The popular Zombies mode that has become a pillar of the Call of Duty series came from nowhere. The mode silently launched after the credits at the end of the campaign in Call of Duty: World At War, catching players off guard as they suddenly found themselves fighting for their lives from waves of Nazi zombies in the ruins of an old bunker. Now, it is a featured mode in nearly every game of the series, including Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
However, every Call of Duty to include Zombies has changed it slightly, with the current take on the mode hardly resembling what players first experienced in World At War. Many of the changes have been positive, but some Black Ops Cold War players have become concerned over the direction of the mode, feeling that it has not received the care or attention that multiplayer and Call of Duty: Warzone have over the past months. Unfortunately, the upcoming release of Season 5 for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War seems to confirm many of the fanbase's fears about what is in store for Zombies.
The History of Zombies in Call of Duty
From its inception as a fun easter egg at the end of a campaign, Zombies has exploded drastically in popularity, scale, and complexity. Where before players had a handful of rooms with a mysterious box that randomly gave players a gun, Call of Duty Zombies now features more than a dozen perks, Pack-A-Punch, Wonder Weapons, and multiple easter eggs in every map that can take multiple hours to solve. For many players within the Zombies community, the changes have been largely positive. World At War's DLC packs moved the mode forward steadily, eventually introducing perks and Pack-A-Punch to help players make it to higher rounds than ever before.
Zombies has only continued to get more complicated and dense and even spun an impressively convoluted story together for Call of Duty players to piece it together from short cutscenes and voice lines during matches. The Zombies mode also expanded out to games in the series that were not developed by the mode's original creators at Treyarch, but non-Treyarch modes have never found the foothold that the original mode has, despite often attempting to add a unique spin of their own. This has left the Zombies community often waiting around three years between each Treyarch-developed Call of Duty game. However, Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was considered very disappointing by many players in the Zombies community, which put an incredible amount of pressure on Call of Duty: Black Cold War to get the mode right.
Zombies in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Thankfully, the game was considered a success by many in the community. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War only launched with a single Zombies map, and it included a remake of the very first map to boot. However, many players in the community thought that the game's new approach to the mode was a huge success, and Black Ops Cold War's promise of free content drops in the future left many fans optimistic. However, the road for Zombies over the lifetime of Black Ops Cold War thus far has been tumultuous. The game eventually introduced a new Zombies mode, splitting the experience into what are known as survival maps and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's Outbreak mode.
Traditionally, Zombies matches saw players starting in an area of a map and doing their best to survive for as long as possible. The process was eventually complicated with the introductions of complicated quests and buildable weapons, but the experience stayed largely the same at its core until the release of Outbreak. Outbreak instead sees players jumping from large map to large map to hunt down and complete open-world sidequests while also upgrading the rarity of their weapons. Outbreak did eventually introduce its own sprawling easter egg quests, but the resources devoted to the mode have left many members of the Zombies community yearning for more of the traditional experience. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has introduced new survival maps in its seasons, but so far there are only three survival maps in the game.
What Season 5 Seems to Confirm for Zombies Players
Now, Season 5 is coming for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and it has confirmed the fears of many Zombies players. With Season 5 not including any more survival maps, the mode's fanbase has started accepting that the game may only release one more survival map before the confirmed Call of Duty 2021 releases this Fall. This has many fans hoping for the new map to come with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's Season 6 or Season 6 Reloaded, but some are even worried that there won't be another survival map at all.
However, the Zombies community is not without hope. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 received a massive DLC named Zombies Chronicles that remastered numerous older Zombies maps in the Black Ops 3 engine so that players could continue to enjoy them. After Season 5 only had content for Outbreak, many Black Ops Cold War Zombies players expressed their interest in a Zombies Chronicles 2 so that they could continue enjoying the game's new gameplay and engine on some more classic-style maps. Shortly after these demands, rumors of a Zombies Chronicles 2 began to circulate once again, so there remains some hope for the Zombies community yet.
It will be very interesting to see what else is in the future for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The game has been rumored to receive a second year of support and new content, which stands in stark contrast to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's support that ceased almost immediately upon Black Ops Cold War's release. If the second year of support ends up being true, it could be huge for Zombies players in Black Ops Cold War, but it will be interesting to see how that support would work if Call of Duty 2021 does hit its intended release date. Hopefully, players will get some news on what they can expect from the future of Call of Duty Zombies sometime soon.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.