Call Of Duty: Cold War is officially the very first game I have purchased on the PlayStation 5. I was super excited to play the game on the brand-new next-gen console. Before I went to the Zombies game mode, I took a little time to glance at the visuals, and I was already stunned at how great the Cold War looked in 4K resolution.
The Die Maschine map is set in Morasko, Poland. As you start the game mode, you will get an intro cutscene of a woman named Sam making a phone call in East Berlin, East Germany, in the year 1983. This call was to Officer Weaver, who was in the situation room in the CIA headquarters. Langley, Virginia. Sam called Weaver to ensure that the situation room received “the package.” She insisted that Weaver watched the tape to prove her theory.
The tape showed ‘Die Maschine’ (‘The Machine’ in German). The video also showed a group of soldiers killed by zombies. In the middle of the video, Sam warned Weaver that there was another clip in the tape that was “shot one week later” of the clean-up crew burning what looked to be dead zombies.
Then they buried Die Maschine until “2 weeks ago, now it’s happening again.” The intro ended with Weaver insisting that that woman turn herself in and also offering protection for her, but she refused because the Omega group “have plans for the outbreak zones.” She insists she “have to stay in the field” and ends the call with, “this is the only way.”
Treyarch has outdone itself with the design of the Die Maschine map, with its stunningly high levels of detail on objects and photorealistic-looking weapons, especially on the PlayStation 5 version with the 4K resolution. What I loved the most about this map is there are few areas where you can easily train zombies, such as the respawn. Therefore, the most casual zombie players would also enjoy this map.
The Pack a Punch Easter egg is very easy to complete. All you have to do is turn on the power, activate both terminals, get through an anomaly, get through the ether tunnel, retrieve a missing piece of the Pack a Punch machine, and assemble it. However, Pack a Punch could use some improvement.
Only a few selections of weapons are most reliable when going for Easter eggs and high rounds. One of them is the Hauer 77 shotgun and the M16 assault rifle, which both are extremely dependable when going for Easter eggs and high rounds. This wasn’t very much the case in previous Black Ops titles. For example, in Black Ops 3, the effectiveness of all weapons remained the same, even if you are on round 200.
In the Cold War, when going for Easter eggs and high rounds, it’s best to equip one of the weapons mentioned above or the Raygun and Wonder weapon. This isn’t necessarily fun, as most players would like to have a range of weapon choices to upgrade.
Getting the wonder weapon can be a little tricky because you have to collect about 30 souls from the zombies in the living room, which is a very small area of the map. The best way to go about this is to train the zombies in a large area of the map and then lure them into the room.
It was great to see Treyarch keep some of the same perks that were used in previous Black Ops titles. Speed Cola, quick revive, stamina up, etc., are some of my favorite perks to improve my zombie’s performance. However, it is very unfortunate that other perks, such as mule kick, were not included in the game. Mule kick was another perk I enjoyed using because having to be able to equip three weapons was of great advantage for me.
I tried the new perks, such as elemental pop and deadshot daiquiri, but they both had virtually no effect on my play style. However, they could be much more useful to other gamers. The new extraction feature was very interesting. Instead of having to die to end the game, you can also call in for extraction if you no longer wish to continue. Another cool new feature is the chopper gunner, which is extremely helpful in eliminating a lot more zombies quickly.
Although the Die Maschine main Easter Egg was relatively short, it was still one of the best Easter eggs Treyarch has ever created. The story behind it, the steps that needed to be taken, the animations, the boss fight, etc., made this a truly enjoyable adventure. The only thing that prevented the Easter egg from being perfect was that there was no end-cut scene. Instead, you just go to the extraction point.
Ultimately, although some things remain to be desired, Treyarch has done a very good job with the Die Maschine map and the zombies game mode overall. The good news is that future DLC content for Cold War zombies will include many more features, and surely, the upcoming maps will be better.
