Vanguard Zombies: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

[@Jrrizzo]

Any Bellekar appreciators??? Happy Holidays, everyone! Hope you've been having a great one! God, the amount of variations this project went through was absurd. What started out as a simple review of Shi No Numa months ago that got derailed by the funny anime game, then derailed again by The Archon, eventually became a full autopsy(?) dissection(???) of the game. But we're here now and I'm really happy with how this turned out, even if it IS a bit different from my normal reviews. As for the IWZ re-review, yes, I already do have some work done on it, including some UI elements and 20 minutes worth of the script, but I'll be taking the next few weeks off from any form of video work. Most of my free time for the past 3 weeks has been nothing but Vanguard Zombies and editing, so you can imagine why I'd want to take a bit of a break to recharge lmao.

[@crashcooper9144]

Rizzo ily

[@Joshi_the_Yoshi]

Mommy Bellekar. ❤️

[@shaneh1872]

Fellow Bellekar enjoyer here

[@SnugCheetah36]

Mommy Saraxis

[@QU67Reacher6]

Looking forward to the IW re-review whenever you get around to it. Happy holidays and enjoy the break!

[@kapkant6197]

I think that what Vanguard shows more than anything is that the folks at Treyarch never really half ass Zombies. Sure it's probably the worst take on the mode yet but the music and art teams still tried and gameplay wise things like the Covenants show that even while time crunched they are actively trying to innovate, and good innovations at that

[@TusksTheAxew]

Absolutely. Since day one, they've done what they can to keep it fresh and make it great, even with limited resources. Like even in WaW, the mystery box, perks, easter egg songs (and game over songs hinting to the next one), set playable characters, small easter eggs, even the PaP machine. Yes, it was janky, and the main crew's models were reused from the campaign, but you can REALLY feel how much effort and love they put into this silly little side project that no one asked for, but everyone ended up loving.

[@BullFrogFace]

Im just going to say Treyarch is the best studio working for CoD rn. Bo4 is the only game of theres where I can say it wasnt very good overall but even then there was some good zombies maps

[@kapkant6197]

@@BullFrogFace I've been playing MWII and while I am enjoying it quite a lot, dear God Treyarch really are the only ones who can design MP maps anymore

[@theloreoverseer7106]

More so, it’s not because they didn’t have passion for this anymore or they were driven by greed(?) mainly: they didn’t have enough time. We all know whose great idea that was…

[@katiconyt]

I will say though i think they did half do the maps there god awful in every way

[@shaneh1872]

Bro the fact that most of the clips used were you at round 100+ shows the dedication you put to your work, we didn't ask for you to do that but you did it and that brings a smile to my face. Fucking congrats dude

[@JaydenCarterVT]

37:20 To add a bit: it's made a bit more sad that the whole community treated Vanguard as "The end of the zombies community" when we been thru WAY worse scenarios, which lead to everyone shitting on Treyarch and not even trying to understand why it came out like this (and now putting all of their faith into a studio that hasn't even released a fucking game yet). When Treyarch was actually trying to adress some of the (IMO non-existant) issues that the community found on CWZ, and they just didn't care. Looking at you, Lex.

[@prokoploronz]

Zombies community was never in a worse scenerio and that's why people were speaking about Vanguard as "The end of the zombies community", this was the first ever game that everybody hated since day 1, which never happened before + no zombies until 2024 (3 years at that time) made it seem like this is the end.

[@ridderjaim3]

@Jayden "when we been thru WAY worse scenarios" such as? W@W- BO1 were lauded as amazing, BO2 was kinda 50-50ish for most at the time. EXO (never played myself) was generally not considered great? BO3 is generally lauded as the best Zombies (imo only on PC bc of the workshop), IW zombies was very hit/miss for most people (IW in general), WW2's nazi zombies wasn't terribly well liked by the community although it was still really solid with decent maps & unlockables. BO4 was generally Not liked due to unneccesary changes to the core formula and COLD war i personally don't have a good idea of the community reaction. Compare this with vanguard though, which as Rizzo noted was blatantly unfinished at launch and even to this day very buggy, It really should be no suprise that people are decrying it as the end of the community. Especially as the last 2-4 entries were probably very hit/miss with a lot of people.

