I hate that we've gotten to the point where we need to explain this

Sadly people will keep buying these bundles, it baffles me people don't want a good zombies story again and only play it for leveling up weapons, and if you say anything like this, you get told off for clinging on to the past and get called a boomer

I truly believe the ‘soul’ of zombies left with Jason Blundell. We’re never going to see a Mob of the Dead or Origins again 😢

I think one of the biggest reasons zombies is doing so much worse is that they merged Black Ops with Modern Warfare. Mixing both universes muddles the zombies storyline.

WW2 had a set crew and unlockable operators, and now, with Operators the maps have been lacking as well they just been military bases

Honestly this is pretty much true, with the OG characters like the Primus,Ultimus or even the Transit crew the story was perfect and suited the zombies mode very well since it was telling the story that THEY were going through but nowadays you got people like Nicki Minaj,Home lander and even Snoop Dogg in the zombies modes and it just makes no sense! Samantha gets a pass she was literally the one sending the zombies after the OG crew after all 😅

I Completely agree. Zombies now feels soulless... You don't get connected to the characters, the story or the game like we used to back the day. Treyarch has definitely sold out and it's a shame that's their games now are pay to win but also you have the most ridiculous characters like Snoop dogg, Nicki Minaj and now Cheech and Chong... It's just very sad and we are now living in the dark days of Call of Duty. Us fans can only hope that Treyarch gets their heads out of their asses and put the soul back into zombies! Fingers crossed that the Call of Duty Gulf War/BO5 gives us round-based zombies and the soul of the game back

Definitely did, COD in general, i miss the gritty vibe of realistic warfare. at least we still have real guns (with fake names)

Not to mention it made in game wall weapons and the box completely irrelevant.

They sell you operators and pay less for voice actors, cause there’s no story to tell. It’s always about the money

If they want to give zombies players skins, they should give us a set cast of characters and if they want to, give us the choice to customize the character we play as

I swear operators destroyed zombies please Treyarch bring back a set crew 😞

I lowkey hate the crafting bench as well, it ruins the survival aspect of the mode and make it feel like you have a nearby army backing you up😔

Ever since Cold War I’ve held the opinion that the Zombies story ended in BO4. Tag der Toten and it’s ending were controversial, sure. But at least it felt conclusive. And having Victis banished to the Dark Aether rather than outright killed opened up the possibility of that crew becoming more than just Richtofen’s errand boys (and errand girl) if the story were to be continued. Also, no matter what people say, I think we were absolutely ROBBED when Cold War didn’t continue the Chaos story. I understand that it wasn’t what people were used to, but it had so much potential that we’ll never get to see.

If operators are still gonna exist in Zombies, which hey.. they most likely will, sadly... we need an option for a "Story Mode" when selecting a map. This being a mode with set characters / cast like old times. With that being the default way to play. Then also have a "free mode" option where you can play with any operator like in BOCW so you can use your soulless characters there. Probably won't happen but it would be neat. Great vid, BOA. I agree with you.

A set crew is hella better then the operators i want a crew again its better

I don't mind operators in zombies if it's like a select few characters. Like 6-8 or something, if it's a mission/zombies map where you're supposed to be a random soldier or scientist or something. But your selection is still limited. You can't play as the shadowman in campaign or Cardi B in zombies. I think a cool thing they could do is grindable outfits and unlockable voice lines and items for the set characters. Instead of the current operator system.

Honestly, for Gulf War Zombies we hope to have a playable crew

I really Hope anybody from treyarch sees this 🙏

Neal McDonough is an American actor who played Buck Compton in Band of Brothers, Dugan in Captain America the First Avenger, Flash and Damien Wayne in Injustice, and Jacky Vincent in BO3. He is an awesome actor, and one of my favorites.

I play WW2 zombies as I started playing WW2 zombies and I can say, WW2 is operator free!

I wouldn't mind the operators being in multiplayer, but in zombies? We should've gotten a set of 4 characters that's attached to the zombies storyline in cold war like Weaver, Carver, etc. Not any ding dang person you want

Scott Menville is my favorite celeb voice actor in zombies. I remember watching Teen Titans after school and then playing Tranzit at my uncle's house and going, "hey, I know that guy!"

