[360] DLC Review - Black Ops II Nazi Zombies: Mob of the Dead

[Tomo2000 60]

It's really unusual for me to review a DLC or anything like that, and especially for Black Ops II, if you ever read my Nazi Zombies: Black Ops vs Black Ops II review. Probably not many of you are aware, but the campaign team seems to have a thing where, each game, they make a Nazi Zombies map. In Black Ops, it was Call of the Dead. That was one of my favourite maps, and they tried something really bold and different, and it paid off fantastically. This is an aspect that the Nazi Zombie team isn't very good at, sadly, ever since Black Ops II came out. Mob of the Dead is the Single Player Team's go at a Nazi Zombie map for Black Ops II, and, apart from Nuketown Zombies, it's the only Nazi Zombie map for Black Ops II that I'd recommend buying.

 

The main issue with Die Rise and its Black Ops II predecessor maps is that Treyarch gets a boner over having you buy two copies of a DLC so that you can complete a four player Easter Egg. Nice one Treyarch. Ever since the first proper Easter Egg, in Ascension for Black Ops, the first map pack, there was a four player Easter Egg. Treyarch never learns. Anyway, Call of the Dead and Mob of the Dead both have a two player Easter Egg, along with a lot of rewardable things for doing specific steps of the Easter Egg in solo. In all honesty, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Single Player team worked on this map ever since they finished the campaign. The map itself, how it works, all the little goodies everywhere, and the quality and detail of everything, is just outstanding.

 

For those who aren't aware, Mob of the Dead takes place in Alcatraz, in 1933, well before the Nazi Zombie series itself. Alcatraz is an ideal location for a There are four new characters stuck in a permanent loop trying to escape from Alcatraz on a build-able plane called Icarus. I won't spoil any of the storyline itself, but it is the first ever Nazi Zombies map to actually be finish-able, with two endings, depending on what happens at the last step of the Easter Egg. The map itself is just beautifully eerie, and has a very demonic feel to it. It's obvious that they've been stuck in this loop for a while, with tonnes of bodies in bags and bedsheets strung up from the ceilings, a lot of ritualistic stuff around the place, like candles and skulls, and weird scrawl all over the walls in certain areas. A key example of this is in the Warden's Office.

 

The four new characters are just incredible. I like them almost as much as the original four, and much more than any other character set in the entire game. The characters seem to notice things that a lot of the other characters don't, like how guns magically appear from chalk drawings and such. It's actually quite interesting. I'll describe them briefly below:

 

Michael "Finn" O'Leary: Finn O'Leary, according to Billy Handsome, is the only guy he knew who could cheat a cheater and get away with it. Before his imprisonment on Alcatraz Island, O'Leary was an ex-con, best known for fixing horse races and gambling fraud. He has a lot of very clever quotes, and is what I like about him most. Some of my favourites are below:
"I think the odds are starting to move in our favor." - After getting a Double Points bonus.
"Looks like I just rolled snake eyes." - After getting the padlock from the mystery box.
"This is all just a game isn't it? A big, twisted, fucked-up game." - Upon arriving at the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

Albert "The Weasel" Arlington: Arlington was a money handler in Sal's mob, and was a con man. He was found to be part of a Los Angeles heist, leading to his imprisonment. Arlington himself seems to remember everything that happens, while the main characters don't. Here's some of his quotes:
"I've seen this box before... gives us weapons, like a slot machine..." - When finding the mystery box for the first time.
"AGAIN!? AAAAAHHHHHHH!!" - Upon falling onto the Golden Gate Bridge.
"Nikolai. Nikolai. Nikolai. Why do I keep hearing that name?" - Random. Referring to Nikolai Belinski, the Russian survivor from the original group, which technically hasn't happened yet.

 

Salvatore "Sal" DeLuca: Sal was heavily involved in gambling, prostitution and the distribution of alcohol, and used to get money he gained from this to set up his own mob. He rarely got involved in any kind of violence, and hired Billy Handsome to deal with his enemies. He speaks like a stereotypical prohibition mob boss, talking with a muffled, thick accent with quite a lot of slang in his language. Here are some of his quotes:
"Your boys did good Handsome, it was just where they said it would be." - When finding the Rigging plane part. Billy Handsome mentions in the intro cutscene that his boys in the laundry room stashed it for them.
"What the fuck!? A gun just appeared right outta that chalk drawin'!" - When buying an off-wall weapon for the first time.
"Oh! Come to papi!" - When receiving a good weapon from the mystery box.

