Your Feelings About The Future Of Zombies.

[Matuzz]

With Black Ops 2 the community was quite divided about the Black  Ops 2 it was pretty much love it or hate it game. For me it was latter in both story and game design choices. But this thread is not about BO2 but about the future of zombies. Do you care anymore? Do you hope it goes the path BO2 chose? Do you wish for it to return more to its roots?

[TehGKBrief]

More to its roots. Even though Origins and MOTD threw in lots of new things they still felt like classic maps. Could it have been the timezone? Maybe...

[MegaAfroMan]

As I just shared elsewhere I think all the buildables and such were excellent, what was lacking was:

Doors.

Even without the bank, one buried, tranzit, and die rise you could get almost everywhere on round one.

It removes a sense of exploration, progress, and survival from the game.

I'm sure even with a bit more work radical maps like TranZit could retrofit doors into the map and still remain mostly the same.

There are other factors as well I'm sure, but for Buried especially the doors are all mostly for show. There's almost always a second free way in.

[Jbird]

They need to go back to how it was like in black ops 1 because that's when it was perfect imo. Don't have unlimited ammo wonder weapons, make double tap 2 a completely different perk (such as Power Aid), and just get rid of the buildables. Building the sliquifier and the riot shield were the only acceptable buildables. We don't need random objects all over the map, just bring traps back instead.

[MegaAfroMan]

See, I liked Origins Buildables and Objectives. I could understand how it'd be annoying to some, but I loved them.

I thought Origins was a good combination of old and new concepts woven together.

[Jbird]

They should have had some system something like where if youve upgraded the staff before you dont have to upgrade it again but you still have to build it but once its built its already upgraded for you. Then maybe I would of liked it. Like how on call of the dead you do the easter egg one time and every game george drops the waffle

[Lenne]

They need to go back to how it was like in black ops 1 because that's when it was perfect imo. Don't have unlimited ammo wonder weapons, make double tap 2 a completely different perk (such as Power Aid), and just get rid of the buildables. Building the sliquifier and the riot shield were the only acceptable buildables. We don't need random objects all over the map, just bring traps back instead.

 

This!

Most of the buildables were unnecessary. (At least for me personally.)

 

Then again: I never gave BO2 zombies a proper chance.

I mean I only went past round 45 on NKZ and TranZit.

[MegaAfroMan]

Lenne, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

That is farther than many get on those maps, but if you are being serious, all of the DLC maps are much better. Especially about buildables in my opinion.

Die Rise only has two, one is the Wunder Weapon, the other is a multipurpose portable trap/transportation tool.

MotD only has the sheild and a device to convert the Blundergat, which is kind of a waste, but it's nice to have the ability to chose one version of the Blundergat over the other.

Buried has several nice buildables. For camping, they make things even easier, for a short while anyways.

Origins has just the staves (which I like, some don't) the shield, and Maxis.

If you were being sarcastic and none of that was necessary, then I hope someone else comes along who needs this random catalogue of buildables!

[Lenne]

I wasn't being sarcastic.

 

So thank you. ^.^

 

I on the other hand can't tell if you are being sarcastic when you say that the other maps are better.

NTZ is really the only map I love.

The other maps are just too hard to get into.

And don't get me started on Buried... I don't know how people consider that map to be one of the easiest ever.

I don't even know how to properly get set up on that map.

 

I blame that on the fact that I never gave the game a proper chance. (Like I already said.)

[sh3baproject]

im worried about the future of zombies. but i hope that there will be more zombies though.

btw why so much hate on bo2 zombies? granted it did have faults but i liked many of the new features. and afro i dont really understand how it removed a sense of exploration,but i argee about how the progress and survival were lacking.

anyways my opinions:

buildables: these should return,but make them more diverse. also have buildables that actually help unlock a door or like help with the EE (im looking at you,nav table and turbine you annoying pieces of crap)

traps: return them plz

i would like to see huge maps with vechiles that you can drive and mysterious riddles that makes you look up the jomsvikings or whatevs. expand zombies to the breaking point!!!

i guess i can be called a zombies liberal after saying all this :)

[Nemesis_96]

I'll probably enjoy it no matter what, I always loved keeping up with the Easter egg hunts and trying them myself (albeit haven't succeeded since die rise :s)

I'm more interested in what setting it's gonna be, if the game is going to be a separate time era to zombies or not? And if it's going to go back to WWII or Cold War again! I think with the new tech, they could carry on with the dieselpunk awesomeness and make it really gritty and eerie.

[MegaAfroMan]

Lenne, the DLC maps aren't necessarily "better" as maps, but they use the buildable system better than TranZit did. In TranZit you only really used the Turbine and the shield, and the turbine was simply because of necessity. Someone has to have one.

The Turbine is so much less important in Buried. It's only real role is to power the Subsonic Resonator, another buildable, basically a super subwoofer/cannon that wreaks havoc on all in front of it.

