Players committed enough to accomplish the single-player campaign in 2008's Call of Duty: World at War were graced with one of the greatest in-game rewards of this platform generation; the Nazi Zombies survival mode. Every Treyarch-developed iteration of Cod since has expanded around the adventure with each DLC introducing one or more new survival maps to the saga.
As a tribute towards the dedicated fanbase that has stood behind them-and this mode-for such a long time, Treyarch recently released eight from the series' older Zombies maps in the Zombies Chronicles expansion, available for Call of Duty: Black Ops III. This final DLC will attract fans largely through nostalgia, even though the new maps definitely take fans to a few of their favorite zombie killing moments, there's also a lot of Black Ops III to be found in these classic maps whether fans want it there or otherwise.
The eight maps remastered in Zombies Chronicles are pulled from World at War, Black Ops, and Black Ops II. The entire list in chronological order is Nacht Der Untoten, Verruckt, Shi No Numa, Kino Der Toten, Ascension, Shangri-La, Moon, and Origins. Any die-hard fans of the saga will notice a quantity of maps missing including Five and Call of the Dead from Black Ops, in addition to all of the Zombies maps from Black Ops II apart from Origins.
Understandably, remastering every single Zombies map from the past could be too much for just one expansion, and Black Ops II Zombies maps should be too substantial to incorporate more than one. Having said that, the immediately noticeable insufficient the two remaining Black Ops maps is a little much more of a let down. The four present Black Ops maps were generally considered the most popular in the game, and Five and Call from the Dead arguably must have taken priority over another maps like Verruckt. Every map included in Zombies Chroniclesis a more than welcome addition, but squeezing those two others in would have gone a long way. At least the most popular classic map-Der Riese-was already remastered for Black Ops III at launch by means of The Giant.
The maps that made the development are exactly what fans will remember in terms of layout and design, but each one has seen some bleed-over from Black Ops III. GobbleGum is among the more apparent additions to the older maps, with machines scattered all around the classic stages. GobbleGum could be crafted and equipped in the Zombies menu screen, offering buffs to players with varying amounts of utility. Players are permitted a lot of loadouts to choose from, giving a fresh layer of strategy to older zombie killing if you don't take away any appreciable challenge.
New Gum can been crafted with Black Ops III's Liquid Divinum currency, or unlocked through level progression. This progression system is another novelty which has found its way into that old maps. While fun in their own right, older versions from the remastered maps could admittedly lose their charm once players completed everything these were planning to do, but the addition of experience-based progress offers players something they are able to work toward while still reveling in the nostalgia of the remastered maps.
Perks were another component of the older maps to see an update for Black Ops III. For the most part, perks have remained consistent on their own respective maps aside from three notable exceptions. First, and most tragically, the perk PhD Flopper has been removed from all applicable maps, replaced with Black Ops III's Window's Wine perk. Amongst other things, PhD removed the threat of players getting damaged by their very own explosions. This perk admittedly led to a number of rather overpowered strategies, but reasoning doesn't make its removal sting any less. The 2nd change requires the Der Wunderfizz machine getting introduced to some of the new maps. This machine gives players the option of obtaining a randomized perk at a lower cost and can be optimal for all those unsure of what to pick his or her previous couple of perks. Finally, the perk Mule Kick continues to be added across every updated map, allowing players to carry an additional weapon. Forsaking PhD Flopper might be hard to forgive, but the benefit offered by another two perk changes almost comprises for this.
If only all the changes towards the classic maps were as understandable as those based in the perks. Weapons in many cases are the highlight of each and every Zombies challenge, where putting one's hard-earned points in to the mystery box comes with an equal possibility of producing the very best gun hanging around or perhaps a worthless joke. The 3 generations of Zombies maps featured different weapons in line with the time period of the Call of Duty installment in which they took place, but the Zombies Chronicles expansion has almost entirely done away with this variety with regard to incorporating Black Ops III's weapon selection into all the remastered maps. Not only does this reduce the novelty found in the maps' different arsenals, but Black Ops III's weapons do not have quite the personality of these based in the original games.
This deficiency becomes even more evident once players upgrade the weapons in Pack-a-Punch machines. Pack-A-Punching a weapon produces a stronger form of that firearm, but older weapons would often emerge notably more interesting as well, for example flamethrowers that will slow enemies or submachine guns that would max out their rate of fireside. Black Ops III weapons don't appear to achieve the same flavor when upgraded, apart from a few rare cases such as the returning starting pistols that fire grenades. Remastered maps do feature one or two classic weapons-including map-specific special weapons like the Moon's Wave Gun-but in an expansion so focused on nostalgia, more classic guns should have made the cut.
The Zombies Chronicles expansion fortunately stayed in keeping with the classic maps within the most significant area; Happy easter !. The Zombies saga doesn't offer players its complex narrative upfront. It instead must be discovered via a quantity of intricate puzzles and challenges discovered over the maps. Aside from expanding around the Zombies story, these Happy easter ! can also help the player immensely within their current match, may it be through rewards of extra perks or unique weaponry. All the Happy easter ! seem to be fully intact in Zombies Chronicles, giving the remastered maps increased longevity through challenges beyond simple survival.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III's final expansion is a love letter to Zombies fans. Could there have been a little more emotion in said letter? Yes, but all of the necessary pieces have there been to consider fans to most of the moments in Call of Duty history. Some guns and perks might be different, but zombies still killing.
