Oh yeah, baby, looks like we’re going back to the Call of Duty Zombies Cut Content stuff again!
Do also contribute and add your part to this as well if there's anything I missed there and additional details added in this for COD Zombies Cut Content. I have posted this on COD Zombies reddit, but recently they locked down the thread. That CODZ Reddit tends to get on my nerves every time they remove my post...
And this will get updated time by time when I get through BO3-Cold War.
It was discussed before but man, Cut Content can be a fascinating piece of what they were cut during dev phases.
So let's do a COD Zombies recap behind the Cut Content of each entry of Treyarch’s games.
“Call of Duty: World at War”
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Before Zombies, there was an idea in the WAW post-credits scene, where you would play a German soldier at D-Day fighting off waves of Allied troops. It was scrapped because the idea was deemed "Too Edgy" and nobody thought it would be okay to play as a German soldier. This idea was toyed around and that's how Zombies came to be when an animation of a Japanese Soldier burning came in light, where an animator pointed out as they walked like Zombies, which is where the mode came to be.
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A perk called Amm-O-Matic was cut from Shi no Numa and Der Riese. It gave the player max ammo for 10,000 points, as various unused lines of Ultimis can be found in the Der Riese files. This idea was reused to become ammo crates in Cold War Zombies.
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Kino Der Toten (Theater), Moon (Paris lol), and Call of The Dead (Coast) were supposed to come in a DLC 4 for WAW but were cut and moved to Black Ops. DLC 4 was canceled due to Treyarcn needing to work more on the Black Ops campaign and because the DLC would've been released too close to MW2.
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Hellhounds were originally supposed to appear in Verrukt but were ultimately pushed back to appear in Shi No Numa, making their first debut there.
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Juggernog had a completely different jingle originally before being reworked into the final. You can find it in the files and it was sang by Craig Houston.
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There was a cut 'weapon' that can be loaded called brains and it was a first-person Zombie attack. This suggests players may have been able to play as a Zombie at one point. It was shown in a trailer of Verrukt and the Brains Weapon was revisited to be used for the “Turned” gamemode in Black Ops 2.
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Mortar Rounds were cut from Zombies and cost $2000.
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Originally the Pack a Punch jingle was much longer and had a whole story. This was then put together in the final BO4 map, Tag der Toten to explore more of the PAP lore.
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There was a cut gamemode called Payload, where players would have had the player escort a payload for a set amount of time. It's in several text strings.
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Shi No Numa was going to have an Anygun chalk that would’ve acted similarly to the Mystery Box.
“Call of Duty: Black Ops”
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Various Black Ops 1 weapons were cut that were supposed to appear (Ak-47 with a PAP version with Flamethrower attachment, KS-23, Kiparis with a PAP version equipped with Dual Wield, Flamethrower, M60, Skorpion, Stoner 63, and WA2000).
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Fire Sale originally had a different song that was cut and had demonic Samantha as the announcer going in-depth into Fire Sale.
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There was many flip-flopping between Kino and Five of Wonder Weapons being swapped (Kino having the Wunderwaffe DG-2 and Five having the Thunder Gun). This was changed to have the Thunder Gun in Kino and Five having the Winters Howl for balancing reasons as unused Quotes of Wunderwaffe DG2 for Kino & Five and Thunder Gun for Five exist in the files.
- Both Flamethrower Quotes for Kino and Five are also in the files.
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Hellhounds were cut from Five, as cut quotes of the Five Crew suggest.
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Black Ops 1 had a cut Zombie Special Enemy type called "Engineer" and was originally meant to appear in Call of the Dead (WAW Coast Map) instead of Kino der Toten. He was repurposed into George Romero in COTD and pushed into Dead Ops Arcade.
Ascension's Cut Content:
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Ascension was originally supposed to be the launch map for Black Ops alongside Five.
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It was ridiculously ambitious and was pushed back to DLC 1 because the map had to be scaled down massively... Due to it taking a while to make. It had so many areas, new perks, wonder weapons, etc that the memory concerns became too much and a lot of the map's content had to be redistributed. The 4th Lunar Lander can be seen in the outside areas of the map, where Double Tap was originally placed in an early version of the Ascension.