It’s literally became a shell of its former self and I don’t say that often!!

I agree but I feel like the maps/gameplay getting worse and the addition of outbreak played a bigger part in the downfall then the addition of operators.

Call of Duty's approach to Zombies storytelling seems to be this, instead of relating to characters you are presented with, they give you faceless characters that you can imprint on. I think there's a balance that can be achieved if they play it right. Give players the option to use operators, and give a set cast that is integral to the story. Present players with 4 main characters that you and your party can choose from, then have operators that function how they do now. Something like this where Activision can make their money and also give us compelling stories.

I love how in all of your background gameplay, whenever you use the SPAS, you always have that Duckbill choke equipped. Very nice continuity 👌

Yep. I hate this SO MUCH. I love playing as Price, its my favorite character of all time - he just doesn't belong in Zombies. unless you make an actual zombies story line with the MW2/3 cast. like they did with Nikolai, Dempsey, Takeo and Richtofen, all being from World at War. I would absolutely not mind that. just let it be a proper story , not pink suited guy kills zombies.

Man, i hope cod 2024 is good or we're cooked

Operators have been in CoD since BO3 as specialists

The first time anything 'operators' were introduced was probably the specialists in multiplayer in bo3

I miss when developers actually put effort into games to the point we’re you felt like you were part of the story

I really hope gulf war has a set crew Idc who they are, I just want to see them again

An easy fix is to make a set of 4 canon characters. You have to play as them to get special quotes and cutscenes. You can play with operators but you won’t get the extra story details and its just for fun

Great video. I've been talking to my brother recently too about how dumb the cutscenes are when you can play as Samantha or Weaver. We really need Operators to stay in Multiplayer and return to having a cast of 4 for Zombies.

Give it that the extraction mechanic will return in the next game, I'm sure operators will return as well. And it sucks.

I'd just have you customize your character sure but doesn't specify the change of your character and you can make your own backstory and leads to sum different

"Thoughtful conversations between characters" yeah I really love when Dempsey says "take that zombags" its very insightful. Thoughtful conversations never happened in gameplay

Its definitely the worst part of recent zombies, I dont know why they don't just have a seperate bundle category Which gives you new skins for the individual zombie cast, like if it was the OG cast: Zombie Richtofen skin Takeo anime enthusiast skin Dempsey uncle Sam skin Nikolai vodka skin (where he has an ammo belt filled with vodka bottles) Endless ideas, and its still our main cast, but they just look stupid/cool

I mean I didn't really like CW that much, but for me the lack of set characters was really not much of a concern for me, like there were bigger issues for me and operators seemed like such a small thing, but ngl by the end of the video I'm starting to see what you mean.

Wow..I forgot about operators. I am worried they might return in gulf war.

All they need to do to fix this is have a set cast of operators that are THE characters for the map and give them the quotes you ordinarily would give to the cast and then allow people to play as others if they want.

What if they made all the operators a celebrity cast in the next CoD? I’d love to play as Jeff Goldblum in Black Ops 6.

Tbh I think they should have both. I saw somewhere someone said you should be able to play as whoever in outbreak mode and then a dedicated cast in round based. Whatever they wanna do is fine with me but i shouldn't have to reset the game 15 times to play as Dempsey. WW2 at least had a character select screen.

I feel like they should have a story and custom modes into zombies to where the story is based on specific characters, more lines, and more story based. Meanwhile custom you can use anyone, even the specific characters if you want while it's more gameplay based and being able to show your stuff (skins).

All they have to do if they don't want to get rid of their microtransactions is to just leave the operators to the open world modes like mwz and warzone and keep them out of the round based, lore-filled, easter egg, story zombies. Until that happens, i'll just keep playing black ops 3 and 4 with all the dlc's and zombie chronicles.

WW2 Zombies did "operators" perfectly.

I loved the idea of lore being in radios and you need to hold that ground down to get the info either by training a single zombie or shooting

Well presented argument. Thanks for making this video!