 

Billy Handsome: Billy looked up to Sal, and wanted to work for him. He took care of the "dirty work" that Sal didn't participate in, and specialized in dealing with Sal's enemies in gruesome ways that would make the headlines. He was eventually convicted of 116 counts of murder. One of my favourite characters, mostly for the first quote you'll read. Here they are:
"Right in the fuckin' teeth!" - When killing a zombie with the Hell's Retriever.
"I like a l'il bit of mass slaughter!" - After getting a nuke.
"That make your blood boil!?" - After killing a zombie with the ray gun.

 

New characters aside, the absolute first thing you'll notice is something called Afterlife mode. The moment you start the map, you'll be glowing blue, outside of your body. In this state, you can't be attacked by zombies, but can move at incredible speeds, and do things you can't do in your normal state. Right trigger will zap things, which can power objects, and there are a lot of things to power, and, if it hits a zombie, will teleport it and temporarily stun it to a new location. There are also some areas with glowing blue doorways you can only enter in Afterlife mode. This is timed, however, and you have to return to your body before a specific time if you want to live. You gain one point in this for every wave, but you'll also lose a point and enter Afterlife mode if you die. When reviving yourself in Afterlife mode, if you died, you'll lose your perks but not your weapons. However, if you use one of the electrical boxes to enter Afterlife mode, you'll keep your perks. It's basically a failsafe system, also, sort of like Quick Revive, except Quick Revive isn't available on this map.
 

You're dead, but you're not quite dead. Aren't you lucky. This is you in Afterlife Mode, and before you is a door that you can only go through in this mode. Inside is a little object you can zap to power and unlock a cell door, and at the bottom center is your Afterlife timer, which will drain while you remain in this mode.

 

The next biggest change is weapons. There are a lot of new weapons and old weapons returning to the mystery box and the wall. The first to the mystery box is the LSAT, an LMG from Nuketown Zombies and Multiplayer. From the walls you can buy the Uzi and the AK-47, two weapons from Black Ops multiplayer that never quite made it to Nazi Zombies until now. On top of this, to suit the mob theme, the M1927 Chicago-Style Tommy Gun has been added, drum mag and all, which is available off the wall. The Death Machine is also available from the box this time, and is even pack-a-punchable. Speaking of Pack-a-Punch, all the guns this game have a brand new pack-a-punch skin, which looks amazing. The gun itself is mostly black, with red/dark orange veins, like streaks of lava, all across it, forming patterns and symbols. A lot of things have also been reskinned, like the Random Weapon box looks completely new, and, instead of a Teddy Bear, has a padlock, for reasons that will be explained later.
 

An example of the new Pack-a-Punch skin. This is a Pack-a-Punch'd Tommy Gun.

 

There are, technically, three Wonder Weapons on this map. The first is called the Blundergat, and is a four-barreled shotgun, which takes one round to reload, and has devastating power and range. It can be upgraded via the Acid Kit, which is constructed from three parts hidden around the map, to make the Acidgat. The Acidgat is the augmented Blundergat, and fires three rounds of a green canister, which, when pack-a-punched, attracts zombies, but stops zombies in their tracks if they're hit. The green canisters, after a while, explode in a massive radius, which can damage the player and will almost definitely kill any zombie near the explosion. It's a devastating weapon,  but needs to be used rather tactically. Both the Blundergat and the Acidgat can be pack-a-punched, and both can be acquired by the same player, which will be explained later. There is a mini-Easter Egg which involves you gaining a comical Wonder Weapon called the Golden Spork, which is a one-hit-kill melee weapon up to wave 34, and takes the place of your knife.