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The Cosmic Silverback was originally meant to appear in Ascension, acting similar to the Panzer from Origins, with the Space Monkeys co-exist due to the map scale. He was pushed into Dead Ops Arcade, who's the main antagonist of the sub-series, with Treyarch confirming the Cosmic Silverback escaping from Ascension.
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The cut perk Tufbrew was going to enhance the player's bullets to do more damage to enemies or would've acted similar to Juggernog with buffer health.
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DTPBoom would do the nuke explosion when prone and Pronaide would make you go prone faster. These were merged into PHD Flopper.
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Candolier would've given more ammo to the player, which was reused to form Bandalior Bandit in Black Ops 4.
Call of the Dead's Cut Content:
- Call of the Dead was originally supposed to have the Ultimis Crew and the Engineer Zombie, as it was originally an WAW Map, but due to Tom Kane (Takeo) being sick at the time, who couldn't record his lines because of this, this was changed to have George Romeo and the Celebrities take over the roles to be reworked as a celebrity map. It explains Takeo being sick and silent during the COTD EE and the lack of Takeo quotes in the closed bunker.
Shangri La's Cut Content:
- Raven has a Black Ops Zombies poster with Woods on it in their office which might've been for the original Shangri La.
- Shangri La originally was going to have teleports at some point. When you fly outside the map you can find black boxes the size of players. These are present in maps with teleporting animations and it’s where your player is while the animation plays.
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Some of those concepts for the Viet Cong map became Temple of Doom (later Shang) but it's believed they're entirely different maps.
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Concept art for Vietnam Zombies + Special Enemy types in BO1 was found. Along with concept art for another pack a punch, map layout, and wonder weapon for Shangri La.
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Originally, the Baby Gun was going to have 4 elemental abilities, which is an early concept of the Elemental Weapons that were used in Origins (Staffs), Der Eisendrache (Bows), Alpha Omega (Ray Gun Mark 2) and Die Maschine (DIE Shockwave).
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Shangri La had a second-cut wonder weapon. In the files, there's a string for a 'blowpipe' wonder weapon.
There was originally going to be a Paris map, but it was turned into Moon due to Treyarch wanting to kick and end off with a bang-to-end Black Ops 1's Lifecycle on a high note.
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Jason Blundell explains this with JohnnyJ25 of the Paris Map:
- "Paris had the idea of a No Man's Land and it had the Eiffel Tower and underneath there was a teleporter and then there were the catacombs underneath there, and the idea was that you went into the teleporter and the Eiffel Tower was essentially a conduit for the power for it and then you got transported to this middle of nowhere where the Pack-A-Punch was and it was just Zombies coming at you, there was no cover."
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The Zombies coming at players with no cover were converted to No Mans Land, which it's map fragment was reused in a BO1 MP Map, Hanger 18. Tunnel Eleven, Six, and the Labs are the Catacombs. And the Eiffel Tower would've been under the Biodome.
Weapon files exist for several Killstreaks intended to be in Zombies. Yes, Killstreasks was going to be on BO1 Zombies before it was revisited in Cold War Zombies.
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Most of them don't have working scripts but a few are still able to be brought in via modding. They were intended to be bought through wall buys, and given as a reward for winning a round in the Versus mode (early Grief).
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RC Bomb - Equip an RC-XD.
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Dogs (not be confused with Hellhound Enemy variant) - Spawns a hoard of Attack Dogs that hunt down and eliminate Zombies.
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Helicopter Call in aerial support from an Attack Helicopter.
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Napalm (again, not to be confused from the Shang special enemy) - Airstrike that covers an area in napalm.
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Airstrike - Call in an airstrike to destroy Zombies.
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"Call of Duty: Black Ops 2"
Tranzit's Cut Content:
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TranZit underwent a rework due to performance and memory budgeting concerns, due to ambitions that were limited by the 7th Gen Consoles and the BO2 Engine not handling the scale of the map, as Treyarch was pushing the limits.
