Call Of Duty: Cold War's zombies shamble into Vietnam this week

11 years after the series first ventured into Vietnam, Call Of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War is returning to the nation's humid jungles—and this time, it's brought a tide of rotting soldiers and 30ft flesh monsters.

Kicking off later this week, Season One of Cold War zombies introduces a new map, Firebase Z. Starting in a small coastal town, a Soviet portal eventually takes you to a dense military complex turned science nightmare. There's some impressive verticality going on, too, with soldiers yeeting themselves out of Quake-style bounce pads without breaking their knees.

That elevation comes with an escalation in monsters, mind. While there's still a tidal wave of shambling fodder to churn through, the trailer shows us up-armoured brutes and lashing Necromorphs ripped straight out of Dead Space. To fight those off, we're getting a new gun—an AK repurposed as a purple plasma rifle, featuring a devastating underslung grenade launcher. Even then, I'm not sure how well that'll fare against that laser-barfing meat mech near the trailer's close.

Firebase Z picks up where Cold Wars' last zombies map, Die Maschine, left off, and I'd expect it to be just as crammed with secrets and easter eggs as its hellish predecessor. Season One of Cold War Zombies arrives this Thursday, February 4th.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.