For the first time in Call of Duty history, the Modern Warfare franchise will feature its own Zombies mode! In development by Treyarch alongside Sledgehammer Games, Modern Warfare Zombies is an open-world PvE (Player vs Enemy) extraction survival experience that players will share with other squads.
Activision has today released the mode’s cinematic trailer, alongside an explanation of its story and lore.
Modern Warfare Zombies Info:
The Break-In
The scene opens on a squad of men in military garb about to conduct a nighttime raid on an unknown location. A familiar voice calls in support to distract the local police while the military unit moves up to breach the back door of a hotel building. Inside, they quickly plant an explosive, blasting a hole in the wall to reveal stairs down to their subterranean destination. What they find in that room changes the nature of the threat in an instant.
The Discovery
Four heavily decomposed bodies are seated around a table, desiccated almost beyond all recognition. In the middle of the table sits a strange device which opens to reveal two vials filled with an active substance. One of the assailants grabs one and removes his mask to better inspect it, revealing himself as none other than Viktor Zakhaev, the ultranationalist arms dealer and enemy of Task Force 141. He appears equally surprised and pleased to have found what his team is searching for.
The Incursion
Storing the two vials in a secure container, the squad leaves, only to find that the local security forces have raised the alarm, and the military police have sent in reinforcements. The ensuing firefight is both explosive and bloody, and Zakhaev’s forces are severely outnumbered. As the skirmish continues, all but one of Zakhaev’s men are eliminated. Under fire and in desperate straits, he resorts to throwing one of his vials toward his attackers before retreating into his armored vehicle. The vessel shatters on the ground, and almost instantly, a cloying, purple fog spreads rapidly through the streets, choking out the police forces and rapidly transforming both the living and the fallen into bloodthirsty zombies.
Safe in the confines of their vehicle, Zakhaev and his fellow squadmate witness the transformation firsthand as one of their downed men screams and contorts, his eyes flashing red before attacking the closest survivor. Far from fearful, Zakhaev smiles; this weapon is like no other he could possibly have conceived.
The Aftermath
Following the events on the ground, a helicopter descends onto the area of the outbreak as SSO Kate Laswell and Sergeant Johnny “Soap” MacTavish brief an unseen Operator on the mission at hand, codenamed Operation Deadbolt. Accompanying the team is Captain Sergei Ravenov, an Operator and mission specialist with experience in this kind of incursion. Leading them on the ground is one SSO Greene. The group has intel that Zakhaev was planning something a few months ago, but aren’t sure exactly what that was…
They’re about to find out.
Terminus Outcomes
In this iteration of Zombies, there are enemies both undead and alive. The threat from the living arrives in the form of Terminus Outcomes, a private military company hired by Zakhaev as muscle. Led by one Jack Fletcher — the surviving soldier alongside Zakhaev at the end of the trailer — the PMC makes no judgment on their clients’ motives or ethics. If the money is good, the job is on.
Veterans of the Dark Aether Zombies narrative will recognize the substance contained in the vials: Aetherium, now in a highly enriched state derived from processing vast amounts of the harvested crystalline form.
Operation Deadbolt
An emergency contingency plan put into action by the CIA, Operation Deadbolt was created in the aftermath of the outbreak events witnessed by Requiem operatives during the events of the Cold War.
SSO Laswell is given the job of prepping the plan, placing SSO Selma Greene on the ground as the de facto commander of the operation. When the team arrives at the Exclusion Zone alongside Soap and Ravenov, a few weeks have elapsed since the events shown in the first part of the trailer.
As a member of the team, your Operator joins other multi-national Operators to counter the threat posed by the Exclusion Zone, all running under the basic tenants of Operation Deadbolt: “Nothing gets in, nothing gets out.”
In terms of the actual game, players will face the undead as members of Operation Deadbolt. This combines Modern Warfare map features and systems with Treyarch’s trademark Zombies experience,
Expect to contain the incursion across different regions that escalate in difficulty with “core” Zombies features, and of course, secrets for players to discover. The Modern Warfare Zombies mode will be a shared experience with other squads where there will be special story missions, challenges, cinematics to reinforce the major story developments.
The mode will be one of the pillars of Modern Warfare 3’s overall package, which include the campaign and multiplayer when it’s released this November 10 on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Source: Call of Duty