One Week Later with Black Ops 3 Zombies

[MegaAfroMan]

Greetings CoDz! A little over one week ago we got our first plays in of Black Ops 3, and boy were we excited. It had been an extra year longer in waiting than normal and the map director was confirmed to be the same as the mind behind Origins and Mob of the Dead, which in my opinion are the best playing map and the best feeling map respectively.

 

Now with Shadows probably finished and The Giant seeming empty I feel like it would be a good time to discuss views on the base mechanics across both maps and the new features like Gobblegum, weapon kits, ranking and more.

 

So I'll start with the little things, like the ranking system and leaderboards.

 

I like the leaderboards, I like the rank, but I miss lobby leaderboards still. You can tell more about someone based on highest round than you can by level. Prestige especially doesn't add much, as I'm not sure if I'll ever prestige. 

 

In MP prestiging is helpful because you cannot unlock everything in one go, but in zombies you can, so the perma unlock seems honestly extremely stupid. They should have given us a token to change a common mega gum into an infinite use classic gum or something, or a token to guarantee a certain Pack a Punch effect is more likely, or even just a ridiculous amount of Divinium would work.

 

So the weapon kits I actually really like, although I wish the attachments were a little more impactful and I wish there were fewer slots. I can attach almost all available attachments to most guns all at once and it is a bit weird. I'd prefer having to choose with benefits and consequences rather than just being able to attach everything and say eff it.

 

Gobblegum is really neat actually, I am very pleased with how it turned out, although I think a few gums are rather worthless, like the classic gum which speeds up recharge for special weapons, I really don't use the swords or the anihilator, so it seems pointless to me. But oh well, it's still an interesting mechanic and I approve very much.

 

The new AI definitely adds a bit more challengeto the game as you have to give the zombies a bit more attention and space than was necessary in BO and BO2. It almost harkens back to World at War and I like the added danger.

 

The new pack a punch effects are really cool, although they are sort of unbalanced. 

Dead wire seems really weak. I only seem to see 3 zombies die from it when it triggers. Turned is weird. I've seen it lead to the deaths of entire hordes (although you don't get credit for it) or I've seen the turned zombie freak out and hunt on straggler before exploding himself. Fireworks is cute and depending on your gun and your aim it can be absolutely lethal, although I don't seem to have as much luck with it. Thunder Wall is cool, and if fired at 3-6 zombies is acts as a baby Thunder Gun and works as a semi-panic weapon. Blast furnace is by far the best in my opinion, as it can kill an entire horde of 24 all at once, and gives you points for the burning and for their deaths and give you credit for the deaths. I personally would like to see Dead Wire and the other effects receive a bit of a power boost rather than a nerf to Blast Furnace.

I also would have liked to see them be a little harder than paying 2500 to get but that's just me. I'm pretty happy with it though as is.

 

All in all I really like all the new base features to the game, and I think they did really well with all of them, except may the prestige awards, although I do not yet know what prestige master gets as a reward.

 

If you have thoughts I'd like to read em, so leave em below!

 

[Rissole25]

Zombies is just great now. I love the camo unlocking and attachments and shit, literally everyone will have a unique gun/camo combo, especially with the Paint Shop.

The Gobblegum is amazing and I'm glad it wasn't restricted to SoE and will be in all maps.

The mechanic changes are interesting and spice things up. Monkeys aren't exactly safe now, 3 hits without Jug, Zombies more aggressive.

 

And despite the negative impression Shadows seems to be getting now, I still love it and consider it in my Top 3 with CotD and Buried. Soundtrack and atmosphere are top notch.

[Ragdo11706]

Widows Wine is one of the best, un-original perks they've ever released. I can't tell you how many times it's saved my ass. I also like how it does more than just one thing. This is how I feel a lot of the perks should be.

 

Not only do you get the Electric Cherry type effect. If you choose to do so, you can throw the sticki grenades it replaces your frags with. Then there's the knife effect, which is pretty damn cool. You also get a spider icon drop from time to time, which doesn't last very long. Not too O.P. because you only get 4 uses.

