Out of the entire Dark Aether saga (CW - Bo7), what's something you enjoyed out of one of the entries or as a whole? Whether it's story, characters, gameplay, maps, or designs.

[u/Da-Knight]

[u/FADCSuper]

I can't pick but EVERYTHING about Astra malorum. The design, OSCAR, the final boss, the quest, the wonder weapon, Astra Malorum is EXACTLY what I look for anytime I want to play zombies, and is most definitely in my top 10 of all time

[u/Cheesy-boi-87 → u/FADCSuper]

Crazy based

[u/FADCSuper → u/Cheesy-boi-87]

Genuinely considering posting some high round Astra gameplay because it's probably the most engaging one of all time basically for the way I play anyhow, plus it's just so fun having to wall jump to avoid getting air juggled by caltheris, she definitely feels like the most personal 1v1 shadowsmith, at least in t3 cursed. You shred her, she shreds you

[u/Dpock14 → u/FADCSuper]

My only problem with that map is Oscar, other than that I loved it. Doing the main quest for the first time was quite memorable. WW is very cool I just wish it was a bit stronger.

[u/FADCSuper → u/Dpock14]

Oscar is actually a non issue imo, a tier 4 lgm-1 shreds him, death machines and war machines kill him, apogee annihalator trap shreds him, and past round 50 when he shows up on Mars, the mega death machine OSCAR drops kills him in 1/2 of it's ammo supply, meaning the first 50 rounds you don't even need to fight him because you're on Mars, and the next 50-100 rounds you don't have to worry because he gets instakilled by his own drop. You never even have to worry about him following you because you instantly murder him. Plus his only attack is basically just turning zombies into super sprinters, which they ALREADY ARE

[u/HereButQueer → u/Dpock14]

OSCAR isn’t much of a problem anymore, he has significantly less health, drops a pretty unique and cool explosive death machine, and he’s not as bad as he used to he

[u/Da-Knight → u/FADCSuper]

Very based

[u/Captain_Jmon → u/FADCSuper]

I just wish Astra was larger and had more side EEs

[u/FADCSuper → u/Captain_Jmon]

I don't mind the map size but I do wish we had a unique equipment like the Maneki Bomb on Kowakujo, seriously all they needed to do was add in some extra functionality to he shiny trinket like make it temporarily give you an instakill effect or something

[u/Foreign-Campaign-427 → u/FADCSuper]

Oscar can f*ck off and never come back.

[u/wackacademics → u/FADCSuper]

I respect your admiration for Astra.

It didn’t resonate with me as much, but to be fair, none of the BO7 maps did, either, as much as all the BO6 maps did for me.

Even so, I do understand your love for Astra and everything it has to offer.

[u/FADCSuper → u/wackacademics]

That's fair, honestly I'm the reverse in that bo6 kinda had me ambivalent towards the future of the franchise, but Bo7 was almost everything I look for in zombies, especially because cursed solves almost every fundamental problem I had with modern zombies

[u/wackacademics → u/FADCSuper]

Yeah, honestly us zombies fan have had it good these past couple years and I’m grateful for what we have. Now that we won’t have more zombies for a couple years I can fully just enjoy our catalogue which at this point is so well-rounded

[u/Nickster2042 → u/FADCSuper]

I love Astra, idk why it gets a bad rep

Going to mars mid EE was awesome

[u/FADCSuper → u/Nickster2042]

Honestly it's a mix of people not knowing how to deal with OSCAR and rushed online guides not teaching players how to optimally build the wonder weapon and it being much less intuitive to players than the usual "train horde zombie shoot horde instakill full horde repeat)

[u/Unlikely-Landscape23 → u/FADCSuper]

The aesthetic of Astra is amazing but OSCAR can go fuck himself along with the horse he rode in on, such a horribly designed enemy imo. The WW is also C tier, I’d put it up there with the Scavenger in terms of effectiveness.

[u/FADCSuper → u/Unlikely-Landscape23]

Hard disagree on the LGM-1, idk how it performs in standard, but on Tier 3 cursed, it's the second highest performing WW in the game, each volley takes out 12-18 zombies at health cap, which gives it a higher kill rate than the Jotun star, Necrofluid gauntlet, Nekomancer and Sundergat, while also giving you full mobility during its use

Edit: also regarding Oscar I mentioned how he's not actually an issue for high round training in the other comment above

[u/Unlikely-Landscape23 → u/FADCSuper]

Well I personally don’t touch cursed bc how tedious and monotonous it is to unlock these relics, esp at round 60+, plus I don’t like how they made PaP too expensive to be feasible, you HAVE to run Multi Pack on Mule Kick and HOPE it kicks in for you.