I can agree with this and I think they could remedied both sides for future games where you can choose to play as operators in a "Customized" zombies game mode and only stick with a set cast of characters in "Normal play" Custom game modes should play like regular zombies maps but without the objectives and instead focuses on challenges you can take to increase your level or whatnot. There can be a story implication via quotes, radios or intels as to why operators are there and that is because they are a clean up crew that eventually perishes before the set cast of characters arrive or leave. Normal play game mode makes you stuck with a set cast of characters and you can do the easter egg steps and all normally like zombies. Just my idea to try and appeal both sides.

they sold out after the original storyline was ended RIP Richtofen/Dempsey/Nikolai/Takeo

When Operator Model No. 372 said "undead down" it truly made me shiver in me Timbers

Round zombies was the best. Haven’t touched zombies since Cold War

I personally was never that into the Zombies story itself, but I've got thousands of hours in it because of the gameplay. But I understand that for people who care about the story, the characters basically lose depth in exchange for quantity when you bring in operators to the picture.

You nailed it here

Sad to see what this once beautiful story has turned to all great things come to an end and I saw it coming after bo3

I feel the best compromise would be a select squad with alternate outfits being sold as “operators”. That way the quotes and conversations can exist and they can earn their buck selling cool outfits

The title alone crushed my heart. Thank you for this video, BOA!

It would be nice to have some middle ground like some operators actually made for the mode that have dialog and stuff tied to the story but if you want to just goof around you can still use other multiplayer operatives that won’t have any in-depth voice lines kinda like WW2 zombies

Love your video BOA and keep up the great work you are awesome

The amount of money I spend each year rebuying the classics at full price on Steam is exorbitant. They forget if they just smashed it out of the park and ignored the short term gains, they would probably earn a whole lot more. Wish they just kept the modes separate and told a great story.

Me and my homie still boot up the xbox 360 to play bo1 zombies on kino about once a week. Goated. Something about bo1 maps that i love even more than bo2

I'm running around zombies as a Raptor and it's the greatest thing ever till I can dress up as a ninja turtle

Operators need to go for zombies. No exceptions.

I am genuinely heartbroken that it’s just not the same anymore

Biggest thing for me is weapon upgrading, get rid of tiers. Ruins the point of the box and wall buys, PAP should be the only upgrade

I know this is a zombies video but operators in MP also make recognizing the enemy in game harder because most people aren't gunna remember which operator works for which faction whilst in old CoD titles, you see a dude dressed in red camo and you immediately know it's the enemy.

I thought for sure youd have a problem with gobblegums but you lead with operators lol

WW2 started the Hero triend for zombies, being able to select the character I am playing as is great but I still wish it was limited to characters that could exist in the map itself

I genuinely miss what we had with CHARACTERS in zombies. They had HEART, they had SOUL, they made the otherwise dark and grim atmosphere of zombies seem that much BRIGHTER-like soldiers in battle telling jokes to distract from the hell around them. That is what great actors bring to the table, and that is exactly what we're missing with this new operator system. They're not characters with thoughts, opinions, and backstories that comment on the world around them; they're shallow husks with no soul and no voice. They're NPCs. That's why I don't touch Call of Duty anymore. They've whittled down all the charm and character appeal into a soulless, monetary cash-grab.

Technically speaking, they could say the victus crew ends up in the dark eather in every timeline they survived, and bringing them out as the first map and the other maps use them. But that wouldn't happen since Activision likes to ruin the fan base, unlike treyarch.

Advanced warfare was first to implement operators, allowing you to customize your own. Black ops 3 was first to introduce the whole operators thing, as in different choices of characters to play in multiplayer. However at the time they were called specialists.

Nolan North is an amazing voice actor Steve Blum is hence the Guinness world record for most prolific voice actor in video games

I dont mind character skins as long as they are earnable , dont ruin the realism/tone/theme and arnt attached to bundles. For example lets say that one of the playable set characters is a soldier you can unlock different variations of their outfit/skin for example they could be in full gear with no helmet another skin could be them in less gear with their helmet on.

They could solve this issuer by having both a set Crew and having the option to play as other operators as well

They could easily sell hundreds of bundles with custom versions of 4 set cast members, especially the ones we already know and love

Did you reupload this?

Sker ritual is all I play for round based zombies... its awesome.

Remember getting to play as David Hasselhoff in Zombies in Spaceland? Elvira in Attack of the Radioactive Thing? Pepperidge farm remembers.

