Nazi Zombies: Black Ops VS Black Ops 2

[Tomo2000 60]

Yep, time to write a bit rant about, perhaps, my favorite game-mode of any game, ever... Nazi Zombies, when it first game out, was pretty revolutionary; it was the first COD game to completely venture away from the norm and try something completely out-there, and it worked, and now they're going with that formula with Black Ops 2, which has proved to be a huge success with it's fan-base. And I feel I can't really talk about either of the Black Ops: Nazi Zombie games without really talking about Nazi Zombies in World at War, first.

 

Now, it just started as one of the game devs screwing around, if you ever heard the interview. No storyline, just zombies, just for some fun. And it was a fantastic idea, and they went with it, and all of a sudden, bam! You pick up your World at War copy and you have Natch der Untoten sitting there. Did you guys play that? Damn it was hard.. Most of the guns were bolt-actions at the start, which required a huge amount of skill without wasting bullets. There was no real camp spots, even with two people, and every gun had it's pros and cons; a sniper was powerful but slow to fire, while a machinegun, say the LMG, was good, and fast-firing, but had a ridiculous reload speed and you'd quickly run out of ammo if they just held the trigger. This added a huge layer of ammo conservation, forcing players to fire in bursts at the head rather than spam body-shots, and I really liked this.

 

The Random Weapon Box was a fantastic idea, too. Wall guns were always there to buy ammo, if need be, but they weren't too good, whereas you had a random chance of getting a good weapon, but unable to get any ammo without power-ups. This was a fantastic feature, although, at late waves, when you have 20k at any given time, and you run out of ammo, you can just spam the box... It's time-consuming, but required.

 

Then they released Verruckt. I really liked this map; it was the first map with the moving random weapons box, perk-a-cola machines, power, and you could run the map. If you guys don't know what running is, it's where you walk/run around the map, making sure the zombies only spawn behind you, until you get to a point where you can get them into a tight choke-point, and then you release fully-automatic bullet-hell into them. Since all the zombies were the same height, headshots in a tightly-packed group was pretty easy. This strategy does take a considerable amount of time, but it's the only viable strategy after camping becomes a non-option. They did everything right with this map, forcing the player to venture out of their safe-zones to get good weapons, and the perk-a-cola machines definitely improved the players chance of survival. The perk-a-cola machines in this map are the famous four; Quick Revive, Juggernaught, Speed Cola and Double Tap. Quick Revive had two different features; in co-op, it would help you revive your character faster, whereas on Solo it would let you get yourself up three times, each time having to re-buy the perk, before it disappeared. They did a lot of right things on this map, and, even though it was mostly all experimental, they still knew what gamers wanted.

 

Then Shi no Numa came out, the creepy swamp map, where the story started to get hammered in. Shi no Numa was the first map with the characters; Dempsey, Nickoli, Takeo and Richtofen. There were hidden radios everywhere which told you a little about the story, and had the perk-a-cola machines spawn in random places. It was also the first map with the Hell Hounds, who dropped the Max Ammo every 5 rounds or so. This is also where they discovered that a random sound the zombies made sounded like "Sam", so she slowly started to become the main Antagonist.

 

And then Der Riese came out, and holy DAMN!! Der Riese is still my favorite map, hands down! You could run it, camp with 4 people so strategically, it was a masterpiece, in my opinion! There was so much to do, and the story really became apparent in Der Riese. It was just a fantastic map! Der Riese was also the first map to have the Pack-a-Punch machine.

 

But that's World at War in a nutshell. It was hard as hell! When Black Ops came out, the zombies health was higher because the guns were more fully-automatics with more damage. It was still balanced, though, but you could make it to later rounds if you had the skill. I loved that!! If you were bad at the game, and could get to wave 9 on World at War, you'd only make it to, say, 12 on Black Ops? It had a good difficulty curve, but for veterans like me, I went from Wave 20 on Verruckt to 40 on Kino der Toten. They made a pre-order bonus that the World at War maps would be included for Nazi Zombies in Black Ops, which I couldn't turn down.

 

Black Ops: Nazi Zombies came with three maps; Kino der Toten, Five and Dead Ops Arcade. Dead Ops Arcade was pretty fun if you had four people, and it was the only map that supported four players on one xbox. I didn't like Five, I found it too hard and conveluted, but I really really enjoyed Kino der Toten. It was like a mix of the good Nazi Zombies maps from World at War, they did Kino really well.

 

The first map to come out for Black Ops was Ascension. It was pretty good, and it was a really nice open map. It had a new perk-a-cola, Staminup, which makes you run faster and for longer, which was ideal for running. Ascension was a very run-associated map, and had Lunar Landers to go from one area to another, and if you screwed up your run, you'd get surrounded when you landed. It was a pretty good map, although the perk-a-cola machine was rather conveluted... It was the first thing to bring forth what I believed was a downfall in Nazi Zombies; the money-sucking four player easter egg. I can't stand these, so be quite honest. Means two people have to have the game, and buy the maps, on two different xbox's.