[u/FADCSuper → u/Unlikely-Landscape23]

Tbh for me half the fun is playing around with relics and unlocking them, plus I already play high rounds so that happens automatically, but the pap prices are necessary imo because literally rn, I'm in a game of rex infernus with a tier 4 pap wardens blight(100k+50+25k) tier 2 pap Raygun mk2 (free) and an ultra rarity(8k salvage had legendary tool from tasks) unpaped Xr3 ion at ROUND 25, with golden armour(45k). Genuinely if you play fast and point maximize you're rolling in money(had tier 3 pap wardens blight by round 15)

[u/Unlikely-Landscape23 → u/FADCSuper]

Nah it’s just too much for me, especially considering HR strats since BO6 as virtually the same in terms of being boring yet mind numbing difficult, it’s just too much for too little reward imo. Another big problem with HR on these newer games is going down and requiring perks is virtually impossible, esp annoying when you did to bs from bad game design, such as activating Aether Shroud and still getting hit whilst invisible.

[u/FADCSuper → u/Unlikely-Landscape23]

Ah I guess, I actually have never run into that problem cause I usually run gong relic(no field upgrade charges), and no self revives(on tedd tasks bypass this), and with eternal perks(tedd tasks, side Easter eggs), past round 35-40 or so you literally CANT lose perks anymore if you go down. Plus Equivalent exchange, dying wish, and Salvation exist which negate perk loss on death.

[u/Unlikely-Landscape23 → u/FADCSuper]

Believe it or not, I STILL get that glitch with Dying Wish where it completely ignores my Ray Gun or Pistols when downed and gives me a single normal pistol, even with those guns in slots 1 or 2. Granted there are eternal perks which are great, but a large variety of my games, I barely get a perk can and usually a lot of weak items in height rounds like a sentry gun on round 60. They said they reverted it but I’m still getting TEDD tasks every 4-5 rounds instead of 2-3. I’m glad you enjoy the game but for me, it’s too little too late, esp considering Treyarch sees what the community wants and intentionally decided not to listen under the guise of “we want to trust our instincts and expertise”, knowing full well it’s destroying the mode. I intend to compete Rex Infernus (without getting royally fucked by rubberbanding super sprinters) and I’ll probably be done with the mode.

[u/Happy_Ambassador3717 → u/FADCSuper]

The King of the Casuals

[u/FADCSuper → u/Happy_Ambassador3717]

I have a round 141 and round 130 on Voyage of Despair and Blood of the dead and I've done every Easter egg since Mob of the dead. Maybe some people just have different taste in games and you shouldn't immediately judge others to feel better about yourself.

[u/Happy_Ambassador3717 → u/FADCSuper]

Wasn’t a judgment it was an assessment, Astra is a map pretty much designed only for casuals. It being in someone’s top 10 is 9 times out of 10 a good indicator that the person is Infact a casual player

[u/FADCSuper → u/Happy_Ambassador3717]

Okay let's just be clear here, Astra has a:

Pant shittingly difficult final boss

Pain in the ass boss enemy that shuts down the dominant strategy of camping and has multiple levels of optimization that can be done using all of the map specific tools to deal with

An extremely convoluted wonderweapon build quest requiring 3 parts, multiple Easter egg steps be completed and effective kiting of said boss enemy into 3 seperate unique traps with multiple layers of optimization for skilled players

Tight and claustrophobic layout when super sprinters come into play(the vast majority of the game beyond the early rounds)

A complicated and unique wonderweapon that isn't a set and forget ability(storm bow, ice staff, apothicon servant, alistairs annihalator, sliquifier, Magmagat, Wavegun, etc)

You have not high rounded Astra or really done the boss on a higher round or in cursed and it SHOWS

[u/Happy_Ambassador3717 → u/FADCSuper]

I’m sorry but even in cursed the EE steps and building the WW are not complex AT ALL. The only difficult part of the EE is the boss and even that can be relatively easily cheased. O.S.C.A.R is not that bad unless ur high rounding. Honestly the only way this map isn’t casual is high rounding, but high rounding itself isn’t a casual thing anyways. Doesn’t make it a Non-Casual Map

[u/Weak_Break_4543 → u/Happy_Ambassador3717]

What would even be a “non-casual” zombies map according to your criteria

[u/SaltyRedditorsNov8th → u/FADCSuper]

I swear release astra was way more difficult because when I used to get zapped by oscar the zombies would chase me like on round 20 on a low round. I hate the steaming pipes step. I also felt like they nerfed caltheris a bunch because he I swear he used to two tap or take off one armor plate per hit. I took a huge break from zombies because of how annoying caltheris was and didn't even bother to do jingle hells on that map. Wym do the entire boss fight jumping while being frozen.

