Shadows Of Evil. The map where I have no clue what to do. I don't think I've ever even seen that Pack-A-Punch fight with the Shadow Man. I just train zombies right outside that door and eventually it's open.
As a Super-Fan. I know how to do it. I just dont fucking care to do it. When I know my 30 minutes of effort are going to be wasted immediately upon Game-Over.
@@ZombieSlayerrrrr The difference is that, in those 30 minutes, you're having fun killing zombies instead of running around completing mostly unintuitive easter egg steps
@@MoistMarsupial And you have to keep Zombies alive during those pap steps? If anything SoE is probably way better then the holy grail of Origins and Mob in that Point since you dont need that much points + SoE has more space. Compare the washing room in Mob or the Generators on Origins to SoE Rituals. 1 Minute more Setup for SoE sure thats that. Can keep killing Zombies, your Screen doesnt shake like crazy due to brutus and the Panzer doesnt hook you across the map And Mob and intuitiv? Mob does a shit job of explaing its Afterlive system while SoE has clues all over the place + if you have Sound on my Guy Shadow man is quiet in your neck about those Rituals(Just Like Samantha about the staffs and richtofen about the Generators and the PaP machine on the mountain, and i think weasel about the plane but i am not sure about that) We dont even need to pull the Mob and Origins comparision. Is Ascension intuitiv ? Is Shang intuitiv? Everything but argueably CoTD and Moon after Kino wasnt intuitiv. So for a map that lets you do more however leads you into the somewhat right direction to be less fun than those systems is quiet a hairpull isnt it ? I get that its more to do, totally with you on that end. But its not even an 30 min effort if people gave it a Chance and some Arguments are just restrictions people set on their own, like you not killing Zombies.
@@ibruceeasily1728 the "a" does belong. It would work without it, but in my opinion sounds better with the a / more formal. I think the "a" makes it more singular.
Funny to think that shadows of evil suffered a reverse tranzit, a lot hated the map at the start, then the more they played it, the more they started to actually enjoy it and see how great the map was. I was one of those who hated shadows then started to love it
NO it didn’t, shadows of evil is a bad map, I’ve only ever seen high round players say it’s decent, never met a single person that likes it other than randoms only in bubbles with each other. Tranzit was always bad but it was fun with people online so people love it
Absolutely amazing video. Perfectly reflects how I feel about Shadows. It's an absolutely fantastic map, but it's also overwhelming for people that aren't coming in hot off the tails of something like Mob or Origins. Really I think the casual audience would have been much kinder if The Giant had launched alongside it to appeal to their needs.
the giant was available at the same time as SOE, it just *came with the season pass at the time, so people either didn't care enough to buy it or couldn't afford it at the time, i wish it were free on release but they were there to juxtapose each other
Can't forget that on launch, we were playing an especially unrefined version of the map that wasn't quite balanced to near-perfection and quality of life features like we see now. The map on-launch was particularly awful to play with randoms (how many of us were playing due to the disconnect between generations and the lack of friends who owned the latest and greatest consoles). Ritual times were ridiculously slow unless all 4 players were present in the room. Ritual items were also player-specific and could only be held one at a time, meaning only the one who picked it up could place it down on its respective table. This meant that nearly every public match, you'd have a clueless random or an intentional troll with no mic/communication stumble along and pick up one of the items, leaving it forever in their inventory and soft-locking everyone else out of pack-a-punch and progressing the map. And as mentioned in the video, the only other, simple map option was The Giant, a remaster of Der Riese locked behind an extra $50 paywall (much later on, they made the map available for a $5 purchase, but that was far too late, as the remaining community was pretty much just those accustomed to the more complex nature of zombies or already owned the season pass). So bo3 zombies, at launch, was a pretty miserable experience for most of us. I desperately wanted to enjoy the gamemode, as I was still on the bo2 high, but SOE was damn near unplayable unless you had a plethora of YT tutorials and very competent friends on the current console generation. It is amazing in retrospect though, nowadays I regard bo3 as objectively the best game for zombies. Even Shadows in its modern state makes it to my top 5 or top 10 at the bare minimum. But back in 2015, I struggled to accept bo3 as anything but the start of the downfall for zombies, and one of the most dissapointing gameplay experiences ever.
Fantastic series. I played Nacht, Shi No Numa, Der Riese and Kino and then took a decade break from zombies (stopped playing CoD entirely, but saw occasional videos), so these videos have been fascinating for me to slowly go through the journey. What sets these retrospectives apart is not only the detail, but the weighting of both the casual and hardcore audience. I distinctly remember looking at Shadows on release and thinking "that's so involved, I don't think I'd know where to begin'. Recently rediscovered zombies for myself and while I haven't played much (I only have BO4 launch maps at the minute), I've been watching a ton of videos on it and this series is an insta-watch for me. Another certified banger.
I would like to personally recommend you try out Cold War if you can! It really revitalized the casual scene and it is now my favorite zombies mode ever. I stopped playing midway through BO2, only briefly playing Shadows on release and skipping BO4, and can confidently say I adore CW Zombies!
Bo3 zombies, without counting PC customs, has 14 maps with all dlc and chronicles. Imo it's the zombies entry where fun is prioritized a little bit over game balance and every map looks great visually. Bo2 and Cold War are really great too
@@Aigis31 played zombies since I was like 8 and completed waw the first time, and I couldn't agree more. During lockdown I stayed in a flat with friends like 4 of us just playing warzone and they saw me playing bo2/3 zombies and they never played but when cold war came out all of us got it I got them into zombies and they fucking loved it
I've been eagerly awaiting this one! WaW Nacht was my favorite map for many years. There's plenty of others I liked a lot, but nothing beat that simple "trapped in an abandoned building watching zombies stumble out of the fog" creepy factor. That "Night of the Living Dead" vibe. Then not long ago I played this map after my best friend gave me their copy of Blops 3 (they got a digital only PS5 and didnt need the disc anymore). As someone who is both a huge fan of Lovecraftian horror and classic Film Noir? This was the map that finally gave me a new contender for "favorite". I'm still not wild about how complicated the map is for a casual zombie fan like me, but the 1940's era city is gorgeous, the jazz music is perfect, the classic Noir character archetypes are great and the Cthulhu monsters are the cherry on top. I just fell in love with Shadows!