 

Then Call of the Dead came out, a map that Treyarch even dubbed "Experimental". It was to see what players of the game liked, and I completely loved this map! It had, for a change, four different survivors from movies and such, and you had to help out the original characters in a massive, one player or two player Easter Egg! It was long, and hard, and challenging, but since it was one or two player, it was fantastic! You didn't have to invite friends over or buy gold membership and play with idiots whenever you wanted to do it. It also features a "boss" zombie, so to speak. I liked this, although annoying, it gave you an impression of danger, even when the round ended. He could just rock up and destroy you, or, if you got some good weapons and had a crawlie, you could wreck his, and get a random perk from it! It was fantastic! It was a really good map, and I love the weather condition change. It was just a good map.

 

And then they made Shangri-La, and I cried... It was a good map, like, map wise, it was a beautiful map... But the four-player Easter Egg completely ruined it for me. The special zombies was an amazing idea, and I loved that. I loved the idea of going back in time and retreiving a 115 meteorite, and that the Wonder Weapon on that map was an ancient-looking weapon, that was amazing. But four player Easter Egg ruined it for me...

 

And same with Moon! Moon was a great map, and I loved teleporting from Area 51 to the Moon, and how Richtoften does the whole easter egg and takes over Sam's place as the Kommandant of the zombies, so to speak. I like how you needed the item from the Call of the Dead easter egg and from Shangri-La to do it, but if it had all been solo or two-player Easter Eggs, it would have been fantastic. Since it was four-player, it was shit... I liked all the wonder-weapons in Moon, too, especially the Wave Gun, how it could turn from one gun to another. But, yeah, the entire part where it's a four-player Easter Egg ruined it for me.. Good map, bad easter egg..

 

Overall, I loved the original Black Ops, even where it fell short, it only fell short a little. Now for Black Ops 2, I have no idea what they did... Of all the maps, I only really liked one, and that was Nuketown Zombies. All the other maps seemed really rushed, like they didn't even care. Now, let's start my rant on the system.

 

Pack-a-Punch guns multiple times? That's awesome; giving them different sights and attachments? That's really cool, but I always wondered why each consecutive pack-a-punch didn't up the damge a little.. I found out why...

 

The first map I played was on one called Town; it's a pretty alright map. The thing I hate about ALL the maps, minus Nuketown Zombies, is the lava.. The lava fucks me up, and I hate it. But, with skill, you can jump it, but that isn't the point. I camped in a room with a big-ass door they'd come through, a hole in the ceiling and a single barricade up until wave 42 before I died. Camping. It was ridiculous, there's no ammo conservation, nor strategy. Just sit there and hold the trigger on your LMG, and you'll win.

 

I haven't really tried Farm very much, to be honest, due to my disappointment with the rest of the maps. And Tranzit, oh boy... It was a brilliant concept, an open-world Nazi Zombies! But lava everywhere, and it seems rushed... I like having to build stuff, and the boss zombie, but, you know what ruins it? You guessed it; four player Easter egg. If they removed the lava, and had a solo/two-player Easter Egg, I think the map would be pretty damn good. Granted, having two paths you could take with the Easter Egg was a good idea, but four player, again, wrecked it..

 

I also don't like how you can change the difficulty from "original" to "easy". What the hell? I like it with one difficulty, and easy is far too easy.. Original is easy! It's stupid...

 

Now, Nuketown Zombies they did right.. No lava, and the map is incredible! I loved it.. And it takes place at the same time as Moon. Nukes fall, which explode, and will kill you if you're too close, but they drop random Perk-a-Cola machines. And, if you make it to wave 25, it goes from Sam being the Announcer (the person who tells you what perks you picked up and such), to Richtofen! That's awesome! They did Nuketown Zombies very, very right, and I hope they continue that way.

 

However, Black Ops 2 has no real skill involved any more... Me and a mate of mine, who are both pros, who made it to wave 60 in Kino der Toten over 7 hours managed to get around 70 on Town in almost half that time.. There are too good of camp spots, and, if you can play the game, it's just too simple.... The Tombstone perk also amplifies how easy it is; you can choose to die, and if your partner survives the wave, you respawn with all your perks and weapons minus Tombstone, which only costs 2k. That's infinite survivability, right there... If you died in World at War and the first Black Ops, you were screwed, unless you had an odd 30k to get your weapons back, pack-a-punch them, and then get your perks back, and that only rarely happened that you had the amount of cash you needed, otherwise you'd just die, or you'd have to wait a dozen waves to get that sort of cash..

