BLACK OPS 6 ZOMBIES GAMEPLAY OVERHAUL & NEW MAP TEASERS FOUND…

With the highly anticipated release of Black Ops 6 later this year, new details & teasers are being revealed for the returning Round Based Zombies. Intel is still being added into MWZ, interviews are being done with Treyarch, mysteries are being revealed after 11 years. There’s a fair bit to cover today, so let’s hop right in.

NEW LIBERTY FALLS TEASER REVEALED

With the release of Season 4 Reloaded, if you head into Urzikstan, you’ll find a new piece of intel located near the cargo area of the map. Dataminers & leakers have been suggesting that there may be more BO6 Zombies marketing being added into MWZ, probably around the Season 5 Mid Season Update. This is the dialogue you’ll hear from Miller upon interacting with this intel:

“Ravenov – I know you told me to record this when I had time. Well, I’m making time. If you can fill in the gaps- I might be able to make peace with what happened. Right. Outbreak day. First thing I did that day was wake up and go to school. It was ’91 so I must’ve been in kindergar- no wait, no…first grade. Sometime after recess there was a fire drill. When everyone filed out onto the playground, we found our parents waiting for us. I was so excited to see Mom and Dad, It… I-I didn’t notice how scared they looked – I thought they’d planned something special, like we were going to the bowling alley or something.

Before I knew what was happening, Mom grabbed me by the wrist and ran. I-I mean I had no idea where we were going – now that I think about it, she probably didn’t either. Dad had his hunting rifle with him. He was just ahead of us, but I kept losing sight of him ‘cuz he was always ducking around corners. Dad had his hunting rifle with him. He was just ahead of us, but I kept losing sight of him ‘cuz he was always ducking around corners. Mom still had her hand wrapped around my wrist – telling me to pick up my feet or I’d get left behind.

Our little town must’ve been in chaos – but I didn’t notice any of that. All I could do was focus on staying upright. I-I tried to keep up, I really did. But my legs were too short and we were running so fast. I cried, begging Mom to slow down – but she just tightened her grip, and kept her eyes straight ahead. Saying over and over… “Pick up your feet, baby girl, or goure gonna get left behind…” I tried to get Dad’s attention – get him to tell her to stop. But he’d bolted down the alleyway by Olly’s Comics. That’s when I heard a loud crash. Somethin’ growled, Dad started screaming… and then… then the rifle went off. Mom just kept running. I think that’s enough for today.”

TREYARCH IS BRINGING THE HEAT

It will be interesting to see if this game receives any more intel in its lifecycle that maybe talks a little more about Terminus, or just continuing to tease Liberty Falls with these radios. It’s definitely really awesome to hear about the specific points of interest that we’ll end up seeing in Liberty Falls. The intel made mention of the Bowling Alley & Olly’s Comics. Both of these points of interest help give some idea of the personality this map is going to have. It’s worth once again noting that Treyarch confirmed at the studio a few weeks ago, as well as the in the direct, that the map is the living embodiment of 90s America. Between really cool points of interest & secrets to discover, it will also be taking place during the day, distinctly different to Terminus.

Now a common consensus from some hardcore zombies fans & creators is that it’s been a while since we’ve had personalized POIs within a round based map. Shadows of Evil being a commonly used example. Forsaken came from pretty close, seeing you had the compass to see what POI you’re in while playing. While there were some cool ones in Forsaken, but in terms of a 4 year developed Black Ops game, what should be a crazy zombies experience, I think they’re going to go all out to ensure the environment is as unique as possible.

The issues with some recent zombies iterations is that it’s not so much the reused assets, environments, or narrative direction, it’s the atmosphere of the map. The atmosphere of a map should be rich & full of personality. I think this comes along with how long Treyarch has to make a zombies game, that could allow for a crazy environment, similar to that of round based iterations in Black Ops 3.

