Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a solid entry in the franchise, but a number of issues held it back from greatness. The campaign features some standout levels and a good story, but the lack of the old voice actors for Frank Woods and Alex Mason led to unnecessary controversy. Multiplayer may have improved over time, but it launched with a startlingly low number of 6v6 maps and had far too many bugs for fans to deal with. Zombies is the strongest experience of the bunch, but it too has some flaws.
While Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies excels in replayability and the core round-based gameplay, its lack of personality proved to be a problem. From the maps to the Operators within it, it seemed like Zombies’ identity was missing, only shining through in the few side Easter eggs and new Wonder Weapons. No mode showcased this lack of personality more clearly than Onslaught, and as Treyarch hopefully works to address recent complaints about Zombies with Call of Duty 2024, it should either rework or scrap Zombies Onslaught.
Zombies Onslaught is Not Quite What Call of Duty Fans Hoped For
On paper, Zombies Onslaught should have been a dream come true, as fans had been asking for a mode where multiplayer maps are converted into Zombies locations for years. After all, Nuketown turned out to be a solid standalone Zombies map, so the idea of a location like Raid becoming one too was naturally appealing. However, as Onslaught showed, there is a big difference between a carefully crafted map like Nuketown Zombies and one plucked straight from multiplayer.
Part of the problem with Zombies Onslaught is that it does not play like Call of Duty Zombies, with players needing to slowly walk across the map as they followed a Dark Aether orb, stopping to fight a few waves before continuing the repetitive gameplay loop. As shown by modes like Black Ops 4’s forgotten Zombies Rush and Black Ops 2’s cult classic PvPvE experience Grief, modes that take the round-based nature of Zombies away tend to do poorly. Onslaught launching as PlayStation exclusive content and remaining that way for over a year did not help matters, as the player base was shrunk down for a mode that was already likely to be niche.
Onslaught’s difficulty felt unbalanced, too, especially for solo players. While Treyarch made adjustments over time, this was frustrating since solo play has always been a viable option with Zombies content. With an RNG-based upgrade system stopping players from progressing smoothly and having control over their loadouts, a lot of the Zombies charm was missing. The best part of Onslaught is arguably its lore, which tells stories about the undead invading each multiplayer map. Unfortunately, instead of finding it hidden throughout the map, it too drops randomly from mini bosses.
How Zombies Onslaught Could Be Saved in Call of Duty 2024
While Zombies Onslaught has numerous flaws, Treyarch did its best to support it, and the small Gunfight maps that featured as an LTM did feel a good bit better to play. The concept of multiplayer maps as Zombies arenas remains strong, too, and may be worth revisiting again. If Treyarch were to make major changes, Onslaught may be salvageable, and there are a few adjustments that immediately come to mind.
For starters, the round-based approach should be taken with each converted multiplayer map, with Treyarch moving away from the orb loop entirely. While adding unique barriers and window spawns to every map is not viable because of a lack of time and resources, spending points to open some generic Dark Aether barriers would work wonders to restore the usual sense of progression. Zombies could slowly transition from walkers to runners like in the full-fledged round-based maps, and the lore documents could be hidden in three different areas per map as opposed to being random drops. Lastly, Treyarch could have one set spawn point for a Pack-A-Punch machine, armor stand, and the Mystery Box on each map, with a Wunderfizz also present for perks.
Though it is more likely for Onslaught to be abandoned, as Call of Duty Zombies’ Outbreak mode has far more potential as an alternate form of gameplay, there is a case to give it another pass. Still, if the choice is between Onslaught and more traditional maps/Outbreak content, it is an easy one to make, as retiring Onslaught is the right move in that scenario.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
