• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III - Zombies mode detailed

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
MWIII-PRESEASON-06-TOUT.jpg

LAUNCH COMMS: JOIN OPERATION DEADBOLT: THIS IS THE MODERN WARFARE ZOMBIES CONTENT OVERVIEW​


Modern Warfare Zombies: Launch Content Overview

Welcome to Operation Deadbolt. Your main tasks — aside from surviving hordes of Zombies and the machinations of the PMC group Terminus Outcomes — are threefold:

Operation Deadbolt: Explore an open world and search for valuable Acquisitions and Schematics.
A World of Opportunity: Complete Contracts to earn Essence, collect Acquisitions, and clear Missions to discover what is really happening in the Exclusion Zone.
Secure and Extract: You also need to learn when the situation on the ground becomes advantageous as well as untenable. Immerse yourself and work with other players to complete the more difficult mission objectives, and extract before you’re overwhelmed.

Strike Team Operators

Recruit any unlocked Operator for your Strike Team. Each recruited Operator will have their own “On-Soldier” Gear. All Operators you’ve unlocked from both Modern Warfare II and Modern Warfare III are available, and two Operators — Ripper and Scorch — are unlocked after you complete specific challenges within Zombies.
Each Strike Team Operator can be chosen and comes with five different customizable Equipment Slots. The Gear you find during missions is saved here, and includes Killstreaks, Armor, Gas Masks, and Medical items.

Rucksacks

Fill your Rucksack with essential Acquisitions that you find on the battlefield or craft via valuable Schematics. Initially there are up to five open slots on the Small Rucksack. After your first mission, providing you’ve found either Acquisitions or Schematics, you can add such items to the Rucksack.

Loadouts

Choose two Primaries, or a Primary and Secondary Weapon, to take along with a Lethal, Tactical, and Field Upgrade. You have:
  • Primary and Secondary Weapons: All MWII and MWIII weapons are available to use in Zombies. Any that are "XP Recommended" are denoted by the small fire icon, and grant you more XP if used.
  • Insured Slots: These are weapons you’ve leveled up, added attachments to, and come from the weapon pool of over 100 MWII and MWIII weapons. If you fail to exfil with an Insured Weapon, it only becomes available again after a Cooldown period. You have up to three Insured Slots, and two of them are unlocked after completing Zombies missions.
  • Contraband Stashes: These are weapons you’ve found and exfilled with and are permanently lost if left behind during a mission. Keeping a stash of up to 20 of these weapons, which may or may not have attachments added to them, is helpful when augmenting your Loadout.
  • Tactical and Lethal Equipment:A selection of Multiplayer Tactical and Lethal Equipment can be equipped as part of your Loadout.
    • Tacticals: Stun Grenade, Smoke Grenade, Scatter Mine, Decoy Grenade, Shock Stick, Stim, or Experimental Gas Grenade.
    • Lethals: Frag Grenade, Claymore, Throwing Knife, Thermite, Proximity Mine, Drill Charge, Sticky Grenade, C4, Molotov Cocktail, Breacher Drone

Zombies Field Upgrades
MWIII-PRESEASON-06-005.jpg

Field Upgrades in MWZ are completely different from the equipment available to Multiplayer Operators. There are six Field Upgrades, five of which are unlocked as you progress through your Military Player Ranks

Adding to Your Attacks: Acquisitions and Schematics
Once you return from your first few successful missions, you’re able to place Acquisitions into your Rucksack for use during subsequent outings. You can also start to craft your own Acquisitions at the Schematic Crafting location (in the Lobby), between drops.
MWIII-PRESEASON-06-006.jpg

Acquisitions: These are single-use items that can give you an advantage on the battlefield. Acquisitions you find and exfil with in your Rucksack can be added to your Acquisition Stash, within your Rucksack Menu.
Schematics: These are highly sought-after plans that permanently allow you to craft Acquisitions that you can add to your Rucksack. Schematics have a cooldown period, after which they can be brought into the Exclusion Zone.

The following types of Acquisitions can be found and used, or crafted if the Schematics are located, and all have a Rarity value associated with them (denoting how difficult they are to find and the level of improvements they bring to the weapon or item they affect):

Aetherium
MWIII-PRESEASON-06-008.jpg

The Dark Aether element is used in conjunction with crafting Schematics to bolster your weaponry:
  • Raw and Refined Aetherium Crystals: These are used to upgrade your Pack-a-Punch weapon to Levels I and II, respectively.
  • Uncommon, Rare, Epic Aether Tools: These upgrade your currently held weapon to a rarer form. The rarer the form, the more impressive damage the weapon inflicts.

