Rate Black Ops II: Zombies so far.

[Mr. Jay]

Very good discussion, and you know the support/disapproval will be split evenly down the middle.

I believe most hardcore zombie fanatics will lean toward BO1, the ability to replay and reinvent BO1 was off the the charts. When BO1 first hit the shelves, the world of zombies was destined for boom. Throughout BO1, we evolved with our game play from camping in the trenches to training and dominating zombie AI. With each map our skills and knowledge soared to new highs, further development and fine tune, to once unbelievable numbers. How many people before BO1 thought round 50 was unreachable? How many people through BO1 thought round 100 was fraud? BTW round 200 is no longer a dream. With each map our expectations have evolved as well.

Last year on this forum, we discussed how slow the maps have grown compared to ours. Right here on CODZ we discussed how predictable the maps have been with our execution. We complained how boring the maps are after round 20, simply circle after circle until the power cuts us off. We complained how weak the melee weapons are, how lack of choices simplified our experience. We complained how lack of creativity has hindered the franchise, how one skill can help us reach high rounds. Some complained it is too hard initially, some complained too easy. Some complained solo is too boring, some complained Easter Eggs are too weak. You get the idea. Now look at BO2, and look at all the major complaints and how Treyarch dealt with them. Can you see how brilliantly they have come up with BO2 and how they accepted the challenges members here at CODZ have sent them?

Like most hardcore zombie players, I was hoping for BO1 type of maps. I was initially very discouraged with my findings. But with each discovery I realized they were doing their best to meet with all demands, not just yours. Sure none of the maps on BO2 could measure up to our beloved Five or Ascension, but each map unique and refreshing in its own way.

BO2 has been a major success no matter your stance. They did enough for the hardcore, they did enough for the novices, they upgraded the creativity, they strengthened the storyline, they improved the statistical analysis, they limited the impacts of rage quitting, they found new ways to rejuvenate the zombie world.

If you bought BO2 and considering BO3 then Treyarch did their job.

PS I still love BO1 and still prefer it over BO2.

[Monopoly Mac]

Strengthen the storyline? I mean... not really to be honest...

[NZheadshot1]

Here's what I really think it comes down to: were you a BO1 Zombies player from the start, or a BO2 player? Is BO2 what got you into Zombies? If yes, then you'll see it more positively than if you got into Zombies on an older game.

This EXACTLY. BO2 has been a very good game, but if you played zombies on WaW and Black Ops, it's quite clear that this game doesn't even SHADOW it predecessors.

Based on the glitchiness of maps, lack of lobby leaderboards, lack of private matches, TranZit in general, lack of customization in the oh-so-overhyped custom games, lack of quality characters, the unexplained (and again, overhyped) ranking system, and the fact that Treyarch SCREWED all of us hardened edition people, I rate this game a solid 4.5.

The .5 is MERELY because of how well done MotD was done. I'm a PS3er, so I can't comment on Buried yet, and hopefully we will get a totally amazing MP4. Nonetheless nothing that Treyarch can do can reconcile these terrible decisions that they've made for this game.

[Rissole25]

The only dislike I really have is the ranking system and how it "classes" you. That Custom Matches don't save your score. The fact that there isn't much backstory for the maps (Die Rise), that Survival/Grief characters have no dialogue, etc. Only small things really.

I commend Treyarch for breaking the mold though. I like that they introduced a new group, because the O4's quotes were kinda starting to get stale, old and repetitive. Buildables were a nice feature (they kinda started with "Five" and Moon), Grief is fun, Turned could've been executed better.

As far as maps, nothing really wrong with the layout. The lava is a tad annoying in TranZit though.

[Dahniska]

First off, to anyone who rated it a 10/10, you must have either never played tranzit, or its been so long that you forgot how unbelievably terrible it is.

I love TranZit.

L.O.V.E.

TranZit.

It's a matter of opinion. And I love all the maps. Glad to see I'm not alone though guys.

I'm seeing that more people really love tranzit than i thought possible, so if you don't mind, let me know some of the reasons why you love it? maybe im missing something that i should go back and take a second look

Like the others said, TranZit has probably the most replayability of any Zombies map to date. Sure, it's not as beautiful as some of the other maps and some of its features seem sub-par, but the new characters, the feel of the map, the variety of all sorts of options and (personally I love this) the fact that you need to learn to find your way around made me love the map. It honestly feels like the most realistic Zombies experience to date; if the world was to actually end, with Zombies, that map is more like what I think it would be than any other.

