Four batshit insane, Crazy Awesome grunts take on the undead hordes of the Axis. Or replace the grunts with four historical figures from the 1960s or four horror-genre celebrities, possibly less insane but still pretty Crazy Awesome.A bonus mode in Call of Duty: World at War and a standalone iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad game where you originally play as one of four silent US soldiers holed up in a wrecked base near an airfield, it eventually turns through Downloadable Content into... a somewhat-better-explained plotless series of American (and later, Soviet, Japanese and Nazi) soldiers massacring the undead 'til they join their ranks.Call of Duty: Black Ops, the successor to World at War, includes Zombie Mode, a direct sequel to Nazi Zombies. The Hardened and Prestige editions of the game come with the four original maps from World at War. The first new map revealed features John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara and Fidel Castro fighting an outbreak in the Pentagon. Cue the rejoicing. The subsequent maps continue the tale of the WW 2 zombie fighters, as well as another tale featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Danny Trejo, Robert Englund and Michael Rooker fighting another outbreak, this time out in an abandoned Siberian outpost, where they were filming a zombie movie. The final map (until the next Treyarch Call of Duty game) in the Nazi Zombie saga has been announced in the "Rezurrection" Map Pack, and is called Moon. It should be no surprise where it takes place.Endorsed by Hayley Williams.
An Ice Person - Anyone, once they get the Winter's Howl gun (which, as the name suggests, freezes zombies).
It gets better when you Pack-A-Punch it.
Apocalyptic Log - Radio transmissions in Shi no Numa, experiment records in Der Riese and film reels in Kino Der Toten. When you play by yourself in Kino der Toten, you hear Richtofen making one last note before they're transported to the theatre during the loading screen.
Badass - "Tank Dempsey gnawed through his bamboo cage, then gnawed his way through his captors, armed only with a Medal Of Honor that he keeps secreted in various orifices."
Nikolai Belinski's only reason why he's fighting zombies? He scared the living shit out of Josef Stalin and promptly got sent to the front lines. And that was just from shaking hands.
Hell, let's just say every playable character.
Badass Bookworm: Robert McNamara, who often makes accounting jokes while slaughtering zombies.
Back-to-Back Badasses - A variation in an early trailer advertising Nacht der Untoten, it ended with four nameless American soldiers putting their backs together to cover all angles from the approaching zombies.
BFG - Excluding the already massive machine guns that you can hip-fire, the Wunderwaffe and the Thundergun.
Subverted in "Der Riese", where the starting pistol (the weakest gun in the game) becomes a portable, concealable Grenade Launcher when upgraded.
Kennedy:"As Teddy Roosevelt once said: walk lightly and carry a BFG!"
BFK - The Bowie Knife, which kills most zombies with one strike before round 20.
Danny Trejo wields machetes in the Call of the Dead opening cutscene, but not in-game, unfortunately.
Big Bad - Richtofen. He swaps bodies with Samantha in Moon to gain control of the zombies, if you carry out his Grand Scheme.
Blood Bath - Richtofen longs to bathe naked... IN YOUR BLOOD!!!!!
Boom, Headshot - Not necessary, but gains you the most points (other than knifing - and since zombies will kill you in one or two hits, and knifing zombies can take up to five swings, this isn't recommended) and uses less ammo. However, on the later rounds, people care less about headshots and more on staying alive.
However, headshot damage multipliers help with the staying alive bit.
Characters will often brag aloud about their headshots.
One of the Perk-A-Cola machines gives you a perk that adjusts your quick aim to the head instead of the chest.
Bond One-Liner: All the time. Nikolai makes shitty ones all the time, and then gets a bit confused on the aspect of it being after a kill.
"You are dead now! But you were dead before! Ah, fuck you!"
Nikolai again, in Black Ops: "Do you know how to say 'own' in Russian? OWNT!
Nikolai also seems fairly adept at rhyming: "Nikolai cannot die! Hey, that rhymes!"
Cerebus Syndrome - The intel in Black Ops reveals that Dempsey and company were guinea pigs (not literally, of course) and are infected, but instead of turning into zombies, they got stronger and healthier, but were inflicted with Laser-Guided Amnesia.
