Zombies in Call of Duty: Cold War has had less content than previous Call of Duty Zombies titles. Members of the zombies community continue to lose interest with only two round-based maps and Outbreak being released. Season Four for Cold War will release a new map partway through the season. Mauer der Toten takes place in East Berlin, and continues the Dark Aether storyline and takes place after Outbreak. Depending on how the map is received, Mauer der Toten will set the tone for the rest of Cold War Zombies.
Lack of Content Causes Community to Become Frustrated
The lack of content in Cold War Zombies is a stark difference from previous games. At the seven-month mark of Cold War’s life span, the game has two maps and a new side mode called Outbreak. In contrast, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops III had four maps at this point in their development cycle.
Currently, there is a four-month gap between releases of a round-based map. Other games released DLC between two and three months apart. Outbreak is a different take on zombies, which is not a round based experience. Outbreak is a large-scale map with several different regions and tasks the player completes to progress in the game. It strays from traditional round-based zombies, and Outbreak received two new regions in Season Three and Season Four.
One criticism of Outbreak is it receives more attention than the round-based maps. After its May 20 release, Outbreak added two new regions, two easter eggs, and a new objective. In contrast, round-based maps are ignored, as new weapons, new field upgrades, and the new ammo type released with Outbreak. The zombies team appears to be more focused on Outbreak, which amplifies the lack of content in the game.
Mauer der Toten Will Set Tone for the Future of Cold War Zombies
Mauer der Toten will release midway through Season Four of Cold War. This East Berlin map can set the tone for the rest of Cold War Zombies. Usually, DLC one of each Call of Duty game set the tone for the rest of the game. Der Eisendrache in Black Ops III kicked off one of the best DLC seasons in zombies history, while Dead of the Night in Black Ops 4 quietly started the worst DLC seasons. However, Outbreak disrupted the traditional DLC as a new mode instead of a round-based map. This gives Mauer der Toten the opportunity to jump start zombies again.
The map is the first round-based map in over four months. Mauer der Toten can either set zombies on the right track or be a middle of the pack map and lackluster, turning away players after the long wait. If the map is good, there is a decent chance that players will return and play more zombies. Much like Der Eisendrache, Mauer der Toten could get the ball rolling towards a new direction in Cold War Zombies. However, if the map is middle of the pack or bad, then players will be turned away once the freshness of the map fades away, much like in Dead of the Night. Mauer der Toten is the map that will define the rest of Cold War, for the worse or the better.
How Can Cold War Zombies Improve?
Zombies in Cold War has had its issues. With the lack of content and improvements and nerfs to weapons and alternate ammo types, there is a lot of room for improvement.
One area for improvement is the number of maps. Once Mauer der Toten releases, Treyarch should release maps every two to three months, much like their previous titles. Although Outbreak takes up development time, round-based maps are at the core of traditional zombies. Traditional maps should be the primary focus while Outbreak continues to get occasional updates throughout the Cold War DLC cycle. This would allow the zombies team to create maps and release them every two to three months, rather than the four or more months Cold War is seeing now.
Another area of improvement would be reversing the nerfs to shotguns and dead wire, and fixing sniper rifles. Cold War was advertised to be the zombies game where every weapon could be an uber weapon, according to Lead Writer Craig Houston.
“With all weapons boosting rarity with power levels, you continue to increase your gun’s damage potential however you choose,” he says. “Every gun has a path to become an uber weapon.”
However, with the nerfs to shotguns and dead wire, players feel that it takes away from the statement. Shotguns boasted the highest damage output in the game and dead wire was the best AAT. However, they were nerfed and aren’t nearly as good as before. On the other hand, sniper rifles struggle to collateral zombies and the Tombstone Perk requires an absurd number of points to get your weapons back. Cold War requires a solid map and improvements to gameplay in order to be better later in the DLC cycle.
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Feature Image Courtesy of Activision and Treyarch