I understand it has many haters, but I came to love playing that map way before there were any DLC packs available. It will always be special to me, in its own way.

[Matuzz]

I just came from Tranzit. After once making the Richtofen EE which for some reason didn't save the EE for later games (so even tough I had made the EE the game thought I hadn't.) I gathered a team to make the Richtofen side again. Hoping this time the game will remember that I actually have made the EE. Because it seems to be extremely important in Buried that you have made them all.

So we throw the EMPss and jump to the tele to put the end to the Easter Egg!.... But?!? What is this?... the game disconnected everyone. Why thank you Treyarch and Tranzit for rubbing your shit to my face :_D

My score just went from 6.8 to 6.

[Shock3600]

At first the story and characters were dull tranzit was an outside layout but was cool jetgun sucked the new modes were cool die rise was fun but I seem to be the only of my friends to think so the liquefier was underestimated motd was pretty fun and exciting but the buried story Is amazing haven't played it yet but it and the paralyzer and raygun mark ll are awesome can't wait to play it nuketown was fun but hard because jug isn't available early

I'd give it an 8.5 until i play buried

[The Clay Bird]

I just came from Tranzit. After once making the Richtofen EE which for some reason didn't save the EE for later games (so even tough I had made the EE the game thought I hadn't.) I gathered a team to make the Richtofen side again. Hoping this time the game will remember that I actually have made the EE. Because it seems to be extremely important in Buried that you have made them all.

So we throw the EMPss and jump to the tele to put the end to the Easter Egg!.... But?!? What is this?... the game disconnected everyone. Why thank you Treyarch and Tranzit for rubbing your shit to my face :_D

My score just went from 6.8 to 6.

I think that the EE and it's implementation in tranzit may be what I hate about it most.

A) it really did barely anything for the story (it showed us that Maxis and Richtofen were competing against one another, although only brand new zombies folks that didnt play the previous games didnt already know that) and gave us literally ZERO back story on our new characters. Hell really we still no nothing other than Russman was in project whatever and Stu can hear voices in his head. thats it that's all we have.

the tranzit EE had literally no reward, thus gave me no incentive to attempt it. that and the whole thing is glitchy as hell (notably hitting HIM with an EMP under the tower and using the EMP's at the lampposts).

It was a very ambitious idea, and kudos for them for trying to do something different, but as we can see with the next 3 maps returning to classic kill the zombies then open doors/clear debris with your points format, that they realized that the tranzit style was certainly not what we wanted out of zombies

[Stop Mocking Me0]

Tranzit: 2.7

Die rise: 5

Nuketown: 5

mob of the dead: 8

Buried: 8

Survival town: 7

Survival farm: 6

Survival bus depot: 5

Greif town: 6

Greif farm: 5

Turned dinner: 3

Cell Block grief: 6

Burough grief: 7

Burough turned:4

Overall performance: 7.0

Black ops 1's : 9.2

[LJx19]

I only have one comment to make regarding the novice and pro zombie slayas comment someone made.

I think bo2 zombies was actually even less noob friendly than bo1 for the reason that transits a pain in the ass and buried is excruciatingly annoying for us used to training and not camping. Motd was quite linear and unless u had the gat getting stuck in a mob of zombies might b a deathtrap.

The only brightside is that the new zombie AI is weird because you can dodge through weird tight spots that would never be possible in bo1.

[CrazyTrain0917]

I personally liked Tranzit but it definitely had some pit falls.

1: Jet Gun - In my opinion the grind to build, and then use this gun was really bad. Even if they just let you run with it, it would have made it so much better.

2: I knew they were going to ramp up the rewards for the EE's but the reward for the Tranzit EE was seriously disappointing after playing Moon.

Note: If Treyarch wants to ensure all the maps have major replayability after the last DLC they should go back and add a bunch of hidden stuff on all the maps and up the rewards once it's all said and done.

Anyway, Die Rise was great but I felt Tranzit and Die Rise were both pretty "cartoony" (for lack of a better word than the old maps and MOTD forward. Die Rise especially.