"I feel like a dirty Capitalist." "Very good, American, you may sniff my vodka." "Stay away from my Vodka!" VS "Zombie EKIA"

So happy I didn’t fall for vanguard 2.0 like a lot of other people, who ever seen that showcase and had hope for zombies hopefully came away more knowledgeable.

"They're only there because they want you to spend more money" yeah I'm sorry bro but this all started with the introduction of gobblegums

If they bring back survival maps that are like greenrun survival or grief, operators would be great for them, but story maps should have a set cast

I feel like if they gave us cast characters but made the maps buyable dlc again thatd be a fair trade off for taking away incentive to buy bundles

I think they can do bundles for zombie if they make it so that the charecter like a helmet or armored change but not a new charecter all to gethere.

Yeah I'm not gonna play a zombies game with operators. I do not care for generic alpha strike force delta operators. Edit, not just zombies games, I haven't bothered with BF 2042 due to operators.

I also hope get classic point system aswell

i still say ww2 did the operator perfect where it was a challenge to get them, but same time I don't mind what they did because in story they had to connect the main story to zombies and its makes sense in at least mwz especially after finding zombies in warzone story

They need to make operators for outbreak only while a pre set crew is in round based so it can make more sense narratively and make characters they want us to know be interesting

What if we just do something like how most base operators have multiple different skins and you can change those, so you have select Zombies characters that have cosmetics. So you could pick (for example) Richthofen, but then select one of a dozen different skins for Richthofen. Has no effect on the story, character or anything other than the gameplay itself.

Started at WaW, stopped at black ops 3. After BO3 the series became dull and boring to me, BO4 was a let down, advanced and infinite warfare too. Ghosts was decent. I haven't bought a CoD in years now. I just really miss BO1, BO2, and BO3. I don't understand how they had such a good streak of games only to end up where they are now. It's just upsetting to think about. 11:15 People forget that Zombies was just a bonus gamemode the developers of WaW made for fun after you beat the campaign, it should never have left that team, now it's just a profitable money farm.

They’re definitely going to have operators again, but to get the best of both worlds, they should have a casual operators zombie mode, and then a zombies story/easter egg mode

I think black ops 3 was the first game with operators. “Specialists” they were called. Way before ww2 and mw19

I've been saying this SINCE CW's release. Operators dull the story to detrimental points. I haven't cared about a zombies story or any characters since CW. Before that, there were TONS of characters and stories I LOVED and cherished. Good to see others speak out about it! I truly feel there's ways to sell bundles AND have casts. Allow people to buy bundles FOR the characters/cast. Obviously, in the end, I'd just like a non-customizable cast, since it will help the tone stay true to the story, BUT, if they REEEEALLLYYY want bundles and customization...then this is a way they can go. Although, then turn off the option to see them for others who want that pure experience. Great video! :) EDIT: and yeah, the character quotes, things we'd learn about our characters, their pasts, the worlds past, just funny stuff, all of that was magical. And just having that cast to care about and follow through this journey. I don't care about ANY of the SIDE characters in CW to MWZ, because that's all they are in those zombies games. Side characters to...nothing-ness.

Operators is good for Zombies cause you can go in as whoever you want but the problem is that we don't have zombie specific operators like just have a main set of 4 characters but if no one is playing one of the crew members then they will speak their lines through the radio and still appear through the cutscenes but also allow us to go in as Russman and shit and do silly ass emotes. personally i want the story back but i also wanna play as Homelander with my friends playing as Spawn and shit.

Ops started in ghosts if im not mistaken right?

I agree with the set characters idc if i spent 500$ on a skin theres a reason why you dont use your operator in campaigns

I also cried a bit when I saw richtofens death shit was sad af the eay he was left behind and he says "you won't even remember me" he's my favorite character in fiction and I been playing since bo1 kino when I was 8 i think i was 16 at the time of his death im 21 now sad the way activision killing this franchise with its greed

The only hope I have with operators vs set crew is that... I believe it would be MORE beneficial financially for them to create bundles WITH a set crew of characters. If we had the bundle system in BO3, I KNOW people would be dishes out some real cash for Richtofen skins and alternate Primis skins. Imagine a "great war" bundle with all the great war version of our crew. It is very possible we can have both, I just hope the developers see that :/

I tottaly agree. I miss the whole vibe the old cod zombies mode offered.