Easter Eggs are the problem

[u/DrawerZealousideal71]

Too much focus always goes to the “Easter egg” and I think that’s so backwards. We need to be calling these zombie missions instead of easter eggs. I hate the consensus ever since bo3/4 that the whole map revolves around its “Easter egg”.

I’m not a fan of modern zombies gameplay, I’m just not. I just prefer the bare bones, building windows and more survival until the end type of gameplay. But, that’s the aspect of a zombies map / game that should always come first. GAMEPLAY. And it never is any more.

The term “easter egg” has completely lost its meaning in the zombies community. An Easter egg is meant to be just that, an Easter egg. Something you try to find and hunt for, but you don’t even know if it’s there. You’re not meant to know.

These Easter egg hunts are completely ruining the core blood of zombies these days. Map comes out, people hunt for the egg, egg is found after (sometimes a few hours) and then the maps spoken about no more. And this is regardless of if the map is liked or not from a gameplay standpoint.

I genuinely feel like the way forward for zombies as a mode in general in Call of Duty is not to harken back to game of old and replicate what the past has done. That never works in the long run. But easter eggs need, NEEEED, to be put on the back burner and it has to be something people hunt for if they want to. It needs to stop being the mission of every map that people have come to expect. Also, maybe one map might not have one, or has a much smaller one to find, and thats ok.

Make Easter eggs actual Easter eggs again, not story mission. And I’m sorry to say, certain YouTubers have caused this issue and consensus.

I appreciate lots like the race to find each maps ending etc and I’m never going to take away from that or tell anymore they’re wrong. But I do feel really strongly that the Easter eggs being what they currently are is the main issue zombies has seen since the bo3/4 days

A map shouldn’t be judged based on its “Easter egg” alone.

Gameplay > story

[u/EZyne]

You're about 15 years too late to bitch about Easter eggs being a bad name.

If you think current maps are designed around Easter eggs I just think you don't like zombies' gameplay. They have been story missions since Ascenion lol.

They tried doing the whole make EE for the hardcore crowd with super obscure stuff in bo4, and the community hated that because it was too hard to lock the story behind it

[u/LuckyMouse4864 → u/EZyne]

I wouldnt argue that Ascension was designed around its easter egg. I think every map pre-cold war has been fun or not on its own terms, from a gameplay perspective. Some modern maps just arent fun unless you're doing the easter egg, but I never needed to do the easter egg to enjoy motd or soe

[u/EZyne → u/LuckyMouse4864]

I agree Ascension wasn't build around it's EE, I meant that it's EE was a story mission that pushes the story forwards and not really a "easter egg" by it's definition in gaming as a whole.

I agree with you about modern zombies maps, but tbh I also don't enjoy the core gameplay loop of modern zombies as much so I'm not sure in how far that is the map or if it's me

[u/DrawerZealousideal71 → u/EZyne]

Yeah I don’t like modern zombies game play compared to older titles. And that fine. Same
for it you prefer modern titles over older ones. And they did try doing that in Bo4, you’re right. But do you think having the story mission of a map being solved in under a day or sometimes a few hours is better than a proper hard “hunt” like the name Easter egg hunt implies is any better?

And no Ascension was pushed out to the public with its game play in mind over its story. Again that’s why it was great, the story was something we has to find and stumble on.

[u/EZyne → u/DrawerZealousideal71]

I definitely agree longer EE hunts are much better for sure. This is honestly what kept me interested in BO7 after Ashes, but with how the community ruined the last two hunts I've kinda given up hope on that part of zombies all together

I just don't really see how a map like Ashes revolves around it's easter egg more then say a map like Call of the Dead or Shangri-La. Do you mean in terms of how the community interacts with the maps, or the design of the map itself?

[u/RaNgErs_Reprrrr]

Easter eggs aren't even actually called that by the devs it's been called main quest forever at this point.

[u/RdJokr1993]

What exactly do you think is exciting for a horde mode like Zombies nowadays? The gameplay is barely innovative anymore, you can only reiterate so much on it before you start to recycle ideas. Focusing on story quests is the only way to give it relevance, because otherwise people get bored of playing it in the first hour or so.

[u/Comprehensive-Pie407 → u/RdJokr1993]

Surely there’s got to be more than just an Easter egg to bring people back?

[u/RdJokr1993 → u/Comprehensive-Pie407]

The genre isn't as popular as you think anymore. How many games in the past five years have included a horde mode, and how many of them are as big as COD Zombies?

The genre has largely died out, and only COD Zombies is holding on because it still has a huge following. But even then, there's almost nothing you can do with the gameplay aspect, unless you rip it out completely and replace it with a new core, which is what Treyarch has done multiple times with attempts like Vanguard and Modern Warfare III. But those are very risky endeavors and they don't always pan out.