[@peytonsnyder2421]

I agree that the community does overreact and is quick to dislike whatever is put out, but this time I can understand as this is most definitely the worst we've been through. Even the other more derided iterations like WWII, AW, or Bo4 zombies all have a decent following, Vanguard has held much less interest than any since its debut and for mostly good reasoning imo. But in no way is it the end.

[@kapkant6197]

@@prokoploronz I remember launch era Black Ops III, that game was lambasted until about Der Eisendrache and tbh until Chronicles people were upset if you called it your favourite.

[@thedilfofwallstreet5385]

nah man. the release of vanguard up until now is the worst this comm has gone through. this is the only game that is universally disliked across the board by an overwhelming majority. the comm isn’t dead, but i can see why people thought/think so.

[@wgimpact4383]

It's genuinely upsetting to see that Treyarch are STILL so full of talent, and wonderful ideas for zombies, but they keep getting fucked by Activison. Like, Vanguard shows that the zombies team is still giving their all, but is being undercut at every opportunity. The Dev team that gave us things like Der Esiendrache, Tag Der Toten, and Firebase Z are still there, but their talents are being undernourished by crunch, and budget constraints. Anyways amazing work as always Rizzo, and Happy Holidays to this funny little community.

[@venommagnus]

Here's hoping they have more time with the next game

[@Velikan772]

@@venommagnus and hoping Microsoft wins the ownership of Activision

[@deryckstickle5695]

​@wazaaaaa6913 this comment aged well, Microsoft got approved for the full buyout as of 11 days ago

[@Harigan]

@@deryckstickle5695 wth you talkin about

[@coup2824]

bro tried to sneak firebase z and tag der toten in there

[@edelgardian]

I’m happy to see a nuanced take on Vanguard Zombies that’s not “it’s bad.” There are genuinely good things about this iteration that I hope make it in some form into future titles.

[@parkerdavis7859]

The greatest zombies KZbinr in the community is back!!! Merry Christmas John Rizzo!

[@Austin2tall97]

NoahJ456 is the greatest Zombies KZbinr ever👑🧟‍♂️

[@McatSavage]

reaction “content”

[@Blue-vd6bv]

@@Austin2tall97 goofy ahh

[@parkerdavis7859]

@@Austin2tall97 goofy ahh uncle productions be like

[@josiahbuckets5159]

tim hansen goated too

[@HenryStudebaker]

God, the balance you always manage to pull off, between comedic takes (and perfectly utilized clips and memes) and serious, thoughtful analysis make your videos always a joy to experience. Happy holidays to you, as well, and I hope you enjoy a well-earned time away from working on videos!

[@thedogefox8939]

IDK how you always do it, but you always manage to make even your "most critical" reviews end with a positive out look. Gotta be one of your best qualities as a reviewer (also incluiding: thinking about the dev struggles, the why to decisions, the funnies, high quality footage, etc.)

[@Doughnuts]

Very well said. Always a treat to hear your logic. I don't agree with everything you think, but I do agree about your general demeanor towards Vanguard. Love to see the hopefulness

[@Jrrizzo]

I'm an eternal optimist. Plus, there's far too much negativity in this community already lol

[@Doughnuts]

@@Jrrizzo Completely agree. When Shi No Numa released, it finally hit me that the Altar of Covenants is really just the BO4 perk system, but slightly different. I loved creating a unique set of Covenants for a specific strategy or play style, just like I enjoyed creating a class for that reason in BO4. I'm cautiously optimistic to see what revisions they have in their next title. Like you said, they were even innovating and refining mechanics in Vanguard. Gets me excited just thinking about it. You're a huge inspiration for my own content. Never stop what you do. You're too good at it. Merry Christmas! Hope life is treating you well, take care of yourself!

[@Higglewoggle]

Hello Mr doughnuts

[@spedmonkey8051]

i just got evicted from my house and my mommy goth girlfriend left me but this review really made my Christmas, thanks rizzo 👍

[@Xpertfusion]

One little detail I would’ve added for the positives would be that in shi no numa’s Easter egg, they FINALLY allowed us to do a puzzle input step without being Interrupted by zombies

[@torishadow0612]

I love this video; the absolute info-dump of the lore and you gushing about the demons was so fun to hear. The frequent laughs, memes, and high emotions is phenomenal, please keep stuff like that in way more often.

