Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies fans have been wondering how Outbreak’s easter egg would work, as there was potential for it to be a major success or a complete afterthought. Fortunately, it falls into the former category, as gamers seem pleased with the effort that went into making the quest special. Like the Outbreak mode itself, many are surprised by just how strong it is, as Outbreak’s main quest ticks a lot of the boxes needed for a standout Easter egg.

For Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War fans that had any doubts about Outbreak becoming a major focus for Treyarch, this quest should make it clear that the open world mode is here to stay. Rather than feeling like just another new objective, Outbreak’s quest is a proper Easter egg through and through. In some ways, it is even better than the Survival maps’ quests, with an excellent final boss battle and unique location helping it stand out. While it is still not perfect, it is a strong start, and it gives fans more of a reason to be excited for Season 4’s Outbreak quest.

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One huge strength of Outbreak’s easter egg is that it feels like the other main quests in Zombies. Instead of players given a marker and told where to go, they need to track down certain items at the start of the Easter egg. This begins with finding some radios and tuning amplifiers like in Outbreak’s music side quest. This sees players talking to Sam, and having the iconic character serve as Requiem’s guide for the Easter egg is plenty of fun.

The next step sees more item collecting, with players hunting down the monkey bomb statues from the Outbreak quest teaser. Once done, they need to track down a projector, which once again has a hidden spot that players must find. While this scavenger hunt objective type has been divisive in the past, what makes it work so well inside of Outbreak is the fact that each region has spots. For the radios, monkeys, and projectors, players can search in any region that they are currently in. This is an awesome quality of life decision on the part of Treyarch, as it lets players explore wherever they see fit as opposed to forcing them to enter a specific region.

However, the second half of Outbreak’s quest is where it really shines, as players explore an area on Ruka that was previously sealed off. Thus far, one of the biggest areas that Outbreak can improve in is making its maps feel more Zombified, as they are remarkably similar to the multiplayer maps. By introducing the massive bunker complex inside of Ruka, Treyarch gives the map an edge, as the area feels specifically designed for Zombies. The blinking red lights and scrambled mini map give it a neat horror aesthetic, and the objectives inside this bunker are a lot of fun. The Red Mimic, monkey trapping, and jellyfish sequence are all different from Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s previous quest objectives, and solving these puzzles is a ton of fun. This decision goes beyond just Outbreak as well, as Zombies quests rarely take players to brand-new locations. When they do, it is a boss arena, making this fully explorable location a terrific surprise.

Another huge accomplishment of the Outbreak Easter egg is its difficulty. While Treyarch has intentionally made easier main quests for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, many have felt that they were too easy. This quest fixes that, as it feels like a truly balanced set of objectives. The Easter egg escalates in difficulty, with the simple scavenger hunts going into the decently tough key collecting. From there, players head into the challenging final stage, with the Legion boss fight capping off this sense of progression brilliantly.

Unlike Firebase Z’s final boss, which was just another version of Orda, Legion is his own being. A massive Tempest, players need a lot of strategy to take down the enemy. As opposed to the usual “shoot until it is dead” philosophy, Legion requires teamwork and careful planning to bring down. Each phase sees players breaking the boss’s armor, and once done, three orbs will appear above its head. Players need to focus fire on one of the orbs to deal damage, with destroying an orb requiring quick reaction time and a massive amount of damage.

The boss behaves similarly to a strike or raid boss from Destiny, as players need to cycle their Field Upgrades so that they can deal with the hordes of enemies that are spawning in. Mini bosses like Mimics and Megatons join regular Zombies to keep players on their toes, with every phase getting harder for players as they run low on resources. With the use of monkey bombs, Death Machines, and Chopper Gunners all needed to repel the undead, and players needing to avoid tossed barrels and electric blasts from Legion, the fine can get hectic. With the boss also being a ranged enemy, go-to weapons like Shotguns are less effective, meaning that players need to make use of ranged weaponry. As a result, this boss encounter is the most intense fight since Call of Duty: Black Ops 3’s Gorod Krovi, and it is deserving a praise.

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Still, while Outbreak does a lot right, there are a few things that can still be done to make the experience better for Zombies fans. For starters, fans have voiced their disappointment for the main quest’s final cutscene. While the mid-quest cutscene with Ravenov is terrific, the map’s finale follows the same exact format as Die Maschine’s Easter egg. Players simply exfil from the map after their mission is complete, getting on a helicopter and leaving the area. There are no big twists, impactful story beats, or cliffhangers for the next map, with that instead coming in the mid-quest scene.

Hopefully, the next Outbreak easter egg will buck this trend, as cutscenes are beginning to feel formulaic inside of Zombies. While Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s intel is full of strong writing and exciting moments, its cinematics have lacked that same punch, with nothing matching the Die Maschine intro cutscene. The other issue that needs to be worked on is the lengthy of the easter egg hunt, as players once again beat the quest hours after release. A long hunt could be good for the community, bringing Zombies fans together as they work on some more obscure steps. While nothing should be unfair, a hunt that lasts a full day would be a welcome change of pace for the game.

Still, this easter egg quest is a triumph, as it is both a good sign for Outbreak’s next quest and the upcoming Berlin Survival map. For Outbreak, continuing to open fresh parts of the current regions is a wise idea, and this could go even further by adding fully original Outbreak maps. While Treyarch is doing its best to make the Fireteam maps feel more unique to Outbreak, nothing can match a Zombies map built from the ground up. As for the next Survival map, taking notes from Outbreak’s boss fight would be a great way to deliver an exciting conclusion to the main quest. If Treyarch next quest delivers a more impactful final cutscene as well as a longer hunt, the studio may have found the perfect formula for Zombies easter eggs going forward.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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