Call of Duty Vanguard's Zombies mode looks like it could be one of the best we've seen in recent years. It's known as the War of the Dead, however, we only really know about Der Anfang at the moment - the first map that's launching with Vanguard this week. Here's what you need to know following some early reports from leakers...
UPDATE - Early reports on Der Anfang
Nanikos, a notable Call of Duty leaker and data miner, has shared a lot of information regarding the new Zombies experience - Der Anfang.
From what we can tell, it looks like Der Anfang is going to stitch together parts of existing maps to create one larger experience - however, this means it's going to be smaller than first expected.
The main hut area is the only part of Shi No Numa available, according to the tweet below.
Similarly, Hotel Royal is going to appear but Der Anfang is only going to allow players to run around the exterior areas.
When you consider that Der Anfang's hub area is going to be parts of Red Star, it doesn't really sound like this is going to be as big of a Zombies as initially thought.
DER ANFANG - What do we know so far?
Der Anfang is going to explore the mystical and the occult in a Call of Duty Zombies experience older fans will appreciate and newer fans will become enamoured with. It screams Treyarch Zombies in the best way and we can't wait to check it out.
As you can see in the "First Look at Zombies" reveal below, it looks like Der Anfang is going to be the beginning - which is the literal translation - and it's going to be a new arc in the Dark Aether storyline.
Projekt Endstation from Die Maschine is still in the back of our minds, but the Dark Aether's mystical entities are going to be prominent and involved right from the start with the mystical Altar of the Covenants artefacts and undead in their droves.
From what we can tell, Vanguard Zombies is going to balance Outbreak's open-ended areas and the round-based maps we know and love. There's going to be Dark Aether rune magic in play alongside classic Zombies features like Pack a Punch and the Mystery Box as Vanguard's best agents tackle the undead on modified versions of Vanguard's multiplayer maps.
Stalingrad will act as a forward operating base for Vanguard's Zombies in Der Anfang and you're going to need to complete objectives, like in Outbreak, to open up new areas and different environments - which you can find through portals. Shi No Numa, Hotel Royal, and new unseen locations are going to crop up throughout. This new mode is going to be called War of the Dead and we can't wait to see how it evolves over Vanguard's lifetime.