Another area that the team wanted to work on with the Zombies experience this time was bringing an added weight to your decisions, especially in the early going. Looking back to TranZit again for inspiration, you had to commit to a path  – the recent Zombies maps don’t have this in place, instead built around being more accessible, where you can spread out and come back together as a group. This time in Black Ops 7 Zombies, once you’re aboard Ol’ Tessie, you have a myriad of decisions to make on the road – do you take the left path or the right path? Do you wait and try to tough it out against the horde? In addition, these in-between locations feature hazardous roads that you need to nurse Ol’ Tessie through.

I ran into this first-hand during my time with Black Ops 7: Zombies during Call of Duty: Next a few months ago. There, my crew had installed T.E.D.D. and we started to make our way through the Dark Aether when we came to a junction. But we hesitated on which path to pick and were quickly overwhelmed by zombies. I also discovered that, despite how awesome Ol’ Tessie is, it can’t take a lot of damage – at least in the early going. It was a nice way for the game to give you a quick heads up, that despite how awesome it feels to continue driving over zombies, you need to take care of this vehicle. It’s not invincible.

“The team put a lot of effort into that kind of balancing of making sure you can still make it as long as you’re driving forward the first couple of times you’re out on the road. But we also made sure there were a ton of ways that you can upkeep Tessie and make sure that it’s always ready to go,” Drew says.