2. Turned
Zombies players have wanted to play as a zombie for a
long time, but it was never exactly clear
how. How can you make an engaging, fun mode that does justice to the long-mooted concept and introduces fresh ideas to a mode that's stuck to a (great) formula since World at War? The answer Treyarch provided with Turned was: make it a player-versus-player mini-game. For a mode that's always been orientated around teamwork, Turned is a step into the more traditional 'battle' mode of multiplayer. So, what happens? Turned begins with all four (although you can play with just two or three) players playing as zombies. Capture the syringe drop on the map and you'll turn into a human. Now, all you have to do is fend off the player-controlled zombies, earning points every second you stay alive, and getting a better gun every time you get a kill, Gun Game style. However, if you die, the human mantle passes to your undead killer. It's easier said than done, however. Zombies move really, really quickly, and you can get overwhelmed seconds after you turned into a human. Add in the second of down-time between switching guns, and the difficulty level is set to 'high'. It's a much more frantic mode than the slow-burning build-up of normal Zombies, with games lasting just six minutes. As a result, it feels much more like a fun time-sink than a meaty game mode. It's a lot of fun, but it's more of a warm-up game before a proper Zombies game than anything. Also, it's only available on the Diner map from TranZit. While it's a nice exercise in wish-fulfillment (Bus Depot is a survival map, yet not Diner?), it also leads to a sense of repetition. It'd be nice to see a few more maps (but y'know, not TranZit or Die Rise, Treyarch) being implemented in a future map pack, because right now, Turned is just a bit of insubstantial fun.