Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies fans have had over a month to enjoy Outbreak, and many have praised its unique gameplay style and smart use of multiplayer assets. Additions like the new Sanatorium Night region and Secure objective freshened up the mode during Season 2’s midseason update, giving fans a reason to keep pushing through the world tiers and fighting through the hordes.
However, while this open world Zombies mode has been a pleasant surprise for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War fans, it is not perfect. There are a few big areas that Treyarch can work on if it wants to improve the mode, ranging from side content to major changes to the flow of each match. While it will take a lot for fans to appreciate Outbreak as much as classic Zombies Survival, it is hard to deny that the game mode has some serious potential.
Speeding Things Up Early On
One of the big downsides to Outbreak in its current form is how slow it takes to get going. While things become challenging, intense, and fun about 5 world tiers in, the build-up to that point is a slow one. Players who want to survive in the higher tiers need to explore every area early on so that they can get enough salvage and points to upgrade their gear. While this would be fine, this process gets old after a few games, as players are fighting slow-moving Zombies with small health bars in the early rounds.
With Outbreak essentially requiring exploration in these early tiers, something that should be optional, a change needs to be made here. The easiest fix would be to award more points and salvage drops when completing objectives in these early tiers. This way, players that do not like the slow and easy startup can skip passed it without being punished for doing so, a buff to points and salvage from objectives would also not hurt those who explore, as they could still be rewarded for their efforts in the early portion of an Outbreak game.
To speed up the process further, players could spawn closer to the main Outbreak objective of a region. While automatically starting the mission as soon as players teleport to an area would be unfair to those that want to explore, objective-minded players could have the advantage of getting things going as soon as possible. After all, much of the fun in Outbreak happens during the higher world tiers, making a speedier setup stage hugely beneficial. By spawning closer to the action and not being forced to explore, Outbreak games could be significantly quicker and more exciting.
More Side Content And Easter Eggs
In Outbreak, players have a few side objectives that they can complete. The Dragon head easter egg sees them filling up a rocket and launching a live dragon into space, while hunting parties allow players to avenge dead Requiem soldiers. Locked chests can also be opened by killing a few waves of enemies, while demented echoes can scare the player on rare occasions. While all these side objectives are solid, they also appear on every map, with these same four side quests being reused throughout all of Outbreak.
One major improvement that could be made is to add more side quests to Outbreak. Further, these new side quests could be exclusive to certain regions, making each and every area in Outbreak feel distinct and filled with its own content. While new main objectives are fine, the six that are currently available offer plenty of variety for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War players as is. As such, Treyarch should make adding more side missions to Outbreak the focus going forward. On top of that, more Zombies-exclusive easter eggs are a must.
While Treyarch has already promised a main easter egg quest for Outbreak in Season 3, this should be the first of many steps taken to make the mode feel more in-depth. Outbreak’s hidden music mission, for example, was an awesome addition. More secrets like that one would be perfect for the mode, as Zombies is known for its smaller easter eggs just as much as its full-blown story quests. With such massive play spaces to mess around with, Treyarch could add many smaller objectives for players to stumble across. From races around the map for extra rewards to obscure story callbacks, plenty can be done inside the bold new mode.
Fully Original Outbreak Maps
While speeding up the early game would be huge, and more secondary content in each map would be a step in the right direction, both are small problems in comparison to Outbreak’s biggest problem. While the mode is fun, it does not feel like Zombies. Like Zombies Onslaught, the maps lack the Zombies feel, with a distinct lack of personality seen throughout. While Onslaught’s Containment mode has proven that speeding up the gameplay can make killing Zombies on multiplayer maps fun, it is always extremely clear that the settings were not designed with Zombies gameplay in mind.
While Treyarch has taken steps to change this, such as making Sanatorium a night map in Outbreak, it still lacks the polish of a usual Zombies map. When Treyarch makes a Survival map, every area feels detailed and thought out, something that Outbreak is lacking. To fix this, Outbreak needs fully original Zombies locations. A TranZit remake would be a perfect fit for the mode’s mechanics, allowing players to properly explore the ruined world that the map was trying to portray. Alcatraz or Rebirth Island would also be a perfect fit. Instead of another Mob of the Dead reimagining, players could complete objectives across the entirety of the island, with small nods to the classic map thrown in.
Make no mistake, Outbreak reusing Fireteam maps is a fine strategy. This should continue going forward, with future Ural Mountains locations being incorporated into the open world mode so that there is a steady supply of new maps. If the early tiers are sped up and more side content is added, these areas will be plenty of fun to explore. However, they should not be the end-all be-all for Outbreak additions. The mode should also get fully original maps designed specifically for Outbreak.
Regardless of whether Treyarch takes the path of remakes like TranZit and Alcatraz or does something entirely new, seeing an area built from the ground up for the mode’s mechanics would be a ton of fun. While Outbreak will remain a solid side mode if it continues re-using multiplayer content, it could become something more if original content is added alongside it.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.