MOTD was awesome and really sync'd with me with COTD back when it came out. I felt they kept the same sort of feel of changing everything but keeping it the same, ya know? I also felt MOTD was the first map in a long, long time to bring back that creepy eerie feel. I never had that "oh shit where'd that zombie come from" jump of excitement at all in Blops2 until MOTD. It's gone now, but it was fun while it lasted lol

Thats the point right there though I think. Us old school zombie players are so much more skilled now, so familiar with zombies. There's no creepy scare factor, no real exploring factor that we had for quite awhile with WaW and Blops1 zombies. It was all so fresh and new back then, so fun. Now it's still fun but the only thing new really is all the options ya know? They can't creep us out, or give us a jump scare anymore. We're numb to it.

I went on a blops1 zombie kick last week and man, I loved playing Shangri La, Der Reise, Ascension, Kino again, it was awesome. I really like Blops2's engine and mechanics better though. It made me want to play all the old maps on the blops2 platform definitely not the other way around.

Enough rambling from me. Blops2 is a 9/10 for me simply because it is what it is and Treyarch has done a pretty good job at trying to improve and expand on something that started off as a little side project in WaW.

[Stop Mocking Me0]

The new mechanics and system are terrible... All they allow is more players, half-way working host migration, and bigger maps, at the expense of better wonder weapons, serious lag, and restrictions on the amount of content in a map.... They need to move back to the origional engine, but upgrade that to allow multiple people and host migration...

[Slade]

The new mechanics and system are terrible... All they allow is more players, half-way working host migration, and bigger maps, at the expense of better wonder weapons, serious lag, and restrictions on the amount of content in a map.... They need to move back to the origional engine, but upgrade that to allow multiple people and host migration...

This is highly inaccurate. There is no new engine, they switched engines from SP to MP for Zombies. This change doesn't come at the expense of better wonder weapons, or restrictions on the amount of content in a map. "More lag" is the result of either your internet not being able to handle the game, or horrible hosts mixed with terrible net-code on Treyarch's side. That's all scripting you're talking about, now it does come at the expense of the amount of detail Treyarch can put in each map. SP Engine > MP Engine in terms of graphics, particles and FX amounts and overall detail.

Also moving back to the original (SP) engine, but keeping more players and host migration is near impossible. Those are all MP features, so unless they re-write the SP engine to support that, not gonna happen.

[The Clay Bird]

The new mechanics and system are terrible... All they allow is more players, half-way working host migration, and bigger maps, at the expense of better wonder weapons, serious lag, and restrictions on the amount of content in a map.... They need to move back to the origional engine, but upgrade that to allow multiple people and host migration...

This is highly inaccurate. There is no new engine, they switched engines from SP to MP for Zombies. This change doesn't come at the expense of better wonder weapons, or restrictions on the amount of content in a map. "More lag" is the result of either your internet not being able to handle the game, or horrible hosts mixed with terrible net-code on Treyarch's side. That's all scripting you're talking about, now it does come at the expense of the amount of detail Treyarch can put in each map. SP Engine > MP Engine in terms of graphics, particles and FX amounts and overall detail.

Also moving back to the original (SP) engine, but keeping more players and host migration is near impossible. Those are all MP features, so unless they re-write the SP engine to support that, not gonna happen.

The host migration is useless anyway. when they said host migration, I assumed they meant like in MP when if the current hosts connection drops and causes too much lag, the game will try to find a more suitable host. This DOES NOT happen in zombies. Host Migration only happens when the host quits out of a public match. SO this only allows a public match to continue if the host quits... BUT! once someone quits, then the remainder of the match doesnt count toward the leaderboards! Useless!

[Stop Mocking Me0]

Exactly, and sometimes Hm doesn't even migrate properly and everyone goes back to the per-game lobby...

Also: I know its not a new engine but it is a new engine for zombies.... And it does restrict ww abilitys, the content of the map and lag, even in local...

You're going to tell me that in die rise, if you kill too many zombies too fast the whole screen doesn't slow down? Because it does happen, that's why insta-kill ww like the thundergun can't be put in this, it would kill too many zombies at once and you would loose the game because the engine can't Handel it... The content of the map is also restricted, and more importantly lag is a huge problem for all game modes, my Internet is fine, but even then it lags on all grief, larger maps and even nuketown....

