Treyarch followed the teaser with a behind-the-scenes look to announce the biggest ever round-based map for Zombies in Call of Duty Black Ops 7. Ashes of the Damned acts as the pre-order bonus for Zombies Survival being available in the Black Ops 7 beta. The official Call of Duty channel posted the teaser and sent the community off into an interesting mood.
The teaser tweet is pure hype as it shows glimpses of the dev team and promises the biggest-scale playground for this zombie-slaying exercise ever. The main hook is pre-order to the beta. But the real drama is in the replies, an arena full of excitement and venom.
Players like Khostler and Sintrocity just shouted and screamed, “This is so awesome ❤️” and “IM HYPED.” That’s classic Zombies fans; these are the guys who have been there since World at War and just need another fix. But then, if you scroll down a bit further, that reality check comes in. User cuteasstwink pretty much exposed the real anxiety of the community, stating, “basically most OG Zombies players ain’t teens with 12 hours a day to game anymore. They got jobs, kids, lives,” complaining about unlocking the classic round-based mode by completing the main quest or Easter egg as a huge barrier for those casuals that’d just want to jump on launch and shoot some zombies in classic survival mode.
This sparked an entire discussion of replies. RobbbOgden reasoned that the main quest would probably take around an hour to complete, and then it would be classic mode forever. Yet, cuteasstwink wasn’t having it; “For someone who only has a couple hours of playing time a couple days a week, that is a lot of time invested, especially if you’re doing it solo. Then, try working with friends on a sickly complex Easter egg as an adult.” This is definitely a concerning topic for Treyarch to listen to. Would you really want to lock out your die-hard, now time-poor, former fanbase from the very mode they love most right out of the gate?
Opposing views keep flowing. Then there are just a few in the minority who are done with round-based mode entirely. Allen Boucher (H2kagain) put it bluntly: round-based is trash and repetitive, whilst he’s getting more variety in State of Decay. Allen had a back-and-forth with other users defending classic mode; that itself highlights the divide. After years of different tricks and treats on Zombies, be it open-world Outbreak or whatever else they’ve tried, many players simply don’t intend on going back to running around in circles. They want the new big thing.
Speaking of Outbreak, user Derrame literally requested “Outbreak mode please.” So the community is most definitely not a monolith. Some want the pure gold old times while some want newer, bigger scale stuff. Treyarch has an enormous job trying to please them all.
There were more complaints that stirred up, with Razor_911 complaining about using the multiplayer HUD in Zombies; instant clicking for purists, because it just destroys immersion. And then systemwx airs a volley of gripes: the classic mode is locked, the HUD, and mechanics way too close to things we saw before, not much new innovation. It’s not about the map being big and looking cool anymore; players want to actually feel like the gameplay is moving forward.
Somewhere between all that, hype is still bubbling away. “GG! 👏 Please please continue to bring us new content and not drip feed us old stuff! Make Zombies Great Again! 🔥” That being the hope. That this massive scale Ashes of the Damned is an indication that Black Ops 7 will have a super deep, all-encompassing Zombies experience and that Treyarch have taken note of the needs of both the hardcore EE hunters and the casual survival players.
Getting people locked-in early through that whole pre-order-for-beta-access thing is brilliant. Everyone in conversation now ends up being a public message to the Devs. And that message is passionate and specific when it comes to what makes Zombies great. The question regarding whether Ashes of the Damned can deliver the “largest ever” and can juggle these contradictory demands coming from the community will be answered one way or the other, timelessly. If nothing else, one thing is sure: the Zombies community never stays silent! That’s what keeps it alive! Now we just have to wait for the beta and see if the map really is just as good as it sounds.
