Available as of today as part of Season 2, Outbreak is the third instalment of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s Zombies mode, and the latest chapter of the Dark Aether storyline. However, Outbreak takes a different approach to past chapters, changing up the standard formula of Zombies in Call of Duty.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies – Outbreak
While Outbreak is part of the ongoing Dark Aether storyline, players will find that it plays somewhat differently to Die Maschine and Firebase Z. Players are tasked with completing Operation Threshold; a mission which ranges across a series of objective-based tasks all across a huge outdoor map in the Ural mountains. Exploration and teamwork are more important than ever, especially with new challenges and enemies to deal with.
When you and your fireteam enter Outbreak, you’ll be given the location of the primary research objective. However, unlike other maps, there is no pre-determined route. Players can explore freely and make their own way to the objective. That objective will be one of several possible tasks. Players might have to defend a machine from attacking zombies, escort a moving rover, retrieve Aetherium Canisters and bring them to a launch site, eliminate several high-value targets, or hold out against waves of zombies while waiting for explosives to detonate.
After completing a task, you can head to a beacon and gain access to things like the Crafting Table, Arsenal, and Pack-a-Punch Machine. At this stage, you can exfiltrate safely, or press onwards to another objective. Each time you head through a portal to a new area, the difficulty increases, as do the value of potential rewards. Indeed, there are several new types of Aetherium Crystal in Outbreak which are available as high-tier rewards. The finest of these are the Flawless Aetherium Crystals, which players can use to upgrade Skills to Tier V.
If you’d like to try Outbreak for yourself but don’t own the game, you’re in luck. The new mode is currently free-to-play in the latest Free Access Week for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. This event offers portions of the game’s Multiplayer and Zombies modes for free on all platforms. The event is due to end next week at 10:00 AM PT on the 1st of March.