There's no denying it: This engine is NOT capible of handling zombies...

[Slade]

Exactly, and sometimes Hm doesn't even migrate properly and everyone goes back to the per-game lobby...

Also: I know its not a new engine but it is a new engine for zombies.... And it does restrict ww abilitys, the content of the map and lag, even in local...

You're going to tell me that in die rise, if you kill too many zombies too fast the whole screen doesn't slow down? Because it does happen, that's why insta-kill ww like the thundergun can't be put in this, it would kill too many zombies at once and you would loose the game because the engine can't Handel it... The content of the map is also restricted, and more importantly lag is a huge problem for all game modes, my Internet is fine, but even then it lags on all grief, larger maps and even nuketown....

There's no denying it: This engine is NOT capible of handling zombies...

Host migration issues are somewhat common and cannot be fixed, ever.

Tell me how the MP engine restricts the content of the map.

If your internet is "fine" but it lags on all grief, larger maps, nuketown and local; your internet isn't fine it SUCKS. Also it's worth noting a better engine doesn't fix lag per se, net-coding and better servers do that. Neither of which CoD has so again, it's your internet speed that's the problem son, don't pin that on the MP engine.

Screen slows down is indeed the engine showing its age. To fix this we would need a brand new (next-gen) engine.

Say what you will. If Zombies are to return in Treyarch's next installment. They will use the MP engine again whether you like it or not.

[949]

Tranzit - Very Bad - main con: Fog

Die Rise - Pretty Bad - main con: Only one long loop around the map

MotD - Decent

Buried - Pretty Good

DLC4 - Hopefully Amazing ( Idk if I should get my hopes up or not)

All Bo2 and WW maps are "Pretty Good" and up with the exception of Shangri-La, Verruckt, and Nacht which are all "Decent"

A HUGE CON: custom/private games don't count on the leader boards. Wtf Treyarch. Me and my friends tried to get a 3 person game for almost 15 mins then gave up and started a custom game.

The leader boards were a great addition to the game. You can see all your kills, downs etc. I just wish they had them for BO1 zombies. It'd be interesting to see if I had 1 million kills or not. But.. The leader boards could have been much better. People who play 1 game of zombies in their life get the top spot of the Deaths/Downs leader board.

Grief is probably my favorite part of BO2 Zombies at the moment. I ONLY play with 3 or 4 friends though because I have a feeling I'd like it much less if I played with randoms.

So there, a few pros and cons. Overall I'd give BO2 a 5.5, BO1 a 10, and WaW an 8.

[Tattoo247]

I go through phases where I love it, then hate it. Right now I'd probably give it a 7 just because more of the story has been laid out and it's good to see it's not a bad semi-conclusion, we'll see about the last DLC.

I don't care for the characters, but you've read that plenty I'm sure. None of them seem like end of the world survivors to me, just takes the feel away. And as a 3 person group, I hate to see so many damn four person easter eggs, if they could just add loop holes like Tranzit having two people and a teleporter for Richtofen. I still like the game for sure, but I'm probably not getting BO3 at launch, and I'm definitely not spending what I did on Bo2 :lol:

[TheNathanNS]

Here's what I really think it comes down to: were you a BO1 Zombies player from the start, or a BO2 player? Is BO2 what got you into Zombies? If yes, then you'll see it more positively than if you got into Zombies on an older game.

This.

People who started with Black Ops 1 like that game better, people who started with Black Ops 2 generally like the new-gen zombies game better. Also, a lot of people hating on BO2 are saying that the maps are "too easy to get to a high round". Personally, I just play zombies for fun and rarely go for high rounds, so that doesn't apply for me.

I prefer BO2 and give it a rating of 9/10.

Pros

-HUD and graphics are a huge improvement over BO1

-Normal box weapons are much better than the BO1 guns

-Storyline is great, much more detailed

-Introduction of persistent upgrades and buildables made the game more exciting

-New gamemodes Grief and Turned give us more things to do with zombies

-Maps are more exciting in general (only maps I liked in BO1 were CotD and Der Riese)

Cons

-Absence of a lobby leaderboard

-Some of the wonder weapons aren't too impressive (Jet Gun, Paralyzer).