[@SolarDraws]

I personally prefer the Perk System of CW, but I absolutely agree if the perk system of Vanguard gave modifiers to the extra consumptions, it would be a great "innovation."

[@N-GinAndTonicTM]

I just felt like the Perk and PaP system gelled much better in Vanguard, than Cold War. For example, having only one type of Salvage that's used for armour and equipment was great. It made it so we didn't need to scrounge up common or rare salvage as often as possible; and sacrifice defensive or offensive upgrades for the Armour/Weapons. And with 4 Perk Tiers and 3 PaP Tiers, it got into a nice rhythm of what to buy. Tier 1 Perks. Tier 1 PaP. Tier 2 Perks. Tier 2 PaP. Tier 3 Perks. Tier 3 PaP. Tier 4 Perks.

[@Cluadiusmaximus]

It freaked me the fuck out when you mentioned that bo3 can be considered classic zombies. Still feels current

[@JulianxPvZ]

You can tell that there was a lot of passion and hard work put into this video! The sheer amount of editing is superb, There's a lot of funny jokes throughout, Rizzo doesn't sound bored like he doesn't want to do this, He's very enthusiastic when he talks. And he even go's out of his way to do absolutely unnecessary stuff like going to round 100 for almost every clip and even changing the color-code in Bellekar's waveform in her commander portrait. Stuff like this is something I haven't really seen in the zombies community in such a long long time. Great job Rizzo keep it up!

[@BaronOfZLand]

"Bellekar is a kind-hearted mommy."

[@shaneh1872]

I mean he's got a point tho

[@goldentoparican788]

The Vanguard Zombies Season really had me kept on saying "Shut the fuck up" whenever the mainstream zombies KZbinrs kept saying "Treyarch has no passion for zombies" because the dry season of content and jank isn't helping them earn KZbin Revenue

[@spicyjakob234]

the thing that *really* got me with vanguards plot was that during cold war they released some intel pretaining to krafts descion i remember disctingly how strauss talked about "closing off his areas of science" or something along those lines (Intel is called "unto the breach" found in season 5), but all we got at the end was just a "good job guys!" and thats it. nothing about how the DA demons couldnt be trusted and so kraft sealed them away, just... nothing. the grand ending that admitedly got em hooked in cold war just never materialized.

[@chasek6495]

Rizzo is the gift that keeps on giving

[@Hack.SignXx]

This aged pretty well, love the grind game they've added into bo6 from vanguard

[@CheeseSupreme_]

3:33 I also quite enjoy the in-game perk upgrades. My only problem with it though is having to watch the perk drinking animations every single time you buy it... unless you hold out a shield while buying them but that's only if you have a shield.

[@ispepsiokay411]

What if instead you would pull up a menu similar to Der Wunderfizz and purchase everything you want at once

[@jackmcnally8706]

That reminds me of how in WW2 they let you cancel the hand shake animation after your first perk, wish something like that was done here.

[@CheeseSupreme_]

@@ispepsiokay411 Or just like how the PaP mashine doesnt have you watch an animation for each time you upgrade your weapon... except for in Bo4-

[@an_ancient_architect2889]

I’ll tell you what my guy, this video has single handily reinvigorated my drive to continue on my own zombie projects. (Though it was entirely for negative reasons and made me realize that the community might be split beyond repair… but we’ll just ignore that for now) But I made a promise on another project that I would finish it by the end of the years so that has to take priority. I also find it interesting how you are able to see things in heavily separated aspects, like everything was taken apart piece by piece and judged by their own aspects alone. I personally could never, too much of a whole picture kind of guy, or perhaps I’m just biased. And though most of what you said in the good grinds my gears, its still good to see the perspective of other people. Feels like I’ve been in a bubble lately and haven’t been able to grasp what zombie players want. (Not like twitter echo chambers, lets not get crazy.) I’ve just been by myself in the creative process for all of my projects so perspective helps a lot. Keep on keepin on my guy

