Call of the Dead

"A shipwrecked crew of fearless explorers is hopelessly stranded in an abandoned Siberian outpost. Their dream of discovering the true origins of the Element 115 unravels into a hellish nightmare."

- Call of the Dead level description.

Call of the Dead is a Zombie map included in the Escalation map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Treyarch called it "a unique Zombies experience" and is "a very special creation for all Zombie fans." The level is the first to feature actual celebrities fighting the zombies and features a celebrity as one of the zombies. The map takes place on a ship and the land next to it.

Overview
"It's anchors away for mayhem! In this epic tale of survival inspired by legendary writer and director George A. Romero, a group of four fearless explorers fight for their lives amidst an army of bloodthirsty Russian zombies. The story begins with our heroes stranded in the frozen wastelands of a forgotten Siberian outpost. On the hunt for the origins of the enigmatic Element 115, they head for the site of an ancient meteorite impact crater but their ship mysteriously runs aground. In the midst of a horrific snowstorm, our intrepid adventurers inadvertently unleash an unearthly horde of ravenous Zombies. From the island's deserted lighthouse to a shipwrecked ocean liner and a precarious zip-line in between, it's kill or be killed. And with shiploads of zombie Russian soldiers, scuba divers and sailors that rise out of the frozen ground and icy waters it's not going to be easy, especially considering the deadly surprise that one particular (and somewhat notable) Zombie has in mind."

- Call of the Dead Plot Summary

Call of the Dead is the largest zombie map yet, with multiple areas. Players spawn on the shore with up to three other teammates, as soon as the players spawn George Romero spawns out of a lightning bolt in a nearby pool. There are two chalk weapon outlines there, as with the last three Black Ops zombie maps, the Olympia and the M14. Players can open either one of two different boats. One leads to the lighthouse, and the other leads to the ship. The Power switch is located at the top of the ship, which has the Flinger on its side.

The new perk, Deadshot Daiquiri, is located at the very top of the lighthouse, with a price of 1500 points. It causes the aim-assist when entering ADS to auto-focus on the head as opposed to center-of-mass, as well as having the effects of Steady Aim and its pro version. Also, when using a sniper rifle, there is no sway. The Matryoshka Doll returns. The new Wonder Weapon, the V-R11 makes its debut in this map, with the ability to transform Zombies back into humans, them running away in fear and getting killed afterward by other zombies. Another new weapon is a Scavenger that shoots explosive bolts, shares its bolt-action trait and its reload with the Intervention. There are five radios which feature Richtofen discussing various experiments. There are also 4 radios that if used in the correct order, once the controls next to the power switch are set correctly as well, will cause a submarine to rise out of the water between speed cola and the boat across from it.

When George A. Romero appears at the first round he appears in a "Calm State", him slowly walking towards you while shouting threats. He also appears to be invincible (in reality, he has around 400,000 health per player), damage triggering his "Berserk Mode", causing him to run at the nearest person and wildly attacking and spontaneously roaring and growling. Note the fact that you only get points for shooting him in his "Calm State", and only outside of the water. Contrary to popular belief, the V-R11 does not turn George A. Romero back into a human, only managing to turn him back into his "Calm State". Luring him into the icy waters also "calms" him down. Killing George A. Romero in his calm state with something other than the V-R11 will give the player a random perk bottle and a Death Machine. However, if the Stand-in/Ensemble Cast achievements have been completed, he will instead drop the Lightning Bolt perk rather than a death machine. The most effective weapons to kill him are the Death Machine, upgraded Sniper Rifles such as the L96A1 when shooting him in the head, and the Scavenger. It is not recommended that you use any other gun because of how much health George has, but is possible to kill him without high damage weapons. You can tell how much health he has by his spot-light (blue for high health, orange for low health, no light for almost dead.)

The map also features the Original Characters Trapped in a small dark room, after 115 apparently influenced the Kassimir Mechanism and caused the four of them to teleport to the future. Freeing them serves as the maps major Easter egg and gives the Lightning Bolt Power-up, granting the player a Wunderwaffe DG-2. Although it is a Power-up, it will not disappear until you use up all the ammo. You are not allowed to Pack-a-Punch it. Max Ammo's replenish the Wunderwaffe DG-2's ammo. In addition, each additional time the player defeats George A. Romero, they will be granted a Wunderwaffe DG-2 instead of the normal Death Machine.

Opening Scene Transcript
-The screen is black and George A. Romero can be heard speaking.

Romero: "I've always liked the "monster within" idea. I like the zombies being us. It's like zombies are the blue-collar monsters."

-The lighthouse appears on the screen with a flash of lightning behind it. Zombies start to attack Danny Trejo and Robert Englund and both of them try to fight them off.

Trejo: "We're completely surrounded!"

Englund: "We're completely fucked!"

-Englund is stabbing a zombie with his pitchfork and Michael Rooker is then seen killing zombies with two Sawed-Off Shotguns.

Rooker: "Are you girls kidding me? I've been praying for this shit! Come on!"

-A door to the lighthouse opens behind Rooker, and Sarah Michelle Gellar kicks a zombie corpse down the stairs that lead to the door.

Gellar: "Boys... let's get to work."

-Action music starts playing and all four characters continue killing zombies. A zombie comes to attack Rooker from behind. Rooker turns around and attempts to hit the zombie on the shoulder. The zombie stops attacking, looks at the camera, and starts talking.

Fake Zombie: "For god sakes, he missed me again!"

Romero: "Cut! Are you blind, man?"

-Romero takes one of Rooker's shotguns and goes to Englund to demonstrate how Rooker was supposed to knock out the zombie for the movie.

Romero: "Like this."

-Romero hits Englund in the face with the butt of the shotgun.

Englund: "OOOWWWW!"

Romero: "See?"

Trejo: "No jefe (boss), I do it like this."

-Trejo bunts the bottom of his machete on top of Englund's head.

Englund: "Danny!"

Gellar: "I do it like this."

-Gellar roundhouse kicks Englund in the chest, knocking him on his back. A zombie then comes out of a window prop.

Romero: "Get back to hair and make-up. You don't look dead enough!"

-The fake zombie then takes the real zombie by the shoulder to escort it to hair and make-up.

Fake Zombie: "Come on, let's go."

-The real zombie throws the fake one to the ground, picks up Romero and runs away with him.

Rooker: "That ain't in the script."

Trejo: ''"We're writing a new one! It's called "Maggot! Sack! Massacre!""''

Englund: "This is a real nightmare!"

Gellar: "Let's slay some stiffs!"

-All four characters then engage in combat with real zombies.

Ending Scene Transcript
Romero: Years ago I did research for a World War II movie. I came across some old Nazi documents. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Element 115, necromancers, raising from the dead, real creepy stuff. The coolest thing? Some of that crazy shit happened right here.

Starting Weapons

 * M1911
 * M67 Grenade
 * Knife

Off-Wall Weapons

 * AK74u - Near the lighthouse entrance on the bottom floor, across from the door that leads to the slide.
 * Claymore - In the room near Double Tap, on the wall.
 * M14 - On the bridge near the spawn area.
 * M16 - On the wall right where the Flinger is.
 * MP5K - On a wooden board on the way to the lighthouse from the spawn, right before the first staircase.
 * MP40 - Near stairs down to Juggernog on side of a cargo container, just after you jump off the boat with the power switch.
 * MPL - On the first level on the boat, right next to the first barrier leading to the power room.
 * Olympia - On the bridge in the spawn area.
 * PM63 - On the wall leading toward the bottom entrance to Juggernog.
 * Stakeout - Behind the lighthouse near Stamin-Up.
 * Sickle - On the wall down the ice slide, across from Speed Cola
 * Semtex - Near the bow of the ship on a cargo crate.

Mystery Box Weapons

 * AUG w/ Swarovski Scope
 * Ballistic Knife
 * China Lake
 * Commando
 * Crossbow
 * CZ75 (with or without Dual Wield)
 * Dragunov
 * FN FAL
 * Famas
 * G11 w/ Low Power Scope
 * Galil
 * HK21
 * HS-10
 * L96A1
 * M72 LAW
 * Matryoshka Doll
 * Python
 * Ray Gun
 * RPK
 * Scavenger
 * SPAS-12
 * Spectre
 * V-R11

Power-Up Weapons

 * Death Machine
 * Wunderwaffe DG-2 (Complete Original Characters Trapped Easter Egg.)

Features

 * The first Zombies map to only have one window in the spawn room.
 * Two Ziplines: One goes from the ship to the coast and the other goes from the lighthouse to the ship.
 * George A. Romero guest stars as a boss but instead of having his own round, he will appear at Round 1 and will follow the player until he is dealt with.
 * Call of the Dead features the first female playable character in Nazi Zombies and the second playable female character in the Call of Duty Series.
 * All of the Perk-a-Cola machines and a new one called Deadshot Daiquiri are available on this map
 * The Flinger flings players off the ship and onto the coast
 * A new Wonder Weapon called the V-R11 reverts a zombie back to it's human state.
 * Water on the map will cause frost to accumulate on the player's screen, blinding and eventually freezing the player. It also over time will act on Zombies much in the same way as the Winter's Howl freezing them in blocks of ice allowing them to be easily shattered. When encased in ice a hit from a player or zombie will free them from the ice.
 * The Lighthouse's beam will showcase where the Pack-A-Punch Machine is on the map once the power is turned on. This is because it moves around the map.
 * On each floor of the lighthouse a color coded dial can be found on the wall. There are four dials in all. Each dial has a different color on it. The first floor is purple, the second floor is blue, the third floor is orange and the fourth floor is yellow. (Next to the original survivors is a color coded map that follows these same layouts). The dials can be rotated to display numbers 0-9 by pressing the action button. When turned, the floor above and/or below the turned dial will also spin one to the right as well. The correct combination is 2746 from top to bottom and is part of the Original Characters Trapped easter egg.
 * Once the power is on, directly opposite the power switch is the Navigation wheel of the ship, pressing the action button can move this clockwise and counterclockwise. To the right of the navigation wheel are three pull levers, the two on the outside can be changed by pressing the action button, however the middle lever cannot be changed.
 * The weather occasionally changes from snowing hard with a fog, to a light flurry with easy visibility. Whenever the weather changes, the player will make a comment on it.
 * A large lightning cluster will happen when the Pack-A-Punch Machine is leaving or entering a location.
 * This is the first map where the Wunderwaffe DG-2 is available as the Lightning Bolt.
 * An Ice Slide that leads to the Sickle and the Speed Cola.

Strategies
Main article: Call of the Dead/Strategies

New Perk
Deadshot Daiquiri is a perk featured in Call of the Dead exclusively, so far. The perk's icon consists of a dark gray background color with the foreground being a head in front of a set of cross-hairs. The perk works in three different ways: it makes the cross-hairs smaller identically as Steady Aim, making sniper rifles and the G11 have no idle sway and it works as improved aim assist; when the player would aim down the sights while looking near the zombie, it would lock to the head of the zombie, instead of chest. It is unknown if the aim assist feature will exist on the PC, as it does not have the aim assist.

Trivia

 * This is the first map where the Pack-a-Punch Machine changes locations and the second in which the Pack-a-Punch Machine can become unavailable.
 * This is the second map not to have purchasable fragmentation grenades, instead Semtex takes its place as the first was Dead Ops Arcade which did not feature fragmentation grenades at all.
 * There is a picture of a crashed ship by a lighthouse on Der Riese.
 * This is the second map to feature real playable characters, the first being "Five".
 * This is the first map since Verrückt to not have a special round where a different type of a zombie appears.
 * Call of the Dead has no specific initial Mystery Box spawn point, so it spawns randomly every game.
 * Spanish can be seen written on a ripped poster next to the door the original characters are stuck behind. This might've been written by the dead Mexican test subject Richtofen talks about in one of his audio diaries.
 * If the player is downed in water, the gun will be much higher on the screen. When aiming down the sights with this, it shows the a lower part of the gun instead of the iron sights.
 * Its the third Zombies map to not include any purchasable traps at all, the first being Nacht der Untoten and the second being Dead Ops Arcade.

Videos
thumb|360px|left|Call of the Dead Intro and Outro