Activision and Infinity Ward tease the reveal for the Zombies mode in the companies' forthcoming futuristic first-person shooter Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.
According to a tweet on the game's official Twitter account, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare developers will be revealing more details about the title's Zombies mode next week on Tuesday, August 16. While the date and time have been confirmed, neither Activision nor Infinity Ward have divulged exactly what fans should expect to be shown.
As seen in the tweet for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare below, it's suggested that fans "grab the popcorn" in anticipation for the reveal, and developers even offer a depiction of a countdown clock on what appears to be a locked film canister, further suggesting that the Zombies mode for the forthcoming shooter will have overt cinema motifs. These movie references build upon Activision's and Infinity Ward's previous teaser for Infinite Warfare's Zombies mode released back in May that featured popcorn and a film reel.
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With August 16 being the day before gamescom 2016's official start, it seems as if all of the studios developing first-person shooters will be using the European expo as a means for further promotion of its titles. For instance, not only will Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare be featured at the event, but also DICE's Battlefield 1, Bungie's Destiny: Rise of Iron, and Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall 2. Since gamescom 2016 is going to be chock full of FPS titles and their reveals, it's possible for Infinity Ward to have a majorly impressive presentation in order to further explicate the relationship between the movie themes and Infinite Warfare's Zombies mode.
Speaking of which, in the image below, a strip of film with a splash of blood on it can be seen displayed next to a piece of popcorn with text at the top of the frame reading "19-ATVI-85." ATVI is Activision's stock symbol, and while it hasn't officially been confirmed yet, it's possible that the digits put together in order could be referring to the time period in which Infinite Warfare's Zombies mode takes place. Should that be the case, it wouldn't be the first instance of the franchise jumping back to the past with the undead slaying mode, as Black Ops 3's Der Eisendrache, Zetsubou No Shima, and Gorod Krovi all occurred within the 1940s.
Other than the given that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare's Zombies mode reveal will feature shambling hordes of the walking dead, there's no telling what else developers plan on divulging next week. This is going to be the first time that Infinity Ward includes zombies in one of its titles for the franchise, so it will be interesting to see how the studio handles the material. The closest that the studio came to incorporating such horror and sci-fi elements was with Call of Duty: Ghosts' Extinction mode, which had players fighting off aliens known as Cryptids.
Of course, with Call of Duty's Zombies mode being one of the most popular features of the series, fans' expectations for Infinity Ward's take on the idea are understandably high. That said, one can only hope for the studio's ability to walk the fine line between providing a fresh spin on the mode and incorporating all of the original aspects that made it fun in the first place.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is set to release on November 4, 2016 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: Call of Duty – Twitter (via CharlieIntel, GameSpot)