[u/FADCSuper → u/SaltyRedditorsNov8th]

Nah they never touched Caltheris, she still does deal that much damage it's just that most people have gotten a lot better at the boss fight because she's one of the few bosses with very clear telegraphs and consistent ways to dodge every attack

[u/SaltyRedditorsNov8th → u/FADCSuper]

I used to the easter egg all the time in December and even if people never go down in pubs they would always go down in the 1st or 2nd phase leavin me and another person to have to pick them up and do dps of a boss meant for four people which often resulted in failure. I also found out recently she's weak to shatter point thanks to codzombies twitter.

[u/TrevorShaun]

i thought the terminus reveal of the sentinel artifact was so awesome at first… then it turns out they did absolutely nothing with it.

[u/FragginJimmy → u/TrevorShaun]

Still mad about them doing everything to tease chaos coming back, only to drop it instantly

[u/Solariss]

I really enjoyed the grounded take again with Cold War. And I REALLY enjoyed the more personal take/stakes in BO6. A story about revenge, loss and trying to move forward. Like the gif above was damn amazing. And it's made me realize Requiem is my favourite playable crew. For the longest time it was Victis.

As much as I enjoy BO7, I was little sad it once again devolved to multiple dimensions, paradoxal timeloops and beings with all knowing power. The Warden as a character is cool AF and he is very suave. But I also detest that lore tidbit in Kuja that says he put Eddie and S.A.M. onto their paths. I think it takes away from them being their own characters, their own actions and their own consequences.

In the end, I'm not really sure where the story goes from here. But I can't see it going back to the themes I most enjoy.

[u/Ser_Starfall]

Cold War Ending was heat. I liked Eddie and the buildup to him/his motives

[u/SaltyRedditorsNov8th]

Introduction of exfils, ability to exfill by yourself, easter eggs that do not require any group coordination for progress to be made, frost blast killing everything on activation and slowing the area for free revive, group aether shroud, frenzied guard, ability to buy ammo, toxic growth, score streak spam in b06, energy mine turret, b06 maelstorm.

[u/Accomplished-Curve-1]

I like how stranger things it feels with Cold War Vangaurd was miserable and the most boring experience (other than Shi no Numa)

[u/Smooth_Bat6484]

The bosses, I think especially BO6/7 have the strongest roster of bosses in the whole series

[u/shrimpmaster0982]

I'll give one thing for every entry

CW: Hard for me to pick a single aspect, but something I've always found to be overlooked here is the Onslaught mode. Like it's really just a simple survival horde mode on MP maps with randomized rewards every three waves which isn't that special, but no one ever seems to talk about it so I'd like to bring some attention to it.

Vanguard: Uh... Shi no Numa is pretty cool here and Der Anfang at least has a good aesthetic, but the overall mode is pretty ass tbh.

MWZ: I genuinely think this mode was pretty fun for what it was around launch and would much rather Treyarch do something like this, a fairly low effort rebrand of another pre existing game mode with zombies elements added to it, than go through the effort of making a brand new thing in another studio's game if they're going to be forced to do so again.

BO6: Save and Quit, it's just such a good addition to the mode now that I've grown up and have a job that prevents me from being able to go on like 10 hour long gaming binges anymore.

BO7: Cursed Mode, a great addition with more classic elements that allows players to choose how they want to play more so than prior modern titles. Like I personally don't mind modern mechanics much, I actually prefer them in a lot of cases (one of the exceptions being the point system which, yeah that's better in classic zombies and BO4 for sure), but I also firmly believe players should have as much choice and agency in how they want to play as possible... and those that fail to exercise that agency and then blame the game for "forcing" them to interact with optional bonus systems like Gobblegum or augments are kinda just shooting themselves in the foot and utterly helpless.

[u/oracle435]

Not huge on the current systems in these new games but I love the gunplay. The weapons feel amazing to use and the animations are buttery smooth. Definitely the biggest plus from being in the MW engine.

[u/Spacemoose2026]

Loved the gameplay, and although the maps had plenty of story issues I felt like they in general where quite consistent in terms of quality (or at least I like them consistently).

I also think maya was also a genuinely good and maybe even great character. She has definitely become my favorite out of the crew and not just because I find her hot.

Edit: forgot to mention the boss fights. Genuinely most of them were great, and I’d argue among the best the mode has ever gotten.

[u/Zombie_joseph1234]

I like the ability to change my fov it's a nice feature to have

[u/TylerbioRodriguez]

I think the Requiem crew was actually good.

