News - Should You Purchase Warzone 2i Zombies. I Day 1 Impressions
Over the years, the undead have taken many forms, with Modern Warfare 3 looking to be the next entry in the franchise. This time around, however, Modern Warfare 3 aims to combine the casual offerings of both the Cold War outbreak and DMZ into one sprawling experimental, Landscape. Well, let's find out.
To preface. I have never played DMZ, and I feel that would be an important distinction as you all listen to me ramble on about my thoughts as Operation Deadbolt is aiming to appeal to five distinct audiences: fans of cod zombies and fans of DMZ, fans of one of the modes, fans of neither of the modes, and fans of both of the modes.
I want to make this clear because I only fall into the fandom of Cod Zombie Camp, obviously. I also want to make it clear that I only played 3 hours of game play this time; I hadn't experienced the highest threat zone. Tier 3. Pack-a-Punch, or even a single raid or main objective, like an Easter egg if there is one.
This article is truly a first thought, and the reason I'm making it so soon is because the game comes up tomorrow as of writing this article. And like my Jon Fong review, I want people to gauge whether or not their $70 is well spent on this mode. Particularly, Spoiler alert, it's never worth it, but without further delay, let's get into it.
I'm going to start off with the positives, as there are actually a lot more that I enjoyed than I thought. For starters, the art direction is absolutely impeccable in zombie-based environments, and the enemy designs were fantastic. I particularly love the energy spewing out of the mimics mouth when it engages players almost giving it a portal-like effect within its mouth and when the team gets to experiment with neon colors the game flares to life like when I was doing an objective where I had to protect a reactor inside a room full of ethereum crystals and the building looked gorgeous, it truly set the moment apart from anything else around it and I really appreciated that, then there's the enemy health and the way the game structures its combat that the map is split into three distinct zones with each Zone varying in difficulty as you proceed into the middle of the map, there's the lowest threat zone that you spawn in the medium threat zone and the high threat zone found in the map Center.
This helps not only segment the types of enemies that you fight but also how hard they are as well. In the low-threat zone, you'll most likely be fighting the standard Undead with a few special enemies occasionally thrown in there, with the enemies doing their lowest pool of damage. Whereas the high-threat rat zone features unique enemies like the Mega Abomination and armored zombies that soak bullets and become rough targets to kill.
To compensate for the system, the round and healthbase systems have been entirely eliminated, allowing the developers to simplify how you upgrade your weapon, how much damage you do, and how that allows you to interact with the undead. I think this system is great and for a more casual audience this is an amazing way to get players into the action without needless micromanaging of round based, like in Black Ops 4 you have to upgrade your weapon five separate times just for the upgrades to become quite redundant by the time you hit the health cap or in games like IW and World War II sure the Pack-A-Punch upgrades offer you longevity and weapon viability up to the 40s, but just like other games that don't cap the health weapon viability only lasts until the health scill is too high in Modern Warfare 3's case this system engages players by allowing them to do consistent and easily readable damage something critical if you want to invest a newer audience into the mode of zombies.
And in Modern Warfare 3's case, the developers managed to do a great job. I always felt like I was able to actively engage the undead, and my weapons never felt like they weren't able to cut it. It took a lot of stress off of combat, and for a mode like this, I think that's actually a really good change.
Although still including Aether wrenches and weapon Rarities was something I thought we were done with when we're looking back at how Vanguard merged the two systems into one by just changing Rarity based off a pack-a-punch level. Another cool feature that really stuck out to me was the loading screens—apparently something that also belonged to ZMZ.
Operation Deadbolt features loading screens that are extremely reminiscent of Black Ops 1's TV monitors; it was a super neat touch and something I immediately fell in love with. It's also just cool to see zombies, as they are horrifying beasts of nature, leaving nothing in their wake. Then there's the change that each and every perk costs 2, 000 points, no more cost per perk systems, or just randomize prices that fit different perks, just 2, 000 points for a perk, and considering players earn a few thousand points for doing objectives, it becomes rather satisfying to complete a side objective and purchase another perk.
Adding on to this, players no longer lose their perks when they are down, only losing them should they bleed out, which is a really cool change; it only took the developers 15 years to do so, and a change I feel also complements the casual-based approach. Included in this is the ability to share points with your teammates.
I have no other notes on this; that feature alone puts the game above pretty much every entry besides World War II in extinction. And finally, there's the Xville sequence. Funny enough, the Xfill sequence fixed all of the problems I complained about when I reviewed the outbreak during the Cold War life cycle.
In the game, filling was a slow and underwhelming process that required players to get a certain number of kills before filling. This process was only done for the first few seconds, and after that, it transformed Dimensions into a cakewalk. In Modern Warfare 3, the XO system has been given a complete overhaul.
Attempting to fill will summon an army of the undead at the player's feet and a NeverEnding Onslaught that will attempt to overrun any player not trying to thin The Horde. The sequence is exhilarating, and even when the helicopter lands, players have to hunker down in it while they wait for their teammates, and unlike xfill and outbreak.
Undead can enter the helicopter whenever they please, leaving the match's final moments as intense as the rest of the game. And it's something I'm all here for. Now I wasn't able to find too many specials whenever X was filled, but that might be because I wasn't in a high enough threat zone when I did.