I'm sorry, I have to disagree with your opinion on the storyline being more detailed.

Black Ops 1's maps had hidden radios which would play a short audio clip of what lead up to the events of zombies. They gave true detail to the story and gave the pre-zombies storyline some much needed detail.

In Call of the Dead [i think] there was a radio where you heard what happened when Richtofen met Dempsey.

In Der Riese you could hear Dr Maxis using test subjects. One of the radios you learnt how Hellhounds came to be.

In Black Ops 2 we get nothing like that. Just some unknown group. All we can really do about those radios is theorize.

[Stop Mocking Me0]

I disagree with a lot of that as well...

Black ops 1 weapons killed TONS better then the BO2 weapons...

Hamer or Hk12? Defiantly the Hk12...

Thunder gun---> Jet gun

Winter's howel ---> Blundergat

Gersh device----> Time bomb

Seliquifier---> Wunder waffe...

Also the storyline was ALOT better in BO1... We have basically NO story in tranzit, die rise, and buried, the only map with a fantastic story would have been mob of the dead...

In BO1 you has the radios in kino, the secrets in "five", the radios/mystery man in ascension, the characters (o4) in COTD, Brock and Gary in shangri la, and Griffen station on Moon....

also grief and turned have NOT helped zombies gameplay a whole bunch.... Rarely do many play it, some one always lags out of grief, turned is just.... Horrible.... and its honestly not much fun...., The survival maps are nice, but given we only have four, three of which are parts of the WORST map ever, its not truly game-changing....

Buildables were a very nice addition, as well as the more interactive environments, but i would have picked a better story however, over these though....

Persistant upgrades are more trouble then they're worth, many of them are useless, and those that are worth something make the game too easy.... Plus think of the time waisted in adding those when they could have just added PHD, radios, or more buildables...

Another thing you missed are the "private matches" but yeah lobby leader boards would be a nice thing, I've had too many hot shot shotguns tell me to get lost because i went on vacation and got demoted back to skull.....

In short: (and in comparison to BO1)

Perma perks: Bad

Buildables: Fantastic

Current leaderboard and lobby system: Very poor...

Wonder weapons: Meh, the paralyzer, seliquifier, time bomb,hells redeemer and blunder gat have NOT disappointed me, however the EMPS and the jet gun.... (shudder) Still not as good as the BO1 WW though...

New perks: Tombstone: Ok, i like it... I can get all perks with it... Whos who: Love the jingle but a horrible perk.... Electric cherry: Very nice no complaints Vulture aid: Love it nothing bad about this at all! Over all: About the same as the BO1 perks but if all the Bo1 perks were all together, vs these perks... Bo1 would win... Big time....

Story: HUGE let down... The characters are horrible, there is no backstory to any of the maps, its just: Oh hey, you found this... thing here, yeah that got here some how, use your imagination and wikipedia to figure it out.... I personally KNOW i could have written a better map's backstory.... I mean seriously... Its pathetic! ALL the black ops 2 maps should have been as storyline-detailed as MOTD.... Then it would have been POSSIBLE to complete with the BO1 map's storyline...

Well thats MY rant for today.....

[margon]

Because I played all maps in Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2 on PC my opinion can be different. I'm judging game mostly by gameplay, not story.

First of all, I started playing zombies when I got First Strike DLC for having MP Server. I turned on Ascension and I felt in love with this map. I found a group to play with and I spent a lot of time on Cosmodrone and Pentagon. Later we had CotD. I researched some information and I saw that there is an Easter Egg. I looked on map before and I realised that we had also ee on Ascension. I started doing them but I had to convince my friends for a long time (even now). Back to the topic, gameplay in BO1 maps was really nice. However, I didn't like most of the weapons from box, I enjoyed using Ray and Mustang&Sally (or ThunderGun if I had it). Later they added this zombie bosses. In Shangri-La I liked them. But in Moon and CotD, George and Astronaut re pain in ass. I hated them. Characters, well O4 is just epic. And these Easter Eggs... I hated one thing, they were too long. It was really hard to convince my buddies to do it (especially Shangri-La, 4 players, 4 times to repeat urgh).

But DLCs ended, 2 years of waiting and we have new BO2.

Let's start with possitive changes.