TREYARCH CONFIRMS NEW ZOMBIES DETAILS

A surprise was dropped on us as Xbox conducted an interview with Treyarch, & Kevin Drew himself sat down to about the new interaction of zombies, as well as the mode as a whole. Here’s a breakdown of some of the crazy cool points he discussed about BO6:

AIMING TO BE THE BEST ITERATION OF ROUND BASED YET

Kevin has been waiting years to say Round Based is returning in its full glory with BO6. He’s also excited for how omnidirectional really changes up how Zombies works, feels, & will be for the entire Zombies Community, seeing how this game will be the first to offer movement like this.

SCRAPPED COLD WAR IDEA / SET CREW

With time not being in their side, as well as other restrictions like the pandemic, working remotely, development time was very different in Cold War vs BO6. It was implied though that a not having a set crew in Cold War was connected to the issues they had during the pandemic, remote working, & over all not having much time to work on the game. It’s implied that those problems & restrictions made it not possible for a set crew to be in Cold War.

With that being said, they have returned to a set crew formula for BO6. He expressed his excitement with having a set crew back as you’ll get characters interacting with one another while traveling through maps, competing quests, truly a return to the zombies we once knew. They also mentioned moment to moment gameplay, cinematics, things the community are really gonna dig once the game releases.

APPROACHABILITY

One thing that hasn’t been discussed much is Kevin’s comment on Approachability. He pointed out that a newcomer to the mode may not survive long, may not make past the first few rounds, & find the later rounds very challenging. Especially if they’re only familiar to say, Multiplayer, Warzone, or just other games entirely. Kevin wants to make sure the game is approachable. This can easily be taken out of context, or overthink the comment & assume how the mode will be easy. That the mode will have Easter Eggs that walk you through all the steps, how it won’t be like classic zombies.

It is possible he was referring to having a difficulty like mode within BO6. Possibly a casual friendly & limited version of Round Based maps that newcomers can dive into, quests disabled. But then having the regular version of the map, on par more with classic zombies iterations. Not so much like the causal/hardcore Easter egg hybrid introduced in WW2 Zombies, but something more like the difficulty options BO4 kind of explored in its iteration of the mode. The community wasn’t all in on that during the games lifecycle, but to try it again on a different scale could be a net positive for the zombies community.

CLASSIC FEATURES

Easily one of the biggest talking points with BO6 zombies is Gobblegums. With the return of what was once Monty’s little candies, Treyarch hasn’t talked much about them or how they work. During the interview as well as during the BO6 direct event, comments on the gum has been vague. Pretty sure it’s with good reason however as it might be saved for an upcoming blog post, additional pieces of marketing during the summer, & maybe even during COD NEXT, where a full BO6 Zombies reveal with even more gameplay. It’s a good sign to see them express they’ve had more time to develop this game, which allows them to work on bringing back classic features that maybe they wanted to use in Cold War, but couldn’t.

11 YEAR ZOMBIES MYSTERY FINALLY EXPLAINED

Kevin finally addressed a mystery that has left the Zombies community scratching their heads for 11 years. A mystery that stems from one of the all time classics, Mob of the Dead. Be mentioned the zombies eye color was never anything as deep as we thought. Over the Black Ops Zombies saga we knew that eye color indicated who was in charge of the undead.

Yellow Eyes meant Samantha
Blue Eyes meant Richthofen
Orange Eyes meant Ludwig Maxis

But with the red eyes, we never got an explanation as to why? Theory’s & other pieces of intel suggested maybe Monty was in charge or the devil may have been. Discussions were hot regarding the topic of zombie eye colors. The red eyed specifically. Kevin goes on to say it never really meant much & that a producer thought it’d be cool. But as seen with not just zombies, but other game & media stories altogether, sometimes writers & producers try things without a second thought.

Then, as fan engagement & theories begin to swell, it’s given more meaning & it ends up sticking forever. TEDD from Tranzit on BO2 is a great example of this. His name was never really TEDD, but the community collectively came together & called him by that name. Low & behold, it’s still used to this day.

THE END

What are your thoughts on the new teasers for BO6 Zombies? How do you feel about the Xbox/Treyarch Interview? Did you believe the zombies eye colors ever had a deeper meaning? For a full breakdown of the new Black Ops 6 zombies teasers, check out the video down below: