Given that Call of Duty Zombies has been going strong since 2008, it’s no surprise that players have been met with some memorable personalities. The Ultimis crew that started it all won over fans due to their humorous dialogue, becoming truly iconic despite being shallow parodies of their countries of origin. The deeper Primis variants of that crew allowed for more impactful plot beats, while a range of minor crews have made their impact on the Aether, Chaos, and Dark Aether universes. Background figures like Samantha Maxis and Dr. Monty have driven large chunks of the plot, though when nailing down a “main character” for the mode, it is Edward Richtofen and his many forms that immediately come to mind.
Whether players were despising Richtofen for his betrayal of the Maxis family, laughing at his absurd exchanges with Tank Dempsey, crying when the “nicest” version died in Blood of the Dead, or theorizing about the zombified variant of The Doctor, Richtofen is a character who has always sparked some kind of emotion within the Zombies fandom. As such, fans have been patiently waiting to see how Black Ops Cold War and Black Ops 6’s Eddie differs from the other takes on the character, and while some interesting tidbits have been revealed, Treyarch is running out of time to pick up the pace and let Eddie properly step into the spotlight.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Black Ops 6 Zombies.
Black Ops 6: All Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Event Pass Rewards
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Event Pass has arrived for Black Ops 6, bringing with it a roster of free and premium rewards for players to unlock.
Black Ops 6 Zombies’ Expansion of Eddie is Interesting, But Something is Missing
To be clear, Black Ops 6 is doing some interesting things with Eddie Richtofen. Making Gabriel Krafft his adoptive father was a fun way to redeem one of the only strong points of Vanguard Zombies while simultaneously filling in a gap from Eddie’s past, explaining where he got his knowledge of the occult and the undead. Eddie’s dialogue with S.A.M., the AI version of Samantha Maxis he created, has made for some properly engaging audio logs to collect in maps like The Tomb. His Liberty Falls intro cutscene not only showed him being a skilled survivor in his own right, but confirmed that he lost his wife and child to a fire that Weaver accidentally sparked. Still, while all of this character work has been good, it’s about time that players get to see and interact with Eddie.
Liberty Falls’ intro cutscene is the only time Black Ops 6 players have seen Eddie in the flesh, which is frustrating considering that they spent the entirety of Black Ops Cold War waiting for the reveal that he was Requiem’s director. After Forsaken’s Easter egg ending unveiled Eddie, players assumed they would be getting their revenge shortly into Black Ops 6’s life span. However, with four maps down and Eddie still not encountered by the Terminus crew, it’s beginning to feel like players might not see Eddie until the end of Black Ops 6, with history unfortunately repeating itself for two Treyarch games in a row. Players can only listen to characters like Weaver rant about hating Richtofen for so long before something changes, as some kind of encounter is necessary for both Eddie and his victims to move forward.
COD: Black Ops 6 Guide - Best Loadouts, Zombies, Tips, & More
Beat the competition, defeat the undead, and blitz through the Campaign with this collection of guides and walkthroughs for everything in Black Ops 6.
Black Ops 6 is Running Out of Time to Let Eddie Shine
Black Ops 6’s next Zombies map is all-but-confirmed to be the Mansion from Liberty Falls, which is where the real Samantha resides. With Eddie captured by Sam, it can be assumed that players will once again not be interacting with him throughout the Mansion map, with a more likely scenario being that the Mansion map's main quest ends with Richtofen being freed from Sam’s clutches. This would set him up to finally be a more present antagonist in the next Black Ops 6 map, and while it will be exciting to finally see the Terminus characters come face to face with their captor, it would have been more exciting to maximize Richtofen’s time on screen.
It’s unclear if the ongoing actor strike, which has led to other CoD Zombies recastings, has caused Treyarch to delay Richtofen’s return in hopes of a resolution. After all, fans would surely be outraged if the excellent Nolan North was unceremoniously replaced, especially after several BO6 audio logs have featured his voice.
While Black Ops 6 Zombies has surprised players with its seasonal map releases thus far, meaning there could be more maps than normal being dropped before Call of Duty 2025 debuts, 3-4 more maps is a best case scenario for the game. This means that by the time Treyarch moves on to its next game and Zombies experience, Eddie will have essentially been a background character for half, or slightly over half, of the Black Ops 6 life cycle. No matter how players look at it, that is a bit disappointing, as the end of Forsaken led fans to believe that they would be seeing a lot more of Eddie in the next game than they have thus far.
Though it may be too late to give Eddie a bigger role in the first several maps of Black Ops 6, hopefully Treyarch maximizes his minutes in whatever maps are left for the current Call of Duty game. Having him hack into the Terminus’ crew’s comms once he’s freed would be a great way to get more dialogue from him, as he could have one-on-one debates with certain crew members while taunting the whole cast as they work through a main quest. Some proper CoD Zombies cinematics like the Liberty Falls intro could help Treyarch keep its promise of delivering key info through cutscenes, shedding light on Richtofen’s plan. A boss fight against Eddie at the end of Black Ops 6’s post-launch run would be a crowdpleaser, while a playable Eddie operator shouldn’t be off the table either - especially with the original crew supposedly returning in CoD 2025, as it would make the hypothetical operator a teaser of sorts like the level 1000 Prestige Mastery reward. With it already feeling as if Eddie has been kept off-screen for too long, hopefully Treyarch will give fans a lot more Richtofen content in Black Ops 6’s final maps.
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 83 /100 Critics Rec: 91%
- Released
- October 25, 2024
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Suggestive Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Treyarch, Raven Software
- Publisher(s)
- Activision
- Engine
- IW 9.0
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- Yes - PlayStation, Xbox, PC
WHERE TO PLAY
Forced to go rogue. Hunted from within. This is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Developed by Treyarch and Raven, Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower. With a mind-bending narrative, and unbound by the rules of engagement, this is signature Black Ops.
The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity.
In a best-in-class Multiplayer experience, players will test their skills across 16 new maps at launch, including 12 core 6v6 maps and 4 Strike maps that can be played 2v2 or 6v6.
Black Ops 6 also marks the epic return of Round-Based Zombies, the fan-favorite mode where players will take down hordes of the undead in two brand-new maps at launch. Post-launch, players can look forward to even more exciting maps and groundbreaking experiences dropping into both Multiplayer and Zombies.
- Genre(s)
- FPS