 

The double PaP/upgraded ammo is awesome. So glad they did it right this time. It should've cost more, but I'll take it. The GobbleGum is really cool, still getting used to buying it & remembering to actually use it. Also the Civil Protector in solo is great. You get a teammate that will revive you every time & you get to keep your Q.R. Hopefully more things like this are implemented in the DLC season.

 

The one thing I don't like is the Cursed mode doesn't have a counter beside it. I can never actually tell how many uses I have remaining. Unless I've been paying attention from Round 1, and the amount of times I've used it. 

 

The only other thing I'd say is the wasted space. All 4 areas are the exact same. They consist of a door that the Beast opens & a door you open next to the Tram. Each area has a shield part (Beast Side) and a Fuse (Tram Side). I feel they could've designed the map a little better, maybe that's just me.

 

All in all SoE is a very fun map, once you get into the groove of things. Can be very tough in the beginning but it gets easier. Nice post @MegaAfroMan.

[Kill_All_Monkeys]

I was kind of expecting more from the new ranking system, but perhaps we'll see more added on to it later on during DLC season. By far though the biggest surprise to me is how much I love the new gobblegum system. To me it's s brilliant new addition to zombies that practically brings it own meta game to zombies before you even start a match. Good stuff.

 

Weapon kits are very fun to mess around with. Though mostly cosmetic they add a deep layer of customization to zombies I have been craving for a while now. Makes everyone feel a little more unique.

 

And I think I like the new difficultly, makes it harder for my nooby friends but we have fun so no harm done. I never thought I would like any changes to the core gameplay but I think they tweaked it just right.

 

S/o the all the other cool features, as well as having the O4 back in their full glory. That never gets old.

[TheDunbarian]

Pros:

- Love the full ranking system/prestiging/challenges, add a lot of replayability

- GobbleGum is a fantastic addition that adds a whole new layer of strategy

- Weapon kits are a really cool way to personalize your game and leveling up guns/unlocking camos is fun (when prestiging doesn't break the weapon kits, but I'm sure they'll fix that soon...)

- The elemental pack-a-punch is fantastic, making almost every gun a feasible option at high rounds and, once again, adding variety to strategies

- The new movement and behavior of the zombies, and the increase in player health to a three-hit down before Jugg, is a surprisingly good change

- Shadows of Evil has just the right level of difficulty: decent train spots, a powerful wonder weapon, and a fairly OP perk called Widow's Wine, but balanced with new enemies that spawn surprisingly often in the higher rounds, giving a constant feel of chaos - I love it!

- The Giant did the impossible by making Der Reise better

- Jeff Goldblum

 

Cons:

- No offline solo play. This is my biggest complaint, as I can be on round 30 or higher, when one little internet hiccup can kick me from the game - and yes, that does happen a surprising amount. Absolutely no reason for that to happen when I'm not in a game with other players. Really hope Treyarch either adds an offline solo option or an option to resume your solo game where it left off in the event of a disconnect

- The Ray Gun is now obsolete - I made a separate thread about this

- Shadows of Evil (the only on-disc map) is NOT a good starting point for people who have never played zombies before

- The weapon kits could've used more camos: camos that unlock after completing challenges besides just kills (headshots, etc.), and possibly something akin to diamond camos in multiplayer. I just think Red Hex (the highest level camo in zombies) isn't very hard to unlock. Also, I wish guns could retain their camos (or some variation of them) when pack-a-punched.

- The Wunderwaffe is unpredictable - sometimes it works like it used to, but sometimes it's very weak. Hopefully this is a bug and will be patched.

- Most of the challenges are too easy. I'm already done with the zombie hunter category, and made good progress on the other two. Multiplayer has more challenges than most people could ever hope to complete, while I feel like I'll be done with Zombies' challenges sometime in the next week or two

- The Beauty of Annihilation remix. That was disappointing.

- Only one on-disc map. I know this is the norm now, but it's still kinda lame.

 

Most of the cons are nit-picky. Overall, I'm absolutely loving Black Ops 3 zombies!