Activision finally lifted the curtain on its highly-anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Zombies mode, releasing a new trailer and a slew of details about the popular mode. The Zombies mode, which was once nothing more than an added bonus, has now taken a front seat in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and offers three modes based around surviving the undead apocalypse. In Black Ops 2, there is now three different Zombie modes: 'Tranzit', 'Survival', and 'Grief'.
The trailer released today highlights the Tranzit mode, where players are now free to roam an open environment by foot or bus. Along the way you'll pick up items from the environment and use them to "build" things like weapons, tools, and other objects that will help unlock additional areas of the post-apocalyptic world. Like previous Zombie modes, this is playable for 1-4 players; however, the open-world nature of this mode now adds a new layer of strategy to the game.
The second mode is Survival, and is probably the closest thing to the traditional gameplay seen in previous Call of Duty Zombie games. In this mode, you'll be confined to a small area of the map used in Tranzit and will have to survive against hordes of zombies. This also supports up to four players.
The final zombie mode is Grief, which uses the same areas found in Survival mode, but supports up to eight players in two teams of four competing against each other. The goal of each team is to simply survive longer than the other team. Although you will not be able to kill members of the opposing team, you can strategically use the environment to hinder the other team. By making things difficult for them you can increase your chances of victory.
Best of all, the Black Ops 2 Zombies mode will now use the game's multiplayer engine, meaning many of the features once reserve for Call of Duty's other online modes will be included; this means improved matchmaking, stat tracking, and leaderboards will now be available in Zombies mode. Additionally, you'll be able to create custom games that include setting challenges like "headshots only", starting rounds, and more tweaks which will be revealed at a later date. Lastly, the Zombies mode will feature four playable characters and more zombie types making your chances of survival even more difficult.
I'm glad to see Activision and Treyarch place such an emphasis on this Zombies mode. When it comes to multiplayer, Call of Duty is one of the kings and with all of these new features it looks like it will once again reign supreme. For a franchise to be around for so long and continue to find new ways to keep its audience interested is a feat not many could accomplish. It looks like Activision is on the right track with Black Ops 2, going far beyond its predecessors. I'll admit, at the beginning of the year I told myself I was done with Call of Duty; now, I'm not so sure.
