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Call of Duty Black Ops Nazi  Zombie  Narrative

I played Call of Duty Black Ops for my first narrative, specifically the Nazi Zombie game mode. The map I chose is called kino der toten and is an old abandoned movie theater set in West Berlin.  The Characters spawn in the grand lobby of the movie theater with a pistol.  A one drawn in tally form with blood comes up on the screen and drops to the corner.  This corresponds to what round of gameplay you are in.  The higher the round the more zombies there are and the higher health they have.  This is basically the plot or developed tension, that more and more zombies keep showing up and are becoming harder and harder to kill.  The basic premise of the game is to run around killing increasing amounts of zombies with ever increasing fire power until the character is overran and killed..  This is representative of how we always face harder and harder challenges which become increasingly more difficult to overcome.  The game lasts as long as the players survive which insures that ultimately the game ends with failure to survive.  This is symbolic of how eventually we will fail at something and then it is up to us to start a new game so to speak.  As zombies are killed the killer earns points which can be spent opening up other rooms of the theater to have more space to run around in. This symbolizes how we are always expanding our world and discovering new places when we develop confidence from completing previous challenges, or killing zombies. Additionally each room has different perks, skill upgrades, as well as different weapons and traps which are all things the game player can spend points on.  This variety of point based benefits correspond to the improvements we make to our self by overcoming past challenges that we turn around and use in future ones, ie killing zombies to get points to buy a gun to kill more zombies. One way a character can receive weapons is by getting it from a “random weapon box” this is symbolic of fate or luck determining our chances of making it through a situation.  On rare occasion an old Teddy Bear comes out of the box and the character does not receive a weapon and the box moves to a new location. Receiving a Teddy Bear in a dream is considered symbolic of regression to an earlier state or ”may symbolize lost security, comfort, and companionship”(Dream Moods Dream Dictionary).  This makes sense because the mystery box is a common hub for players to hang out by since it can produce the best weapons in the game.  Players also feel secure near the box and can get a new gun and therefore new ammo whenever they want.  If the box moves players lose the sense of security of having high quality ammo capabilities near by.  Putting this externally from the game we as people don’t like change and feel discomforted by having to get used to new situations or problems. 
The Game, being a zombie survival game play type, is considered an apocalyptic archetype with the playable characters as the heroes of the inevitably impossible mission of purging the world of the zombie surge.  The apocalyptic archetype is concurrent throughout history and is discussed in the rare manuscript Corpus Apocalypse, an old copy of the book of revelation.  This book uses powerful language and symbolism to describe the coming of the apocalypse and has inspired western culture since the middle ages.   An apocalypse has always been thought to be possible at any time due to nature or supernatural beings but as Edward F. Edinger suggests it is even more relevant in society’s fears now with the creation of the atomic bomb.  In Apocolyspe Observed John Hall describes a theme of apocalypse as the “systematic rationalization of life towards a spiritual goal among the “New Age Puritans” of heavens Gate”(117).  In the context of the game this means that the players, or new age Puritans, are rationalizing what is considered life and systematically achieving their spiritual goal of purging the world from zombies whom are not considered life.  This has a sense of irony in the game since the zombies are nazis whom once systematically brought the end of life to what they considered inferior beings, thus also perfectly fitting the title of new age puritans.  Additionally the true believers of the new age puritans “attempt to salvage their own sense of their honor, albeit at the cost of their own survival, by refusing to submit either to a state authority or to external definitions of their identity”(118).   This suggests that the duty of the players of the game is to sacrifice their survival in order to salvage their honor by not giving in to the oncoming plague of zombies but instead to hold their ground and fight honorably until killed.  Relating to dream states this honor derived from not giving into the impending doom of the zombie horde correlates with a me vs. the world mentality that can be used to motivate an individual to not accept defeat and to keep fighting to maintain their honor and chances at survival.  
During the multiplier game play it is inevitable that at some point or another a fellow comrade will be downed.  This leaves the other player with little time to fend off the zombies and revive his fallen comrade before the comrade is lost for the rest of the round and re spawns with just a pistol again. In this critical situation the player must be extremely tactful to not get caught reviving his fellow comrade by the zombies.  Additionally the player must consider if it is worth reviving his comrade if he isn’t very good at zombie killing and has a shitty gun anyway.  Attempting to revive a teammate is one of the most common ways to die.  This shows how helping a friend is the right thing to do because it will pay off in the end but it may cost you in the short term and cause the player to die and have to start back over at round one.

 

 

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2013 by Zach Primm Damn Proud

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