You'll get used to it. I remember how painful it was at launch (especially due to the broken Zombies AI) but now, me and my friends can literally have casual matches on Shadows. We know what to do so we do it while killing Zombies and it feels like an adventure. Constantly moving across the map, killing zombies, doing rituals, fighting Margwas, picking up parts etc... Absolute incredible map that ages like fine wine.
dude what you said about the setting change was on the money. I remember being so outraged by the shift in setting. I think it was just so unexpected and not really eased into either. BAM! now the entire world is tentacles. Especially when everyone was wanting answers for how Origins ended. Should not have been the map on disc.
When you look at BO1 and 2 they both launched with a map which was fairly small, simple and easy. And the second map which was larger, more complicated and harder. And that worked very well in both games. So I did always wonder why BO3 launched with only one map that was very large, complicated and difficult as the only option. Because it would just turn the casual audience which is most of the playerbase off to zombies immediately. Especially when they had a second casual map right there and they didn't put it the base game.
Let’s be real, Tranzit was a complicated map aswell. If you’d played BO2 mob of the dead you’d instantly understand shadows of evil. Yes it would take a bit of learning but in my opinion wonder weapons and pack a punch shouldn’t just be handed to the player.
@@DBFARuler @Ismail Mod was the second DLC so the people still playing zombies when the second DLC came out were people that were invested in the mode. So in BO3 when the casual audience's only option is a big, complex and difficult map they'll hate it. Your base game map has to cater to the casual audience because the casual audience is the vast majority of the player base. So if they don't like the first map then they aren't going to pay for another one.
On paper, this map should've been my younger selfs wet dream. Lovecraftian elements? Better graphics and more zombies? Yes! Only when I loaded up shadows of evil, and played it more and more, I found myself liking it less and less and less, despite really wanting to love it. I adore the aesthetic, but the map design to me was absolutely garbage, maybe I'm biased because I'm not a fan of black ops 3 in general. I was also not a fan of the growing complexity added to zombies, to me, origins and mob of the dead was the perfect balance of having lots to do, without feeling overwhelmed. To add to that, I always hated the gobblegum system which was just another nail in the coffin for me. All around, I wish I could love bo3 as much as some do, It does have some of the best zombies maps in the franchise, but I just can't bring myself around to loving, or even liking it. This began my distancing from the franchise, with advanced warfare being the last cod I sinked a lot of hours into.
It's less complicated than origins imo, because I don't have to pull out my phone when I want to upgrade something. Like, who remembers the ice staff symbols? that's such a big ask to just use the wonder weapon.
@@cobrakaineverdies-i2k the biggest issue is that all you do is learn them, then play a laughably easy, chore filled and boring version of cod zombies for 2 hours before it becomes remotely difficult-about the time I end the game because life is busy.
I hated this map, wtf dude you've changed my perspective to a somewhat positive one. Stella work yet again, makes me miss those 3am Kino sessions with the boys.
shadows of evil is lowkey one of my top 5 maps oat. the easter egg grind is pretty fun, the vibes are immaculate, and it set up the story very well. had me excited to continue playing. esp since the map right after was a top 3 map oat. i wish The Giant wasnt paid DLC tho. only having Shadows wo having to spend more $ is def polarizing
All my friends hate on this map and I used to not like it either but then I LEARNED IT and let me just say I count myself as a casual and learning this map was actually pretty easy the more you do it the more it becomes as easy as just killing zombies the whole game and it becomes so much fun just killing margwas and unlocking more shit, this map introduced me to getting wonder weapons and Easter eggs and for that alone I praise it
as someone who was new to zombies at the time and bo3 was my first time properly playing zombies (aside from kino at a friends house) the story, atmosphere and complexity of the map was what kept me hooked and still to this day shadows is my favorite map of all time. absolute fucking masterpiece
The story is garabge, the atmosphere is irrelevant after the first week and complexity in zombies usually means bad. If you need a very detailed guide to do the thing you're meant to do it's probably not a good map
@@Euro.Patriot ?? the story was amazing and the atmosphere and detail of the map is the reason why shadows is considered a top tier map in almost everyones lists, wtf kind of shit are you smoking?
@@pingeee Once a story introduces a multiverse everything is meaningless, atmosphere is meaningless and the detail isn't anything special. Don't waste your time with SOE, get Chronicles and play Moon.
Man i when i first saw your channel i thought that you would have like 500k subs but only 16k? What im trying to say is that you have a really bright future here on youtube mate
Shadows of Evil made me give up on BO3 Zombies when it first came out, which is a shame because now Der Eisdendrache is probably my favorite map ever. But I've been interested in learning it and giving it another chance. Looking forward to the DE video.
another cool detail is im pretty sure that those perk bottles that help you figure out which district has which perk are the bo2 perk bottle design and not the bo3 bottles
I’ve never been good at Shadows, but once I learned a bit more about the map I found myself having a lot more fun. I never looked anything up either, you can figure a lot out just by running about and noodling around
even if it wasn't perfect, I truly wish infinity ward stuck to extinction and built on it to have something more uniquely their own in their titles going forward
I remember in the beginning that people loved this map, then they hated it for a little bit when Eisendrache came out, then everyone now loves it again
I would honestly rather have an insanely complex map like shadows on launch than be stuck with town, farm, nuketown, and tranzit again. Shadows is my favorite map tho
I hate how much Zombies took off as a mode. Don't get me twisted, I LOVE Zombies for some casual fun, and hardcore grinding for whatever it is I'm trying to do. But every fucking CoD keeps trying to make Zombies modes instead of what their games used to have. What made MW2 and MW3 so good was the fact their Spec Ops had a mix of campaign style missions, co-op missions and survival missions. MW3 even took it a step further and had one of the best survival type gamemodes and even had Chaos Survival which was dumb fun. But now it's all about ZOMBIES, ZOMBIES, ZOMBIES.
