Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is set to feature a bold take on the franchise's Zombies formula that will be practically unrecognizable from the mode's first appearances. Doing away with the traditional round-based gameplay and featuring a huge map, rumors are even circulating that the mode will possess much larger player counts than the four-player experiences of past games.
This increased player count in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Zombies will likely foster the most gameplay variety out of all the mode's new changes, with much harder in-game challenges potentially being introduced. In particular, recent Zombies modes pride themselves on offering boss battles and special infected enemies, and this could be taken to a whole new level in Modern Warfare 3.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Zombies Boss Battles
Reports suggest that Zombies in Modern Warfare 3 will boast four squads of six players, totaling up to 24 players in a single game. This will work well with the Outbreak Zombies formula of Black Ops Cold War that MW3's Zombies is set to adopt, which at its core involves huge open maps. Instead of round-based survival, players will have to complete a range of objectives to move on to the next area, with Outbreak maps even featuring vehicles akin to Warzone gameplay.
It is also rumored that Modern Warfare 3's launch Zombies map will be the largest that the mode has ever seen, with some believing that it will be a twisted take on the current Warzone map Al Mazrah. If this is true, then the increased player count of MW3 Zombies makes much more sense, with Treyarch clearly hoping to build on the Outbreak Zombies of Cold War by increasing its scale.
The past version of Outbreak Zombies also featured boss battles, with Orda encounters being one of the most thrilling aspects of the mode. In Cold War, the Orda are huge hulking creatures that could spawn, with players brave enough to fight the beast being rewarded with legendary loot if successful. Reports also claim that Modern Warfare 3's Zombies will continue the Dark Aether storyline of Cold War, meaning the creature could easily appear in the upcoming title.
With the increased firepower of 24 players as opposed to Cold War's four, there is room for MW3 to feature Zombies boss battles on a scale the franchise has never seen before. For example, players could fight multiple Ordas at once, or even a single Orda twice as powerful as those previously encountered. Of course, this could also have a big impact on the Easter eggs of Modern Warfare 3's Zombies. Easter eggs have long been one of the most challenging aspects of Zombies, requiring a great amount of skill and communication between players to complete complex hidden objectives for huge rewards. The final steps of many past Easter eggs have been characterized by boss battles, and an Easter egg boss designed for 24 players would be a sight to behold.
With the increased player count of MW3 Zombies, it is highly likely that the intensity of the mode's enemies will be much higher than players are used to, across both the frequency of normal zombies and the power of any boss battles. 24-player games could be revolutionary for Zombies, and Treyarch will be hoping to reflect this in the bosses that the mode will likely possess.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches on November 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
