Treyarch is doing what it does best by taking Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 back to its roots with a round-based Zombies mode

Four survivors with guns
(Image credit: Activision)

The Black Ops 6 deep dive that aired just after the Xbox Games Showcase yesterday showed off loads of new information about the upcoming Call of Duty. Not only will it be time-warping back to the '90s, but it's also adding a new "Omnimovement" feature that could either sink or swim—we're not sure yet. But the best news, in my opinion, had to be that Zombies will be returning to the traditional round-based format. 

We'll be able to enjoy two new round-based Zombies maps, Terminus and Liberty Falls, as well as a "continuation of the intriguing and terrifying Dark Aether narrative that was started in Black Ops Cold War," according to a Call of Duty blog post. I always enjoyed the cosmic horror take on Zombies that an alternate dimension supplies, so it'll be cool to see it make a return after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's open-world Zombies. 

In addition to the two new maps, Treyarch also says that there will be "new and returning power-ups, a pantheon of revolting entities to face, and a host of secrets and easter eggs to discover." Zombies will also have all the new movement features and visual and audio upgrades that were mentioned during the showcase. This will hopefully make getting around much easier as players will be able to move "much more realistically." Treyarch also hints at new "additional Zombies-specific features" but says that more information on this will be coming in the following weeks. 

My favourite CoD Zombies has always been Black Ops 2, with iconic maps like Bus Depot, Mob of the Dead, and Origins, but that's probably just because it was the first CoD Zombies game I actually played with any kind of sentience. 

While the open-world Zombies in Modern Warfare 3 wasn't awful, with some cool enemies like the returning Mimic, I didn't think it was worth the price tag, and I couldn't help but miss the rounds. I love relentlessly trying to tackle the hordes of the undead with my friends, each time aiming for a higher round as most of us stick close by as one outlier runs off, claiming he can kill every single one by himself only for him to die on the opposite side of the map. 

So, despite all the headaches I've had from my friends screaming to be revived, I'm actually quite excited to see what Treyarch is going to do with this next CoD Zombies, especially now I know we're going back to a round-based format

Elie Gould
News Writer

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.

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