As a person whose first map was SoE. This map definitely had quite a veneer to it which I found especially captivating, especially in terms of optimizing beast mode to be able to do each district utilizing only one beast mode and having Pack open on as low a round as possible (either round 2 or 3 depending on double points in spawn and other drops). Also the aesthetic of the map definitely aided in captivating my interest and had me straight addicted to playing the map. I must be an outlier but as my first map I didn’t find it to be that unintuitive that it would ultimately turn me off, quite the opposite.
@@dougashby5679 actually I was,I just didn’t play zombies until BO3, I started with COD4 and didn’t buy COD every year so I missed a good chunk of Treyarch’s games barring BO2’s multiplayer until BO3 went free back in 2017
I personally do have a setup process for soe that is exactly the same, since you can get pap open in round 2 you don't need jug I tent to go footlight first because the ritual has a larger training area which is useful because I bring 6 keepers. I always go for waterfront last as it has a smaller training area so I like to get the shield first just to be safe
I think the thing that hurt shadows the most was it being a launch map. But it was needed so the players could get accustomed to the new formula of zombies
i love shadows but it really started treyarch's streak of mostly hardcore community maps instead of the balance of both ee and casual. all the maps after that except for the zc dlc and 9 and classified in bo4, had everything tied to the easter egg. origins and mob where still fairly casual cause it was clear what to do and where to go, power generators in origins to get pap, build the plane in mob to get pap, simple and easy. shadows it's you have to find stuff that belongs to the 4 characters, fill the soul key 4 times, open up parts of the map with beast mode, and then go into the subway, put the key down, do a small sequence, THEN you got pap. first time i played shadows i had no idea what to do or where to go to get pap. then the following maps doubled down on it all the way to tag der toten, i for the life of me could not tell you how to turn on pap in 90% Of the maps in bo3 and bo4, thankfully they fixed that with cold war.
I saw the release of shadows of evil at Comic Con LIVE, and met the ultimis crew alomg side the SOE crew. So when i played this ot was my new favorite map. Mob of the dead and shadows are my favorite maps. I also enjoyed voyage of dispair and wish i couldve played dead of the night
I remember watching the shadows of evil reveal and being stunned. It was too loud, too overproduced and too just… weird for zombies. Obviously zombies has only gotten crazier since but I have such a weird relationship with this map. It’s both great and awful as a zombies map.
This map rewards you for learning it, once you do it’s one of the easiest maps to set up you can fully open each area with 1 beast mode, your able to pap on round 1 without spawning in with rk5 or grabbing Sals 500 laundry Ticket (another reference to mob) , your able to see the sword symbols with beast mode jumps and not need the tram at all, saving you time and points when skilled enough, upgrading the sword or getting it is fun, since you get to kill margwas and zombies, rituals are really fun and easy you get points, and they spawn Margwas which give more points and are balanced but fun, and ww is easy to get but you have to be round 15+ which is also balanced, there’s only 1 ww but there’s aats, the wall weapons are great for Easter egg using civil protector and making an actual strat rewards you in flag step, like everyone watching a different area, not standing next to flag, and not shooting ww on the flag etc
I completely agree shadows being the only launch map was a mistake, and either the giant should have been on disc too or an original and more simple map should have been there in the mould of a kino or der riese. Personally I can't get into the complexity on my own much, if other people tell me what to do for an ee, I'll try but mostly my map knowledge goes to hitting pack a punch and the music ee. I think a side effect of the maps getting more complex with the potential for a more powerful player is the devs tried to met this challenge which to me is kinda misguided to an extent. While it keeps the game challenging and fresh to the experienced player, new players can be totally left in the dust at times and my biggest example is origins (I've not done too much shadows sorry), but the panzer at round 8 is such a huge skill check unless you have got to pap or got a staff which is pretty hard for new players to do that fast, and things like that keep me away from most of black ops 3 unless im grouped up with friends which barely happens, and going online on pc now is a massive security risk, because hackers are everywhere and they sometimes just cheat the fun out the game by turning on godmode for everyone or unlimited powerups, or they max level you give practically unlimited divinium and level up all the guns removing the grind of outside the game too. It's super frustrating, b03 is a game I wanna love it plays well and the weapons are mostly very fun, but i only tend to have fun on bo3 maps with friends, or zombie chronicles. Sorry for the rambling long comment, great video series keep it up.
Totally agree, I actually mentioned the same thing as you in the Origins video; the fact that the player can *theoretically* get very powerful means the developers have to balance the game around that power. But then if you don’t do all the little secrets, that means you end up way *behind* the power curve!
@@whitecliffgames yeah I definitely feel it's a flaw of modern zombies I've played (not done black ops 4 yet I've only got into zombies in the last year). Thanks for the reply
Shadows of evil was the black sheep map that they make for every zombie game. It's just usually one of the DLCs not the starting map. The aesthetics were good enough that I disregarded that it was completely different from the feeling of normal zombies (I love the classic Sci-Fi stuff, But the Margwa was my favorite boss enemy)
I don't think there's ever been a map that grew on me more than shadows of evil did. I hated that map on launch. It's one of my personal favorites now though.
