Editorials
[13 Days Of Horror] Day 3: Our Premature Evaluation Of The ‘Call Of Duty: Black Ops II’ Zombies Mode
Today we’re doing something we haven’t done before in our Premature Evaluation series by analyzing a mode within a game. Unless you count the horrors of futuristic warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops II isn’t a horror game. I prefer Treyarch’s half of the Call of Duty series for a number of reasons, the biggest being the fantastic Zombies modes. In World At War, it was a neat little bonus, something to keep you entertained after you finished the main story. Then Black Ops came along and nearly turned it into its own game — something I really think they should consider doing — and with Black Ops II, Treyarch is proving once again they aren’t out of ideas.
Head past the break for TJ and my evaluation of the mode, if you dare.
The Visuals
Adam: Visually, I can’t say I’m too excited about the game. The problem is, even though the Call of Duty franchise has never been a slouch in the visuals department, the games have been using the same engine since Modern Warfare, back in 2007.
TJ: Yeah I think it’s unfuckingbelievable they haven’t stepped up visually. I mean look at some of the games now and the engines they run on. I don’t want to feel like I’m playing an original Xbox game. The Call Of Duty franchise has made money than any other game in history, and they can’t ramp up the graphics? Theoretically every new Call Of Duty game should visually make me want to cry. Well, I still cry, but because I’m so saddened by the graphics.
Adam: I honestly thought they would have by now, though really, it’s not that surprising they haven’t. The games sell tens of millions of copies, and each installment has managed to consistently outsell the last. To Activision, this probably translates to “Obviously the gamers don’t care that our games look aged, so why should we spend the extra cash to develop a new engine?”
TJ: I totally see that point of view. I would however look at it as “Why wouldn’t I want to make the most beautiful looking games out there?” They apparently are only looking at it from a money standpoint. Which they have no shortage of.
The Gameplay
TJ: I felt like the gunplay in the original game didn’t feel right. Going from the regular game to zombies mode felt like a total downgrade. I’m almost curious if they did that on purpose to make you feel more threatened, and to make it feel more survival horror’esque. When I would play zombies I would wish it was easier to get headshots and kill zombies. And while I did wish that, if it was made easier in Black Ops 2 would it not feel the same?
Adam: I didn’t have the same problem with the shooting — it still feels polished and finely tuned like a Call of Duty game should, but at the same time it felt like they made it just a wee bit more difficult to fight. I like that. I think if you were able to mow down the undead hordes, it’d be less scary when you’re surrounded with now means of escape. I’m also a big fan of the weapon caches you need to interact with to get your new weapons. The element of unpredictability in not knowing what gun is going to come out is fun. You could get an awful, useless weapon, or one of the best weapons in the game.
Then, of course, there’s the new Custom Games feature, where you can create your own matches and tailor them to how you like to play. You can set it so only headshots kill, turn off special items — the possibilities are practically endless.
TJ: I like the idea of customizing your games, but I also hate it. I’m leaning way more towards keeping it completely out of the game. Take Halo’s Firefight Mode for example. In Halo 3: ODST you couldn’t really customize anything but what map you were on and the difficulty. But in Halo: Reach you could customize the shit out of it. Go online, play with a bunch of assholes who don’t care about working together. I hated it. I never wanted to play Firefight anymore. Whereas in ODST my friends and I played the hell out of Firefight. I think the addition may hurt my experience, so I’m not into it.
Adam: That’s why I only either play Firefight with friends or in the multiplayer playlist where it can’t be customized by the trolls that lurk over Xbox Live.
I don’t think letting us customize our experiences is going to hurt the game in any way. It’s just another way to make it our own, to play with it and have fun with the tools Treyarch has provided. Sure, there are going to be people who abuse it, but I won’t be anywhere near them, so I don’t care.
TJ: That’s true, maybe I’ll just keep it close. Friends only.
The Multiplayer
Adam: Now this is where it’s at. Call of Duty is all about the multiplayer, and the Zombies mode is no different. The classic and insanely addicting four-player cooperative Survival mode is back, but this time around Treyarch has added a brand spanking new Grief mode that adds an element of competition. In Grief, two teams of four fight to survive against the undead hordes with the sole mission of outlasting the other team. To do this, you’ll be able to grief the other players (you can’t shoot them, so you’ll have to get creative). Treyarch’s been mum on the details, but it sounds incredible.
TJ: Grief Mode sounds incredible. That’s something I feel a lot of multiplayers are lacking. Not Grief Mode in particular, but spicy new modes in general. But yes, I totally agree the regular multiplayer definitely shines above most others especially in Zombies Mode. I played quite a bit of Zombies by myself and god damn it it was a nightmare. It almost seems without all 4 players working ever so diligently together, you’re absolutely fudged.
Adam: I love fudge and I can appreciate a spicy multiplayer mode.
The last new mode is called Tranzit, and like Survival, it’s all about the co-op. In it, you and up to three comrades will try to clear the biggest zombie-infested world Treyarch has crafted for the Zombies mode so far. It sounds similar to Left 4 Dead, in that you’re working together to clear an area of monsters, and sprinkled about the maps are various defense points that must be cleared before your team can progress to the next level.
TJ: That sounds AWESOME. Sounds very tactical, almost how I would picture the FPS Walking Dead video game playing out. Which I am also very excited for.