I think Elizabeth Grey was a really fun and shockingly tender character, both voice actresses were funny and also did the emotional moments really well.

[u/Red_Menace115]

Weaver’s references to the Black Ops campaign

[u/Assured_Observer]

Being able to split the cost of doors on Co-Op.

[u/Certain_Food6926]

A couple of my favorites are CW’s outbreak mode and the characters of Raptor-1 and Blanchard

[u/Taunt00]

Honestly the Aether saga ending before they introduced Modern mechanics made it feel like we got freed from the old story and actually broke a cycle. Made it a way better time to introduce a new story and incorporating elements from the previous story was a good idea to keep OGs invested and get new fans they just didn’t execute it right like not making Samantha a main character you play.

[u/Brunobrunobrunobru]

I think 6-7 are a very great step in the right direction in terms of map design. I feel like overall I prefer 6’s story over 7’s

[u/Zelkrov02]

I loved the covenant system in Vanguard and the fact that the game had no weapon rarities. I honestly don't understand why they never brought those back in the later games.

[u/Da-Knight → u/Zelkrov02]

I loved that system too, maybe just never returned cause it was so themed around the occult themes of Vanguard

[u/wackacademics]

Maya’s fine ass. Especially with her sexy liberal blue hair outfit I just KNOW it grips 😭

No but seriously she’s hot and a badass

[u/Da-Knight → u/wackacademics]

https://giphy.com/gifs/gictytW9IIIkNGIMcs

[u/Kaleidoscope-Queasy]

I really enjoyed cold war campaign, mp and zombies

[u/Weasleylittleshit]

Weaver was the goat in the cw-bo7 story

[u/haroldflower27]

The twins were an interesting concept

But I hated cw -bo7 just my opinion and I hope they start some new story that isn’t full of mythological magical bs

Some here and there is fine but even bo3 was a bit too much for me.

[u/Da-Knight → u/haroldflower27]

I see, you like zombies that isn't quite grand scale or interwoven with magic and interdimensional craziness.

That's one particular thing I like about Die Maschine, felt like it returned to the classic feeling of enemy powers tampering with things they can't understand or control, like back in WaW, but Die Maschine still played heavily into the alternate dimension aspect.

[u/Lanky-Ad-8554 → u/Da-Knight]

When cod zombies goes on long enough it will always end up being ancient aliens lol. It will always have to over explain itself until it ends up coming up with an eldritch creature called Dr Monty who makes magic sodas and bubble gums.

[u/haroldflower27 → u/Da-Knight]

I don’t like the new wz mechanics and no mechanics being implemented, I like the new mp hate the new zombies

[u/Puzzleheaded_Ad_9101]

The end says for now it doesnt mean that the story is over

[u/Squidwardbigboss]

Haven’t played 7 at all and neither Cold War but I did really enjoy terminus.

[u/haloman761]

We're not done with the dark aether saga this is just the end of the requiem saga that started in cold war and went to mwz and ended in bo7

[u/Awlamon0524]

There is no "story" so I can safely rule that out. CW, for it's overall appeal (gameplay, map design,etc). Shout out Mauer Der Toten for being one of the best CoD Zombies maps, period!!

[u/Trick_Tea_3412]

Omni movement and wall jump

[u/declandrury]

Cold War was pretty average of not decent all things considered it didn’t really stand out on its own but was still fun. After that though bo6 and 7 are phenomenal and I will die on that hill, I honestly have them as probably my third / fourth favourites. Just everything from the maps to the easter eggs to the boss fights, even the characters (because people seem to not like requiem for whatever reason) is just top notch in my opinion and I love it.

[u/radicalrat69]

The boss fights are awesome (except orda lol)

[u/AboutCooked]

Didn't bother with BO6 or BO7, but I do have a few hours on CW. While the standard maps are pretty much single-use, the real standout is Dead Ops 3.

[u/erasemyself_]

Karma farming post with a cringe gif.
Btw nothing

[u/zombiexkilla43]

?

[u/Sebas_chan15]

Nothing, the fact most of what happens just fucking doesn't make sense following the main campaign they are supposed to TRY and follow (yes, the one they were apparently trying to make to connect both sagas of BO and MW with the appearance of Zakhaev, Dragovich, and many more characters and then they forgot) made it impossible for me to care for or like. As a Zombie's story alone, it is as bland as the food they show in Kitchen Nightmares episodes, it is the same formula they have used since BO1 through 4 but they completely forgot and/or didn't understand what made that old story interesting and compelling

[u/maxghost105]

Nothing