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The original version of TranZit included almost zero lava on the map, heavily decreased fog and smoke effects, and a larger playable area that had to be condensed for the full release.
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TranZit having lava and being destroyed was a late change in art direction, same with the fog, TranZit was originally far more... normal looking.
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The earlier layout of the map featured several smaller houses along an alternative bus route and a larger Power Station similar to a factory. The earlier version of TranZit before the rework can be seen in several pre-alpha images and behind-the-scenes videos.
- TranZit originally had more areas like a lava lake, motel and power factory.
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The Pre-Moon version of TranZit was going to be a daytime version without fog, lava, denizens, etc, and would've been set before Moon in a game-to-game conversion to Moon. This was scrapped due to Game-to-Game conversation being complicated and most players would've played Pre-Moon Tranzit if the Moon EE had been a hassle to complete to unlock Post-Moon Tranzit, and they bit off way more than they could chew, having 2 versions of the map seems a bit shortsighted.
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Traveling the bus in TranZit was originally much more dangerous. Upon entering special 'ambush' zones, there was a 25% chance of an Ambush Round starting. During this Ambush Round, the Bus would break down and Hellhounds would start spawning. Upon killing all the hellhounds, the players would receive a Max Ammo, and the bus would start moving again. This suggests that the Vicits Characters (except Marlton) have cut quotes, regarding that Hellhounds were originally meant to appear in Tranzit.
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Originally in TranZit if you were on the bus and got a power-up, the power-up would stick to the bus. It was cut for unknown reasons.
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Cut quotes for TEDD were found and insisted that some cut ideas for the bus were having to fill up the bus with gas and having to pay Tedd to use the bus to travel around the map.
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Tranzit was going to have a Bus Route B, but was cut due to the map ambition and console limitations.
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Several playable gamemodes for the TranZit experience were created and scrapped due to memory limitations. Jason Blundell explained in a ZomBros Podcast that these gamemodes were cut due to the Zombies team and Jimmy Zielinski running out of time.
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Each mode would be playable on a few sections of the larger map TranZit including additional props such as glowing signs and mode-specific barricades.
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Cleansed - Outlast the other players on your team. Dead players become Zombies. The game ends when only one player is left standing.
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Containment - Stay alive for as long as you can and prevent Zombies from escaping. The game ends when one team survives. Played on the subsection map Nacht der Untoten.
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Dead Pool - Reach the end before your teammates. Strings imply that Meat was usable in this mode.
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Meat - Grab the meat and throw it. Zombies will only attack you if your team's side has the meat.
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No Man's Land - Survive endless waves of multiple enemy types. The game ends when all players die. (Similar to Moon's No Man's Land Concept)
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Pitted - Survive endless waves of multiple enemy types. The game ends when one team survives.
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Race - Kill the necessary amount of Zombies to open your door and reach the end. The first team to survive or reach the end wins. Strings imply that Meat would also be usable in this mode.
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Returned - This was reworked to became Turned (DLC 1)
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Cornfields, Nacht der Untoten, Power Station, and Tunnel were intended to be subsection maps for TranZit. In the full release, only Bus Depot, Farm, Town, and Diner (Turned) are playable.
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At one point, Power Station from TranZit could've been played in Survival and Grief but was cut from the game.
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The Cornfields were meant to be a subsection map as revealed by unused strings.
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Nacht der Untoten would've been a subsection map for the Containment gamemode according to unused strings.
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The Power Station was meant to be a subsection map for several gamemodes, including Survival. Its map selection icon is still present within the game files.
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The Tunnel was meant to be a subsection map as revealed by unused strings.
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TranZit originally had the song from the club level in the campaign and Avenged Sevenfold's 'Carry On' as the easter egg song.
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TranZit originally had a day/night cycle, and you also could've skipped destinations with the bus. You could make the bus go faster and have a HUD display showing the timer.
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Richtofen was originally supposed to have more lines that interacted with the players in Tranzit, as cut quotes suggest, but were cut in late development, due to the whole 'Samual' being the only one to hear Richtofen just wouldn't work anymore.
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The Jetgun was originally upgradeable but was cut. It would've lasted longer, done more damage, and could've been used more.