11:55 "What it's good at is making shooting guns feel good" I would like to point out one flaw in the argument: The Pharo. It's a 4 round burst peashooter that's basically a worse version of the shieva. It's the only burst gun in zombies I do not like. Even the characters bash it for being godawful.
Shadows of evil is the experience of not knowing what to do and getting pack open by round 20 and knowing what youre doing and having pack open on round 1
I bought BO3 and WaW around 2018, maybe 2019. BO3 was my first zombies game. It wasn’t until last summer that I played through Nacht, and I was hooked. I just bought BO1 and 2. I’m having more fun on Moon and Der Reise than I did in SOE.
It must have been awful at first not being used to shadows and having no easy maps, but shadows is imo the best map ever made. When you do good on shadows it is actually satisfying
I think the zombie community sometimes forgets how poor ghosts and aw really were for the rest of cod, it brought a lot of mp players back to bo2 until bo3 came out and a lot of us came back and played zombies. Treyarch knew this, they released the first ever camo dlc’s during a different games life cycle which was huge back then and it was based of zombies! They also had so much pressure to get every aspect right, they didn’t but bo3 is still the last cod game a truly put my life into. Since then it’s only been downhill in my personal opinion
So many maps will consist of a few spaces you can actually be, and the rest of the map is narrow death traps that you sprint through as you move from location to location. That's really not the case with Shadows. Basically anywhere you go you're going to be in a location that has had so much thought and care put into it's design. And no matter where that downed teammate is there's a way of getting there on time. The 4 districts really should have been released as stand alone challenge maps like they did with Tranzit - the ritual rooms are iconic and it's kind of sad the high round community has never had any reason to make use of them cause each one (okay only a masochist is going to grind boxing gym) are masterfully crafted training spaces. Each of the 3 branches offer enough viable training spaces to support 4 players. The aesthetics and all that are the cherry on top, but to me it's the map design itself that makes Shadows the best map we've ever gotten. No map has had as much time and effort put into it, and it really does show.
I didnt like shadows at launch due to the complexity but playing it now its easily one of my favorites of all time and can have pack a punch of an upgraded sword by round 10 its super easy if you put the time to learn the map
I fully agree. Shi no Numa feels like the start and Der Riese feels like a DLC. I love the Zielinski take. So much more than the Blundell take. Zielinski made it feel like DnD
Shadows Of Evil. The map where I have no clue what to do. I don't think I've ever even seen that Pack-A-Punch fight with the Shadow Man. I just train zombies right outside that door and eventually it's open.
As a Super-Fan.
I know how to do it. I just dont fucking care to do it. When I know my 30 minutes of effort are going to be wasted immediately upon Game-Over.
@@TheBuster0926 Sounds like every Zombies Game tho. Spawn , do stuff, die. Acomplish nothing in the long run.
@@ZombieSlayerrrrr The difference is that, in those 30 minutes, you're having fun killing zombies instead of running around completing mostly unintuitive easter egg steps
@@MoistMarsupial And you have to keep Zombies alive during those pap steps? If anything SoE is probably way better then the holy grail of Origins and Mob in that Point since you dont need that much points + SoE has more space. Compare the washing room in Mob or the Generators on Origins to SoE Rituals. 1 Minute more Setup for SoE sure thats that. Can keep killing Zombies, your Screen doesnt shake like crazy due to brutus and the Panzer doesnt hook you across the map
And Mob and intuitiv? Mob does a shit job of explaing its Afterlive system while SoE has clues all over the place + if you have Sound on my Guy Shadow man is quiet in your neck about those Rituals(Just Like Samantha about the staffs and richtofen about the Generators and the PaP machine on the mountain, and i think weasel about the plane but i am not sure about that)
We dont even need to pull the Mob and Origins comparision. Is Ascension intuitiv ? Is Shang intuitiv? Everything but argueably CoTD and Moon after Kino wasnt intuitiv. So for a map that lets you do more however leads you into the somewhat right direction to be less fun than those systems is quiet a hairpull isnt it ?
I get that its more to do, totally with you on that end. But its not even an 30 min effort if people gave it a Chance and some Arguments are just restrictions people set on their own, like you not killing Zombies.
@@ZombieSlayerrrrr nacht der untoten better nhl
When you uploaded this video yesterday it was also both a misstep and a masterpiece
Wait what? Does the “a” not belong? Why? How do I find out this mystery?
@@ibruceeasily1728 the "a" does belong. It would work without it, but in my opinion sounds better with the a / more formal. I think the "a" makes it more singular.
Funny to think that shadows of evil suffered a reverse tranzit, a lot hated the map at the start, then the more they played it, the more they started to actually enjoy it and see how great the map was. I was one of those who hated shadows then started to love it
Same when i first time played shadow i was really hate it but after time it' become my favorite zombie map of all time but tranzit a still hate it XD
I like it over Der Eisnedrach cuz FUQ that Easter Egg
@@marthflores3515All the easter eggs suck to do lol.
I'm the opposite, I really liked this map at first but now I dislike this map, it's just not fun in my opinion.
I rather play Gorod krovi in bo3
NO it didn’t, shadows of evil is a bad map, I’ve only ever seen high round players say it’s decent, never met a single person that likes it other than randoms only in bubbles with each other. Tranzit was always bad but it was fun with people online so people love it
Absolutely amazing video. Perfectly reflects how I feel about Shadows. It's an absolutely fantastic map, but it's also overwhelming for people that aren't coming in hot off the tails of something like Mob or Origins. Really I think the casual audience would have been much kinder if The Giant had launched alongside it to appeal to their needs.
the giant was available at the same time as SOE, it just *came with the season pass at the time, so people either didn't care enough to buy it or couldn't afford it at the time, i wish it were free on release but they were there to juxtapose each other
It did though
Can't forget that on launch, we were playing an especially unrefined version of the map that wasn't quite balanced to near-perfection and quality of life features like we see now.