Perk-a-Colas
MWIII-PRESEASON-06-009.jpg

The Vest, Gloves, Boots and Gear Perk system is not available in Zombies. Instead, receive a permanent boost (throughout a Mission, unless you fully die) to various in-game attributes by finding (or crafting) a Perk-a-Cola

Ammo Mods
MWIII-PRESEASON-06-010.jpg

The weapon you are currently holding can be further augmented with an Ammo modification. For the exact effect each Mod brings to a battle, why not test them out in the Exclusion Zone once you find or craft them?

Wonder Weapons
MWIII-PRESEASON-06-011.jpg

Locate the necessary (and devilishly difficult to find) Schematics, and you’re able to craft some of the most arcane and powerful weaponry ever seen. The Wonder Weapons available at game launch are currently [REDACTED].



Missions Overview: Acts, Tiers, and Rewards
Begin to acclimate to the horrors of the Urzikstan Exclusion Zone and commence a multilayered storyline that focuses on a variety of Tiered Missions in three Acts. Not all missions are immediately accessible, and the mission you wish to complete (which may have one or multiple tasks) is highlighted. Mission completion rewards (including Acquisitions, cosmetic items, durable items, Double XP tokens) are also visible prior to infil.
  • Complete tasks within a mission and receive unlocked missions and rewards.
  • Complete missions within a Tier and receive unlocked missions and rewards.
  • Complete all Tiers to finish an Act and receive unlocked missions and rewards.
  • Complete all three Acts to receive a [REDACTED] and continue to uncover the mysteries plaguing the Exclusion Zone, prior the storyline continuation at Season 1.

Mission Parameters: The Essence of Zombies

You have freedom and flexibility to explore the Exclusion Zone throughout Urzikstan, and infilling allows you to complete a wide variety of activities as well as the specific mission tasks you assigned to yourself prior to the session start.
Aside from the specific mission tasks you are undertaking, each Zombies infil enables you to:
  • Explore: Investigate the Low, Medium, and High Threat Zones. This can be done with a purpose, or you can simply remain in the relative safety of a Low Threat Zone as you learn how to deal with the variety of enemy threats. Weapon levelling is an excellent plan within the outer edge of the map.
  • Complete Contracts: This allows you to earn Essence (the in-game currency, mainly gathered after zombie culling) and Acquisitions by completing contracts in the field for Operation Deadbolt.
  • Upgrade to Progress: Spend Essence at machines across the map and upgrade your weapons and gear.
  • Extract Acquisitions: Successful exfils allow you to keep Acquisitions to get a head start in the next deployment.


Within a deployment, your Tac-Map displays a variety of interesting game features, and some of the most important ones are detailed below so you can understand how to interact with them.

Buy Stations: Allows you to purchase a variety of helpful items, such as Killstreaks, Gas Masks, and other essentials, as well as sell any unwanted items you've collected.
MWIII-PRESEASON-06-016.jpg


Perk-a-Cola Machines: This allows you to purchase a beverage that increases your prowess in a variety of ways (see above).



MWIII-PRESEASON-06-017.jpg


Pack-a-Punch Machines: This upgrades your currently carried weapon (usually in the ammunition and damage departments), for a price.




MWIII-PRESEASON-06-018.jpg


Wall Buys: Outlines of weaponry can be found on the walls of various buildings throughout the Exclusion Zone. Interact and purchase the weapon, as needed.



MWIII-PRESEASON-06-019.jpg


Mystery Boxes: These offer an exciting randomly generated prize — likely a weapon of varying rarity and occasionally a Wonder Weapon!



Sounds pretty close to cold war alright. 👍
 

Tarnpanzer

Member
Really hated Treyarch-Zombies because of their complicated mechanics.

Hope this time Zombies is a bit more casual friendly and actually enjoyable with randoms.
 
Last edited:

twilo99

Member
I’ve never had any interest in the zombie thing as a single player thing, but this sounds like it has multiplayer aspect? Has it always been like that?
 

djjinx2

Member
It's like DMZ but with zombies, be interesting for a week or 2 but round based old school maps need to come back ASAP.
 

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
Really hated Treyarch-Zombies because of their complicated mechanics.

Hope this time Zombies is a bit more casual friendly and actually enjoyable with randoms.
Have you not played cold war? Treyarch closed the chapter of the weird super complex and convoluted zombies with Black ops 3, cold war started a new storyline called dark aether and it has been very casual friendly, and jusy vastly superior to the older entries in general.

I’ve never had any interest in the zombie thing as a single player thing, but this sounds like it has multiplayer aspect? Has it always been like that?
Zombies has always been multiplayer yes, ever since cod5 in 2008
 

Danknugz

Member
these are the kinds of games exactly that AI will be able to make. some old shit year after year with minor changes to warrant people shelling out cash to race to prestige and look/feel cool with pew pew pew guns killing people.
 

twilo99

Member
these are the kinds of games exactly that AI will be able to make. some old shit year after year with minor changes to warrant people shelling out cash to race to prestige and look/feel cool with pew pew pew guns killing people.