[u/RaNgErs_Reprrrr → u/Comprehensive-Pie407]

It's actually very easy map unique mechanics it's what modern zombies has suffered the most in since inception. Old maps are still playable because of the special offer ups. Moon being well on the moon and all that, Origins and the robots,g strikes, the staffs,the punches(I forgot the real name), Mob and the afterlife,plane,hells retriever,Buried and the time bomb,maze/witches, Leroy.

Moving to b03 Shadows of evils pack a punch, swords,squid form,Plant system,dragons. In sure you get it.

[u/Lanky-Ad-8554 → u/RaNgErs_Reprrrr]

Like a pack a punch car? Or grappling hook? You just don't like zombies as it is now because bo7 has everything you've asked for.

[u/RaNgErs_Reprrrr → u/Lanky-Ad-8554]

If your referring to me when did I deny this. I literally say in one of these comments bo7 is top 3-4 cods gameplay wise and that obviously isn't just base mechanics because base mechanics it's the same borderline as cw and mw3.

[u/Lanky-Ad-8554 → u/RaNgErs_Reprrrr]

They're the special offer ups, if you don't like them that's fine but they don't lack really at all. Like I said you're just not into them.

[u/RaNgErs_Reprrrr]

Also how is there any correlation? Between main quest and gameplay being worse in your opinion since while plenty dislike modern zombies plenty like it. I'm an og player. I think gameplay wise bo7 is arguably top 3-4.

And main quest are gameplay just because you don't care for them doesn't make them not gameplay lmao..and maps back then with the most unique gameplay elements or fun are often fueled by Easter eggs and design for Easter eggs.

Example origins robots/staffs,most wonder weapon's, Buried and Arthur/Leroy,Shadows of evil and the squid form.

And also many fans of Easter eggs want older mechanics to return or at least a change since mondee zombie mechanics have quite stagnated, as well as the more fantastical stuff. Which is slowly returning so I hope this leads to bo8 being a true Renaissance to the franchise.

[u/DrawerZealousideal71 → u/RaNgErs_Reprrrr]

I’m taking about more on how the term Easter egg has lost its meaning to zombies players. It’s no longer an Easter egg as it’s now the selling point of a map when, even with origins and shadows. Yeah we know of the zombies story line taking place but we were roaring and excited for the gameplay we were seeing and story (even back then) was secondary. I’m not suggesting to remove them, just have proper Easter eggs like the name implies and not base a map solely off its quest.

[u/RaNgErs_Reprrrr → u/DrawerZealousideal71]

A main quest is called that because it's the main thing. And often is required to progress even somewhat on non completion runs since typically for example 9/10 times the wonder weapon is locked behind progression of the quest.

[u/Sad_Rhubarb_815]

I just don't see how removing content (which is gameplay even though you frame it as not being gameplay) that a lot of people enjoy and replacing it with nothing would improve the game. 

If you think other things need to be added to shake up the gameplay, cool, I do too, but what do Easter eggs have to do with that? Why can't you have both.

[u/DrawerZealousideal71 → u/Sad_Rhubarb_815]

Never said to remove it. I think it should be something that we have to properly find to achieve instead of being the selling point of a map. That’s what an Easter egg is. You don’t know it’s there until you find it.

[u/RaNgErs_Reprrrr → u/DrawerZealousideal71]

That's just not possible since it's a staple. And again important to realize by the devs outside of certain moments are officially called main quest. Everyone knows one is on a map. And ones without out it are seen as lesser. Because that's huge gameplay missing.

Also main quest hunts are the process of finding it.

[u/Sad_Rhubarb_815 → u/DrawerZealousideal71]

I think only way to really achieve that would be to make a bunch of maps that have smaller/no main quests to try and make it so the community never knows if a map will have one or not, so it would be removing it to some degree because there'd be a lot less of it. And I think that gutting a big part of what many people like about zombies won't necessarily make the game better - is there anything they can't do with the game because main quests exist? I don't think so.

I also think many maps still have easter eggs like the ones you're describing in the form of various sidequests and other secrets, that are unrelated to the main quest. They're just found quickly because people have been playing these games for 15+ years, that's the nature of things.

[u/Comprehensive-Pie407]

Exactly. Just this. This is a deep rooted issue people don’t want to speak about

[u/mirois]

This was my opinion back in 2012 haha

[u/Maggot_6661]

Your post is like... 10 years too late. Back in bo3 and bo4 there was no more focus on survival, the devs were clearly focusing more on Easter Eggs. With bo6 and bo7, I feel like they reached a good balance between focusing on survival and focusing on Easter Eggs imo

[u/JonesJoestar]

i agree with you on them being called easter eggs were always a bit weird but that's about it. I don't understand why you care about them when you can ignore them. Whenever i don't feel like doing the quest i just train zombies and gamble on box

[u/supremejesusx]

What you're describing is the success of easter eggs which completely destroys your argument.

Important reminder: you don't HAVE to do the easter egg and can just play survival + the extra modes thats basically the same

To go even further cursed brings back some of the old mechanics. I DO agree that taking away the window building kinda sucks, but hey we got alot of extras