Die Rise’s Cut Content:
- Die Rise was originally meant to be set in Russia. This Russia Map idea was floating around until it made its land to the Chaos Story, but was a scrapped Chaos map.
Mob of the Dead's Cut Content:
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Mob of The Dead was originally going to be the entirety of Alcatraz but Treyarch couldn't do it due to tech limitations. This vision was ultimately fleshed out in Blood of the Dead from Black Ops 4.
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Originally Mob of The Dead was going to have individual easter eggs for each character as Sal, Finn, and Billy had cut announcer quotes but the idea was scrapped.
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Electric Cherry originally had a 1980s disco-themed jingle and was finished but was cut because the jingle didn't fit the tone of Mob.
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Mob of The Dead had a cut Richtofen head wonder weapon that would've appeared in Grief and would've worked as the map version of the Meat Power up. When thrown at an enemy player, it would attract the Zombies to them.
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Mob of The Dead's code had PHD and Mule Kick in the files but were later cut, where you can see the two perk machines in the Docks. Both PHD and Mule Kick were brought into Cellblock Grief.
Buried's Cut Content:
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The Ray Gun Mark 2 and the Paralyzer were originally supposed to have a buildable quest in the vain of the previous Victis Maps. Both ideas were cut and have the two Wonder Weapons in the box instead, due to the reception of the Jet Gun and Squilifier Buildable Quest not being received well by players.
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An 'Antenna Tower' area was cut less than two months before the launch. It was situated between the Courtroom and the Church and would've provided more depth to the second half of the map.
- Another view of the cut 'Antenna Tower' area (left side), showing a more exterior view of what it would've looked like between the Courthouse and the Church
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The collapsing platform was much larger before launch, featuring a full-blown additional room to the spawn area. This was cut less than two months before launch and was changed to the small platform we know now.
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In Buried, near Juggernog, was a small interior with a spawn window that was sealed off in the final release Additionally, the Courthouse jump-down that connected the first and second halves of the map didn't exist Both were also changed under two months before launch.
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Buried's Ghost Lady was meant to have its own Dog Rounds with its cut theme attached. This was later changed before launch.
Origins' Cut Content:
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One of the most interesting things, according to BO2 Zombies Design Docs, is that the Origins crew (Primis) were actually meant to be the fathers of the Ultimis crew, and were only made to be older/alternative versions very late in development. It makes you see their designs completely differently.
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The intro for Origins would’ve been the Ultimis Crew fathers (Primis) telling Ultimis (as children) about their adventures in WW1 as a storytelling experience in a big fishing extravaganza.
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Tombstone and Who's Who were cut from Origins. They still exist in the files.
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Origins would've been bigger, with a Village included from concept art, as certain sign textures suggest, that Farmhouse, Main Chamber, and Graveyard would've been included but were cut due to the console limitations and time.
Black Ops 2's Cancelled DLC 5:
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Treyarch has a fascination of always wanted to release large batches of maps, from WAW's DLC 4 with Kino, Coast, and Paris, to BO1 with all the Nacht remasters, and of course BO2 with the Nacht/BO1 maps (minus COTD due to celebs). Not a new concept as Rezzurection exists, but feel they like the idea of bringing over old maps to newer entries.
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DLC 5 for BO2 was in production before and during COD Ghost and would be released during Ghosts' lifecycle somewhere around 2014.
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TGR says that an ex-Treyarch employee ages ago spilled the beans to various modders in the Custom Zombies Community about it and word/rumors have been spreading around about a DLC 5.
- One of them is a prominent custom map creator named GunofTruth and other leakers, such as Eric Maynard of the WewLads, have seemingly corroborated TGR’s claims regarding DLC 5.
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The Dice 2015 summit (at the timestamp at 19:03) showed 'The Giant" (BO3 Der Riese remaster) loading screen that was going to be the supposed BO2 Der Riese remake.
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The WaW maps for BO2 were going to be remakes, not remasters, as it's apparent that they were going to have new additional features to them.
- The WAW maps all would've been modernized and re-imagined with features like PAP and the new Perks from BO2.
