Exo-Zombies: The New "Zombies"?

Die-hard fans have given Treyarch’s Zombies mode the crown as the number 1 undead FPS with both a fascinating solo and coop experience for any gamer. Anyone could load up their disc and start slaying meatsacks, spending anywhere from a few minutes to even a few days of uninterrupted gameplay. It seemed as if nobody could compete with Treyarch’s creation.

Until now.

After Treyarch released Black Ops II, Zombies fans were yearning for more during their wait for Treyarch’s next product. From the ashes and dust came Sledgehammer with their own concept of the zombies to change the undead game. Exo-Zombies was born as a DLC release in its first mode “Outbreak”. The mode was promising enough: an alternate version of what happened when Atlas - the antagonist company of the campaign - dropped the DNA bomb. Everything became desolated, and Atlas’s secret biological experiment of mutated corpses rose from the dead and overran one of the facilities. All that was left was a group of rag-tag survivors that have yet to uncover the horrifying secrets of the undead project.

With the inclusion of "Outbreak" and the newest map "Infection", exo-zombies run rampage over desolated areas infested with more than just the undead. The modes force players in creating survival strategies to endure the endless waves of different zombie variants alongside completing objectives such as an Easter Egg to uncover the secrets of the lore or escorting survivors out to safety. New and common weapons were introduced as well with a large upgrade system to let the slaying fun keep on goin'.

Players, however, have found several issues while encountering this new mode. The biggest pet peeve came about when slayers realized a pause option was not included into the mode. Additionally, many felt the Easter Egg award was not worth the hassle of actually completing the hidden steps. Loyal Treyarch fans also pinned down Exo-Zombies, claiming that Sledgehammer had an entire dev cycle to make their first map a greater challenge than Treyarch’s past maps and such a small mode like “Outbreak” was a slap to the community’s face.

Update: Due to several comments about the lack of a pause option, Sledgehammer announced the fix in a recent update to accommodate the problem. Now that’s a community-driven developer!

But enough of what I have to blab about, what do other players in our community say about Exo-Zombies compared to Zombies?

“I do believe that exo-zombies has a bright future though and expect dramatic improvements come the next map. I am impressed enough with it to continue investing in it throughout the season.” - DeathBringerZen

“I have certainly enjoyed playing Sledgehammer's new Exo-Zombies mode in Advanced Warfare.  It is frantic, fast paced, and still rather addicting...The speed is great, but unfortunately, pretty much everything else in the game Treyarch's version does better in my opinion...While it is fun, I still have to say Treyarch zombies beats out Exo-Zombies in every way except for the speed and flow of the games.” - the_clay_bird

“I like the idea behind it and the exo abilities it supplied, I think it lacked imagination in the map, upgrades (extremely poor power on upgraded weapons)...It's similar in principle to Treyarch zombies but it's not and rightly so.

It needs to be it's own mode but it needs to hook people, I think it fails in this aspect, make better use of the exo abilities and jump up buildings and ledges for example.” - Hells Warrrior

“All in all I think it's doing FANTASTIC for it's first map. Even better then ghost's extinction. (Which isn't that hard) But, the BIGGEST reason I love this new mode is that it gives treyarch a whole other year to produce their game, but still gives us the easter egg hunting prowess we love! Now we get zombies hype for a whole 2 DLC seasons! DOUBLE the hype and DOUBLE the fun! WOO!” - Stop mocking me0

Either way you look at it, Sledgehammer has brought upon the CoD community a new twist of a beloved game mode. With 2 expected DLCs left to flesh out Exo-Zombies mode, will it be able to compete with what Treyarch has in store for us this November of 2015? Only time [travel] will tell.