After months of speculating, the veil has finally been lifted on Call of Duty: Black Ops 2's Zombie gameplay. While we still haven't gotten a chance to try it, a recent visit to Treyarch resulted in a glut of information about the evolution of the mode, and what fans can expect on November 13th. What started as something simple and silly, a treat for those who beat Call of Duty: World at War, is being developed into the biggest, most fully-featured Zombies game yet.
The biggest change to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2's Zombie gameplay comes in the form of its campaign mode. Titled Tranzit, this tosses you and up to three of your friends into the biggest world the team at Treyarch has ever created for Zombies. Your goal in Tranzit is simple: kill all the undead that you come across and leave a trail of bodies in your wake. You and your team jump between a number of locales along the way, doing what appears to be defensive stands and clearing them out before moving on to the next place. However, getting from place to place isn't a simple loading screen, but instead requires you to get there by foot or by bus. It's unclear whether or not you'll be able to steer the bus, but the first trailer makes it pretty clear you'll be defending yourself and perhaps even building barricades in order to survive the journey between survival spots.
You'll also have plenty to look out for while you're battling in the zombie-infested wasteland, as Tranzit now includes "buildables," something Treyarch describes as elements you can put together to do things like open up new parts of the world or make weapons. As for how the campaign ends? That's anyone's guess. Treyarch is playing whatever story it's inserting into Tranzit close to its chest, which fits with its strategy of letting the fans parse together the narrative through message boards and other online communities.
If Tranzit doesn't sound like your thing, if you're the type of person that just wants to hop in with friends and defend a single position, you'll be pleased to hear that Survival mode is returning with Black Ops 2. Playable either solo or with three friends, Survival offers the classic survival experience wherein you build defenses and hold out. The nitty-gritty details haven't been discussed, but the environments you play in are apparently custom-made takes on locations from the Tranzit campaign.
Cooperative play isn't for everyone, and while Black Ops 2 will feature a competitive multiplayer mode as well, Treyarch's also developing a new take on competitive play for Zombies called Grief. Internally the team at Treyarch likes to refer to Grief as "4z4," because unlike traditional competitive games both sides have to deal with a third party that wants their brains -- the Zombies. In Grief, your only goal is to have your team outlive the other, but, unlike every other Call of Duty mode you've ever played, you can't shoot other players. Instead you have to "grief" them and get the zombies to do the work for you. Treyarch's being disappointingly mum in regards to how "griefing" actually works, so for now we're left to speculate about how we'll be attempting to kill our friends come November.
If there's a rule or any other part of Zombies' three modes that you don't like, Treyarch wants you to tweak them and create your own using the Custom games feature -- a first for Zombies. You can live out your hardcore zombie fantasy and make it so only headshots kill, turn off magic items and set your starting round.
Previously, the Zombie portion of Treyarch's Call of Duty games felt like a distraction, a way to break up the multi-hour sessions with the competitive multiplayer. Black Ops 2 aims to change it into something on par with the multiplayer and campaign. This isn't just a mode, it's a series of modes buried within a game, a testament to Treyarch's dedication to the fans. Without their input and devotion, Zombies wouldn't exist as it does today.
