By Nathan Grayson on September 27th, 2012 at 8:00 am.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will have zombies. At this point, that statement is almost as much of a foregone conclusion as “Black Ops 2 will have guns” or “Black Ops 2 will provide Activision with enough cash to put Bobby Kotick’s brain into a fully weaponized robot body, ensuring this his dark dominion over Earth is equal parts swift and eternal.” But, like other aspects of the slightly-more-ambitious-than-usual sequel, zombie mode’s become a fair bit beefier. Observe, after the break, as intrepid survivors use whatever they can get their hands on to battle undead hordes on a bus, in a box, with a fox, in a house, with a mouse, and OK, actually none of those things except on a bus.
IGN, meanwhile, brings word that there’ll be a full-fledged zombie campaign this time around. Known as “Tranzit,” it’s a zombie kill/survival-fest with a hint of life-affirming, un-life avoiding roadtrip thrown in for good measure. Fight, defend positions, hop on a bus, rinse, repeat. Or at least, that seems to be the general idea. Meanwhile, Buildables – “elements you can put together to do things like open up new parts of the world or make weapons” – round out the package, though there’s no indication of whether the system will be deep and integral or merely a gimmick just yet.
If, however, you’d rather enact the rapid, festering decay of society that’d surely unfold as a result of an undead epidemic (or you despise words that replace the letter S with a Z), there’s Grief mode. It’s basically team deathmatch, but there are also zombies running around, salivating at the thought of succulent, savory clavicle flesh. Oh, and also, you can’t shoot anyone. So instead, you somehow have to get zombies to do the job for you – thus “griefing” other players.
Unsurprisingly, the basic co-op survival mode is also making a return. Apparently, it’ll use tweaked versions of maps from Tranzit. So yes, you’ll have quite a few options on your plate – although the net result will still probably taste like big, loud, dumb fun. But then, if you’re playing Call of Duty for anything else, well, you’re probably not even real. I’m going to stop talking to you now.
27/09/2012 at 08:19 hamburger_cheesedoodle says:
I bet the RPS pun squad will need all their brains to come up with a load of groaners for this one.
27/09/2012 at 08:32 Manac0r says:
I get it GroanerZ – Dead funny … (I tried)
27/09/2012 at 08:41 DSR says:
Your amateur attempts to entertain us made me bored to death… Zzzzz…
27/09/2012 at 09:16 eks says:
Your comment really makes me wish I was undead.
27/09/2012 at 14:20 Cuddlefish says:
Good grief.
27/09/2012 at 08:22 00looper00 says:
I will not fight them in a box,
I will not fight them with a fox,
I will not fight them in the rain,
I will not fight them on a train,
I will not fight them Sam I Am,
I do not like Codblops!
(sorry lost it at the end)
27/09/2012 at 08:32 randomgamer342 says:
Dave!Yognaut? Is that you?
27/09/2012 at 14:13 torchedEARTH says:
“You have delicious brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
Any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And
you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
It’s more open world apparently.
27/09/2012 at 08:42 1Life0Continues says:
Oh look. MORE Zombies. Yawn.
Look, I know they’re flavour of the month/year/decade, but isn’t it time to draw the line in the sand and say “Okay, no more Zombies, it’s getting pretty old now.” and move on?
It strikes me as lazy.
CEO: “We need an enemy that’s easy to program AI for and doesn’t require complex routines.
CMO:”ZOMBIES! They’re easy to program, and if you send hundreds of them at the player, they’re still dnagerous!”
CEO: “PERFECT! We’ll recycle the same zombies we used in the last game! It’ll be great!”
Let it die already. Please.
27/09/2012 at 08:51 soldant says:
Look at how long it’s taken us to come out of WW2 games. Erm… by “come out of” I mean every second title isn’t a WW2 game. Uh… hmm, maybe I don’t actually have a point.
