Call of Duty Manager hails MW3 Zombies as best mode in a decade

Alongside the two main pillars of Call of Duty's annual release titles, multiplayer and campaign, Activision continuously searches for a third game mode which supplements the others.

In years gone by, we've seen round-based Zombies, Special Ops, and even Outbreak come to entertain fans in their downtime, but this time around, Zombies took a weird and wonderful turn. Better yet, it seems to have gone down a storm.

Zombies has been such a hit in 2023, Call of Duty General Manager Johanna Faries has claimed that Modern Warfare 3's Zombies is the best "third mode" in a decade.

Call of Duty GM labels MW3 Zombies as 'best third-mode in a decade'

Click to enlarge

Following on from DMZ - a mode loved by a small selection of military-heavy CoD fans but uninteresting to most - Modern Warfare 3 Zombies was born. Amid Modern Warfare 3's catastrophic and all-time-worst Campiagn, the mode needed to work...and so it has. 

In an interview with Venture Beat, Johanna Faries said, "Credit to everyone on the development side for Modern Warfare is Zombies mode is probably the best rated ‘third mode’ in a decade, and I’m not making that up."

These comments may be more reflective of the Modern Warfare side of things rather than the overall franchise, given that Blackout was one of these modes over on the Black Ops side of things.

Johanna Faries hails MW3 Zombies mode development and lore

Click to enlarge

It's not just the concept that Faries has applauded, though, and she's gone on to praise the lore and canon building within the mode.

"We just launched a completely new open world expansive way to play Zombies. Sounds great. Sounds obvious, not easy," she continued.

"You have a whole segment of our audience who’s like, we’ll see about this. And it’s a different way to play Zombies. Even the gameplay architecture is different.

"So let’s just get in the trench with whatever the feedback might be, good or bad. What we’ve drawn from that has paid so many dividends. 

"And I think it’s really changed the way that a lot of both core players were in our system, but also fans outside of COD and who have perceived the brand.”

MW3 Zombies even tied in Easter eggs like Mister Peek, which have gone down a treat. Call of Duty might've not quite nailed it with MW3, but at least we can agree, Zombies is back from the dead.