And are these people allowed to enjoy the game and have fun or nah?

I suggest you stick to whatever it is you enjoy, but I’ll take a wild guess.. single player games with an “amazing” story line
 

Danknugz

Member
And are these people allowed to enjoy the game and have fun or nah?

I suggest you stick to whatever it is you enjoy, but I’ll take a wild guess.. single player games with an “amazing” story line
sure, if you want, not sure why i said that either way. never said i was into story games. strange post dude.
 

WoJ

Member
I played zombies religiously on Black Ops 1, 2 and 3. Haven't touched it since. Is it still any good?
 

Aion002

Member
Damn... It seems quite cool. They should sell the zombie mode as a dlc for mw2... I am willing to pay 30 usd for it, but paying 70 just to play this mode is too much.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
It has a bit of DMZ feel in it. If it has PvP then I'm going to flip all the tables in the house.. But I guess the chance for that is low.
 
Insanely reductive and false.
I just watched JackFrags play a round of MWIII Zombies and it is DMZ with Zombies with some of the quirks from traditional Zombies mode. It looks hugely uninspired. He even said at the end of the round that he thinks it should be a free to play mode and the group agreed.
 

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
it is DMZ with Zombies
No, it's not; it's impossible to be dmz with zombies just for the fact alone that dmz has pvp; it fundamentally changes the entire core loop.

with some of the quirks from traditional Zombies mode
Storyline radio, secrets, perks, pack a punch, field upgrades, aetherium, aether tools, power-ups, mini bosses, wonder weapons, mystery boxes, wall buys are not "some quirks", it's literally all the bits that make zombies zombies.

Just because it has a loot extraction element doesn't make it "just dmz", heck you have to extract in previous ones like cw zombies as well, just without the loot element, so is dmz just a stripped down zombies with loot?
Dmz is all about sweaty loot extraction, zombies is about killing zombies and finding secrets.
PvP is not in there as of now. Could come later as an option for an extra mode.
Not happening
 
No, it's not; it's impossible to be dmz with zombies just for the fact alone that dmz has pvp; it fundamentally changes the entire core loop.


Storyline radio, secrets, perks, pack a punch, field upgrades, aetherium, aether tools, power-ups, mini bosses, wonder weapons, mystery boxes, wall buys are not "some quirks", it's literally all the bits that make zombies zombies.

Just because it has a loot extraction element doesn't make it "just dmz", heck you have to extract in previous ones like cw zombies as well, just without the loot element, so is dmz just a stripped down zombies with loot?
Dmz is all about sweaty loot extraction, zombies is about killing zombies and finding secrets.

Not happening
Well to me, it looked exactly like DMZ but with Zombies. Even the guys playing it were saying it was basically DMZ without the PVP and instead of A.I soldiers it has Zombies. Call it whatever you like but I think you're in for a rude awakening when you play it for yourself.

I'd be interested in giving it a go but on first impressions, that looks like a lazy attempt.
 
Last edited:

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
Even the guys playing it were saying it was basically DMZ without the PVP and instead of A.I soldiers it has Zombies. Call it whatever you like but I think you're in for a rude awakening when you play it for yourself.
There's no rude awakening possible, because dmz without pvp and instead most of the things that make zombies zombies is, well, not dmz, it just isn't. It obviously isn't going to be cw zombies because there's no round based maps, but as soon as the rumoured main quest updates start rolling out in the later seasons, it's not going to be that much different from outbreak.

Again, dmz, sweaty pvp loot extractor, zombies, killing hordes and finding secrets.
 

Ogbert

Member
Storyline radio, secrets, perks, pack a punch, field upgrades, aetherium, aether tools, power-ups, mini bosses, wonder weapons, mystery boxes, wall buys are not "some quirks", it's literally all the bits that make zombies zombies.
Exacty.

DMZ with Zombies.

No PvP. Fair enough.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
Well.. Played three matches solo and quickly died each time. It feels way harder and more random than Outbreak, that's disappointing in itself. First impression is it has the feel of DMZ but with some zombies stuff added on top. I don't get it.. Yet.. Have to play more to see if I'll start to enjoy it.
 
I don't like the campaigns or multiplayers of cod anymore
The only thing that attracts me is zombies
Cold war was the goat for its zombies.
I would love to know some of Ur first impressions of this games zombies , is it like outbreak and dmz mixed together ? How hard can it get are there good Easter eggs and good gameplay loop ?
 