 

On top of these weapons, there are three Dog heads around the map, which look a lot like the Hellhounds we are so used to, except much larger. These heads are potentially Cerberus, due to having three on the map. If you played the Moon Easter Egg, you'll know what I mean, but, if not, I'll explain it. If you kill a zombie in close proximity to the Cerberus head, it will suck up that zombies body and eat it. It takes a few seconds to eat it, so if you're doing this on a low wave make sure to kite zombies and wait for it to finish eating. Each Cerberus head will eat six zombies before disappearing. If you go into the Citadel Tunnels after all three are gone, a previously closed area with three dog head symbols will be open and red-glowing, and inside is a demonic-looking Tomahawk. This is called the Hell's Retriever, and can actually be upgraded to the Hell's Redeemer, its blue counterpart. The Hell's Retriever takes up the slot of your tactical item, and I don't believe there is anything like Monkey Bombs in this map that could potentially take its place. You can charge the Hell's Retriever two times to make it more powerful, and the Hell's Redeemer three times. Throwing it at a zombie will make it ricochet between zombie heads, killing them instantly before high waves, and, with the Hell's Redeemer, will always kill zombies instantly if fully charged on any wave. There is a maximum amount of zombies that either of these will kill, obviously the Redeemer killing more zombies than its lesser counterpart.

 

The Hell's Retriever when you first pick it up. All players can pick up the Hell's Retriever, it isn't limited to one.

 

If you follow the Nazi Zombie storyline at all, you'll know that, in Nazi Zombies for Black Ops, Samantha controls the zombies. This is why their eyes are orange-ish, and her voice is the 'Announcers'. At the end of Moon, and in Black Ops II, the new 'Announcer' is Richtofen, and the zombies eyes are blue. However, in Mob of the Dead, based before any of this happened, the zombies eyes are red, and there seems to be no real Announcer, of sorts. People have suggested it could be Brutus, the boss-like enemy on the map, which will be explained later, or perhaps even Satan, considering all the somewhat Satanic imagery in the map.
 

This map sort of has a boss zombie, so to speak. If you played Call of the Dead, don't worry, he isn't another George Romero. His name is Brutus, and will spawn randomly in waves, usually starting after about eight. He will lock down workbenches for making things, as well as the random weapon box and perks, so keep him away from those, or you will have to pay 2000 points to re-unlock them. Aim for his head. With a powerful weapon, you'll quickly knock off his helmet, which makes him much less powerful. On the Golden Gate Bridge, more than one Brutus can spawn, and will increase how many spawn each wave you stay on the bridge, up to four Brutus' at any given time. He will explode upon death, damaging zombies around him.
 

Now, the entire point of this map is to "escape", so to speak. I won't spoil how to finish the actual map, but, if you want to know, go and look up an Easter Egg walkthrough for Pop goes the Weasel on the Nazi Zombies wikia or something. Building Icarus requires five parts scattered around the map, which have various methods of getting to, usually involving an Afterlife component to zap to overload areas or to power others. Once all five of these are acquired, and assembled one by one on the plane, and note that you can only carry one plane piece at a time, you can fly to the Golden Gate bridge. This area is, effectively, an arena styled area. You can leave at any time via the four Electric Chairs, which kills you, and sends you back to Alcatraz, but will let you keep your perks and weapons, of course. On the Golden Gate bridge is the Pack-a-Punch machine, except in Grief Mode. Going to and from the Golden Gate bridge is a huge component in the main Easter Egg. However, don't fear, as you don't have to do the steps to get each part over and over again. Once you've got them once, return to the area near them and pick up a fuel can. These are usually outside of anywhere you would normally have to do something to trigger, and you can carry all five at once.

 

There is steps in the Easter Egg where you throw the Hell's Retriever at invisible skulls in five different locations around the map. In Afterlife mode you can see these, but you can't outside of it. You must be on ordinary difficulty to do this, and you will require Hell's Retriever. When you throw it, if you hit the invisible skull, it will become visible, and glow blue as the Hell's Retriever brings it back to you, and you will hear the sound of purchasing something. There are five in total, and getting all five will make a free Blundergat appear on the desk in the Warden's Office. Free Wonder Weapon. Who doesn't love that? Here are their locations, but not in any specific order, just do them in whatever method will cost you the cheapest to get there:

 

 

Location One: From the room you started in, go to the library and turn left. Go through the door there, and you will see three cell blocks. One is half blocked off by a bookshelf, but the one in the centre has a skull on a desk. Look to the left of that and, if you shoot a gun or make some kind of light in the room, there's a toilet. Throw your Hell's Retriever there, and there's your first skull.
 

 

Location Two: On the roof, to the left, you can see through two sections of sheet metal, and you see an adjacent corner of the roof. Look to the right of that corner about an inch and throw it there. Second skull.
 

 

Location Three: Go to the Warden's Office, and to the barricade behind his desk. Look out and to the right a little and you'll see a telegraph pole. Aim about a half-inch above the telegraph pole, in the centre, and throw it, and the drop should hit the skull and bring it to you.
 

