The team has relayed that the goal is to inject some of the other zombie elements, like the fiendish puzzles and curious curios, into Season 3 and beyond as they determine which directions to take Outbreak in the future. Whether you get ported to a house to have a “classic” zombies objective, have to haul resources across the map under duress, chase a boss down, or escort the payload, there’s some nice replayability already in place, and we’re just getting started. While matches that go on for hours as fastidious players make sure they scoop up every power up and unlock every chest are a bit much, having different main objectives in each map that aren’t just killing a boss is welcome. The mode could use some big tweaks and bigger experiments, but the shell that’s been crafted here with Season 2 using bits and pieces of everything CoD is a stellar one. Now that’s not a big deal, but when it spawns right on top of you and you’re split up from your main group, it could be a catalyst in a chain of events that could wipe your party. Who doesn’t love mimics? You know, maybe Outbreak really is the Dark Souls of Call of Duty Zombies. Even the mundane task of picking up a loot chest has some degree of intensity in this mode, as there’s always a small chance that the chest could actually be a mimic enemy disguised as a chest. Upgrading after each level feels meaningful, whether you’re packing a punch on your weapon(s), loading up on special ammo to shatter armored terrors, or just gearing up on armor.

Sure, I did bug out an enemy boss by shoving him under the ground by ramming into him and make it so we couldn’t complete the map, but running over your standard issue legions is a lot of fun. And it works! What a world.Īccess to vehicles changes a lot, for both traversal and combat considerations. Yes, that’s a thing I said about Call of Duty Zombies. In a way, it’s almost like a roguelike first-person shooter role-playing game. Outbreak lets the Zombies design team draw upon a ton of different things that already exist in the CoD universe, from large maps and vehicles and the concept of loot chests from Warzone and shove them all into a delicious undead wrap that’s way more enjoyable to traverse with friends.

While I do enjoy many elements from the Call of Duty Zombies lineup, the formula was in need of a shakeup, or at least an alternative.

While I don’t think there’s enough variety in Outbreak yet and that the mode needs a little more variance and some pacing tweaks (Outbreak is a loooooooong game, when you’re doing well), the framework here is enthralling in comparison to the Zombies we already know and sometimes love. You give the same players a map with a bunch of weird icons to explore, events to capitalize and grow on, and take away the timing elements that keep them huddled up near a wall until they have enough cash to open a door, and things change fast. But Outbreak can get its hooks into players that don’t gel with the round-based, window-boarding, puzzle-hunting template. That’s fine, because those games are a lot of fun, sure. I’ve tried to drag friends along from CoD multiplayer modes into Zombies for years and years, but they always bounce out after a round or two to head back to kill confirmed or Warzone.

Call of duty zombies