Sh3baProject, I say it lacked a feel of exploration, because at least to me, it was way to easy to find everything. Without doors to have to open for the first time, wondering if I should go this new direction, survive where I am, or go some other way I know a little better helps slow down the discovery process and improves the exploration time of the map overall.

I liked the BO2 zombies maps. I wouldn't go so far to say they were a needed improvement, but I also wouldn't say they were a failure. I think 5hey brought some interesting variety to the game.

It's just the maps that only have 6 doors total, or have a secret passage around almost every door present me with so few objectives.

[BrayJayTheZombSlaya]

Hi CoDz! I'm not sure if this is my first comment on a thread on the site in general, but it is definitely my first comment since CoDz has been back. Anyways, I just wanted to voice my opinion. I feel that while Tranzit was seriously overhyped by the producers and advertisements, the rest of the zombies maps were very fun. Die Rise was a hard map to learn for me, but now it is one of my favorite, due to the introduction of an actual vertically challenging map which we've never seen and the addition of the sliquifier, a fun new weapon that IMO should not have been patched. MotD was very fun for me as well, I love that Brutus was not nearly as annoying as George in CotD yet still a formidable threat, and I thoroughly enjoyed the hell's retriever and golden spork upgrade methods, being quests and side missions to fulfill instead of PaP and wallbuys. I liked the buildable system in MotD much better than Die Rise and Tranzit because parts (besides plane parts) could be picked up by everyone and did not have specifically designated tables, and more than one could be held at a time. I rarely use traps aside from a pinch in a co-op game, so the reintroducing of them to me was somewhat pointless. When Buried was released, I expected a scare factor and difficulty level similar to MotD, but this expectation was not met. I liked the paralyzer a decent amount, but I feel the map was too easy, and the EE was far too tedious for my liking (favorite EE in CoDz was CotD). However, Origins was a beautiful yet disappointing map. The only reason it was disappointing for me is the way the trailer teased multiple new melee weapons that I desired so very intensely. However, the return of a MotD style map made me very happy and the staffs are so amazing I can't contain my love for them. Essentially, I feel that BO2 zombie maps were better than BO1 and W@W, however the story in BO2z was lacking and left too many loose ends.

 

Also, love the new site layout, glad to be back!

[Rissole25]

I'm actually kinda scared of what's to come.

We have new gen consoles. Treyarch will surely use that to there advantage.

Will we have 24 zombies? They could probably raise the limit if they wanted, but I feel that would ruin it.

As long as the main Survival mode we've always had stays mainly the same, I am all for it.

For new things (like raising the limit), have a proper Custom Games this time around, not like the joke we had in BO2. Or new modes with these things.

This is all gameplay wise I'm worried about. Changing the dynamic because you can doesn't mean you should, and that's what I'm worried about.

Story wise not worried as much. As long as they do the N4 justice I will be happy. Back story's, mini notes in maps, etc. Fill the gaps this time (The O4 post-Moon for example).

Alas, I wanna believe Treyarch learned there lesson from BO2 (over-exaggerating things, not properly introducing N4, bank and map layout, etc), but I just can't for some reason. :/

[InfestLithium]

Basically what Rissole said. With the "next-gen" consoles, there won't be much of a limit. They tested the waters greatly with Tranzit in terms of how large an environment can be. I'm hoping we get a variety of big maps with several locations to hold out on. Just toss in a few transportation models like Shi No Numa's zipline or even a working teleporter so we don't have to constantly hop through several areas as a form of punishment. 

 

That being said, I have high hopes for the next installment. Storywise, there are quite a few holes that Black Ops II left. I want to say that it's because Treyarch was forced to create a new path in the future versus making conspiracy events a reality like in Black Ops. It's nothing but a war of abstract, fictional yet tangible history vs. made-up future events solely coming from the events occurring in Black Ops. If they don't want us to get our precious O4 once more, fine. But at least give us a solid background on who we're playing as over the course of the next game so people aren't threatening poor Treyarch over a lackluster yet potentially-interesting crew.

 

Now for gameplay, I'd like to see more buildables. Sure, we had a pretty good influx of new inventions. It would be wonderful to see what else could be done with the concept. You will always need your weak and prominent buildables, but both should have some kind of strength depending on a given situation. What I noticed in Black Ops II was the lack of bosses. Treyarch got us very well with the Jumping Jacks, Brutus, and Panzer Soldat. What made them unique was how they required a good amount of teamwork to take down and made any situation 10x harder. I mean, don't obviously slap down a juggernaut zombie and say "voila - there's your damn boss". Trust me when I say you don't know how excited yet terrified I was to see the Panzer Soldat for the first time in a match.

