Black Ops 6 Zombies is a Hit, But Its True Test is Just Around the Corner

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 14, 2024 109 Views 6 Min Read
Black Ops 6 Zombies is a Hit, But Its True Test is Just Around the Corner

The successful launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been a breath of fresh air for the longstanding franchise, with the game doing well to meet a lot of the lofty expectations that were being placed on its modes prior to release. Of the Zombies, campaign, and core multiplayer experiences of the title, it was its Zombies mode that arguably had the most work to do, with the mode having gone through a lot of divisive identity changes in recent years.




The two launch Zombies maps of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 have done extremely well to kick things off positively for the mode’s latest iteration, offering an early range of enclosed and wide-spanning experiences. While the progression opportunities, Easter eggs, rewards, and maps of Black Ops 6‘s Zombies have worked well to provide an enjoyable start, though, the next steps for Zombies will still be absolutely crucial. While a new map is slated to come to Zombies as a part of Black Ops 6‘s first in-game season, the pace of the mode’s fresh content is expected to slow in the coming months, and Treyarch may need to pull out all the stops to maintain the positive buzz surrounding Zombies during this down-time.

Call of Duty Reveals Season 1 Update Patch Notes for Black Ops 6 and Warzone

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Call of Duty Reveals Season 1 Update Patch Notes for Black Ops 6 and Warzone

Just ahead of the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 1, developer Treyarch unveils the full patch notes for both it and Call of Duty: Warzone.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies Needs a Solid Plan For Season 2 and Beyond


The Zombies experience has grown to become a staple of the wider Call of Duty franchise, particularly the titles that are developed by Treyarch, with the mode first coming to the IP all the way back in 2008 with the release of World at War. The tense and varied survival gameplay of Zombies has proved a hit for the franchise ever since, although more recent iterations of the mode have moved away from these traditional mechanics and premises.

For example, Cold War introduced the Outbreak Zombies gameplay approach, which did away with round-based experiences in favor of open-world exploration, with this general framework being echoed in more recent releases like Modern Warfare 3. This has proven to be quite a divisive change within the Zombies community ever since, with many fans hoping for a return to tradition in Black Ops 6‘s Zombies prior to launch.


Treyarch delivered on these hopes with the two launch Zombies maps for Black Ops 6, Liberty Falls and Terminus, with both experiences reverting to the classic round-based approach while being jam-packed with Easter eggs for players to delve into. While Liberty Falls is a more close-quarters experience, Terminus offers a good blend of exploration while maintaining the claustrophobia of classic Zombies, offering a blend of gameplay that has seen Black Ops 6‘s Zombies be quite well-received so far. However, maps like these take time to develop, and Call of Duty‘s seasons change after only a few months.

Black Ops 6 Zombies’ In-Between Content Will Be Just as Important as its Brand-New Maps

Though the variety is set to continue with Black Ops 6‘s Season 1 Reloaded update, which is slated to add the Citadelle Des Morts map to Zombies, it seems likely that this pace cannot continue based on previous games’ post-launch formulas, as a new Zombies map for each in-game season seems like quite a stretch of realistic expectations. This may mean that Black Ops 6‘s Zombies goes some time before a new map is released following Citadelle Des Morts, and this lull needs to be supplemented with fresh content to keep fans engaged.


While players can still work on researching Augments or completing Easter eggs during this down-time, Treyarch would do well to perhaps add community-wide challenges tied to things like global Zombies eliminations, with rewards coming in the way of unique operator and even Wonder Weapon skins. Limited-time modes akin to the Turned experience of Black Ops 2 could also be an excellent way to fill this stop-gap, as would small segments of larger maps that function as the Survival areans from TranZit. Hopefully, Treyarch will find ways to keep players engaged with Zombies during the periods where no new map is being released, as it would be disappointing to see the latest iteration of Zombies lose momentum.

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