The map on-launch was particularly awful to play with randoms (how many of us were playing due to the disconnect between generations and the lack of friends who owned the latest and greatest consoles). Ritual times were ridiculously slow unless all 4 players were present in the room. Ritual items were also player-specific and could only be held one at a time, meaning only the one who picked it up could place it down on its respective table. This meant that nearly every public match, you'd have a clueless random or an intentional troll with no mic/communication stumble along and pick up one of the items, leaving it forever in their inventory and soft-locking everyone else out of pack-a-punch and progressing the map.
And as mentioned in the video, the only other, simple map option was The Giant, a remaster of Der Riese locked behind an extra $50 paywall (much later on, they made the map available for a $5 purchase, but that was far too late, as the remaining community was pretty much just those accustomed to the more complex nature of zombies or already owned the season pass). So bo3 zombies, at launch, was a pretty miserable experience for most of us. I desperately wanted to enjoy the gamemode, as I was still on the bo2 high, but SOE was damn near unplayable unless you had a plethora of YT tutorials and very competent friends on the current console generation.
It is amazing in retrospect though, nowadays I regard bo3 as objectively the best game for zombies. Even Shadows in its modern state makes it to my top 5 or top 10 at the bare minimum. But back in 2015, I struggled to accept bo3 as anything but the start of the downfall for zombies, and one of the most dissapointing gameplay experiences ever.
Well said, an enjoyable and agreeable read 👍
Fantastic series.
I played Nacht, Shi No Numa, Der Riese and Kino and then took a decade break from zombies (stopped playing CoD entirely, but saw occasional videos), so these videos have been fascinating for me to slowly go through the journey. What sets these retrospectives apart is not only the detail, but the weighting of both the casual and hardcore audience. I distinctly remember looking at Shadows on release and thinking "that's so involved, I don't think I'd know where to begin'.
Recently rediscovered zombies for myself and while I haven't played much (I only have BO4 launch maps at the minute), I've been watching a ton of videos on it and this series is an insta-watch for me. Another certified banger.
I would like to personally recommend you try out Cold War if you can! It really revitalized the casual scene and it is now my favorite zombies mode ever. I stopped playing midway through BO2, only briefly playing Shadows on release and skipping BO4, and can confidently say I adore CW Zombies!
Bo3 zombies, without counting PC customs, has 14 maps with all dlc and chronicles. Imo it's the zombies entry where fun is prioritized a little bit over game balance and every map looks great visually. Bo2 and Cold War are really great too
@@Aigis31 played zombies since I was like 8 and completed waw the first time, and I couldn't agree more. During lockdown I stayed in a flat with friends like 4 of us just playing warzone and they saw me playing bo2/3 zombies and they never played but when cold war came out all of us got it I got them into zombies and they fucking loved it
No matter how many Shadows of Evil video essays I've seen, ima always click on a new one🤣
I've been eagerly awaiting this one! WaW Nacht was my favorite map for many years. There's plenty of others I liked a lot, but nothing beat that simple "trapped in an abandoned building watching zombies stumble out of the fog" creepy factor. That "Night of the Living Dead" vibe.
Then not long ago I played this map after my best friend gave me their copy of Blops 3 (they got a digital only PS5 and didnt need the disc anymore).
As someone who is both a huge fan of Lovecraftian horror and classic Film Noir? This was the map that finally gave me a new contender for "favorite". I'm still not wild about how complicated the map is for a casual zombie fan like me, but the 1940's era city is gorgeous, the jazz music is perfect, the classic Noir character archetypes are great and the Cthulhu monsters are the cherry on top. I just fell in love with Shadows!
You'll get used to it. I remember how painful it was at launch (especially due to the broken Zombies AI) but now, me and my friends can literally have casual matches on Shadows.
We know what to do so we do it while killing Zombies and it feels like an adventure. Constantly moving across the map, killing zombies, doing rituals, fighting Margwas, picking up parts etc...
Absolute incredible map that ages like fine wine.
Listening to the entire retrospective at work and just seeing now this just got uploaded made my day way better
dude what you said about the setting change was on the money. I remember being so outraged by the shift in setting. I think it was just so unexpected and not really eased into either. BAM! now the entire world is tentacles. Especially when everyone was wanting answers for how Origins ended. Should not have been the map on disc.
I cancelled my special edition pre-order and never played a new zombies again after the SoE trailer dropped for that exact reason.
Shadows of Evil is my most played map by far, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.
When you look at BO1 and 2 they both launched with a map which was fairly small, simple and easy. And the second map which was larger, more complicated and harder. And that worked very well in both games. So I did always wonder why BO3 launched with only one map that was very large, complicated and difficult as the only option. Because it would just turn the casual audience which is most of the playerbase off to zombies immediately. Especially when they had a second casual map right there and they didn't put it the base game.
Let’s be real, Tranzit was a complicated map aswell. If you’d played BO2 mob of the dead you’d instantly understand shadows of evil. Yes it would take a bit of learning but in my opinion wonder weapons and pack a punch shouldn’t just be handed to the player.
@@DBFARuler @Ismail Mod was the second DLC so the people still playing zombies when the second DLC came out were people that were invested in the mode. So in BO3 when the casual audience's only option is a big, complex and difficult map they'll hate it. Your base game map has to cater to the casual audience because the casual audience is the vast majority of the player base. So if they don't like the first map then they aren't going to pay for another one.
Nigga called tranzit fairly small,simple and easy 💀💀
@@byrite8112 No genius. Town is the small simple map Tranzit is the opposite
@@Chrisey96. Bruh, ain't nobody considering Town, Farm, or Bus depot the BO2 launch map
Dude, your production value and scripts keep getting better and better; this is easily the best video in your entire series yet
Just binge watched this entire series, and I can't wait for the next video already. Amazing content bro.
