Summary
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3Zombies has been properly revealed, and as expected, the community’s response has been quite mixed. On one hand, the large player count has the potential to deliver some thrilling battles, like the giant boss teased in the trailer’s final moments and the fights against the significantly larger Abomination enemy. On the other, fans are concerned about the DMZ-like extraction timer, as they will not be able to have one long match like they can do in classic Zombies experiences. However, one thing that everyone is disappointed in is the map forCall of Duty:Modern Warfare 3Zombies.
While the open-world premise is certainly intriguing, players now know that this open-world map will just be theupcomingWarzonemap Urzikstan. While the Aether storms and roaming undead may make it feel slightly different, it seems more likely than not that players are in for a fairly boring map. Considering how essential unique areas have been to Zombies’ past success, this is an unfortunate decision that is working againstMW3Zombies’ success.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Zombies Fails to Correct Outbreak’s Biggest Flaw
Outbreak was a major success for Treyarch, so it makes sense thatModern Warfare 3Zombies is heavily influenced by it. With Treyarch hard at work onCall of Duty2024, players already know that they will be seeing the return of classic Zombies next year. Not only does this mean Treyarch has its hands full, but that now is also the right time to try something new and provide some variety, as players will see a lot of survival gameplay within the nextCall of Dutyrelease. Still, even though reusing aWarzonemap will save time and resources, it remains disappointing. By continuing to borrow too many assets from other modes instead of delivering fully fresh maps, it feels as if Zombies has become a low budget project that Activision has little interest in focusing on.
Outside ofOperators hurtingCall of DutyZombies’ personality, which was seen inBlack Ops Cold War’s Survival maps as well, the biggest issue players had with Outbreak is that its maps did not feel like Zombies locations. Outside of Outbreak’s main quest, players never visited areas that could not be seen in multiplayer’s Fireteam modes, as the maps were ported over with nearly no changes. This led them to feel overly pristine and made the Zombies feel out of place, as it looked like the undead were simply tossed into the multiplayer locations. While this was indeed the case, more could have been done to alleviate that feeling.
Since fans have only seen a few glimpses ofCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3Zombies in action, andthe rumored Zombies betathat could prove otherwise does not seem to be happening, there is a chance that Treyarch has heavily altered the Urzikstan map to make it feel more like a proper Zombies area. Still, that seems unlikely based on the trailer, which is truly unfortunate. Beyond 2023’s Zombies mode feeling less unique due to its setting, players will be seeing Urzikstan in Ground War,Warzone, and Zombies, which could see the map growing old very quickly.
In the past,Call of DutyZombies has offered dozens of iconic locations. An abandoned theater in Kino Der Toten, a medieval castle in Der Eisendrache, a fictional 1940s city in Shadows of Evil - the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, these fully original play spaces have become less common in recent years.Black Ops Cold Wartook things in the wrong direction with maps like Firebase Z that borrowed many campaign assets, andCall of Duty: VanguardZombies was even worsein this regard since it just reused multiplayer maps. Sadly, instead of taking after the classic Zombies modes fans love,MW3Zombies is more comparable to Vanguard as far as its map is concerned. Not only is it doing things that could scare off old school Zombies fans, but a reused map is simply less exciting to explore.
Ultimately, this reused map limitsthe potential ofModern Warfare 3Zombies. The mode can still be successful, and there is a chance that the extraction format and high player count surprises players. Additionally, the story does not seem to be pulling any punches, as four major Zombies characters have been killed already. Still, it feels like the mode has a ceiling now, asModern Warfare 3will lack a unique map that truly feels as if it was built from the ground up for Zombies. Because of that,MW3Zombies risks feeling cheap and rushed, even if the core gameplay turns out to be fun.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3launches on November 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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