First, NEW ENGINE. This is just epic. Why? Because in BO1 I had 30 fps, 10 fps if i look into water on medium graphic, resolution 1024x768. BO2 ? 60 fps, high graphic with anty-aliasing 4x, resolution 1920x1080. The same computer. This is the HUGE plus for Bo2.

Second, BOSS Zombies. Avogadro, Brutus. I feel like it's easier to kill them. Avogadro, 2 shots from Galavaknuckles, NO PROBLEM. Brutus, Ray Gun and I didn;t have to use so much ammo how I had to on Astronaut (yeah, brutus is running but it's not a big problem for me). Also, I like return of Boss Round- Minions in Die Rise.

Third, Leaderboards re now better. Less cheaters (in BO1 there was a lot of them) and it's more expanded.

Fourth, the game doesn't depend only on wonder weapon and Ray Gun. Actually, normal weapons (Galil, An-94, Pdw, Aks-74u, Tommy Gun, RPD, LSAT, M27 re my favourite) are more useful. Sorry but I didn't like using any weapons in BO1 if it wasn't Galil, Aks-74u or WonderWeapon / Ray Gun.

Negatives.

1. I don't like Tranzit. Few reasons- fog, long time to craft Jet Gun and lava. And this was the first map so BO2 didn't look good for me at first.

2. Custom games with normal settings COULD count to leaderboards :/

3. Some people say that in Black Ops 1 u don't have to be online to play Solo. Well, when I want to play solo game in BO1 and servers don't work - I can't launch solo. It wants to connect to servers anyway. So there is no problem for me that I have to be online to play solo. The problem is when Steam Community turns off for even 10 sec, YOU RE KICKED FROM GAME. 54 Round ? Too bad, dc.

4. We lost that climate from WaW. Maps in BO1 weren't as scary as in this WaW and maps in Bo2. It's not even close. Only MotD, I must admit had this climate.

5. Gersch Device, R.I.P.

6. Radios, R.I.P. New TV system sucks.

7. Elena Siegman's songs R.I.P. (But I love Malukah. Sad that she appeared so late)

In the end, there re some possitives and some negatives. But from my view of PC Player, New Engine gives nice advantage for sequel. My verdict is 8/10.

P.S. GIVE ME IN LAST DLC ALL MAPS FROM BO1 BECAUSE I HATE THESE 30 FPS AND I WON'T PAY 4 DLCS AND GAME ON PS3 AGAIN

[Stop Mocking Me0]

Sadly as long as that seems, that was only 1 year of waiting.... (Mw3 season) NOW we have to live through 2 years with ghost and then a sledge hammer game.... To make maters worse console gamers are gonna have to re-new their consoles.....

[Kurasaki]

Sadly as long as that seems, that was only 1 year of waiting.... (Mw3 season) NOW we have to live through 2 years with ghost and then a sledge hammer game.... To make maters worse console gamers are gonna have to re-new their consoles.....

In regards to this I would say that I'm ecstatic that well have to wait two years rather than one, this means more production time which allots for (hopefully) better gameplay, more maps (one map at launch as of this point with zombies being as big as it is is just unjustifiably ridiculous), and more features, along with overall better quality to really grind out bugs and glitches...the idea that a game needs to have a sequel every year is a gesture that I find plaquing the quality of most franchises.

In regards to the games rating for me...hmmmmm 8.5

-The ranking system was a let down, though I def dont want it to be a time progression system, otherwise known as a leveling, not a ranking system. No lobby leaderboards were a let down as well.

-the new characters took way too much of a comical leap, badassery with comedy sprinkled in (Dempsey), is much more enjoyable than complete comedy with no sense of why they were able to survive (Samuel)

- The story has been decent, so far its answered several questions though simply raised hundreds more, but as most said until the last dlc is released we really cant tell whether or not our questions, hopes, and expectations for this game have been met, to some extent...

- the gameplay has been exceptional, period

- the wonder weapons have been a gradual joyride but to begin with were garbage

- the maps have all been pretty fun, tranzit not so much but all other maps I've really come to enjoy.

-buildables are a great addition.

-greif has been a fun beta that I hope will evolve into a distinct nature in the next game

honestly I could keep dissecting further and further but I'd rather not as this is too long already, so in the end a solid 8.5...ish haha