George A. 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 the dead, real creepy stuff. The coolest thing? Some of that crazy shit happened right here."

- George A. Romero

 is a movie director, and stars as a special Zombie and the main antagonist in the Zombies map Call of the Dead. Romero was doing research for a World War II movie when he came across Nazi documents pertaining to Element 115.

Entrance
Romero appears via a lightning strike in the spawn area at the water to the front of the Quick Revive machine at the very beginning of the game, walking out of the steam and sea foam. He can be seen holding a giant knife if the player is quick enough to get to him, although this is only done through nocliping, as this becomes his stage light within about 2 seconds.

Origin
George was at first human while working on a zombie movie with Danny Trejo, Robert Englund, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Michael Rooker. During one of the breaks due to a mistake by Michael, a real zombie crawls out of the window and snatches Romero away, later infecting him with Element 115.

Calm State
When first appearing, Romero is calmly walking around while groaning as a massive blue aura surrounds him. Sometimes when he is calmed down after attacking, he says in a scared voice "I'm okay, I'm okay", indicating he cannot control these fits of rage. He will sometimes roar, similar to his berserk mode. This will make the zombies nearby sprint towards the player. In this state, except for the blue aura and orange eyes, he looks fairly human.

Berserk State
If he is damaged or he hits a player while not in water, Romero transforms into his berserk state. This state involves chasing the players while swinging his broken stagelight, roaring spontaneously, and distracting the player from the other zombies until he is reverted to his usual calm state. In this state, his clothes are ripped, and the exposed flesh is rotten and decomposing. He also can electrify surrounding zombies in this state by striking the ground with his Stagelight weapon, allowing the zombies to give off an electric charge if they get too close. One way to calm him down is to lead him into water and he will return to his calm state or by shooting him with the V-R11. However, the latter method will only calm him down temporarily, and he will go berserk again after approximately 10 seconds.

Killing Romero
Romero has extremely high health and it takes a lot of time and ammunition to damage him enough to retreat. The D115 Disassembler is extremely effective at killing George Romero, as every headshot deals 10000 damage, meaning that the D115 Disassembler can completely kill Romero in 25 shots on Solo, 50 shots if playing with two players, or 75 shots if playing with three players. However, shots must be aimed carefully, especially if playing with three players, as ammunition is limited. In the case of four players, the D115 Disassembler cannot kill Romero before it runs out of ammunition, as it only has 90 shots, which allow it to deal a potential 900000 damage to Romero, whilst Romero will still have 100000 health to deplete. The Death Machine can work effectively as well, although it will take several machines before enough damage is done. Upgraded Ray Guns and upgraded light machine guns work well together. Another good way of killing Romero is when the player has 15000-25000 points to go to the Mystery Box and lure Romero around. Once the player has exhausted their weapon's ammunition, using the Mystery Box again and repeating. This might take a while as some weapons are better than others. Another effective way to kill Romero is to get a Pack-a-Punched Scavenger, and use every shot they have to lower his health significantly, usually 24 body shots will cause him retreat. (Note: This weapon starts out with 6+30 rounds, so aim carefully) Another way of killing him is to shoot him with a Pack-a-Punched Scavenger while Romero is in the water, as he will enter his berserk state and will quickly change back to his calm state, making the job of killing him very much easier.

Obviously, if the player attacks Romero on land, he will enter the berserk state, therefore it is a good idea to keep him in the water, no matter what weapon the player uses. He should constantly calm down.

As George takes more and more damage, the blue aura around his stagelight will start flicking, then if damaged more, it changes to orange. During this near-death state Romero's speed increases. (He will also begin to roar much more often). When finally damaged enough, he will retreat into the water, then return to the game after two rounds have passed, including the round when the player neutralized him (one full round and the current round).

Upon his retreat the Death Machine and a Random Perk Bottle power-up will spawn. Romero will drop a Lightning Bolt power-up Wunderwaffe DG-2 instead of a Death Machine if the player has the Stand-in achievement and is playing a solo game or if the player has the Ensemble Cast achievement. The player will also get the Wunderwaffe DG-2 if they are in co-op as long as they have Ensemble Cast or Stand-in achievement.

Romero's health does not increase throughout the higher rounds. His health is based on the number of players in the game; Romero has 250,000 health for every player in the game, up to a total of 1,000,000 health in a 4 player game.

Getting Rid of Romero
George A. Romero can be forced to retreat into the water via shooting him with a V-R11 Lazarus. He will not appear for the remainder of the round, and will reappear the next round. This can be a useful method if in very high rounds, when players want to focus solely on progressing through rounds, as only one shot in the V-R11 Lazarus is required to banish Romero for the round, which can easily be replenished during the round if a zombie happens to drop a Max Ammo. Note that he will not drop a free perk or Death Machine by doing this method.

Weapon
George A. Romero's weapon is a Stagelight with exposed wires protruding out of the end causing it to glow blue. The weapon takes two hits to down a player, or three hits with Juggernog, dealing a massive 90 damage per hit to the player, whereas a normal Zombie only does 50 damage per hit. One of his main attacks is to strike the ground to electrocute players (and Zombies alike), he can also use it to strike the player when close enough. (Note: Romero will only use his weapon when shot by the player or when a player comes within close range.)

Achievement/Trophy
Quiet on the Set (30 / Bronze Trophy ) - Cut the lights on the Director. (Kill George A. Romero.)

Trivia

 * Neither Insta-Kill or the Nuke will affect him.
 * When a Nuke has been activated, George will laugh.
 * Despite the fact that the Wunderwaffe DG-2 has infinite damage, it will do only one point of damage on George to prevent ease of killing him.
 * Sometimes after defeating George, the power-ups will spawn in another area of water in the map (usually the spawning area) instead of where George went away, much like the teleporters in Der Riese. When this happens, George will vanish when he is about to walk in the nearest pool of water and Samantha's giggle is heard.
 * Oddly, George cannot respawn in the mobile version of the game.
 * In the mobile version of Call of the Dead, his hair is black.
 * He also does not have glasses in the mobile version.