Review
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Call of Duty: WW2 dropped onto Xbox Game Pass on June 30, 2025, and many players are going back in for its classic campaign or boots-on-the-ground multiplayer. But what’s often ignored is WW2 Zombies, a mode that never got its due credit when it launched in 2017. It wasn’t developed by Treyarch, and that alone made some players dismiss it outright. Yet with time, the community has started to appreciate how much WW2 Zombies brought back the core horror vibe that previous entries like Black Ops 3 and Infinite Warfare had abandoned.
From the first menu screen to the smallest detail in each map, the atmosphere and vibe are spot-on. Plus, the zombies are some of the creepiest the franchise has ever created. Combining rusting metal and rotten Nazi corpses to create living mechanical abominations is pure nightmare fuel. Some zombies wear gas masks that look disturbingly human. Others randomly spawn in players’ blind corners to deliver jump scares. The Call of Duty: WW2 Zombies mode feels like something clawed straight out of a horror film.
World War 2 Zombies' Updated Mechanics Are a Treat for Call of Duty Fans
The mode introduces refined mechanics that feel like quality-of-life upgrades without making things too easy. The custom loadout system gives players flexibility without being overpowered. There are no absurd consumables like in later Treyarch entries, but there’s enough freedom to shape each run how players want. Pack-a-Punch’d weapons are especially rewarding. Many come with hidden effects, and players are encouraged to PaP different guns just to see what they do. Even better, ammo can be repurchased directly from the PaP machine, which reduces the stress of running out mid-round.
WW2 Zombies also introduced a whole new point-sharing system with teammates via a single button press. This made it easier for everyone to have upgraded weapons and open new areas. The game also introduced a ton of new Wonder weapons. The Sword of Barbarossa stunned zombies, launched them across the map, and even allowed players to create a revive point using their armor. The Thulian Hammer was basically Thor’s hammer brought into COD. Players threw it, triggered a lightning strike on impact, and then it flew back to them. The Reaper killed all zombies in a wide radius except for one, which ran toward other zombies and exploded.
The Character System Was a Long-Awaited Addition
WW2 Zombies finally gave players something they’d wanted for years: selectable characters. The game launched with a core cast of characters including Marie Fischer, Drostan Hynd, Jefferson Potts, and Olivia Durant. But Sledgehammer went a step further. They also introduced new unlockable characters, each with unique voice lines and backstories. The wide variety of characters brings a lot of replay value to the mode.
The Zombies Maps Are Criminally Underrated
Many players skipped WW2 Zombies because the maps were said to be forgettable. That’s not really the case. While they may not reach Buried or Mob of the Dead status, these maps are jam-packed with eerie atmosphere, fun easter eggs, and lots of cool new weapons. The launch map, Final Reich, remains the best of the bunch. It’s beginner-friendly, the layout is cinematic, and the Tesla Gun is easily the best part. The Darkest Shore is set on a fog-covered island. While it is quite shallow in terms of content, its sound design and cold setting more than make up for it. Plus, fully upgrading the Ripsaw here leads to some incredibly satisfying zombie action.
The Shadowed Throne is easily the most visually striking map. A war-torn city full of browns, greens, and red lighting gives it a unique palette that few other Call of Duty maps can rival. The Tortured Path gets a bad rep, but it’s one of the boldest experiments in Zombies history. It splits into three stages, and also includes the Darkened Path, which is a brutal hard mode with its own questline and progression system. This mode is filled with PaP’d versions of nearly every Wonder weapon from earlier maps. This lets players experiment with loadouts in a way no other mode really allows.