On paper, this map should've been my younger selfs wet dream. Lovecraftian elements? Better graphics and more zombies? Yes! Only when I loaded up shadows of evil, and played it more and more, I found myself liking it less and less and less, despite really wanting to love it. I adore the aesthetic, but the map design to me was absolutely garbage, maybe I'm biased because I'm not a fan of black ops 3 in general. I was also not a fan of the growing complexity added to zombies, to me, origins and mob of the dead was the perfect balance of having lots to do, without feeling overwhelmed. To add to that, I always hated the gobblegum system which was just another nail in the coffin for me. All around, I wish I could love bo3 as much as some do, It does have some of the best zombies maps in the franchise, but I just can't bring myself around to loving, or even liking it. This began my distancing from the franchise, with advanced warfare being the last cod I sinked a lot of hours into.
Sucks that you're missing on the best maps zombies has to offer because you can't take the time to learn them. Oh well
@@cobrakaineverdies-i2ktriggered
It's less complicated than origins imo, because I don't have to pull out my phone when I want to upgrade something. Like, who remembers the ice staff symbols? that's such a big ask to just use the wonder weapon.
@@cobrakaineverdies-i2k the biggest issue is that all you do is learn them, then play a laughably easy, chore filled and boring version of cod zombies for 2 hours before it becomes remotely difficult-about the time I end the game because life is busy.
If zombie maps require online tutorials to do then they aren’t good zombies maps…
Your getting better and better with each upload man. Keep it going 👍
This is the new one.
Another great video as always! I really look forward to them.
You said you were going to do it and you did it, love a guy who keeps his promises
welcum
Fun Fact when you look up “Dear god, he’s British” most of the results are fnaf memes
Fun fact, I tried this and only had one fnaf meme come up
@@plus_one_hundred9817 huh.. for me my top 5 were fnaf meme vids titled ah he’s British and dawko meme review
I hated this map, wtf dude you've changed my perspective to a somewhat positive one. Stella work yet again, makes me miss those 3am Kino sessions with the boys.
shadows of evil is lowkey one of my top 5 maps oat. the easter egg grind is pretty fun, the vibes are immaculate, and it set up the story very well. had me excited to continue playing. esp since the map right after was a top 3 map oat. i wish The Giant wasnt paid DLC tho. only having Shadows wo having to spend more $ is def polarizing
All my friends hate on this map and I used to not like it either but then I LEARNED IT and let me just say I count myself as a casual and learning this map was actually pretty easy the more you do it the more it becomes as easy as just killing zombies the whole game and it becomes so much fun just killing margwas and unlocking more shit, this map introduced me to getting wonder weapons and Easter eggs and for that alone I praise it
So its easy and shit then cool.
All your friends and MOST zombies fans hate it, yes. Just because YOU like it, it doesn’t make it good
@@birthd-y shadows is a top 10 zombies map on every ranking list I’ve seen buddy so go do some research
Love your youtube channel, gives me so much joy and nostalgia to see some great throw back zombies content and break down
I think the only thing that holds the map back for me is that there is no “fun” weapons in the box
The wonder wepond not that fun to mr either.
20:00 theres a custom mapper named Verk0 thats giving TranZit the details it deserved, i would encourage everyone to take a look!
The aesthetic presentation alone sold me. Unique settings and time periods of murdalating zombies just gets me at a primal core.
I don't know why but when SOE released I hated it it may have been me being young but now I see the masterpiece it is
I used to hate SOE. It's now my favourite map of all time. And Jeff Goldblum as Nero is absolutely perfect. My favourite celebrity character
your vids are so underrated bro I've literally been binging all of them whilst playing plants vs zombies
24:01 to be fair.. Jackie f***** Vincent calls them meatballs too
I love these videos so much. Please keep making them! Keeping zombies alive
as someone who was new to zombies at the time and bo3 was my first time properly playing zombies (aside from kino at a friends house) the story, atmosphere and complexity of the map was what kept me hooked and still to this day shadows is my favorite map of all time. absolute fucking masterpiece
The story is garabge, the atmosphere is irrelevant after the first week and complexity in zombies usually means bad. If you need a very detailed guide to do the thing you're meant to do it's probably not a good map
@@Euro.Patriot ?? the story was amazing and the atmosphere and detail of the map is the reason why shadows is considered a top tier map in almost everyones lists, wtf kind of shit are you smoking?
@@pingeee Once a story introduces a multiverse everything is meaningless, atmosphere is meaningless and the detail isn't anything special. Don't waste your time with SOE, get Chronicles and play Moon.
@@Euro.Patriot "atmosphere is meaningless" in that case cold war was an s tier zombies game according to you lmao
@@pingeee I don't care about anything past BO3, never played CW and don't intend on wasting time changing that.
Watched the first minute of this yesterday ;) great video as always!
This map is so awesome! It’s such an aesthetic triumph and once you get past the learning curve it’s not too hard and it’s really fun!
Man i when i first saw your channel i thought that you would have like 500k subs but only 16k? What im trying to say is that you have a really bright future here on youtube mate
Shadows of Evil made me give up on BO3 Zombies when it first came out, which is a shame because now Der Eisdendrache is probably my favorite map ever. But I've been interested in learning it and giving it another chance. Looking forward to the DE video.
Honestly if the giant was included without being a bonus zombies
Shadows would have really benefitted
This was definitely the end for me. Hard to get invested in the story when u can only progress from external sources.
The quality of this video made me think you had like a million subs. Keep up the great work!
