Highlights
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Zombies mode is taking a new approach by going completely open-world, allowing for experimentation with never-before-seen features like proper boss fights.
- Previous Zombies bosses in the Call of Duty franchise have been criticized for being more of an annoyance than a fun threat, mainly due to the narrow or small map design.
- The upcoming Modern Warfare 3 Zombies mode has the potential to deliver impressive raid-style boss fights, thanks to its large open-world map and the ability to accommodate up to 24 players in a single lobby.
Call of Duty Zombies has had quite the storied history. Beginning life as a secret mode that players could only unlock after finishing Call of Duty: World at War's campaign, Zombies quickly became one of the biggest highlights of the entire game, and over the course of a few phenomenal DLCs, it ended up laying the foundation for something truly special. Now, Call of Duty Zombies is one of the most beloved facets of the franchise, with it about to transcend its own series once again and venture into Modern Warfare for the first time with the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Being the first of its kind, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Zombies mode has a lot to prove, and it's made the interesting decision to change tack completely as opposed to following Treyarch's traditional round-based formula. Taking Zombies completely open-world, Modern Warfare 3's version of the beloved mode might not be every fan's cup of tea, but it does give the devs an opportunity to experiment with things that Zombies has never done before, like proper boss fights.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Zombies Mode Could Have Some Impressive Boss Fights
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is far from the first time a Zombies mode has had bosses, but it may be the first to get it right. The first real "boss" in Call of Duty Zombies history is technically the iconic Hellhounds, first introduced in World at War's Shi No Numa map. Teleporting in and being pretty easy to dispatch, Hellhounds quickly became a fan-favorite addition to the mode, but Treyarch took this idea and decided to run away with it. For every good Call of Duty Zombies boss, there are another two that are infamously terrible, and the vast majority of them share the same weaknesses.
The biggest flaw behind most Call of Duty Zombies bosses is the map they appear on. Though some Treyarch Zombies maps can get quite big once players start unlocking all the various doors and connecting paths, they're never considered overly large, with the intent of most maps being to try and corner the player and overwhelm them with enemies. Because of this often narrow or small map design, most Zombies bosses tend to be more of an annoyance than a fun threat, and those that are more fondly remembered tend to be the ones on larger maps like Origins or Call of the Dead.
But this is where Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Zombies could really shine. Though fans don't know all the details just yet, it has been confirmed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Zombies mode will take place on a large open-world map, and each lobby will contain a whopping total of 24 players. While this is sure to immediately set off alarm bells for some die-hard Zombies fans, this does lay the foundations for some pretty impressive boss fights, and if the latest Modern Warfare 3 trailer is anything to go by, then that's exactly what this mode is doing.
At the end of the recent Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Zombies trailer, fans got to see some kind of gigantic monster wildly flailing around a massive battlefield. It looks far larger than main quest foes like the Forsaken and may even be larger than the Ordas. If this is a sign of things to come, then players might be in for some proper raid-style bosses in this mode, tasking all 24 players in the lobby to coordinate and join together to defeat a common enemy. While these bosses could end up just being annoying bullet sponges, especially if the rest of the lobby ignores them, Modern Warfare 3 has the opportunity to really get creative with these since it will have an entire open-world map at its disposal.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches on November 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
