Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies' Directed Mode Has Proven…

A lot of the initial praise around Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's Zombies was centered around how the mode focused on a return to tradition, with Treyarch winning a lot of fans over with a focus on things like round-based maps and a core cast of narrative characters. While it is clear that Black Ops 6 Zombies found a lot of success through this approach, the popular survival mode has still introduced many new and ambitious features that set it apart from any previous Zombies iteration.

One of the most pressing changes that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 brought to Zombies was the introduction of Directed Mode, which strips each map down to basics and guides players through the game's main quest Easter eggs. While this feature was initially met with some skepticism, Treyarch recently revealed some fascinating statistics that more than justify Directed Mode's existence, perhaps a solid sign of the feature becoming a staple of CoD Zombies moving forward.

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By Jake S

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies' Directed Mode Has Been a Game-Changer For Easter Eggs

Directed Mode was added to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies as part of the game's first season, with the feature becoming available for the title's two launch maps, Liberty Falls and Terminus. Launching a Zombies game through Directed Mode offers a much more casual experience compared to normal gameplay, with the mode guiding players step-by-step through the main quest Eater egg of a given map.

Alongside features like written objective prompts and waypoints, Directed Mode even caps each step of a main quest to specific rounds, allowing players to explore and make mistakes without rising to the more difficult higher rounds too early. While some thought this type of mode might take away from the mystery and difficulty of Easter egg hunting, Treyarch has created a clear separation between standard gameplay and Directed Mode that has been reflected in some recent statistics for the feature.

As part of the celebrations around "115 Day," Treyarch gave glimpses of The Tomb, an upcoming map for Black Ops 6 Zombies, as well as offering a deep dive into how Directed Mode has altered how people engage with Zombies. In a blog post, Treyarch revealed that only around 4% of Black Ops 6 Zombies players had completed the main quest Easter eggs for the title's launch maps before the launch of Directed Mode, with this figure rising to 8% following the mode's introduction.

To give an idea of the mode's popularity, Treyarch also confirmed that fans have played over 480 million hours of Black Ops 6 Zombies as of January 15.

Directed Mode Has Helped Bridge the Gap Between Black Ops 6's Player Bases

The studio went on to state how it is working towards making the impact of Directed Mode even larger for future maps, but this doubling of players successfully beating the pre-existing main quests of Zombies is still nothing to scoff at. There has always been a major disconnect between the demographics of CoD's core multiplayer and Zombies player bases, and Directed Mode smartly allows otherwise disinterested players to go beyond the standard survival of Zombies and engage in the mode's deeper and often hidden narratives in a much more relaxed environment.

Of course, traditional Zombies enthusiasts can still tackle Easter eggs before Directed Mode launches for each map, with this early completion coming with added rewards. This means that Directed Mode has managed to increase attention toward main quests without stepping on the toes of the community-led hype from scouring fresh maps to figure out what secrets they hold naturally. This preservation of Zombies' classic identity is extremely important, and the massive uptick in players completing main quests is solid evidence that Directed Mode has already served as a great accessibility feature that has only encouraged players to explore everything that Black Ops 6 has to offer.

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OpenCritic Reviews: Top Critic Avg: 83 /100 Critics Rec: 91%

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Released: October 25, 2024
ESRB: Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Suggestive Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
Developer(s): Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher(s): Activision
Engine: IW 9.0
Multiplayer: Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
Cross-Platform Play: Yes - PlayStation, Xbox, PC