Amazing video, great analysis and spot on criticism! 10/10 as usual my friend!
another cool detail is im pretty sure that those perk bottles that help you figure out which district has which perk are the bo2 perk bottle design and not the bo3 bottles
Yooo I found you yesterday and binged almost every episode!
I’ve never been good at Shadows, but once I learned a bit more about the map I found myself having a lot more fun. I never looked anything up either, you can figure a lot out just by running about and noodling around
The giant saved bo3.
For the casual of course but the whole game nah
just wanna say, for me and the boys, soe is still our go to bo3 map
even if it wasn't perfect, I truly wish infinity ward stuck to extinction and built on it to have something more uniquely their own in their titles going forward
Starting here and working back. The buried video brought me to your channel
I hated shadows when it first came out but once you really get into it you begin to love it
amazing video man! keep making bangers cliff
I remember in the beginning that people loved this map, then they hated it for a little bit when Eisendrache came out, then everyone now loves it again
Here before you reach 20k! Fantastic series
Bo3 and bo4 were missteps imo. Doesn’t even feel like zombies and the weapons feel like bb guns
BO3 was the best entry.
I would honestly rather have an insanely complex map like shadows on launch than be stuck with town, farm, nuketown, and tranzit again. Shadows is my favorite map tho
L opinion
@@antuanperez426 really???
Missed you buddy, great video keep it up cant wait for der eisendrache
The Widows WIne transition was inspired. Bravissimo Sir.
I love everything abt SOE since the beginning just the look had me playing it for hours
I hate how much Zombies took off as a mode. Don't get me twisted, I LOVE Zombies for some casual fun, and hardcore grinding for whatever it is I'm trying to do. But every fucking CoD keeps trying to make Zombies modes instead of what their games used to have. What made MW2 and MW3 so good was the fact their Spec Ops had a mix of campaign style missions, co-op missions and survival missions. MW3 even took it a step further and had one of the best survival type gamemodes and even had Chaos Survival which was dumb fun. But now it's all about ZOMBIES, ZOMBIES, ZOMBIES.
They should just leave it to treyarch games only
As a person whose first map was SoE. This map definitely had quite a veneer to it which I found especially captivating, especially in terms of optimizing beast mode to be able to do each district utilizing only one beast mode and having Pack open on as low a round as possible (either round 2 or 3 depending on double points in spawn and other drops). Also the aesthetic of the map definitely aided in captivating my interest and had me straight addicted to playing the map. I must be an outlier but as my first map I didn’t find it to be that unintuitive that it would ultimately turn me off, quite the opposite.
Cuz it was your first and you're not an adult now that was a kid when it all started.
@@dougashby5679 actually I was,I just didn’t play zombies until BO3, I started with COD4 and didn’t buy COD every year so I missed a good chunk of Treyarch’s games barring BO2’s multiplayer until BO3 went free back in 2017
Amazing vid
Love the map so much
Thank you
Jackie V at a glance can be pegged as a noir detective but personality-wise he’s more of a beat cop
I personally do have a setup process for soe that is exactly the same, since you can get pap open in round 2 you don't need jug I tent to go footlight first because the ritual has a larger training area which is useful because I bring 6 keepers. I always go for waterfront last as it has a smaller training area so I like to get the shield first just to be safe
I think the thing that hurt shadows the most was it being a launch map. But it was needed so the players could get accustomed to the new formula of zombies
28:38 ur friend getting chased by a meatball is so cartoony to me lol
after all these years I never knew about the free mega gobblegum and that you could upgrade your trip mines lol
I never knew you could tell where the perk machines were by the bottles in the Junction! Holy shit, learn something new every day.
Another great video! Keep it up!
Off topic... How do you draw those lines on the map about 4 minutes in? After effects?
Davinci Resolve, Fusion, Paint Node Polyline, keyframes on the Write-On property. Maybe not the best way, but very quick and easy!
i love shadows but it really started treyarch's streak of mostly hardcore community maps instead of the balance of both ee and casual.
all the maps after that except for the zc dlc and 9 and classified in bo4, had everything tied to the easter egg.
origins and mob where still fairly casual cause it was clear what to do and where to go, power generators in origins to get pap, build the plane in mob to get pap, simple and easy.
shadows it's you have to find stuff that belongs to the 4 characters, fill the soul key 4 times, open up parts of the map with beast mode, and then go into the subway, put the key down, do a small sequence, THEN you got pap. first time i played shadows i had no idea what to do or where to go to get pap.
then the following maps doubled down on it all the way to tag der toten, i for the life of me could not tell you how to turn on pap in 90% Of the maps in bo3 and bo4, thankfully they fixed that with cold war.
I saw the release of shadows of evil at Comic Con LIVE, and met the ultimis crew alomg side the SOE crew. So when i played this ot was my new favorite map. Mob of the dead and shadows are my favorite maps. I also enjoyed voyage of dispair and wish i couldve played dead of the night
I remember watching the shadows of evil reveal and being stunned. It was too loud, too overproduced and too just… weird for zombies. Obviously zombies has only gotten crazier since but I have such a weird relationship with this map. It’s both great and awful as a zombies map.
The amount of rounds you had to survive in MW3 depended on the map difficulty, but it was nowhere near infinite.
I remember watching this video, when it was released yesterday.
I'd say shadows is like a tranzit with a mob of the dead aesthetic with origins steps
I was a day one SoE fan. Despite the fact that I'm a pretty casual player it's still probably my personal favorite
This the only map Ik every setup steps
Babe wake up, new White cliff games video
This map rewards you for learning it, once you do it’s one of the easiest maps to set up
you can fully open each area with 1 beast mode,
your able to pap on round 1 without spawning in with rk5 or grabbing Sals 500 laundry Ticket (another reference to mob) , your able to see the sword symbols with beast mode jumps and not need the tram at all, saving you time and points when skilled enough, upgrading the sword or getting it is fun, since you get to kill margwas and zombies, rituals are really fun and easy you get points, and they spawn Margwas which give more points and are balanced but fun, and ww is easy to get but you have to be round 15+ which is also balanced, there’s only 1 ww but there’s aats, the wall weapons are great for Easter egg using civil protector and making an actual strat rewards you in flag step, like everyone watching a different area, not standing next to flag, and not shooting ww on the flag etc
My only issue with Shadows and some of the maps before it is that it's only beatable with 4 people. As a solo player, that aspect sucks.
