Call of Duty has certainly made a big impact with the launch of its newest Zombies map, Astra Malorum, and it has players going nuts. The official Call of Duty Twitter account wrote, ‘Welcome to Astra Malorum,’ accompanied by a space emoji and a link, but the community’s answer was really astonishing. Some called it “crazy good,” while others could not figure it out at all.
So, what is Astra Malorum? From the reactions, it seems to be a space-themed Zombies adventure, which is a drastic alteration to the mode. Even the title is already being compared to Warhammer 40k’s Astra Militarum, and Pr0digyZRX humorously commented that they can’t get it out of their minds, and they are waiting for a 40k promo. It is actually a bit funny if you think about it, what if Space Marines did come to the Call of Duty Zombies? What was I even saying?
The new map has generated a lot of mixed feelings among the players. On one hand, there are the supporters who applaud the new direction; Blue_Knightt, for instance, states: ‘YOU GUYS DID A STELLAR JOB, THIS IS CRAZY’ while xochurch simply referred to it as ‘This is so fking cool.’ Legendxtoli went as far as to assert ‘NEVER GO BACK TO GROUNDED ZOMBIES, THIS CRAZY STUFF IS WHAT US ZOMBIES FANS HAVE BEEN DYING FOR!! WE ARE SO BACK.’ It is clear that a segment of the community is growing tired of the conventional Zombies content and is now waiting for the most quirky and creative ones.
Conversely, there are the people with the opposite perspective. KatoTheWorst engaged in a long discussion with BeePlayingGames regarding the legitimacy of the new direction. He pointed out that the previous Zombies maps had been insane too but they were ‘better explained through the story unlike this shit where they’re just throwing shit in your face without explanation.’ Also, the aforementioned Misett115 from Spain (translated from Spanish) criticized: ‘It’s like I’ve been switched to Fast and Furious now with flying cars and space… Was it really that hard to revert to the classic style?’ Good point there, space cars do sound a bit like the Fast and Furious now that you mention it.
Nonetheless, the cutscenes, it seems, are going to be one of the things that everybody agrees has been a great addition. XpertFusion noted ‘The quality of these cutscenes are CRAZY good,’ while thebig_bean64s pointed out Richtofen’s return, character being ‘always comedic gold,’ and giving a shout-out to voice actor Nolan North. Along with that, there is some musical nostalgia going on as vivects13_ has said that the song ‘takes him back’ and tagging someone called MaTtKs.
What really makes the cutscenes so controversial is that they carry on the crazy legacy of Zombies. For example, ZebbyVT reacted to a critic of the new direction by saying: ‘then you’d know that zombies is bat shit crazy? Went to the moon in 2011, Alcatraz in Hell, Giant Robots in WW1, and Dragons.’ And I think they have a point – Zombies have always been the most unreasonably unrealistic part of the game. Remember when we had to face George Romero as a lamp-wielding zombie? Or that time when JFK was shooting zombies while also battling a teleporting scientist? Good times.
Moreover, Migzee_ is claiming that element 115 is ‘everywhere in space’ and someone even saw a ‘red skull’ there, which is making typical Zombies storyline material that somehow makes perfect sense to the hardcore fans but looks like complete gibberish to the rest of us. And xKingDuke, who was quite blunt, exclaimed, ‘This ain’t zombies LMAOOO, this ain’t Fast n Furious either’ with a crying emoji, which actually perfectly reflects a big part of the reaction.
The conflict over Zombies that are grounded versus those that are fantastical continues to be a hot topic in the comments section. XpertFusion and scarlettautumnn had a talk about how ‘you need a little of both’ and ‘diversity is good,’ while MorganFizzYT argued that cutscenes should ‘at least show us what we’re getting into’ compared to the previous maps that had a more engaging setting.
On the other hand, anonbillsmafia captured the sentiment of many players very well with ‘Im gonna play it anyways but what the fuck did i just watch’ – which is pretty much the Zombies experience in a nutshell. You see something completely off the wall, you have no clue what is going on but you will still be there to shoot zombies because that is what we do. PlayStation and Xbox players alike are diving into the chaos.