- One of those features of the BO2 WAW remakes was that Verruckt was going to have a Pack-A-Punch machine that was going to be down the stairs in the power, where the Zombie Barrier would've been an accessible room to get to Pap.
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'The Giant' was originally meant to be a Black Ops 2 map and yes, it was going to have swastikas into them before later changed due to censorship as years past by.
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It was shown to Activision to pitch a 5th DLC pack with all 4 WaW maps remade, and apparently, various work had been made on the other remakes, but none were finished like The Giant with Verruckt having PaP machine as said earlier from the BO2 DLC 5.
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The BO1 Maps were also meant to appear in this DLC 5, but the DLC schedule was split between the WAW maps (DLC 5) and the BO1 maps, so the latter would've only started development after getting the greenlight, which never happened.
- BO1 Maps weren't 'as' separated, just from a development standpoint, they worked on the WAW maps first and then would've begun on the BO1 maps after getting the green light from Activision. This is pretty standard for COD; they work on content to pitch to the higher-ups and then get the go-ahead.
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How DLC 5 was canceled: Treyarch approached Activision to request if they could release DLC 5 as a possibility (given that BO2 had some DLC skins released during Ghosts’ cycle), Activision declined the offer and ultimately shut the idea down for Treyarch to launch DLC 5 during Ghosts' lifecycle, due to them believing it would intrude the game's lifecycle, along the fact that ATVI told Treyarch to move resources to Black Ops 3.
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Once DLC 5 was shut down and canceled for BO2, Treyarch began production on the WaW maps but only segments of them, and explains why “The Giant” was pushed as a pre-order bonus for BO3 Zombies, as it was supposed to be a setup for Primis in BO3 after Origins.
- This was also where Treyarch was getting used to 8th Gen hardware, building in-house builds working on the WaW maps on the BO3 Engine, and tapping in 8th Gen Consoles at the time.
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When Origins was finished and released to finish off BO2’s DLC cycle, they had planned out the Zombies' lifecycle for BO3 up through Revelations.
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Once Der Eisendrache was released, this was when Treyarch started production on Zombies Chronicles (DLC 5) and Revelations was a mesh of previous Zombies Maps that proves that ZC was in the works since it was a proof of concept to get DLC 5 a reality and pitch to Activision to get them on greenlighting a DLC 5.
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Footage of the WaW maps loaded on BO2 does exist but remains unknown. A few people claimed they saw footage but likely unknown where they saw it but suggests that it does exist, albeit the maps were heavily unfinished and broken.
- People managed to load up the WaW maps in BO2 in some capacity in the past and from what it was described when they saw footage of the maps, they were unfinished rough builds with Large chunks and textures missing, along with see-through parts in all of the WaW maps.
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The only known image that shows the cut BO2 DLC 5 being a thing was a Der Riese screenshot build shown around obtained by some members of the community from an internal doc. Also to add BO1 maps were also meant to be in this DLC 5, but could be split as separate DLC Maps if the WAW maps were completed and BO1 Maps had begun production.
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Now as for how far the maps were in production:
- Nacht der Untoten was finished since it was already done with Tranzit, since you can find Nacht at the Cornfields in Tranzit, which shows they were worked.
- Verruckt was the furthest since that was the map Treyarch started first.
- “The Giant” was finished and was pushed into Black Ops 3 as the Pre-Order Bonus Map.
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What the DLC 5 Maps were meant to include:
- Nacht der Untoten (Remake)
- Verrukt (Remake)
- Shi no Numa (Remake)
- The Giant (Der Riese Remake -[that was pushed as the Bonus Map to BO3 Zombies]-)
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If said about Remastered Ports:
- Nacht der Untoten
- Verrukt
- Shi no Numa
- Der Riese
- Kino der Toten
- Five
- Ascension
- Shangri La
- Moon
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This DLC 5 idea would be revisited and eventually reused to form Zombies Chronicles for Black Ops 3, which was a huge success and went on to become "The Best Selling DLC in PlayStation History".
