Treyarch often innovates with an experiment of new mechanics inCall of Duty Zombies, and while some of them have been surefire hits, others haven’t been so successful. There are a few mechanics, while innovative, that has had a somewhat negative reception in the community, along with a certain level of dread when it comes to replaying certainCOD Zombiesmaps that involve said mechanics.
EachCall of Duty Zombiesmap from World at War toBlack Ops6 holds interesting ideas and mechanics for every map that may serve the time well for what they sought to accomplish but going forward, it might be a good idea to leave these mechanics on the back burner.
8Space Monkeys Stealing Perks
A Frantic Back-and-Forth Rush to Stop Monkeys From Destroying Perks
Ascension is an exciting map forCall of Duty Zombiesplayers, and there’s a lot to love about it. From the easy training spots to the exciting aesthetics of a Russian Cosmodrome, Ascension excels in atmosphere and design, but everyone dreads when the screen turns red for a feared Max Ammo round.
Ascension does away with the Hellhounds and instead features space monkeys returning to Earth. If players have a Perk, best believe that these space monkeys are going to swarm the Perk Machine to beat on it until it breaks, thus forcing players to buy the Perk again. It’s rather annoying when a full inventory of Perks has been acquired, as solo players are going to have to run back and forth to try andsave them all.
7The Denizens
Infinitely Spawning Critters That Slow Speeds in the Fog
TranZit is easily one of the morecontroversial maps inCOD Zombies, but it’s also one with a lot of charm that deserves appreciation, and it’s one that could do with a modern remake. In TranZit, players can abandon T.E.D.D. the bus driver, and run across the expansive map themselves, but the unknown of the fog holds other dangers.
Within the fog, players will always be attacked by Denizens, and the only way to get them off the player’s head and stop them from killing the crew is to melee attack them. They slow players down, add a layer of risk, and genuinely just annoy the flow of progress.
6Limited to Four Perk-a-Colas
Prioritizing Crutch Perks Forces Repetitive Play
A mechanic that has featuredsince the dawn ofCall of Duty Zombiesis the four-perk limit. While some maps featured easter eggs and main quests that allowed for every Perk-a-Cola, the standard practice was that players could only purchase 4 Perks, and they’d be stuck with them until they went down.
This was actually a good mechanic that challenged players as they had to design their best Perk loadouts to survive, but consideringBlack OpsCold WarandBlack Ops6 allows players to purchase every Perk instead of just 4, this means that players are now spoiled, so who wants to go back to a limit? Not this player!
5Pack-a-Punch Needs Teamwork
Shangri-La Required All Players to Activate Pack-a-Punch
Part of the joy withinCall of Duty Zombiesis the fact that players can hop in with friends and strangers without the need to hold each other’s hands. Sure, a player might need a revive, but that’s a lot different from having entire mechanicsrely on teammates. Shangri-La features such a mechanic with its most important upgrade machine: The Pack-a-Punch.
In order to activate the Pack-a-Punch in Shangri-La, every player needed to find a pressure plate to stand on in order to activate the stairs at spawn leading up to it. This meant in games with multiple people, players either had to communicate or hope, even with zombies on the hunt. Pack-a-Punch is at its best when players can open it and visit it whenever they see fit.
4Dangerous Excavators
Failing to Rush Back to Spawn with a Hacker Means No Oxygen
Moon is an incredible map with lots of new mechanics. From the necessity of having a space suit to breathe to the dangerous Area 51 zone with infinite zombies that hold Pack-a-Punch and the two most crutch Perks: Speed Cola and Jugger-Nog. Yet, there’s one mechanic that fills players with dread every time they hear the announcement: excavators causing decompression.
Excavators can randomly start making their way to the map, and if they are not prevented from their destination in time, then they will cut off sections of Tunnel 6, Tunnel 11, or the Firedome. In doing so, these areas will trap players and also remove the oxygen, meaning players can’t run around with the Hacker Device, which they actually need to turn off the excavators even when zombies areunrelenting in their chase.
3Verticality That Leads to Instant Death
Die Rise’s Slippery Slopes and Verticality Means Death is Assured
Many would argue that Die Rise is not exactly one of Treyarch’s best, but it’s definitely a map with a few interesting mechanics that deserve to return in some form for future content. Die Rise experimented with verticality, meaning that maps were more about going up and down than they were about having a large square with a bunch of rooms within.
Die Rise’s verticality was both its draw and its weakness, as it was so easy for players to fall to their deaths. While the mechanic of verticality is indeed interesting, perhaps it should be done in a way that isn’t so punishing as to completely delete players from existence.
2The Mangler Army
An Absurd Amount of Manglers Threaten High-Round Runs
Despite the love to be had forBlack Ops6Zombies, there’s something a tad ridiculous and challenging about reaching high rounds and facing off against a seeming army of Manglers. While elite zombies like Amalgams and Abominations have their spawns reduced once or twice every few rounds, the Manglers are never-ending, and some high rounds have at least 10 or so on the map.
This number might not seem like a lot compared to the hordes of zombies, but having multiple Manglers at once can really be an issue when they use their tracking cannons to hit players, and to those overwhelmed with Manglers, this means certain death as there’s little to be done about countering all of them at once without scorestreaks.
1Nova Six Crawlers
Low to the Ground Zombies That Release Slowing Gas Upon Death
Upon turning on the power in Kino der Toten for the first time, players would hear a thunderous roar that definitely didn’t sound like the standard zombie. Crawling from the ceilings would be Nova Six Crawlers, blind zombies that crawl on all fours, and when killed, would emit a gross gas that slows players and injures them.
Nova Six Crawlers were often experimented on through various maps, providing them with unique abilities. For Moon, the Crawlers could teleport, whereas, on Alpha Omega, they could electrocute or even enhance the strength of other zombies. These mechanics wereunique, to say the least, but extremely frustrating due to how they disrupt trains and add new challenges.