Babe wake up. A new zombies content creator just dropped
Shadows of evil is a great map but a terrible launch map
I completely agree shadows being the only launch map was a mistake, and either the giant should have been on disc too or an original and more simple map should have been there in the mould of a kino or der riese. Personally I can't get into the complexity on my own much, if other people tell me what to do for an ee, I'll try but mostly my map knowledge goes to hitting pack a punch and the music ee. I think a side effect of the maps getting more complex with the potential for a more powerful player is the devs tried to met this challenge which to me is kinda misguided to an extent. While it keeps the game challenging and fresh to the experienced player, new players can be totally left in the dust at times and my biggest example is origins (I've not done too much shadows sorry), but the panzer at round 8 is such a huge skill check unless you have got to pap or got a staff which is pretty hard for new players to do that fast, and things like that keep me away from most of black ops 3 unless im grouped up with friends which barely happens, and going online on pc now is a massive security risk, because hackers are everywhere and they sometimes just cheat the fun out the game by turning on godmode for everyone or unlimited powerups, or they max level you give practically unlimited divinium and level up all the guns removing the grind of outside the game too. It's super frustrating, b03 is a game I wanna love it plays well and the weapons are mostly very fun, but i only tend to have fun on bo3 maps with friends, or zombie chronicles.
Sorry for the rambling long comment, great video series keep it up.
Totally agree, I actually mentioned the same thing as you in the Origins video; the fact that the player can *theoretically* get very powerful means the developers have to balance the game around that power. But then if you don’t do all the little secrets, that means you end up way *behind* the power curve!
@@whitecliffgames yeah I definitely feel it's a flaw of modern zombies I've played (not done black ops 4 yet I've only got into zombies in the last year). Thanks for the reply
I didn't learn SOE or do the easter egg until just this month thinking it was bad for 9 years
In Shi No Numa you can hear the correct perk jingle before opening the door.
Not on the original
THE SHADOWMAN'S HUMAN NAME WAS WHAT
I really like SoE and I miss the good old days of Zombies community around the BO3 era
This map would’ve been cooler if it took place in a carnival type setting
Shadows of evil was the black sheep map that they make for every zombie game.
It's just usually one of the DLCs not the starting map.
The aesthetics were good enough that I disregarded that it was completely different from the feeling of normal zombies (I love the classic Sci-Fi stuff, But the Margwa was my favorite boss enemy)
I don't think there's ever been a map that grew on me more than shadows of evil did. I hated that map on launch. It's one of my personal favorites now though.
babe wake up, white cliff games posted a video
11:55 "What it's good at is making shooting guns feel good"
I would like to point out one flaw in the argument: The Pharo. It's a 4 round burst peashooter that's basically a worse version of the shieva. It's the only burst gun in zombies I do not like. Even the characters bash it for being godawful.
Shadows of evil is the experience of not knowing what to do and getting pack open by round 20 and knowing what youre doing and having pack open on round 1
much like Leroy no matter how much treyarch told us the proper name the community refers to meatballs as meatballs
LETS GOOO SHADOWS OF EVIL VIDEO
Been sick the last three days, saw your buried video in my feed, this is good series for bench watching
I bought BO3 and WaW around 2018, maybe 2019. BO3 was my first zombies game. It wasn’t until last summer that I played through Nacht, and I was hooked. I just bought BO1 and 2. I’m having more fun on Moon and Der Reise than I did in SOE.
It must have been awful at first not being used to shadows and having no easy maps, but shadows is imo the best map ever made. When you do good on shadows it is actually satisfying
I think the zombie community sometimes forgets how poor ghosts and aw really were for the rest of cod, it brought a lot of mp players back to bo2 until bo3 came out and a lot of us came back and played zombies. Treyarch knew this, they released the first ever camo dlc’s during a different games life cycle which was huge back then and it was based of zombies! They also had so much pressure to get every aspect right, they didn’t but bo3 is still the last cod game a truly put my life into. Since then it’s only been downhill in my personal opinion
So many maps will consist of a few spaces you can actually be, and the rest of the map is narrow death traps that you sprint through as you move from location to location. That's really not the case with Shadows. Basically anywhere you go you're going to be in a location that has had so much thought and care put into it's design. And no matter where that downed teammate is there's a way of getting there on time. The 4 districts really should have been released as stand alone challenge maps like they did with Tranzit - the ritual rooms are iconic and it's kind of sad the high round community has never had any reason to make use of them cause each one (okay only a masochist is going to grind boxing gym) are masterfully crafted training spaces. Each of the 3 branches offer enough viable training spaces to support 4 players. The aesthetics and all that are the cherry on top, but to me it's the map design itself that makes Shadows the best map we've ever gotten. No map has had as much time and effort put into it, and it really does show.
black ops 3 campaign may have sucked but zombies is pretty good ngl
I didnt like shadows at launch due to the complexity but playing it now its easily one of my favorites of all time and can have pack a punch of an upgraded sword by round 10 its super easy if you put the time to learn the map
I fully agree.
Shi no Numa feels like the start and Der Riese feels like a DLC. I love the Zielinski take. So much more than the Blundell take. Zielinski made it feel like DnD
I'm surprised the Margwa head wasn't mentioned.