What has become of Treyarch's COD Zombies?

This article will not cover Gameplay (coming soon), rather the downfall of the story.

Kino Der Toten film reels

When it comes to Call of Duty Zombies, nobody hits the mark like Treyarch does. From all the way from WAW to Vanguard, Treyarch has included the beloved zombies mode since the beginning. It has grown and changed throughout the years, some of it was good and some of it was bad. We could always count on Treyarch to deliver the mode in it's complete package. However, it hasn't been the same since 2015, not in an innovative way though.

Black ops 3 was seen as the beginning of the end of Treyarch's staple zombies formula. With a change of leadership, things were destined to change as this new leadership would take players on the highest of highs and unfortunately deliver the lowest of lows. Black ops 3 was herald to be the definitive end to the Zombies narrative that has been hinted at ever since Der Riese. While, players knew that the mode was here to stay even after Black ops 3, we knew that it's grand story would be wrapping up and connecting all loose threads.

But, that's not exactly what happened. The "ending" that we got was riddled with disappointment, unanswered questions, and honestly it was predictable. To briefly summarize the ending, our main characters successfully acquired the souls of their alternate counterparts and delivered them to the "house" where they could live free from the zombie infestation that took root in the multiverse. In their success in defeating the Shadowman and the Appothicons, they were betrayed and forced to restart from the beginning of their journey. That's the most barebones answer I can provide without taking up too much time. Either way it sounds epic on paper but left players with burning questions and confusion about the future of the story (spinoffs, prequels, something new).

Blood of the Dead Intro

When it comes to BO4's Zombies narrative, it's sole purpose was to do two things; 1. Give a definitive end to the storyline that was reset during BO3 and 2. Make room to tell a brand new story that was not connected to the previous and build off of that for future games. Sounds perfect right? Well, things didn't really go according to plan during BO4's lifetime. This essentially split the entire zombies community in multiple ways. Some chose to stick with BO3 as they prefer it's more classic mechanics and gameplay, others chose to follow this brand new story (Chaos Crew) as it was not as convoluted as the original, and there were those who decided to stick with the original story through this "new" ending.

Tag Der Toten Intro

The new ending did provide proper closure to the story and it's characters but to some it was too little too late. Some of community has grown to accept the original ending in BO3 as it does not feel as forced as BO4's story.

We have now entered a new age of Treyarch's zombies mode (which is what BO4 was suppose to be) and all hope is lost. The narrative of BOCW zombies is no more than fan service pretending to bring something unique to the game. With the key word being unique, BOCW does little in this regard. The story can be summed up to the most basic thing of just another COD campaign with zombies in it. Now, this does sound fun but actually experiencing it is a whole other can of worms. What made the simplicity of undead Nazi experiments was the intrigue and unknown about all of it. Every answer seems to give you questions and should bring you further and further along into the story until you reach a satisfying conclusion. However BOCW is anything but subtle. The game provides shallow dialogue and locations that push you along for the sake of a plot and characters no longer exist as your vehicle to experience the story. They have been replaced with "operators" that serve as action heroes that are interchangeable. This lack of uniqueness doesn't help with the already generic plot of "stop the bad Russian guy." Again, what made the old storyline special was the interesting questions it posed along the way and forced you to engage with the narrative is you saw it necessary. BOCW is as boring and bland as one can be because everything that was being said about the story has already been said in the previous story.

There is much to be desired when it comes to Treyarch's COD zombies and right now, Treyarch games like WAW-BO3 are delivering everything that this newer generation of zombies brings and then some

Sources:

• Call of duty wiki. Fandom. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2023, from https://callofduty.fandom.com/wiki/Call_of_Duty_Wiki