[ZombieOfTheDead]

From what I hear, Sledgehammer may be making the next CoD (though every time they say they will, it doesn't pan out). I actually hope this is the case. For one, I've gotten bored of zombies, as have probably many of us. Waiting another year could really help. Not to mention the improvements they could make to the engine (or even a new engine?).

 

Also, I don't particularly want to get a new console yet, but I still want the highest quality game.... sure I'm not the only one there. Overall I'm hoping zombies goes back to it's roots (and no more Maxis vs Richtofen story... that was kinda lame, actually. Took 3 maps for anything to happen).

[Flaquito90]

i m just hoping they fill the gasp of the story and more ways to have more weapons that u can create out of scrap

[Nemesis_96]

i m just hoping they fill the gasp of the story and more ways to have more weapons that u can create out of scrap

Something more DayZ-esque in terms of scavenging stuff and then building weapons/ gear to help survive? I like it! Imagine if you started out in the city near Der Riese, and as you worked your way in, you could build more extravagant things using the 935 tech lying about.

[Zombiefaces]

I enjoyed the game play of Bo2 very much for the most part. (Some of the tasks were more time consuming than anything, especially on solo, knifing, especially through a window, sucked) Besides a few small examples the game play grew but stayed pretty true to the roots of zombies. In terms of game play, I feel they have a good handle on what we want. As far as the storyline went, from start to finish it was a disgrace IMO. In one swoop they destroyed the storyline we had all grown to love, and at the same time yhey didn't give the N4 the proper chance at growing on us because of the cliffhanger we had been left on after Moon. Had we had a form of burieds end game on Tranzit and then build the N4 story from there I think the story could have been amazing and because we would have had closure on our O4, the zombie community would have been more interested in the N4 and their backstory. Instead we were always bringing up the fact that the N4 were not the O4 and Buried ended both stories (pretty much). Origins came and pretty much was a smack in the face to all the old timers who had put time and effort into building the story and zombie community into what it is today. The ending doesn't bother me so much anymore, because the fact that they gave us a map that had no meaning story line wise but actually was detrimental to all we had learned and loved, what got a lot of us hooked in the first place. The storyline from w@w to Moon. I (kind of) hope we begin a new story, that is "real life" with all the darkness and mystery involved. I just don't have any idea how they can do that without feeling like a rip off. I also feel that they didn't do enough as far as how we found out about the story. in w@w and BO we had to find easter eggs and complete easter eggs to continue the story along with piecing together player quotes and radios. It was amazing. In Bo2 it was just player quotes (many which had nothing to do with the story) and 1 TV in tranzit, 1 TV in die rise, and maxis and Richtofen quotes. It didn't have the same feel.

 

in short, I am really excited about the game in general. I am just worried that the story to go with it has lost its shine, or will be new and non interesting... 

[jameslieb1]

While I think the normal survival mode should stay along the path of Mob of the Dead and Origins (campaign team > Zombies team), I think we need some better alternative game modes to keep things fresh. Grief and Turned were terrible. The pacing was the main issue. Grief was way too slow paced, and Turned was way too fast paced. My idea for a custom game type takes ideas from both of these, and also from the Infected game mode. I call it Pandemic. Basically, there are 8 allied players on a medium to large sized map. There are no rounds, however. The zombies come continuously like in Area 51 to keep things from slowing down. Each player only has one life, and if they are killed, they turn into a zombie slightly more powerful than a normal zombie, with a slightly different appearance so that the humans can tell them apart. The game continues until there are no humans left, and players' score is determined by the duration of time as a human and/or their points earned as a human. 

[Chopper]

My feelings for zombies future are somewhat nervous.

 

If BO3 is the same as BO2, they will kill zombies for a large part of the active community.

No-one I know bothers with BO2 anymore, they are all back on BO1.

 

The main issue is re-playability.  That might seem a contradiction but let me explain further.

 

Zombies will of course always have re-playability.  An endless survival mode with no way to win; in it's nature promotes replaying the game over and over again, to beat your highest score.

 

However, when applied to BO2 model what that led to was frustration from players at the elite level, being limited in how far they could by whichever script error ends their game.  If you know that you can't go past say level 120 on Die Rise before the patch, or level 105ish on Origins, what's the point?

 

Then we come to the buildables.  I'm sure they can be fun, I know they can.  An attempt was made to move away from the original feel of zombies, and give I suppose a more winnable, or completionable (why isn't that a word!) factor.  Winning would be completing an Easter Egg, the completion part would be finally upgrading a staff for instance.

 

In itself, there is nothing wrong with that.  However, WAW came out over 4 years ago, and got people the first taste.  BO followed it 1 years later, or 3 1/2 years ago.  People had been playing zombies for 3 years before BO2 came out, and turned it all on it's head.  People literally make their living from this game, not that many, but some do.  Then you have all the youtubers and twitchers who do it for fun.  I have made maybe 5 videos since BO2 came out that I cared about, and I hate them compared to what I did on BO.

