The anticipation and hype for this map was absolutely staggering, but has it lived up to the hype, it's it Zombie Chronicles 2 worthy, and have the changes and additions made been satisfactory?

This discussion is an analysis of this map, what it has done right, wrong, and what it didn't do, as well as what it could do, and since I'm only an expert on the Zombies mode, and not reviews, I'll be copying the style and structure of Jr Rizzo, because originality is not something Call of Duty is known for.

With that out of the way, lets answer the Call of the Dead.

Prologue:

The Call of the Dead remaster project has been in the works for sometime now, with little hints and teasers being dropped every so often, this, as intended, sparked hype within the community and breathing life into Black Ops 3 once more, as there haven't been too many big workshop contributions for a while.

Soon enough, we got a trailer for the map, and it looked stunning, even having Black Ops 1 weaponry present for a more authentic feel, just more nostalgia to draw us all in, and it worked, the map released and received mostly positive reviews, but as can be expected with community projects, it has it's own flair for better or for worse, as well as a slue of bugs and glitches.

Lets now dive in to the icy depth of the Siberian shores, and see what was Good, Bad, and any anything and everything in between.

The Good:

There's a lot of Good to this map, starting strongly with the Visuals. The artistic direction of this map is strong, but not over the top or bland, making what should be a grey, boring, icy vista actually pop with colour is no easy feet, it really feels Zombies Chronicles esque in that regard.

The audio is also amazing, properly recreated from Black Ops 1, the ambience palpable, you could cut the aura and vibe of this map with a knife, it really feels like hell as frozen over, and it's your job to survive in this remarkable vibrant waste land, that echoes with the screams of the undead, the thunderous voice of the late, great George Romero, and the jiggles of perks, all subtly muted by the icy storm that rolls thick fog over the map once in a while.

Call of the dead was always a well done map thematically, but this version takes it to a whole knew level, especially with a handful of appropriate additions scatted around the map.

Across the whole map you'll now find actual evidence there was once a film crew here, where as in the Original, all the movie equipment and crew disappeared as soon as the zombies showed up, in this version, as you traverse the play space you'll fine director, and actors chairs, cameras on tripods, and stage lighting. It really helps sell that they were in the midst of a production before actual Zombies attacked.

Another neat addition is the Chronicles Samantha's Music Box Easter Egg, which upon completion, rewards the player with guaranteed Matryoshka Dolls. Which is pretty neat.

In addition to that, the player can find a part to temporarily upgrade the flinger, which send them to a special ice cave filled with Romeo movie memorabilia, along with a memorial to George. A sweet touch to and a fine nod to the man who we can thank for the invention of the modern Zombie, which dare I say it, if he hadn't have done, we may not even have ever gotten Call of Duty Zombies to begin with.

Lastly for the good, is the changes to the Wonder Weapons.

The Wonder Weapons on Call of the Dead, despite being very unique, creative, and Iconic, were also very under powered, and not worth keeping long term, but now thanks to some changes, both the VR-11, and Scavenger, are much more powerful, and worth while, with the VR-11's "Human" now on a short timer before detonation as well as more effective distraction effects, makes it more useful at getting away from horde.

The Scavenger on the other hand now does infinite damage, and will easily carry you to round 100 if you're smart.

But with all that said here are just a few of the Little Things I'd like to point out before we get to The Bad.

The Little Things:

In the Flooded Frozen basement of the lighthouse, there's a Widows Wine Machine, and Margwa trapped under the ice.

In the Romero Memorial, a Zombie NPC can be found playing playing an acoustic rendition on the maps hidden song "Not Ready to Die".

A Freddy Kreuger glove can be found on a table in the Stamin-Up Boat house, next to a cassette tape, and player, of Robert Englund's account of how he became part of the production.

When the Main Quest is completed, the metal door to the teleporter room opens so we can finally see what the inside of the room actually looks like, unlike that cramped closet from Tag der Toten.

The Bad:

Nothing is perfect, and Call of the Dead Remastered is no exception. To start, some odd design choices were made in regards to the weapon variety.

The map uses Black Ops 1 weapons, but oddly opted to replace Black Ops 3 variants of Black Ops 1 weapons, the M14, Olympia, M1911, China Lake, AK-74u, and MP40, all use ported models and sounds, which kind of goes against the parity with Zombies Chronicles.

The choice to swap out the Black Ops 3 Weapons all together was a strange choice honestly, it goes against the themes this map has established to line up with Chronicles, and it locks players out of Weapon Kits, and the strategy and customisation they add, this wouldn't be an issue, but given the presence of Gobble Gums, which I should add, are only partially functional, as some are banned from use due to incompatibility, and a Chronicles Easter Egg really confused whether or not this map is trying to be a remaster, or a re-imagining.

The Balance, it's all off, and it's not helped with the amount of bugs. This is a fan recreation, so obviously they didn't have the time or resources to match the level of QA official maps get, but the fact some basic function only half work, or worst case don't at all, is bordering being unacceptable, the most egregious of this is the jump point at the top of the light house, a fall you can only survive with PhD, which is in the map, but isn't really PhD Flopper, or Slider...

PhD in this map does negate fall damage, and generate a small, pitiful explosion when landing from a fall, but it's weak and often bugs out and doesn't give points. It can also, just not work, and you can still go down from falling.

Unless you jump from the lighthouse, then you will die, not go down, die.

If you're in Co-op, you'll go straight into spectate, and if you're in solo, the game will instantly end, even if you have Quick Revive!

To add to that, George's attacks, and health, aren't balance, and often bug out too, it's not uncommon for George to get stuck to the player, and kill them quickly, if this happens, it can really kill the pace of the game, or if you don't have and revives left, will kill your game.

Now for some little nitpicks that just rub me the wrong way.

The Nitpicks:

The altered Main Quest steps.

In this version of Call of the Dead, some of the steps have been changes to procedural change each play through, this change is jarring, especially since only some steps have changed, while others haven't, this throws off muscle memory, and slows the pace down.

The Black Ops 1 weapons aren't great some feel really weak, even when Packed, while others are just OP, and I can't say I've seen the Crossbow, or Ballistic Knife in there either.

The lack of content, while there have been some small additions, they don't change the gameplay a lot, or otherwise add to the experience, meaning you can get through all the content on your first play though or so, and have nothing left to do with the map.

The Teleporter room. While it's nice to see, I feel it leaves a lot to be desired, and some details don't line up, you're telling me that crude ass teleporter has a force-field system?

Conclusion:

Call of the Dead Remastered is about as passable as other Chronicles maps, save the strange choices and addition it makes, but is still a solid experience, that'll surely get better with age. After some patches, it'll be smoother and more fun.

What I'd like to see, and I'm sure you'd agree, is a more faithful Chronicles version, it doesn't have to replace the current one, it can exist along side it, but it uses Black Ops 3 weapons, uses the exact Easter Eggs and quests from the Original, and would be closer to how Treyarch would have made it for Black Ops 3.

But with all that said, whatever happens, Call of the Dead Remastered is here, it's pretty damn good.

I hope you've enjoyed this review, feel free to leave your opinions in the comments, I'd love to see your views on the matter, and to the Devs, thank you, you've tried your best and it shows, but maybe do consider an alternate version of the map.

Thanks for Reading.

Bye.

-ZombieGuildford.