Black Ops 6 is finally out, allowing players to enjoy a new iteration of the Zombies mode that Treyarch is known and loved for. Even though Vanguard and Modern Warfare 3 featured their version under the supervision of Treyarch, this is the first Zombies mode fully developed by the said studio since the release of Black Ops Cold War.

If you want to know if their magic is present in this new installment, or if this iteration of Zombies is what you’re looking for, I’ve collected my thoughts in this compact review.

mechanics

We’ll start by talking about the mechanics in the game. Round-based gameplay returned with Black Ops 6, with both launch maps featuring the traditional format.

Although Vanguard implemented this format, Modern Warfare 3 Zombies departed from it and had an open-world Zombies mode. This marks the return of 2021’s round-based goodness.

You can immediately see that the game is not coming from a blank canvas, but is building on what was learned with the Zombies mode from Black Ops Cold War.

In-game cinematics feel smoother, boss fights are back and more dynamic than what we saw in the Cold War maps, and new quality-of-life additions improve the overall experience.

A QoL feature is the voting system when playing co-op. When a player wants to trigger a certain event, such as the start of a boss fight, or when they trigger the Rampage Inducer to increase the difficulty of zombies.

Another feature we would like to point out, and probably one that many users are very happy with, is the option to save solo games. This is the first game in the history of the franchise to allow players to save their matches and resume them at a later date.

This feature alone increases the value of the game so much and allows players who do not have so many consecutive free hours to reach higher rounds. Saving isn’t available in co-op, which is a shame, but you can’t have everything, right?

The co-op experience not only has the save function, but also the ability to interrupt matches. This is also a bummer considering that pauses were a thing in Black Ops Cold War for both solo and co-op matches.

In other words, even though the solo experience has been improved in this area, the co-op part remains the same. We don’t know the reasoning behind not including all of these things in co-op, or if Treyarch can still implement these features during the post-launch cycle.

The game also brings back all the mechanics that originated from Warzone, such as armor plates, ground loot, scores, and more. As has been the case since Cold War, I feel like these don’t take away from the arcade experience that is Zombies.

Zombies still feels like an arcade mode, and all these mechanics add more ways to survive and interact without making the game feel like the open-world mode we saw in MW3. However, maps also play an important role in this.

I’d also like to highlight the launch and launch of the wonder weapon because that’s enough for a good start. The Ray Gun is here, but we also have a brand new weapon, the Beamsmasher, and the return of the Jet Gun, under a different name.

Beamsmasher is completely different from what we’ve seen before, filling the need for something new. On the other hand, it’s a relief to see the Jet Gun finally useful.

For those who don’t know, the Jet Gun was available on the Black Ops 2 Tranzit map. The gun was crucial to the easter egg, however, it overheated very quickly and was almost useless to survive against the zombies. So it’s great to see that Treyarch has finally redeemed this former piece of trash.

The Gobblegums, one of my favorites from Black Ops 3, are another welcome return. The simplicity and charm of the original Gobblegums are there, and we expect the number of Gobblegums to increase in the coming seasons to add more dynamism to the game.

paper

Black Ops 6 launched with two maps, Terminus and Liberty Falls. The latter was heavily criticized after its reveal on COD Next 2024, with many saying it didn’t feel like Zombies.

While it is true that the color scheme of the map is not as crazy as that seen in Revelations, Shadows of Evil or Der Eisendrache, this is not a negative aspect.

The map feels like zombies when you consider that it’s an abandoned city infested with undead. The outbreak happened not too long ago in the story, so it would make sense that the whole place doesn’t look like it’s inside the Dark Aether…yet.

However, we do see aether storms, destroyed buildings, zombie traps, aether portals, an area inside the Dark Aether (the church), and more that help the map feel unique and not a zombie-adjusted Warzone map. The map has a similar feel to Die Maschine, the first Black Ops Cold War Zombies map.

On the other hand, we have Terminus. With the night setting and the fact that it takes place in an abandoned facility on an island, this will probably be a favorite of those who love classic maps like Shi No Numa, Ascension or even Zetsubou No Shima.

Liberty Falls is also supposed to be a research facility, but Terminus is where the real experiments take place, as you might find out during the main easter egg hunt.

It would be hard for me to choose one map over the other as they both have their own things going for them. Maybe recency bias comes into play since it’s only been two weeks since the game’s release, but I’d pick Terminus simply because I find the easter egg hunt more fun.

The maps are full of smaller secrets and easter eggs all over the place, so figuring out the main quest isn’t the only thing players can look forward to.

The Dark Aether story continues

I can’t forget the story, which is one of the core parts of Treyarch’s Zombies mod. However, I’ll avoid mentioning any easter egg cinematic spoilers in case you don’t have the game yet or want to experience the story for yourself once you play it.

Having two maps at launch is very advantageous to the story as the events of both maps take place at the same time. The story begins almost five years after the end of the Black Ops Cold War, where we saw Samantha sacrifice herself to save everyone from The Forsaken.

Now the former Requiem crew plus Dr. Peck and Maya discover the horrific experiments being conducted on Terminus Island, while a group of soldiers investigate the zombie outbreak in Liberty Falls.

The story on both maps is easy to understand but has Treyarch’s signature, with plenty of mysteries to uncover, characters who aren’t what they seem, and what happened in the past is as important as ever.

I think the Zombies story is one of the most interesting parts of every Treyarch title, however newcomers might find it hard to get into. This part of the lore has always been more for dedicated fans, but Treyarch opened the doors to new players in Black Ops Cold War, starting from scratch after the ending of Black Ops 4.

As the final scenes revealed, a new arc was set in motion after the events of these two maps. This story will likely develop in Black Ops 6’s post-launch cycle with the release of new maps.

The story grabs you right away, especially since the audience is aware of some things the protagonist doesn’t, and we’ve already seen some interesting twists in it.

If you’re someone who’s been following the Zombies story closely and this new Dark Aether story, you won’t be disappointed with the events set in motion. And if you’re new to this world, the story has the potential to grab your interest and make you go down the rabbit hole of researching what came before.

Final thoughts

Overall, this is a great start to Black Ops 6 Zombies, offering two maps at launch, an interesting continuation of the Dark Aether story, improving on what was built from Cold War, and staying true to what makes Zombies a great experience.

There are some negatives, such as the lack of key features that could improve the user experience, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this mod delivers positive results.

Final Rating: 8 out of 10.

The game was reviewed on PC using a code provided by CDKeys. Get your copy here!

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