 

Regarding the buildables, when someone is going to sit there and play a game for up to 50 hours, and many do when aiming for the insta kill rounds, they have no interest in building something.  I know this group is a real small percentage of the actual customers, but they make most of the videos that the majority watch on youtube, and it's that group that IMO leads a lot of people to come to sites like this, to develop their own skills and learn to get better.

 

I can't be the only one who noticed that the strategic aspect of this site pretty much died on release of BO2.  It just wasn't the same.

 

As a suggestion going forward, I would say that there are ways to appease everyone.

 

I'm going to take Origins for my example.

 

There should have been 3 modes - survival, custom and story.

 

Survival should have had no EE, and the staffs available from the box.

Custom could have options turned on and off.

Story mode would be the only place to complete the EE, and the only place with buildables.

 

I would even be happy if survival mode was only unlocked after completing story mode.  But don't make me spend an hour every single time I start Origins to fully upgrade 2 staffs and get setup.

 

The biggest thing that my friends miss, is the turn on and go mentality that was on BO1 and WAW.  You start, spend 5 rounds doing whatever, get a perk or 2 and away you go.

 

I do understand what Treyarch attempted with BO2, but it was sorely misguided and pissed off a lot of people.

 

Try to get it better next time guys.

[ThrowAmonkeyBomb]

I do hope bo3,or whatever its called is A:One the current gen consoles at full capacity

B: Actually good for high rounds and challenges and everything!

[Hannibal]

I have no problems or expectations. It could remain the same and I would still enjoy it.

[Rissole25]

^Just pointing out, the Campaign and Zombies team are essentially the same. Employee's are constantly shifting between those teams AND multiplayer. There are those who worked on all maps, just one map, a N4 and non-N4 map, different builds (alpha, beta) and different departments. They probably just decided to keep N4 maps the same and non-N4 maps different. If they had the same game plan back in Black Ops, you would see "Five" and Call of the Dead different to the rest. Like MotD and Origins to the rest.

I think Grief should stay, but definitely altered and tweaked. No Juggernog (unless its small-ish like Farm) Wonder Weapons (except both Ray's), and I guess no buildables. Faster paced as you said. Cell Block was great. Medium with small corridors, no Jug, Brutus. Quick and fun. Borough? Not so much. Jug, Paralyser and to a lesser extent Buildables, kept it going far to long. I would often be kicked out of it due to error at usually R24 (I believe to many entities on the map?). If it was on the other side of the mansion, in the maze, it would be 10x better.

Turned, The concept was good, but definetly needed improvement. You should've gained perks after a certain threshold of points had been reached. 2000 for Speed Cola, 2500 for Stamin-Up, etc.

Just thought up a great idea about implementing Extinction's create-a-class into Turned. Will do a write-up soon.

EDIT: Oh wow, I must've missed the second page completely. This was more aimed at the last post on the 1st page. :/

[MegaAfroMan]

There should have been 3 modes - survival, custom and story.

 

Survival should have had no EE, and the staffs available from the box.

Custom could have options turned on and off.

Story mode would be the only place to complete the EE, and the only place with buildables.

 

I would even be happy if survival mode was only unlocked after completing story mode.  But don't make me spend an hour every single time I start Origins to fully upgrade 2 staffs and get setup.

 

The biggest thing that my friends miss, is the turn on and go mentality that was on BO1 and WAW.  You start, spend 5 rounds doing whatever, get a perk or 2 and away you go.

 

I do understand what Treyarch attempted with BO2, but it was sorely misguided and pissed off a lot of people.

 

Try to get it better next time guys.

THIS. See, my friend and I LOVE Origins and it's objective style gameplay. It adds a sense of progress during the game, and is just overall enjoyable complex.

That being said, I do miss the faster feel of BO style maps.

I would absolutely love if Treyarch either alternated between the two types, or better yet, did what Chopper here suggested, and actually commit to making a survival mode for each map they produce for that classic BO1 feel, then the story mode for those that like objectives (But not end the game objectives please...)

However they NEED to include in every map:

Many many doors. There should be enough doors that I need to spend well over 10000 points. They also shouldn't be bypassable like in Buried.

A source of high round death. I'd prefer a BO1 style Wonder Weapon, but even just more traps would be nice. Something to make higher rounds less of grind.

No bank. Sorry. It kind of ruined things for me. Buried had many easy ways to gain points otherwise. TranZit was okay only because it was such a chore, but the "bank" strategy of setting up on round one is the most logical on paper, but completely ruined any chance of having fun during a serious game on TranZit for me. It effectively made Die Rise completely accessible on round 1, and that is NOT okay. Before the bank Die Rise was ALMOST a BO1 style map. Lots of doors, only 1 buildable, an awesome Wonder Weapon.