Final Thoughts
Adam: I enjoyed the Zombie offerings from the previous two games, so I’m guaranteed to love this outing. With a campaign, the co-op Survival mode that I love, and the new competitive mode — Black Ops II’s Zombie mode is destined to be the greatest one yet. But seriously, Treyarch, hurry up and turn this into a standalone game.
TJ: Yeah enough messing around with REAL Call Of Duty games. Give us what we really want. I would gladly pay 60 bones for a full on crazy wicked awesome balls out Black Ops Zombies game. Almost every aspect of Zombies mode sounds good. So long as they stick someone to the track they have already been on, this should be incredible.
Missed a day? Check out the rest of the 13 Days of Horror:
Day 1: The 12 Best Weapons In Horror Games, Part 1
Day 2: The 12 Best Weapons In Horror Games, Part 2
Day 4: Why 2012 Has Been The Best (And Worst) Year For Horror
Day 5: 12 Horror Games To Look Forward To Next Year, Part 1
Day 6: 12 Horror Games To Look Forward To Next Year, Part 2
Day 7: Eight Games You Should Play This Halloween
Day 8: Dear Capcom, This Is What I Want In Resident Evil 7
Day 9: 12 Upcoming Zombie Games To Be Excited About, Part 1
Day 10: 12 Upcoming Zombie Games To Be Excited About, Part 2
Day 11: Why We Love Zombie Games
Day 11: Why We Love Zombie Games
Day 12: Comment To Win A Copy Of Resident Evil 6 And Other Awesome Swag
Day 13: Don’t Be Scared, It’s Just A Dead Pixels Halloween Podcast
Genre fans rejoiced this week as Peacock finally released a teaser trailer for the upcoming Crystal Lake TV series starring Linda Cardellini as horror’s favorite killer mommy. This sneak peek is actually the first footage of an official Friday the 13th project since the Platinum Dunes remake came out over 17 years ago, so it makes sense that we’re all incredibly hyped for this long-awaited prequel.
While we’ve since received more information about the show -including how all eight episodes will be released at the same time on October 15– fans wasted no time in speculating about the direction they think showrunner Brad Caleb Kane intends to take the franchise next. After all, Kane’s team is free to adapt elements from the entire Friday the 13th franchise, so it seems that anything goes at this point. That being said, I doubt we’ll be seeing young Jason depicted as a fun-sized killer with an affinity for hockey masks, as I’m of the opinion that the show is likely reaching back to the original actress behind Pamela Voorhees herself in order to fill out the prequel’s story.
You see, after sifting through behind-the-scenes interviews and plenty of special features from my own Friday the 13th collection on physical media, I learned that the late, great Betsy Palmer had come up with an elaborate backstory for Ms. Voorhees that was never properly explored in the films. She may have only accepted the iconic role because she needed money for a new car, with Palmer notoriously referring to Victor Miller’s original script as a “piece of shit”, but that didn’t stop her from taking her work seriously – and eventually even warming up to the now-iconic film.
Trained in the Stanislavski Method, an infamous system where actors use the “art of experiencing” to more realistically portray their characters, Palmer decided to build off of Miller’s script and make her own notes in order to characterize Pamela as a more complex and arguably sympathetic figure, even if only a fraction of her contributions would actually make it onscreen.
The only real information she found in the script concerned her character’s prominent class ring, and from there Palmer extrapolated an entire backstory where Pamela had a high school boyfriend during the 1940s that got her pregnant and then skipped town. This led to Pamela being forced to raise her child all on her own during a deeply conservative period in American history – another reason why the character is so bothered by the camp counselors’ promiscuity.
It was Tom Savini who first revealed to Palmer that Jason was going to be depicted as being disabled (an idea that wasn’t in the original screenplay), with this crucial addition making the actress realize that Ms. Voorhees was already overburdened even before the death of her son. The tragedy only pushed her over the edge as she became a puritanical vigilante attempting to shut down Camp Crystal Lake at any cost.
For Palmer, this means that “Camp Blood” never had any curse, as the multiple fires and poisoned water incidents that kept the camp from reopening before the summer of 1979 were merely part of Ms. Voorhees’ years-long vendetta against the property’s owners. Palmer also insisted that the killer in the sequels isn’t the original Jason, as he definitively drowned at the bottom of Crystal Lake. According to her, having Pamela’s child return even as a killer revenant would undo her entire character arc, meaning that the masked murderer who takes over her legacy must be someone or something else entirely!
CRYSTAL LAKE — (Photo by: Matt Infante/PEACOCK)
These ideas match up with most of what we’ve heard about Peacock and A24’s plans for the upcoming series, which is set to follow Linda Cardellini as Pamela after she gives up a career as a singer in order to take care of her disabled son, played by Callum Vinson. That’s why I wouldn’t be surprised if the writing team decided to borrow from the woman behind the machete in order to make the series more authentic to the source material.
Of course, there are rumors floating around that the show could also feature a teenage Jason in some capacity, so we’re still not sure about how exactly Kane and company plan to adapt their project to the franchise’s ever-changing mythology. That’s why I’d like to invite fellow readers to comment below with your own theories about where you think the prequel show is headed!
For now, I think it’s safe to say that Friday the 13th fans are more than ready to binge-watch Pamela’s bloody origin story when it finally drops this October. And who knows? Maybe the show’s success could finally lead to a new mainline film…
CRYSTAL LAKE — Pictured: Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees — (Photo by: Peacock)
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