For the Evulz: Word Of God confirmed that Richtofen is Edward from the messages and he lacks the aforementioned amnesia, and he's the one who infected them.
Character Development: Later in a match, especially on Der Riese, the characters will insult each other less and yell about trying to help each other more.
Cool, but Inefficient - Most of the weapons get straight upgrades that are required. However, the MG42, Browning M1919 and the Wunderwaffe get lackluster upgrades. Of course, machine gunsare cool in their own way... not to mention the Wunderwaffe. And not to mention necessary - a low rate of fire will kill you on rounds nearing or past 20.
Even a friggin' pistol that shoots grenades, an alien Ray Gun, and a bazooka are worse than the machine guns and the Wunderwaffe.
Rebalanced in Black Ops, where the machine guns do less damage, allowing SMGs and assault rifles to compete, even at higher rounds.
Defcon Five - Played straight. Handwaved with DEFCON ONE locking down critical access to a few rooms, and FIVE releasing enough security to get you some new toys.
Deliberately Monochrome: Ascension begins this way. The color only returns when you turn on the power. Lampshaded at the start, right before Gersch requests your assistance.
"Friends, neighbors, ladies, gentlemen, if you're feelin' underpowered, I'll help you make amends. Just stick your weapon in the slot, and let it change your luck. Few things in life are guaranteed, but I promise this won't suck Punch your fists into the air and raise a rebel yell! There's lots of bad 'uns out there you need to send to hell! With Pack-A-Punch, I have a hunch, all your problems will be gone, but if you end up on the ground, sing a country western song. Pack-A-Punch (Everybody)! Pack-A-Punch (Yee-haa)! Pack-A-Punch! Pack-A-Punch! Pack-A-Punch (Everybody)! Pack-A-Punch! Pack-A-Punch(YEE-HAA!!!)Pack-A-Punch (WAA-HHAAAW)!"
Nacht der Untoten: In the Help room there's a radio that, if knifed or shot at, will play music from the campaign. In the Black Ops version, destroying all the barrels causes a new song called "Undone" to start playing.
As does Kino der Toten, which also includes the full version of "115" (the song that plays on the game over screen of Der Riese).
Five has three telephones that play Eminem's "Won't Back Down".
Moon probably has the grand daddy of all Easter Eggs. After following a rather elaborate set of instructions, you set off Richtofen's Grand Scheme (with the help of Dr. Maxis for the second part). YOU BLOW UP THE EARTH! If you go back to No Man's Land/Area 51 after that, it's essentially a wasteland.
In short there are three types of Easter Eggs per map: Radios that serve as the backstory for Group 935 and their research along with the above listed music and major Easter Eggs that affect gameplay and the storyline.
Which turns into Canon Discontinuity which each new map. Just when you think they're all dead, the teleporter overuse takes them to a new place. Except, maybe, for Five.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin - Well, except for Shi no Numa and Five. It's now Zombie Mode in Black Ops, due to the fact you don't fight just Nazis anymore.
Even Evil Has Standards: Applied to Nikolai and Richtofen, in that their respective factions are scared shitless of them. Especially Nikolai, who scared Stalin.
Evil Laugh: Dempsey does this occasionally, but Richtofen indulges in this very often.
Face Heel Turn - Richtofen in Moon, not that he was good to begin with, what with attempting to kill his partner, Dr. Maxis, and his daughter, Samantha Maxis, before the events in Der Riese, and brainwashing the other characters and using them as experiments, among other things.
Feel No Pain - Zombies do not react in pain to the weaponry that hit or dismember them - they keep coming unless they die. They'll even generally crawl after you if you've knocked their legs off.
Fire-Forged Friends: Well, not friends, but as they are under increasingly serious attack, the characters will act more like a team. (At least they say they will. Whether they do or not is up to the players.)
Healing Shiv: A literal example in the form of the Pack-A-Punched Ballistic Knife, the Krauss Refibrillator. You can revive downed players by stabbing or shooting the blade at them.
Heroic Mime - The soldiers in Nacht der Untoten. Thankfully, the other levels avert this completely.
Slowly gets subverted the higher the round number due to the zombies getting more health every round. The subversion is why the Bowie Knife was introduced in Der Riese, and THAT gets subverted after a while.
