Summary
One cannot ignore the sheer popularity and influence of the wave-based Zombies survival mode in theCall of Dutyseries. Ever since its debut in the fifth game, the mode has kept returning with more ambitious ideas and cooler weapons by the boatload. That is, with some noteworthy exceptions.
Naturally, for every excellent gun for fending off the undead, there’s a weapon that makes throwing stale popcorn at the resurrected menace seem like a more viable alternative. For anyone daring to delve back into the Zombies mode, whether in the classic titles or the more recent entries, these weapons are to be avoided or swapped for something better to maximize the chances of surviving as long as possible.
It does feel a bit cheap to include the M1911 (which has appeared in almost every Zombies map,including the very firstinCall Of Duty: World At War), but it deserves to be mentioned first because… well, it’s abysmal.
Very poor damage and a lack of spare ammo make it only good for racking up points when combined with slashes of the knife. Also, it’s of no surprise that, when playing cooperatively, whoever dies and then comes back at the start of the next round with this peashooter has no fighting chance unless it’s ditched completely.
2Springfield (Call Of Duty: World At War)
The Springfield is a lackluster choice in the zombie asylum map, Verrückt, inCall Of Duty: World At War. It’s no wonder that, when Verrückt was carried over to Treyarch’s next title, most of the WWII wall weapons were kept, but the Springfield was replaced completely.
The aim of this thing is crooked; its iron sights don’t accurately show where bullets are going to land. On top of that, it’s also slower and weaker than the Kar98k, struggling to pop heads after the second round, compared to its German competitor that can last up to rounds 3 or 4 before it becomes obsolete.
3Molotov Cocktail (Call Of Duty: World At War)
Molotovs weren’t all that useful in either the campaign or multiplayer, too. As for Zombies mode? It’s terrible in that as well. Before the introduction of the Monkey Bombs in Der Riese, there weren’t any other secondary grenades, so this filled a slot when acquired from the Mystery Box for 950 points.
The damage output against the zombies is pitiful, yet, the splash damage is usually enough to damage or down the user instead! Plus, originally, they didn’t replenish during new rounds. It was only when Shi No Numa was released that players got them restocked with a Max Ammo power-up.
A pump-action grenade launcher sounds like a perfect tool for fending off zombies, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, this explosive weapon is rather hefty to lug around, and forces players to look down iron sights to pop out a shell. It can’t even be hip-fired without an upgrade.
Considering how many shells it could carry in the campaign, it was reduced to only two at any given time. It was okay in early rounds against packs of zombies, but it usually just removed their legs rather than actually killed them. Also,goodness knows why JFK wants to use it in the Five intro cutscene.
5Ballistic Knife (Call Of Duty: Black Ops)
The Ballistic Knife is a gimmick weapon from the Mystery Box, and it is like receiving a joker from a deck of cards. Combined with a regular knife, both could be used to slice a zombie, while a dagger could be fired from afar for minimal damage. Yes, they can be reacquired, but it carries a minuscule number of them.
While it can be upgraded to the Krauss Refibrillator to fire projectiles that revive downed players from a distance, it remains a niche utensil with very situational use when compared to the rest of the armory. It’s a bad inclusion for one of thegreatest iterations of Zombies.
Would it be harsh to call the Remington inCall Of Duty: Black Ops 2a bad weapon? While the stats are similar to previous pump-action shotguns, this one always felt obsolete in comparison to those. Beyond rounds 8 to 10, it’s a struggle to get any use out of it.
The big reason is that it only pops out 4 pellets-per-shell. That’s half as many as the M1897 Trench Gun inWorld At War, and the Stakeout inBlack Ops. With less ammo in its reserve compared to its predecessors, it’s just embarrassing to even consider using it.
7War Machine (Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2)
Explosive weaponry never really shined all that brightly in the Zombies modes, and the War Machine is a testament to that. It launches bouncy grenades like tennis balls, taking far too long to finally detonate. While the rate of fire is very high, they just never go where the player wants them to land, and seldom blow up when they need to. Even worse,grenades melt in lava and don’t detonate in TranZit.
Paired with a sluggish reload and disappointing damage, the final result speaks for itself. Upgrading it does fix a number of these issues, even if splash damage remains a problem.
Submachine guns vary in usefulness in Zombies. While not particularly hard-hitting, they can help players earn more points with relative ease, and arehandy in close-range, particularly during the early-to-mid rounds. The Pharo inCall Of Duty: Black Ops 3fails to live up to its brethren in comparison for a number of reasons.
For starters, it’s the weakest SMG of all. Having a low damage output with a 4-round burst is not an ideal combination, and it’s not too difficult to use up all of it through that spare ammo either. It’s best left as a cheap, throwaway weapon in case a better alternative can be found.
InCall Of Duty: Black Ops 4, the only thing going for the Escargot is that it has an interesting design. It’s a Mauser with a drum barrel, and its name is French for ‘snail’ (the barrel looks like a snail shell). Now with that “hilarious” joke out of the way, where does one start with this? It’s a very underwhelming weapon in almost every conceivable way.
Its recoil kicks like a mule and isn’t very accurate, while the spare ammo on offer is pitiful. There are no options to customize the Escargot to help make this SMG fare any better in combat at all, meaning that there is very little reason to keep carrying this around in one’s inventory.
Another obligatory “bad explosive weapon.” The M79 is a poor choice for a number of reasons: carries a single shell at a time, the damage output is poor, and splash damage is always going to be a problem.
As if the fact that it doesn’t fare much better in its upgraded form wasn’t enough, the fact that it takes a serious amount of grinding to unlock any camouflage decorations for it inCall Of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warjust makes matters worse. Why must an M79, of all things, struggle against the weakest of zombies?
MORE:The Best Zombie Games That Aren’t Dying Light or Dead Island
