First things first: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Zombies is a return to the fan favorite round-based co-op mode of 1-4 players surviving wave after wave of zombies that escalates in challenge and difficulty each round. The story picks up after the events of 2020’s Black Ops Cold War and continues the Dark Aether storyline with a cast featuring the returning Weaver, Grey, and Carver – who have been imprisoned – along with the new character of Maya as playable in Zombies. Each has their own storylines. Also returning is former villain William Peck, who acts as your guide, along with Oskar Strauss and Raptor One in support roles. What I can say is that I enjoyed my time playing Zombies. Treyarch seems to have established a strong balance of community requested features, level design, and progression that is shaping up to satisfy veterans and newcomers to the franchise.
Zombies will feature two maps at launch: Liberty Falls, set in West Virginia, and Terminus, an island set in the Philippine Sea. Terminus was playable during my hands-on time, and developer Treyarch is calling this one the biggest maps they have ever made: it’s filled with side missions, random dynamic encounters, environmental traps, and plenty of experiences left to discover and explore as you battle the zombie horde.
Treyarch’s motto for Terminus is “anywhere you can see, you can go.” The map will also introduce new enemies like the Vermin and Parasites that, once the main host is killed, will mutate and evolve into a more deadly foe. Players will have access to a drivable vehicle with the Project Janus Tactical Raft that we used during our play session to explore a smaller island that was visible from the main coastline.
Black Ops 6 Zombies will also see the return of Global Progression, Classic Prestige, Weapon Customization, map-specific intel systems, and fan favorite GobbleGums, a single-use item which you can store up to three GobbleGums at a time that provides in-game effects and abilities.
Wonder Weapons also make a return, with the all-new BeamSmasher that uses sound frequency and light energy types for unique and spectacular damage results. Elemental damage types also have effects and abilities against enemies weak to that damage type, with a fun example being making an enemy teleport and reappear high in the air and fall at a high rate of speed.
Meanwhile, the Augment Upgrade System brings a customized experience by allowing players to unlock three major and three minor upgrades per each item for every perk, field upgrade, and ammo mod. You will be able to equip one major and minor upgrade at a time. Augments are permanent upgrades that you earn by simply playing Zombies and you’ll have the ability to focus your progression towards a specific augment of the hundred augments that will be available at launch by utilizing the Research feature available via create a class. Melee Macchiato Perk was a favorite during my playtime, and it provides a strong punch attack in close combat and Support Injection that for a limited time transforms you into a force of nature smashing through hordes of Zombies with ease.
Also available in create a class are Zombie Builds, which allows you to save your custom weapon builds and make them available in game via the mystery box.
A few other new quality-of-life features are coming to Black Ops 6 too: “Save and Quit”, Third-Person mode, and Guided Mode. Save and Quit is a new feature that provides a limited pause in solo games and for longer breaks, you can save your status and resume – but only one save slot will be available to prevent multiple checkpoints as you chase those higher rounds. For co-op games, Treyarch is adding a “join matches at any time” feature for drop in/drop out flexibility to allow friends to join games in progress and/or after a disconnect from a session. Third-Person mode is available for the first time in a Black Ops game and can be toggled on/off at any time. HUD options that allow you to remove health bars and damage numbers will be available, plus preset options with choices such as: standard, legacy, mini map and a streamer mode which would allow room for a face cam or overlay.
But the feature I am most excited to see for players new to Zombies is Guided Mode. I sat down with the development team at Treyarch to discuss Guided Mode and was surprised to hear that a very low percentage of players finish the main quest, so the team decided to implement a guided version that removes side missions and the round-based ticking clock in order to provide a more welcoming and curated experience. It’s all in an effort to get more people to try and complete the main story. Guided mode will not be available at launch, though, and for hardcore players there will be an incentive to complete the main quest before the new mode launches in the form of a calling card.
After 45 minutes of hands-on time with Black Ops 6, I thoroughly enjoyed fighting my way through the Zombie horde on the island of Terminus. The map is, as Treyarch promised, huge with plenty to discover. In my limited time, using my pre-configured loadout and using the Mystery Box I was able to try out a variety of weapons including shotguns, SMGs and assault rifles. As always, all the weapons had their advantages and disadvantages, but overall they felt good to use – as did augment upgrades to various perks and field equipment such as scatter mines and the enhanced melee abilities when surrounded in close combat scenarios. The difficulty does ramp up and as you progress, I noticed I was being downed frequently by mobs of enemies surrounding me as we advanced into higher rounds (mutated parasites will be a problem if not taken down quickly) and I really needed to start using more strategy and communication with teammates versus simply running and gunning – as I expect most new players will be inclined to do on initial play sessions.
There are A LOT of features being packed into Zombies this year – from exploring the island of Terminus, utilizing the GobbleGums, taking advantage of the Augment upgrades, customizing my weapons in Zombie builds, to using the Wonder Weapons to take down hordes of enemies. And this doesn’t even include things I haven’t mentioned yet, like Global Onimovement or the second map of Liberty Falls, which Treyarch promises to share more about in the coming weeks.
Black Ops 6 Zombies is shaping up to be one of the most fully fleshed out examples of the mode that Treyarch first introduced in Call of Duty: World at War 16 years ago, and I’m genuinely looking forward to playing more of it when Black Ops 6 drops this Fall.