And then the Thundergun in Kino der Toten, which is always a one hit kill. And then the Winter's Howl on Five, and they get subverted eventually, too!
Then there's the Wave Gun in Moon, which follows the Thundergun in being a one hit kill. But not only that, but it can be taken apart to make a dual wield version that is also a one hit kill!
Insane Troll Logic: Maxis's plan to save the world from zombies: blow it up.
Interactive Narrator - All the 1940's characters can hear the Demonic Announcer. Leading to these lovely exchanges:
Kill It with Fire - Flamethrower + Nazi Zombies = Good times, but Flamethrowers are useless unless someone's got the Insta-Kill power-up.
Flamethrowers are useful if you have the Double Tap perk, because the increased fire rate means that the zombies burn up a lot quicker. Pack-A-Punching it adds nitrogen cooling to your flamethrower, making this much more practical.
Knife Nut - Everyone in Der Riese once they get their hands on a Bowie Knife, which looks more like a short sword.
Lampshade Hanging - Some of the characters will comment on the finding of the musical Easter Eggs being just that. They'll also get pissed off every time the Mystery Box chucks up a Teddy Bear instead of a weapon.
After an explosive caused by Nikolai leaves a zombie alive, but legless, he will make a remark on how players do this to be free to run around the map and do whatever:
"Look, I just made a new pet. I'll take it for a walk for about five minutes while the rest of you dick around."
Dempsey, when out of ammo: "Player! Drop the chips and get me some ammo!"
It gets more and more explicit as the DLC maps come in, with the last one hanging these after almost every power-up pickup.
Don't forget Nacht der Untoten, which means Night of the Undead in German, and Shi no Numa, which is Japanese for Zombie Swamp or Marsh of Death... and you fight Japanese Zombies in it. Kino der Toten in Black Ops roughly translates to Theater of the Dead, which is appropriate considering it's a Shout Out to Inglourious Basterds.
Ascension is a Soviet rocket launch facility, complete with cosmonaut training device and zombie astro-monkeys.
More Dakka - Pack-a-Punching your guns in Der Riese onwards often includes a gigantic increase in firing rate. It even turns some semi-auto weapons into full-auto weapons. However, trying to compensate for a lack of accuracy in this manner will just cause your ammunition reserves to run dry.
The lack of accuracy becomes a problem because headshots in the later rounds is the only way to quickly kill a zombie.
It's a huge fuckoff rifle, that has been upgraded. Would you want it penetrating you in either sense?
Nazi Nobleman - Averted in Richtofen's biography, which makes reference to this trope, saying he gained influence amongst German's high-class, but disagreed with the Nazi Party (though mostly because he considered them not evil enough). He did join the army to fulfill his sadism, however.
He was never a Nazi to begin with, Group 935 decided to assist the Nazi party to further their agenda.
Nintendo Hard: Do not play this solo, unless you feel like screaming at Treyarch for putting such a huge emphasis on headshots and making all the players a two-hit kill for zombies. Black Opstakes things a step further by making it much harder to hold up in one spot, introducing ankle-biting gas zombies, and nerfing the machine guns. Unless you've memorized everything and have made prayers to whatever God you believe in that you don't get too close to a zombie, you will die on a hilariously low level.
Actually subverted for those who know the maps. When the zombies are only following you, it is much easier to lure them into traps and things. The highest scores were recorded in single-player Zombies.
Nikolai: His head is waist high, Dempsey, (suddenly losing Russian accent) don't get too excited!
Our Zombies Are Different: They're made via "Element 115" or repeated teleportation, and don't need headshots. Their eyes glow and move faster over time, and they're somewhat controllable.
In fact, later zombies can survive for short times without their heads. At a late enough round, you could have an armless, legless, headless zombie still making its way towards you.
With the right application of 115, they can be turned back into regular humans. This includes George Romero.
And now in Call of the Dead, completing the trapped characters Easter Egg will reward you with the lightning bolt power-up that grants the player a Wunderwaffe-DG2
Psycho Electro - Dempsey's more... fond of the Wunderwaffe than the other characters.
