We all know that fake leaks when it comes to video games are about as common as pretention in a David Cage creation, but recent leaks regarding new Black Ops 4 Zombie maps appear more reliable than most. Coming from the recently deleted account of Reddit user CallofNobodyCares, these leaks details a map based around a Halloween style party attended by four player characters. Given this specific player count and the fact that Treyarch has promised zombie content with each DLC release, this seems a most likely candidate for the next zombie based map.
So what makes this leak believable? Before the deletion of his account, CallofNobodyCares claimed to be a QA tester who worked for Treyarch. While this is a common claim, it has been observed that many of CallofNobodyCares’ earlier predictions regarding undiscovered content was eventually confirmed to be correct.
As fans of the zombie game mode ourselves, this admittedly comes as a bit of a relief. While we do enjoy the Blackout mode, we were also really disappointed at the lack of a traditional singleplayer story mode in this latest Black Ops incarnation. At least with the zombie mode, we almost definitely have nothing to worry about. Why is this? Well, hear us out.
Zombie media used to be a niche just a few decades ago, but since then the topic has exploded into what could be considered a fundamental topic of a wide range of genres. First person shooters with the incredibly Left 4 Dead series (LFD3 when?), survival games with likes of State of Decay, bizarre and family-friendly strategy games like Plants Versus Zombies, and adventure games with The Walking Dead are only just the start.
Not just taking the leap from film to traditional video games, these have also proved incredibly popular in other forms like video slots online, board games, tabletop RPGs, comics, and novels, just to name a few. The appeal, as far as we can tell, is actually fairly simple.
When it comes to violence, at least in the general level of rhetoric, we like to think ourselves above it. Even when not true, we understand the need to appeal to compassion over the anger and hatred which violence represents. However, the moral portion of this is thrown out of the window when it comes to enemies without redeeming features. This is what made Nazis so popular a bad guy, and it is what makes zombies an ever more popular choice in the modern age – zombies are not full-fledged human beings, they only exist as instinct.
Zombie killing, simply put, is guilt-free violence. As graphics improve it becomes harder for the unfamiliar public to separate themselves from the increasing realism of what they see. Of course, as gamers, we all know that this is fake, that nobody is being hurt and that studies show no causal link between video game violence and real-life violence, but Johnny Public is not quite so informed.
Because of this, zombies are a rare case which has not only stood the test of time so far but which will undoubtedly prove an even more popular asset in gaming and media as a whole in the future. Giving us a way to mow down hordes of the undead works with us just fine.