Zombie


 * This article is for the undead enemy seen in Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops. For the game mode, see Zombies (Mode).

Zombies are enemies that appear in World at War and Black Ops. They are dead soldiers, as always in World at War, or civillians, as a faily common occurance in Black Ops with certain maps, reanimated by Element 115.

Creation
Though the origin of the zombies remains mostly unclear, various incidents leading up to the creation of the zombies can be found via radio messages found in various maps. In Shi No Numa, a radio message can be heard in the starting room by turning on three radios or by turning one radio on and pressing the use button. The message can be read here. The numbers are the geological coordinates of Tunguska and Area 51. DG experiments is a reference to the Wunderwaffe DG-2. The asylum is the setting of the second level, Verrückt. 115 is Ununpentium, an element found in meteors and known to power the Wonder Weapons and re-animating dead cells. A meteor containing 115 is shown in the map Shi No Numa outside one of the swamp areas.

In Der Riese, the creation of the zombies and Hellhounds is almost completely explained. Radio messages confirm that Doctor Maxis was working with the Element 115 to create Wonder Weapons for Nazi Germany. While doing so, he discovered that Element 115 also re-animates the dead, therefor creating Zombies. He tried to control the Zombies so that Nazi Germany could create an undead army to fight the Soviet Union. The problem was that they would always go berserk and would not obey commands. He was also (along with Edward Richtofen) working on a teleporter to use in combination with the Wunderwaffe DG-2 to strike the Russians in the back.

One day, Maxis used his daughter Samantha's dog, Fluffy (who was pregnant), as a test subject for his teleporter. Unfortunately something went horribly wrong and Fluffy transformed into the first Hellhound. After this event his assistant, Edward locked Maxis and Samantha in the teleporter room with Fluffy who killed them.

Later in both "Five" and Kino der Toten, a new zombie appears called the Crawler Zombie. The Crawler Zombie explodes and emits Nova-6 when it dies. Richtofen says the Crawler Zombies were a failed experiment of Doctor Maxis. Space Monkeys are primates from the Soviet Space Program that probably came in contact with Element 115 when they were sent to the moon.

Speeds
The Zombies have varying speeds, one of which is exclusive to Verrückt, and another exclusive to Ascension. They are:


 * A very slow march.
 * A slow stumble with arms by their sides.
 * A normal walk with their arms waving in the air and their faces glancing upward at the sky.
 * A jog with arms straight out (like Frankenstein and in older classic Zombie films).
 * A fast run. Their arms move back and forth, similar to a human.
 * A sprint, with one arm in front of them pointing down and the other behind them in the air.
 * In Verrückt, some zombies have a sprint-like speed with their shoulders forward and arms moving as a person would while running (although to less of an extent). These are considerably faster than any other speed, and run at roughly the same speed that the player does with a pistol (without sprinting). Any other gun class requires the player to sprint in order to not get caught by them.
 * In Ascension, on some occasions zombies will crouch down and roll towards the player. It is unknown why they do this.

Behavior
The zombies seem to have reverted to a primal cognitive state, as they will attempt to kill or incapacitate any player through melee attacks. They are unable to use any weapons, even when both legs are blown off, the zombies will continue to attempt to kill the players. The zombies also show an odd behavioral characteristic in the sense that they will stop attacking a player when he's downed, instead going for the player(s) that are still alive. The reason behind this is unknown.

As shown by the Der Riese radio messages and computer files, the zombies were meant to be controlled, but they would always end up going berserk.

In Ascension, zombies may try to do barrel-rolls and/or head-fakes to try to avoid the player's shots. Zombies can also jump up incredibly high distances to ledges. This is most noticeable when staying upstairs in the centrifuge room where the player spawns at the start of the game, since generally the zombies will just jump up instead of using the stairs.

Characteristics
Some zombies will die from only a few rounds from an M1911, while other zombies can withstand up to or exceed two blasts from a Ray Gun. This depends on the round as the zombies have more health in later rounds.

Zombies also have varying movement speeds, from a slow stumble to an outright dash. Over the course of time, it seems the zombies are becoming more and more intelligent, first not even possible to attack the player through windows, now dodging bullets, cutting the players off and even jump at incredible heights. It can also be noted that some zombies march to the windows, as if marching with an army.

The zombies also look different from each other. Some look as if they were burned to death, others look intimidating, while others are missing arms, or even have exposed bloody rib-cages. On Verrückt zombies sometimes appear to have staples inserted into their head, giving the assumption they died during brain surgery inside the Asylum. Most of the zombies in Black Ops have decomposed faces and have a slight change in their speed than other zombies. On Ascension, the zombies faces seem to have been warped more than before. For instance, some zombies have a type of gas mask and their flesh seems to sag in many places on their face.

Trivia

 * Some Zombies are seen marching in a Nazi goose step towards the windows in Verrückt, Der Riese and Kino der Toten.
 * The history of the zombies is shown in Der Riese/Radio Messages.
 * If a grenade is thrown at a zombie about to come out the ground, they will go into a crouching stance.
 * Technically, zombies are not unarmed. They are equipped with the weapon "BRAAAINS..."
 * The Zombie AI is programmed to follow and attack which ever player is closest to it. This is the most apparent when their head is shot off and they still move towards the player and attempt to attack them.
 * When in water, the Zombies lose very little of their speed.
 * Any headless Zombie will die in the next hit no matter what damages it.
 * A rare glitch may occur with the Thundergun, the zombie will be blown into the ceiling will be stuck there. (confirmed on PS3 and Xbox 360).
 * There might be an occasional glitch on Verruckt where if a crawler goes down a flight of stairs, they will get stuck in the air and move as if they were crawling.
 * Very rarely, on Ascension, if a zombie is walking on the spot where the Lunar Lander is landing and it's crushed by the edge of the lander, the zombie's body and limbs will start to stretch to impossible lengths.(Confirmed on Xbox 360)

Gallery
&nbsp