 

Overall, I still like Black Ops 2, but it's just too easy now.. I still play the original Black Ops so much just for the challenge.. It actually took planning and skill to get to a half-decent wave, not just two players with four LMGs and a camp spot... Makes me a little sad, to be honest. I don't think Black Ops 2 will ever compete with the original Black Ops, and even World at War, where skill was required. I think, if they improved the following, it would be much more enjoyable;

 

1. Either reduce weapon damage, or increase infected health on all maps except Tranzit. I find that Tranzit is challenging but conveluted, while all the other maps are simple and boring.

 

2. Remove the lava, either entirely or by a bit. I find that there's too much lava on most of the maps, and, granted, it adds some jumping skill, but there's too much. I like how in Town the Pack-A-Punch machine is in the middle of the lava, but there's just too much of the damn stuff, and makes running that much harder. Or, at the very, very least, make it not slow you.. That pisses me off, especially on later waves.

 

3. Single/Two-Player Easter Eggs. I guarentee that if they have Single/Two-Player Easter Eggs, which makes it still 100% capable with four players, will drastically increase the people who enjoy Nazi Zombies. Exclusively making Easter Eggs four player makes Treyarch look like big money-milking giants who don't care for their fan-base.

 

4. Make a few maps with the original survivors, I really liked them, but now they're just gone... What happened to them? Obviously they're still on the moon, I'm sure there's teleporters on the planet still they can get to.

 

5. Increase the price of Tombstone, please... Give people an honest-to-god chance to die or screw up...

 

6. I don't like how, with all these new perks, they've thrown some away, improved some, and thrown in one.. I think, maybe, have something you need to buy each life that gives you more room for Perk-a-Colas, or a system like in Call of the Dead where you can get more than just four.

 

Now, here are a few suggestions that, although I doubt Treyarch will ever read them, I think they would be cool for the maps;

 

1. Unique Wonder Weapon per map, maybe? Add something cool, there's only one Wonder Weapon in the entire Black Ops 2, and that makes me really sad...

 

2. Screw around with the idea of time-limited Perk-A-Colas, me and a friend talked about this one. Have perks you can buy for, say, 3k - 5k each, for example, Demon-Juice or Stopwatch, and they go into the area you can use in your D-Pad, since very things use the D-Pad in Nazi Zombies. Then, when you use it, for, say, 10-15 seconds, Demon-Juice would increase the damage your weapon uses, or Stopwatch would temporarily slow down everything. Just think about it, add some strategy.

 

3. Have more consequences to the camp spots.. Like, in Town, where the box usually spawns up in the bar, that's so easy to camp.. You just have one person in the room at the window and one on the stairs..

 

4. Have more zombie varients, or special zombies, per map.. I like that zombies can catch fire on the lava, but it does get dull.. Have something that can wreck your day, unless you take precautions against it. Like those Denizens of the Forest in Tranzit, but... Not those guys.. Have something unique, like, say, a zombie-like Scarecrow in the Farm map, which could, I don't know, be semi-transparent or something..

 

5. Solo/Two-Player Easter Eggs! Do it.

 

And here's what I think Black Ops 2: Nazi Zombies did right;

 

1. The bus on tranzit? Fantastic idea. I love how you can upgrade it, also.

 

2. Building things is really cool, especially the Wonder Weapon.

 

3. EMP Grenades that'll kill the boss zombie but disable wall weapons and perks near the explosion? Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

 

4. I really liked the Galva-Knuckles, like the Gen 2 of the Bowie Knife. I really liked it, and I really hope they make a blade-like version of the Galva-Knuckles in future releases.

 

5. I like how in their maps they all have references to old Nazi Zombie maps; the nukes falling from the sky and spawning random perks? Shi no Numa. The bus itself from Tranzit is most likely a reference to Nuketown. The fire-zombies is probably a reference to the Napalm Zombies in Shangri-La.

 

6. If you jump off the bus at the right point and run through some crop fields in Tranzit, you find yourself at Natch der Untoten. Good job, Treyarch.

 

7. The Pack-a-Punch machine being able to add attachments and different sights each additional use for 2k is a really nice feature.

 

8. NukeTown zombies in general. Very well done.

 

But, yeah, that's the way I see it.. A bunch of fanatics might say I'm a heathen, but I don't really care; this is how I see it, and I believe it's all true. Feel free to contradict me if you want. Hope you guys enjoyed reading this, and take it easy.

~Tomo2000.

[ShinkuAura 15]

To be honest nothing changed in Black Ops 2 Zombies. They just took their own formula and re-invented it.

Somehow it reminds me of Left for dead since it's like a 4 man co-op.

 

they did a good job with these stuff, but it's not so impressive as i thought. since this is CoD People only care about mindless killing. and it was on xbox. but i can't complain there are people that play as a team.

 

but it's not an impressive experience i prefer left for dead.

 

woops i just submitted the negative side of the BO2 Zombies.

 

well i had fun playing local BO2 Zombie because me a friend and my cousin were making jokes and we were trigger happy. getting all the tools man. i had fun playing locally then in online.

we all knew what happened and what to do.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Omar510