 

Location Four: This one is a little tricky. You can get it from the gondola, but I much prefer this method. Go to where Juggernaut is on the docks, face it, and turn to the right almost 180 degrees, and you'll see a light post. Now, aim just above the light, and jump. As you reach the peak of your jump, throw the Hell's Retriever, otherwise it isn't enough distance to make it to the skull.
 

 

Location Five: The very easiest to do. On the docks, go to the mystery box spawn, and you'll see a pier in front of it. The circular wooden blocks that go under the water, count three from the right and throw it just above the third pole, like if the skull was sitting on top of it. Upon getting the fifth skull, you will hear a demonic laugh.
 

 

Now return to the Warden's Desk and a free Blundergat will rise from a fiery inferno in the table. Enjoy.

I'd also list how to get the Hell's Redeemer and the Golden Spork but, to be honest, it's rather tedious, and the skulls are the only thing you really need a hang on, screenshot wise, to understand without wasting time in Afterlife mode. You can probably find all sorts of walkthroughs for either of these on youtube or the Nazi Zombie wikia.

Now, usually, near the bottom, I bitch about things that I would have changed. I would do a review for almost every Nazi Zombies map, but that would involve a lot of whining. I was going to review Operation Raccoon City, too, but, after I typed about a thousand words, rather than a review, it became an essay on what I'd change. However, with this map, and I must say, it's potentially one of the best maps I've ever played. Der Riese, not to be confused with Die Rise from Black Ops II, Die Rise is terrible. Anyway, Der Riese and Mob of the Dead are tied, in my opinion. They're both really amazing maps, but Mob of the Dead just blew me away with how much thought, quality and detail they actually put into it. I love the new characters, and how the new guns are actually related to the story, how the Uzi and Tommy Gun is a mob weapon, and, as mentioned in the cutscene, the Warden collected old Civil War weapons, one of which being the Blundergat.

I like that they scrapped a lot of build-ables. 9/10 of the build-ables in TranZit were either pointless, or were required for the Easter Egg, and then deemed pointless, with the exception of the power switch, pack-a-punch machine and Wonder Weapon, which is stupid. I was getting really sick of build-able Wonder Weapons, but I don't mind building an item to augment my Wonder Weapon. That was a really nice touch. The other item is a Zombie Shield, which is potentially the only other item which actually comes in handy.

The Easter Egg is two player, which is 10/10 right there. Apparently the Single Player team at Treyarch loves its players more than the Nazi Zombie team does. However, not only that, but there are so many little hidden goodies, and the Easter Egg is challenging and enjoyable. Although tedious at first, running around powering things in Afterlife mode, it eventually becomes automated, and it just becomes routine, like if you had to double tap a button to roll the mystery box. I would suggest you look up a guide or a Master Class on the map if you don't want to get frustrated, but if you want to explore and keep everything a mystery, then don't.

One thing that is amazing about this map, also, is how skill comes into play. Recently, in Black Ops II, all your guns are automatic, and you hold the trigger and win. In this one, with the dog heads, and Brutus, you have to keep ammo on reserve, and not just spray and win. Adding the Hell's Retriever also adds a layer of skill when it comes to tactics and kiting as well. A good tactic is to kite zombies into a group and then, while running them in circles, tomahawk them, to kill the most of them as quickly as possible, while wasting no ammo. Plus, if you aren't too good at the map, you might be getting the Hell's Retriever on wave 19. However, after being glued to it for almost two days, I think the most efficient method possible lands me with the Hell's Retriever on wave 5 or 6, dependant on double points and nukes for extra points, and on the Golden Gate bridge at around wave 8. This is on solo, mind you, I think I could get it done faster on co-op.

Now, if you're a Nazi Zombie fan, and you were incredibly disappointed with the TranZit and Die Rise, then you should definitely buy this, and put a tiny bit of faith back into Nazi Zombies. If you enjoyed TranZit and Die Rise, then you should buy this so you can see what a good Nazi Zombies map should be. I am actually really impressed with the work the Single Player team did with this map, and I really hope to see another map made by them for Black Ops II.

My Rating: 9.5-10/10. Props to the Single Player team.

Next Review: I have no idea... Maybe the Star Trek game.

 

[Wyzrd 12]

Awesome review I actually look forward to playing this one even more now since I'm not a big Zombie fan.