Related Sections: Shooters
Call of Duty Nazi Zombies review
Left 4 Dead is the part of the zombie apocalypse when the compound has been overrun and the protagonists have to flee for the chopper. It's fast, frantic, desperate. But what about before Left 4 Dead? What about the siege part of the zombie apocalypse, where the survivors decide it's best to hole up and wait for help? That's where Call of Duty: World at War comes in. I'm pleasantly surprised to discover that neither game supplants the other. They both have a definite affection for the zombie mythology, and they both work wonders capturing different parts of the story.
Unfortunately, most of World at War is a middling WWII shooter. But after you slog through it, you unlock a mode called "Nacht der Untoden", or whatever German is for "Night of the Undead" (I'm pretty sure I'm close). This mode takes place entirely in a single house as waves of increasingly numerous and aggressive zombies shuffle up to eat your brain. You simply stave them off with WWII weapons since this is, after all, a period piece. You can never leave the house, but there are a few windows that you can board up to slow the slowly approaching zombies. (Note that boarding up windows earns you money. I had played through several times figuring it was costing me money because, well, lumber doesn't exactly grow on trees.)
The house starts out as a single room where you can purchase a couple of marginally useful rifles. As you earn your zombie killing bounty, there are doors and barricades you can pay to open, which will mean there are more windows to defend. But the upshot is that expanding into other rooms will let you buy better weapons, such as the machine gun in the room near the main entrance and the shotgun upstairs. The extra firepower will be worth it as the zombie come in more difficult waves. And I've heard - although I'm not good enough to have discovered it yet - that there's a basement where you can get a flamethrower if you get a lucky die roll.
What the Nazi Zombies mode captures so beautifully - and what's almost entirely missing from Left 4 Dead, which owes more to Serious Sam than George Romero - is the slowly escalating tension, the feeling of dread, and the inevitability of your own death. These are the emotions that drove the early classic zombie stories, and it's nice to have a game that captures a feeling often lost in the post-28 Days Later "fast zombie" mythology.
By Sepiche at 1:04 PM ON 11/21/08
I agree with you to a point Tom, but the final defense levels in each of the L4D campaigns undercuts your point slightly. Certainly not as elaborate as what World at War offers, but those levels are I think Valves nod to Night of the Living dead style farm house defense.
The increasing tension and chaos of holding back the horde just long enough to climb on board some means of escape is fantastic.
By AGoodOleScreenname at 10:20 PM ON 11/22/08
Its an ok review, but saying you have yet to reach the box with the flamethrower is sad. That is the most important room in the game, and it holds many guns, along with the ray gun, which you have forgot to mention, if you have even heard of it! Seeing as you have really failed to fully try the mode, you review seems kind of unqualified.
By thwidra at 11:13 AM ON 11/23/08
"Night of the Undead" is "Nacht der Untoten" in German. So yes, you are very close. ;-)
By Misery at 4:06 AM ON 11/24/08
I think this is a great review. You don't have to make it to the mystery box to appreciate the game type AGoodOleScreenname. Mmmmm... Macho Gamer! *grunts* Puh-leese.
I have yet to make it through the new CoD game, but my man has made it through, and I must say battling zombies is a great way to blow off some steam. You do start panicing a bit when you realize you're cornered, you ran out of amo, insta kill ends in 1, and two of your teamies are in need of revivin'! Loads of fun though!
By COD5 at 8:18 AM ON 11/24/08
over all i would say that this review, though not thorough in the knowledge of the game does capture the dramatic idea that the game has. it can be both tense and exciting at the same time while still blowing you away every time a zombie gets a nice shot to the head. the tense atmosphere as u progress is wat makes the game most enjoyable, u accidently bac into a zombie and hav to react quickly to kill it befor it kills u, or when u think your over run but right as they start piling in on u a team mate gets that all needed nuke or insta kill and saves the day. good review good game good times
By BloodySlayer44 at 7:59 PM ON 11/25/08
Nazi is fun and all, but I only know only of 3 rooms: the first, the upstairs, and the room with the ? box under the upstairs... no basement, how do u get 2 it
By iNFERNO at 12:41 AM ON 11/26/08
I went through CoDWaW in 1 sitting... by the time i was done with it it was about 1am. (Started at about 6pm... yeah too much time on my hands..) Point is, I was going through some russian part when I thought to myself.. meh, im running around stabbing everything and Im usually half frightened to death to go on (F.E.A.R., BioShock, etc). I have a surround system and a 30" Widescreen LCD, you have no idea how much like a little girl I was scared, when the zombie mode started...
By fairyprincess at 6:23 PM ON 11/26/08
My friend and i just got up to level 22..rumor has it that the creators of the game only got up to 23 but idk..i think the best way to do is..levels 1-6 in first room 6-11 in the ?box room and original..and then after 11 u go upstairs and pray to god u have the ray gun
By randomguy at 7:18 PM ON 12/03/08
lumber does grow on trees because lumber is what trees are made of lol
By Tom Chick at 12:18 AM ON 12/04/08
Randomguy, congratulations, you are the winner of this week's "I Got the Joke" Award! :)
By SmokeKingGun at 2:29 PM ON 12/08/08
I hardly ever play normal MP on CODWAW now after really getting into the zombies mod.