27/09/2012 at 08:58 DuddBudda says:
that’s fine, OP doesn’t have a point either, he just hates popular things
27/09/2012 at 08:59 Hoaxfish says:
Now remember, Wolfenstein 3D had WW2 and zombies.
27/09/2012 at 10:42 ankh says:
In the future every game will have WW2 and zombies IN SPACE
27/09/2012 at 09:44 Cold Steel says:
I’d be happy if we got out of the tacticool shootan xy and military shooter 58 and the like.
I want a new Unreal along the lines of Unreal 1, more open worlds and not to go from corridor to corridor.
I don’t want cutscenes, I don’t want quicktime events, I don’t want forced “realism”, I don’t want games that insult my intelligence as player with follow the quest compass crap or gazillions of helping popups and arrows everywhere.
/rant
That felt good.
27/09/2012 at 11:59 Deadly Habit says:
Painkiller: Hell & Damnation is about as close as you’re going to get atm.
27/09/2012 at 12:13 lijenstina says:
It is a satirical depiction of their fans.
27/09/2012 at 20:28 elmo.dudd says:
You seem to be of the idea that they are putting zombies in as a response to industry trends. Zombies were in the original WaW release as a credits stinger bonus content, it was well received, so it was fleshed out in expansions. Those were well received so it was expanded upon even more in Black Ops (which is a sequel to WaW’s Russian campaign, indirectly) which was also well received. Not only was it well received but it has its own player following now, people who purchase the Treyarch titles for the Zombies mode gameplay, and these same people also have scrapped together their own concept of the lore based upon elements in the level. Treyarch has noticed this trend among the fans and thus has continued the mode and expanded it more, adding more modes within it, and giving it more of a campaign. This is all in response to what the player base likes and enjoys. In other franchises this is considered being responsive to your customers.
If this came out of left field, yeah it could be a gimmick, but they are continuing a well liked aspect of the game (and one that was sneered at by the old Infinity Ward crew when asked about such silly modes for MW2).
27/09/2012 at 08:43 DSR says:
I wish I could buy cheaper “CODBLOPS Lite”, short but entertaining shootings in single player plus zombie mode and minus all the ridiculously imbalanced MP stuff.
27/09/2012 at 10:38 ankh says:
You can get that for free.
27/09/2012 at 08:46 BrendanJB says:
Looks like a solid game mode for anyone looking for that kind of thing, but I could not be any more unenthusiastic about it if I tried. I’m looking for something with a little more brain and a little less brawn.
27/09/2012 at 08:56 JoeGuy says:
I am glad Activision at least tried to do something new… but without actually doing anything new :-/
That’s not really trusting your audience to understand your gaming message and buy into your product
27/09/2012 at 20:31 elmo.dudd says:
A campaign with multiple endings, which you can fail, that adds RTS elements and group planning, as well as a multiplayer which gutted the longstanding class system from the past 5 games and replaced it with a new one that was created using board and card game mechanics in office – and you say they’re not trying to do something new because Zombies is only adding a progression campaign with two separate paths, as well as another game mode, with separate human teams?
27/09/2012 at 12:05 televizor says:
Is this being developed by Treiarch or people just don’t care anymore?
27/09/2012 at 12:53 derbefrier says:
Treyarch of course. I plan on picking this up as i always enjoy Treyarchs games. Zombie modes are great fun and i always enjoy the multiplayer in these games more than the Modern Warfare games(in my opinion they always do a much better job in map design and balancing) . I wont be getting this on PC though, I will be picking this up on the xbox to play with friends. I always seem to skip the modern warfare games as i cant take a new CoD every year but every 2 years is not so bad.
28/09/2012 at 13:04 absolofdoom says:
Oh I was confused, didn’t think it was Treyarch.
I’ll probably get it then since the Treyarch ones aren’t bad. I didn’t even touch normal multiplayer with the first blops, but I ended up playing hundreds of hours of the zombie mode with my roommates.
27/09/2012 at 12:25 Buzko says:
So, we have a white Louis and Zoey showing more skin.
