Summary
The expectations aroundCall of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Zombies mode are very high, with Treyarch having worked on this latest iteration of the fan-favorite experience for four years. Treyarch has also been very vocal about how the mode is aiming to return to the roots of the franchise, with the reintroduction of round-based Zombies being one of the most talked-about aspects of the upcoming release.
While a lot of information was already available aroundCall of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Zombies, especially surrounding the map Terminus, the recentCall of DutyNext event finally shed more light onBO6’s other launch experience. Of what little fans previously knew about the Liberty Falls map, the fact that it featured generic multiplayer operators seemed like a real dampener onBlack Ops 6’s return to tradition, especially with Terminus boasting a fresh cast of dedicated Zombies characters. While this still might impact the storytelling aspect of Liberty Falls to a degree, the recently released cinematic for the map confirmed that some iconic Zombies characters will still have a hand in the feel and gameplay of the map, making this red flag a little more green.
Samantha and Richtofen Are at the Forefront of Black Ops 6’s Liberty Falls Map
Treyarch fully introduced Liberty Falls to excited fans ofBlack Ops 6with a bang on August 23, releasing an impressively animated cinematic that set up the narrative of the map. It has been confirmed that Liberty Falls will take place at the exact same time asBlack Ops 6’s other launch map, Terminus, offering a very different experience in terms of its gameplay and explored themes.
One of the largest sticking points surrounding Liberty Falls from the very outset of its announcement concerned how the map will not feature a dedicated cast of Zombies characters that players can embody. Of course, withthe newBlack Ops 6Zombies castof Weaver, Grey, Carver, and Aguinaldo featuring in Terminus, it would not make sense for them to also appear in the simultaneously-ocurring Liberty Falls.
Instead, Liberty Falls is reverting to the controversial recent Zombies practice of using generic multiplayer-style operators for its character selection, a tactic that drew a lot of criticism in recent games likeModern Warfare 3. Treyarch made a point of stressing howBlack Ops 6Zombies would be defined by the franchise’s pastin areas like the dedicated Zombies characters, and it initially seemed that Liberty Falls would lose out on a lot of storytelling ability due to its vague and silent playable characters.
While the presence of Richtofen and Samantha may help compensate for the use of Specialists in Liberty Falls, the community has other issues with the map after Call of Duty Next that Treyarch may have to address, like its lack of a Zombies aesthetic and overabundance of wide-open training areas.
Liberty Falls Will Continue a Feud That Began in Call of Duty: World at War
Treyarch has done a lot to alleviate these concerns with the official cinematic for Liberty Falls, however, showing that the quiet town of Liberty Falls is home to top-secret testing facilities, withiconic Zombies character Edward Richtofenat the helm. The cinematic also confirmed that Samantha, another longstanding character in the wider Zombies lore, is contained in an elaborate sphere in Liberty Falls' underground bunkers, with Samantha somehow breaking containment and plunging the town into zombified chaos.
Samantha takes Richtofen into another dimension by force at the end of the trailer, setting up players to take control of a response team primarily tasked with clearing Liberty Falls of the zombie threat. While the standard operator characters of Liberty Falls may not have the same level of conversations and personalities as Terminus' main Zombies quartet, the cinematic for the map has thankfully cleared up where its storytelling ability lies. WithRichtofen and Samantha being such integral characters to Zombies loredating back to 2008, their clear ties to Liberty Falls should more than compensate for the lack of narrative utility that the playable characters of the map will possess. While fans were not happy to be guided by campaign figures like Kravchenko inBlack Ops Cold War, Samantha and Richtofen potentially being involved in Liberty Falls' main quest should result in a much more exciting version ofCold War’s Operator formula.