I find its easier defending the bottom of the stairs in the help room that it is the basement door.
The tacs I mainly use is get to around 3000 points and keep the bottom help romm door *closed* we all go upstairs and down into the helproom clearing both barricades on the stairs.
Here one person has to stay in hroom covering wall/windows. The rest of the 3 go upstairs and keep it boarded up until level 10.
Then we have 3 at bottom of stairs huddled close together with ppl at front crounching. This keeps the zombies in nice straight lines and its very easy to get headshots. The stairs can be held by 2 ray guns alternatively firing (covering reloads) and then the spare guy can help cover windows/wall. Mg's are also good at bottom of stairs, if the 2 are getting overun at bottom the spare guy would stand by the wall repairing constantly and giving covering fire on the stairs.
Few other tricks.
Leave a straggler zombie at end of round it will give you more time to try mystery box, either leave a crawler or leave a zombie at a barrier (constantly repairing)
Early rounds lets them in close either knifeing or at least get points on rebuilding barriers (more points for mystery box)
You dont need to be faceing barrier to rebuild and get in habit of contantly rebuilding when shooting.
Swap your handgun in the mystery box or atleast get a thompson as secondary(a rgun with mg as secondary weapon would be good, 2 rguns even better)
By Henderson42 at 12:46 AM ON 12/29/08
Good Guns
Magnum
M1A1 Carbine
Kar98k
M1918 Browing
MG42
M1897 Trench Gun
Double-Barrel Shotgun
Thompson
Ray Gun( oh..yeah)
Flamethrower(yes their is one)
Panzershreck
BAR
Greandes( of course)
Knife(2-3 shots though)
By crispybear5 at 11:53 AM ON 12/30/08
call of duty meets resident evil
By gini at 11:23 AM ON 01/04/09
How do you get the flamethrower?
The second room?
By SNAKE8EATER at 12:54 PM ON 01/17/09
sorry... but the flamethrower pretty much blows... it takes forever to kill zombies and i've seen the the flames glitch and not burn out... raygun and browning all the way...
my strategy is room 1 till round 4-6... mystery box room 6-8... upstairs towards the farthest window from the steps...
one person watches the window and the other stands on the opposite wall, all the zombies will funnel down that hallway...
By :D at 9:24 AM ON 01/18/09
Do not insult Left 4 Dead. DO NOT!
By Zach at 10:17 PM ON 01/19/09
How do you get upstairs? I've heard people talking about it as a glitch, but normally the stairs are blocked by rubble. Did they put n a patch to change that? Am I missing something?
By Zach at 11:07 PM ON 01/19/09
Nevermind, I didn't realize you could buy the couches out of the way.
By Emily at 5:14 PM ON 01/20/09
I have only played a couple times, but what is the best strategy?
By samuel at 9:55 PM ON 01/21/09
its a great mini game and nice review but henderson-what is a kife gun?
By brandon at 2:12 AM ON 01/28/09
It's not entirely WWII period guns. There's a ray gun in the most important and probably the first room you unlock. you didn't play it enough to judge.
By Didd at 6:30 AM ON 01/30/09
HEY NOOOBS ILL STAB U ALL OR ATTACVK U WTH THE RAY GUN U FUCING NOOB!!!!!!!
By zombiebait at 11:08 PM ON 02/02/09
Honor requires that I admit that I've played with my gf (who is reasonably competent at CoD shooting, though she screams annoyingly when the zombified SS and Wehrmacht troops get close) at least 20 times and we can only get to level 6.
I've never found the raygun, but the flamethrower once or twice. Havign flaming zombies come at you is not helpful, it takes ~3 sec for them to die.
M1919, BAR, StG44 etc (the fullautos) are the best I've seen so far.
By GlennPearl at 1:13 PM ON 02/08/09
I am having a ball with this game at have only got to level 19 with help. My question, I want to play with four at home, without being on line, is that possible/ I can do this online, but can't seem to figure out how to do it without being on line.
By Jake Mag at 1:52 AM ON 02/17/09
heeeeeyy how the hell do you play the nazi zombie game online?? anybody got any advice that would be greeaaatt thanks
By bumwipper44566 at 11:21 AM ON 02/19/09
it doesnt have it on wii im annoyed
By Trivio at 3:12 PM ON 02/20/09
my tactics
i played with a friend of mine we reached wave 23
best guns around flamethrowe and raygun
raygun is very very good at high waves
only opent he door and the stars in the rom with the mystery box
and dont open the stairs in the first room
greetz
By up urs at 12:37 PM ON 02/23/09
okki every1 beat this i got 2 level 21,,,,, beat that, wait tilll u have the flame thrower and a massive machine gun,,,, the zzombies dont have a chance :D
By nerer at 8:53 AM ON 03/20/09
ive gone trough call of duty world at watr and nothing......i finished the okinawa castle, the credits apeared and nothing happened...have i done something wrong?¿?¿
By Mr Goth at 6:57 AM ON 04/03/09
Left 4 Dead is a adreneline rush thrill train. Thats good and all but nazi zombies delivers an experiance that l4d just cannot deliver.
By sweeeny at 8:13 PM ON 04/05/09
Can anyone tell me how many levels their actually is? and is there any secret rooms???
sweeeny:
Can anyone tell me how many levels their actually is? and is there any secret rooms???...More »