 was made in
3 years, and while I enjoyed certain aspects
of that game like Blackout or a couple of
Zombie maps, you can’t deny that the game
had a lot of issues in the first few months
of its release.
So, logically, you would think such a problem would only be amplified when you have 1 less year
to work on the game.
Granted, they’ll have more helping hands
on this project from all the different studios,
but maybe there’ll be too many cooks in
the kitchen.
Like, we don’t have all the details available,
but Cold War was seemingly initially born
from Raven Software, and then Treyarch had
to come in and subsequently add their own
style to the already existing framework from
both Raven and Sledgehammer.
But who knows, maybe Treyarch took over early
enough into the project to where they revamped
the entire game and made it their own unique
vision.
Anyways, I imagine Raven Software will be
working on a lot of the Campaign stuff and
continue their work on Warzone as well, whereas
Treyarch will focus on Zombies and Multiplayer.
Oh, I got a note coming in.
Okay.
Another note.
What happened now?
Oh, well, guess what.
Based on August 26th stuff, Rambo was correct
in his assessment.
As a side-note, I was reading some posts a
while back which claimed that Raven Software
was responsible for Kino der Toten.
It seems almost impossible to verify this
information, but I’ve seen it across like
3 or 4 different posts throughout the years.
I mean, shit, if that’s really the case,
consider myself a Raven fanboy.
Get them on the Zombies mode, ASAP.
Ronald Reagan: “I know you won’t fail us.”
Announcer: “Pre-order a digital copy and get early access to the open beta.”
#10: Communication from Studio
There are a vast variety of reasons why the
reception of BO4 Zombies from dedicated fans
was not too hot.
However, it’s long been my opinion that if you kept the gameplay in BO4 completely unchanged,
but only tweaked the marketing
and communication surrounding the game, it
would have had a substantial impact on how
the Zombies mode was received by fans.
With BO4 Zombies, there were a lot of cases
of promises that were never followed through,
occasions of radio silence whenever there
was a major issue related to the game, or
even situations like alienating content creators by only having one capture event
throughout the entire DLC season.
Another issue that I alluded to very early
on in this video, is the fact that the Treyarch
Zombies mode never really had a spokesperson
on Twitter who communicated regularly with fans.
The closest thing was Jimmy Z back in the
day, but even he stuck to a rigid schedule
of one cryptic tweet per week.
Just simple updates from the team would be
nice, making sure that the Zombies mode doesn’t
seem like the bastard child in the family
of Call of Duty game modes.
Maybe some fun events throughout the season,
who knows, something like a free remaster
of Nacht der Untoten that suddenly drops on
115 Day.
That would be cool and within reason I think,
rather than just giving us 2XP or something like that.
Or how about celebrating anniversaries, like
the 10 year anniversary of the Zombies mode.
That’s a pretty important day I think.
But guess what.
That was never properly celebrated.
Instead we got a massive QA Leak on Reddit
that same day, which spoiled a shit ton of stuff
about the game, and went completely unaddressed
by the company.
Not that they had to address the leaks directly,
but you know, maybe a little celebration for 10 years.
I mean, they gave us a poster a few months
before, but like, people forgot about that at that point.
It’s like, give us like, I don’t know,
like an emblem.
Something.
Give us something!
Anyways, that about wraps up the video.
I plan on hopefully covering some more stuff
related to Cold War as we near its release,
potentially, it just depends I guess on how
I’m feeling about the content.
And feel free to let me know some of your thoughts on the topics discussed in this video as well,
if you even made it this far into
the video, which I have my doubts.
Maybe like 5 of you did, including me.
Bye.