General Cut Content from BO2 Zombies (from Design Docs):
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The Original DLC Map Plans for the Victis Story after Die Rise were a Abandon Mining Place (DLC 2), A Facility Powerplant (DLC 3), and Underground New York Tunnels (DLC 4). These were changed to bring in Mob of the Dead (DLC 2), Buried (DLC 3) and Origins (DLC 4), due to the mixed receptions of Tranzit and Die Rise.
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The Globe has a cut gimmick where if you select Mob, Origins, and the cut DLC 5 maps, the Globe would spin back to the past as normal earth, but if you select the Victis Maps, it would revert back the Fractured Earth. This little cut detail would’ve made it if the BO2 DLC 5 did released.
"Call of Duty: Black Ops 3"
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A few gobblegums were cut including Fire and Forget, Power Trip and two others that became Board Games and Projectile Vomiting.
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Shadows of Evil originally had a Second Apothicon Servant and a cocoon quest related to it along with the ability to PaP the Apothicon Servant.
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Revelations had a blue power up that would've gave you a bad gun and cut Shadowman and Dr Monty quotes.
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During its pre-alpha phase, Zombies had three selectable difficulties with each being harder than the last: Survivor, Hunter and Exterminator. This idea would be brought into Black Ops 4.
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Der Eisendrache had galvaknuckles in the files. Suggests that the Bowie Knife had a side-quest attached.
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Shadows of Evil was originally harder with harder Zombies AI that sprinted at Round 2. Doors also costed more. This was immediately changed and reworked due to the hard difficulty.
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Gobblegum machines also worked differently with only 1 on the map and would move after a hit, similar to the Box. This was ultimate change to have all GobbleGum Machines to be accessible instead of the Mystery Box function.
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A alternate ammo type called Honey Business was cut from the game. Sound files suggested it was like the MP Bees specialist weapon.
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A cut weapon was the m27 from Nuketown in BO2 and the MP7.
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Revelations had a cut Chicken coop easter egg quest similar to the Spider Bait from Zetubo. Suggests it would be a nod to Dead Ops Arcade and DOA2: Cyber's Avengening, as assets for the Chicken exists but wouldn't fit the tone of Rev.
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Dr Monty and The Shadowman had cut announcer quotes for Revelations.
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A cut perk in BO3's files was called Liquicity. Nothing is known what the perk functions would be.
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Cut gobblegum called Private Eyes, when active it was meant to show you a grenade-like indicator on your HUD when zombies where nearby (Just like the Elixir/Perk in bo4), the icon was a dude holding a Magnifying glass. It can be found on the gobblegum poster in SOE, it's a blue gubblegum (Round Based Gum).
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Pre-alpha screenshots reveal that Zombies would've supported customizable outfits for the playable characters, unlocked through XP.
- The icons for Primis are from their Call of Duty: Black Ops II renders, while the icons for the Shadows of Evil crew are taken from concept art.
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This was later cut, but the idea would be brought into Cold War Zombies with the Progression System connected to Multiplayer, given the controversial state of skins & bundles that it lead to a no new playable crew.
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Mob of the Dead and Tranzit were originally supposed to appear in Zombies Chronicles but were skipped due to Zombies Chronicles focusing on the Main Crew.
- It's T7 strings & remnants remains in Black Ops 4, and assets were built on the BO3 Engine and were finished but were ultimately pushed into Black Ops 4, where MOTD would be turned into Blood of the Dead and Tranzit being unreleased. This also adds the fact that Black Ops 3 Mod Tools has Mob and Tranzit assets attached to them
- This adds in-theory that Mob of the Dead, Tranzit, Five, and Call of the Dead were planned at some point in Chronicles, but were skipped due to having to get the Voice Actors/Celebs to reprise their roles in their respective maps and repaying to re-record their lines again.
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Several GobbleGums were cut from the game (where most were in the Pre-Alpha). Some of these may have been renamed into the current roster of GobbleGums, however it cannot be confirmed.:
- Brainiac
- Center of Attention
- Firestarter
- Melee Master
- Toxic Vindicator.
Will edit this when I find more Black Ops 4 cut content, but do contribute and add in what I missed for the Cut Content of COD Zombies.
and this image too 