Well.. Played three matches solo and quickly died each time. It feels way harder and more random than Outbreak, that's disappointing in itself. First impression is it has the feel of DMZ but with some zombies stuff added on top. I don't get it.. Yet.. Have to play more to see if I'll start to enjoy it.
Don't say DMZ and Zombies in the same breath pal, you'll trigger the OP. In all seriousness though, I watched it being played for an hour yesterday and all I could see and hear was 'Oh this is just like DMZ, with some Zombies stuff in it and no PvP'.

They should have kept the Outbreak style, that was so good and definitely my favourite Zombies style mode yet.
 

splattered

Member
I don't like the campaigns or multiplayers of cod anymore
The only thing that attracts me is zombies
Cold war was the goat for its zombies.
I would love to know some of Ur first impressions of this games zombies , is it like outbreak and dmz mixed together ? How hard can it get are there good Easter eggs and good gameplay loop ?
I loved zombie mode in Cold war... It was the last good one. I'm interested to see how this one is and how the support will be for it moving forward
 
Jesus christ is pathetic how much copy paste there is from MW2. The cars, animationts , textures, it's all just copy paste lol.
Yup, refunded. Can't justify and won't support paying £60 for what is just glorified DLC. MP is reasonably good and I enjoy the game, I'll get it when it's cheaper. In the meantime I'll go back to Cold War.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
I just played a few rounds in co-op with my son, and we actually had fun. Made three extractions in a row.

Yes; It is kinda DMZ with zombies. BUT, without the annoying Pvp shit and a 45 minute timer.
 
Last edited:

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
Haven't bought a cod game for a long time full price and prolly won't start now, but I figured I can just refund this after trying it myself.
Played one game and it's definitely outbreak zombies, if outbreak took place on one big map instead of several smaller ones; instead of running from objective to objective, you run from contract to contract, so I guess all this time DMZ was indeed just a stripped down terrible zombies with pvp tacked on.
The spawns seems a bit irregular, with sometimes there being little amount of zombies and then at others a bunch spawn rapidly, in a way that makes it better than the outbreak spawns, since you can run around outbreak avoiding zombie encounters quite a bit while doing objectives/main quest.
The extraction triggers a lot of zombies though, so you could essentially just trigger exfil over and over again if you just want to kill zombies.

The map is very big so I feel there could be a lot hidden everywhere, I found a portal that randomly brought me to threat level zone 2, but then looking behind me a saw a very distinct set of glyphs, so that means this is some kind of fast travel system as long as you remember/write down the glyphs.
The economy could use a bit of a boost, I feel essence drops in even less amounts as it did in outbreak.
Played only one time though so I don't have that much playtime for the refund, so I'm sure I'm missing a ton; exfiltrated easily enough solo, though I can see how if you're not used to playing zombies it can get overwhelming, as zombie spawns mimic round based at times, definitely during exfil.

The only thing I'm not to sure about is the human enemies, they seem to be far more of a threat than the zombies, they could do with some tweaking to their accuracy and damage, but at least they take cover and stay back for a bit, unlike DMZ where they just swarm you.

It seems there are special story based missions in special locations though, but that will take some time and I'll def go over my refund period if I tried.
Overall it seems pretty good, and I'll pick it up on a sale.

Edit: also third person mode is a huge plus.
 
Last edited:

Ogbert

Member
It’s pretty fun.

You pick up contracts, get points, level up your gun and then move into the harder area. Been playing solo mostly which I think will be feasible up to a point. Contracts are the standard stuff; some are a little overturned for solo play.

It definitely has the feel of DMZ with Zombies, but the lack of pvp makes it a little more relaxed.

You’ll need a group to make significant progress though.
 
Last edited:

Ogbert

Member
It seems there are special story based missions in special locations though, but that will take some time and I'll def go over my refund period if I tried.
Overall it seems pretty good, and I'll pick it up on a sale.
You get the story mission by completing 20 missions beforehand.

They start off easy enough but they quickly get reasonably tough. You need to clear out a strongholds/mercs, so that will be off limits for anyone playing solo.

It’s fun, my only disappointment is that solo isn’t feasible for high end contracts.
 

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
They start off easy enough but they quickly get reasonably tough. You need to clear out a strongholds/mercs, so that will be off limits for anyone playing solo.

It’s fun, my only disappointment is that solo isn’t feasible for high end contracts.
I'm not sure about that, cw zombies is super hard as well solo starting out, or even in a group, unless you really really know what you're doing; it isn't until you reach lvl 55 to unlock the knife and use aetherium to buy a ton of upgrades where it becomes quite a bit easier, the knife alone allows you to one shot every zombie up to round 9.
Once you get the schematics to craft more powerful things, and use aetherium to start packed right away, and also make use of the special thing for solo players: it's a friendly dog that kills enemies and can even revive you, then I'm sure you'll be able to make a lot of progress eventually.
 
Top Bottom