Woo.
27/09/2012 at 12:45 brulleks says:
“or you despise words that replace the letter S with a Z”
I was going to post a comment about the AmericaniSation of the English language, Nathan, but then I realiSed it wasn’t worth it.
(Especially as I recogniSe the probability that the US has retained a purer form of the language than us Brits!)
27/09/2012 at 12:45 Raiyan 1.0 says:
Grief mode sounds interesting…
Also, Treyarch is bringing in crafting in CoD?
27/09/2012 at 14:49 deadly.by.design says:
Fortnite, anyone?
27/09/2012 at 13:21 Nyogtha says:
Now if they released the zombie bit separately at a budget price I would be interested, I can never have enough zombie games (so long as they meet with my approval). Be interesting to see how it would sell in comparison to the full game. But that aint gonna happen, so… well, so what, plenty more far better stuff around.
27/09/2012 at 15:49 mseifullah says:
My exact thoughts. The only thing I like about the COD series at this point is Zombies mode. I’d pick this up in a heartbeat if it wasn’t coupled with Black Ops II.
If they could just release the Zombies campaign + modes as a stand-alone game with a reduced price (which they won’t), I’d be all over it. And If Activision doesn’t do it soon, I guarantee some other small developer will.
I know we have L4D survival mode and Killing Floor, but both of those have slightly different formulas which make a significant difference for how the game is played. Patching up entry points, progressively unlocking areas of the map, upgrading existing weapons, and getting power-ups among other things really sets it apart from the other wave-based survival modes.
27/09/2012 at 14:41 Shooop says:
Seeing how literally every game that isn’t CoD does zombies better I can’t even muster some fake enthusiasm.
27/09/2012 at 16:03 yourgrandma says:
No kidding, i just don’t understand when people say they are buying it for the zombie mode when there are much better zombie games out there for much less money.
27/09/2012 at 14:53 JackShandy says:
It’s weird that COD stories get this tiny murmur of bored comments. Isn’t this the most successful game series of all time? Where are all the fans?
27/09/2012 at 15:33 phelix says:
They’re on Xbox Live, silly.
27/09/2012 at 16:36 SmittyBit says:
Watching Twilight and crying softly into their skirts buds. Twilight was successful too, don’t make it good.
27/09/2012 at 17:01 Shooop says:
On Destructioid, Kotkau, Gamespot, IGN… Y’know, all the sites no one who matters gives a damn about.
27/09/2012 at 19:28 int says:
Here I am!
To be honest, I don’t really care for Zombie mode in WaW and BLOPS. But the campaigns are great fun!
27/09/2012 at 20:33 elmo.dudd says:
Mostly lurking because they don’t want to get shouted down by the hivemind for enjoying something.
27/09/2012 at 16:22 Hisui says:
I like how it’s called Zombies Reveal Trailer. Whoa. BIG REVEAL.
27/09/2012 at 16:31 SmittyBit says:
Edited due to preemptive lunar gravitational shift adjustments. Or due to inadvertent trolling.
Decision pending.
27/09/2012 at 20:37 elmo.dudd says:
Treyarch recently clarified that they don’t make military simulations or anything of the sort, they aren’t going for real. They make first person shooters with a military theme. People confuse setting with design intent, but the franchise has never been realistic, even in the bizarrely loved CoD, CoD2, and CoD4 while the others are shunned. If anything the franchise continually embraces more and more videogamey elements and revels in it. If you want realistic, go play Arma or Operation Flashpoint (its what I do when I want realistic). When I want contemporary arcadey, I will go with CoD, which is what it is attempting to serve.
28/09/2012 at 00:11 SmittyBit says:
Well said. I think after reading your response, then looking back at mine I realized that I was just in a very ‘I can’t stand FPS’ mood in general.
I think I’ll chalk that one up to inadvertent trolling, and edit it out.
Edited: –must be an off day of something :/