Rasputinian Death - Nikolai notes the ability for a zombie to keep coming at you with arms, legs, and even a head blown off in one of his quotes.
Nikolai: "What are you? Fucking RASPUTIN?! Just die already!"
Recycled IN SPACE! - The Rezurrection map pack features a new map on the moon.
Also in that map is an achievement called 'Perks in Spaaaaace', which is unlocked once you've had all 8 perks at some point in the game (not necessarily all at the same time)
Revolvers Are Just Better - Played straight, and subverted. The revolver is a good weapon and a good choice for early rounds... but later on, its low rate of fire and the zombies' increased health is a crippling weakness.
Rule Of Cool - Why are you fighting as a crazed Nazi, a drunken Russian, an honor-obsessed Japanese soldier, and an even crazier American? Why are there miniature grenade launchers and electric guns? Who cares?
Alternatively, why are you fighting zombies as John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara and Fidel Castro in the Pentagon? I think you know exactly why.
Gets better when celebrities are thrown into the mix.
And why is Sarah Michelle wearing a sleeveless cut off shirt in the middle of Siberia?
The weapons themselves. Started from the Ray Gun and now we got cluster grenades disguised as a Russian nesting toy and a miniature black hole generating bomb along with elemental based weapons.
Running Gag - When attempting to purchase something he doesn't have enough points for, Nikolai will make references to a stripper who took his money:
Kino der Toten: Nikolai: "What?! That stripper must have stolen my money!"
Ascension: Nikolai: "That stripper DID take all my money!...bitch...."
Shangri-La: Nikolai: "Where does all my money go? Fuck, she is cruel mistress."
Sequel Escalation - Each of the DLCs' settings and atmospheres become progressively more over-the-top.
Black Ops' first Zombie Mode map features John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara and Fidel Castro fighting zombies in the Pentagon during JFK's presidency days/weeks after the Cuban Crisis.
Ascension brings the group from a Nazi theater to a Russian rocket base.
And now the final Zombies map being produced for Black Ops (don't worry more is coming with Treyarch's next game, they promised) has Tank, Nikolai, Takeo, and Richtofen fight zombies on a base on the surface of Earth's moon. If that isn't absurdly over the top then I don't know what is. About as over the top as the Earth blowing up.
Serial Escalation- This secret onAscension. It requires a LOT of time and is extremely difficult to do on a regular room unless you know exactly what you're doing.
The trailers and teasers for Nazi Zombie maps and Dead Ops Arcade are pretty serious.
At the end of Black Ops after hearing a solemn quote from JFK, the game cuts away to JFK joking about said quote with Castro, Nixon, and McNamara just before the zombies attack.
Dead Ops Arcade takes the cake though. If the bleeptune music and the helicopter and tank power-ups weren't a big enough clue, maybe the spacesuit gorilla will tip you off.
"Maann, I wish we could trade Richoften for a hot chick. I'm getting lonely here..."
However, it's played straight in Call of The Dead, with Sarah Michelle Gellar being the only female.
And after completing Richtofen's Grand Scheme on Moon, Samantha Maxis becomes the the second female character playable in Zombies via a soul transfer with Richtofen.
Sociopathic Soldier: All of the speaking soldiers enjoy the slaughter far too much.
Those Wacky Nazis: Richtofen is a (possibly gay) mad doctor. His former buddy, Doctor Maxis, was much more level headed, though still a Nazi.
Actually, Group 935 is a world wide group and preceded the Nazi party. They simply decided to help the Nazis by giving them some of their Wonderweapon technology in exchange for funding.
What Could Have Been: Later averted, actually. Kino der Toten was the final World At War Zombies map, but by that time, Modern Warfare 2 was very close to release.
Xanatos Roulette: Richtofen used the group to help him find Samantha so he could switch bodies with her and gain control of the zombies.
Dr.Maxis had a counter Xanatos plan. Not only being hinted at still being alive, he had recordings instructing the party how to weaken Rictofen. That was the destruction of the Earth's atmosphere, essentially loosening Rictofen's control over the zombies on Earth
Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Moon's description makes it seem like it's the last map... Then Richtofen's Grand Scheme kicks in....
by Hayley Williams.
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