[@CenturionOfficial]

I've literally been trying to find the IW zombies review for the longest time, and hearing you mentioned it at the end of this and that you're reallydoing it with your more modern style and such honestly just really made my year. Thank you so much for being amazing and having some of the genuinely best content on the platform Rizzo. Merry Christmas and here's to an amazing 2023

[@belinskiparadox7687]

"Like I said" Said Sundowner as he broke down the entirety of Vanguard Zombies to Jack Raiden on top of the funny tower

[@CardinalSn]

After getting a completely new PC after my old one died, I remembered that I was actually given the pre-order version of Vanguard thanks to a family member. Around the time I actually decided to play it, this was about when MWII's beta was coming out so the game was near the end of its cycle. When I got in and played the Zombies, I was pleasantly surprised that it FELT really good to play for most of the maps. But the more I played, the more lack of AAA polish I felt. I would often get animations stuck and couldn't defend myself, perks would just flat out NOT WORK, or even the funniest part: I got trapped inside of a zombie corpse and couldn't move until 2 rounds later. Vanguard Zombies really was having an uphill battle.

[@Hectoreo]

I dunno if I commented this in the cold war video, but me personally, I much prefer the out of game progression. As a much more casual player, I find it more ideal for getting into the "shut your brain off and shoot dead people" sessions, which cold war excelled at with Die Maschine. Plus, that feeling that every little bit that I do over multiple games makes me stronger overall is just a really dope idea that I love and that I feel makes the grind a lot more fun to do. That said, I totally get your grievances with it and I think they should allow the best of both worlds, where the upgrades are available out of game, but are still able to be acquired in game in the same way Vanguard allows you to. Plus, the option to turn off certain upgrades would also be nice to have to compliment this.

[@TalleyBellum]

I have appreciated your positivity regarding recent cod zombies experiences so much in recent years. Seeing how you feel about some of the more hated experiences has made me more open to trying them out and I myself enjoy Vanguard, but I don't prefer it to other games

[@bencrowe8823]

Best Christmas gift ever. Thank you Mr. Rizzo

[@napkin60]

Rizzo none of your old videos are bad we just like hearing you talk about interesting shit for 30 minutes with crazy gameplay footage in the background

[@jackbeazley5363]

cam of jerma laughing in the corner when he says “vehicles” is a beautiful touch

[@buns9022]

3:34 Did not expect to see clive barker's jericho here.

[@devinsethna1287]

I liked the part of the game where the character said “It’s Vanguardin’ time”, and then proceeded to guard all the vans on the map

[@anarche4900]

L

[@rubenveranneman424]

I have to say I'm rather surprised by your take on out-of-game progression. I thought you really liked the teeth system in Extinction? Is it just different for zombies? But good video again, Rizzo!

[@spegwettie9053]

This is where I'm going to quickly comment on out of map progression. For players like me, I need out of map progression, or else it feels lile I have nothing to show for my time. Now since COD has kinda added some zombies specific cosmetics (Dark Aither and zombies character skins) it isn't as bad. I also like leveling guns out of mach, so that way you can get a small power boost for next match. I think a Killing Floor 2 type of progression system would help a lot. For those who don't know, eaxh perk has unique buffs that carve out a playstyle. With each level, these buffs increase. You also recive new abilities every 5 levels, but for COD that part can be done in game. But if we had a sytem that allowed you to level up cooldown for wands, duration, damage resitance, damage done. So that way, you do have some progression that sticks, but it will only be minor if tuned correctly. Either way, I just need a small amount of progression out of the map that I can grind at to keep me going.

[@piratemonkey1035]

I can't get over the fact that Bellekar looks like a Bionicle

[@screamingpink]

The worst thing about Der Anfang is the lack of weight that it is Stalingrad; its significant of Nikolai's failure to end things in Tag der Toten. Nikolai, whose bo3 map is Gorod Krovi, is Stalingrad, put an end to the Aether story. The opening chapter of Dark Aether is Stalingrad.

[@Justinisty]

I am extremely glad we got the same take on the good. It seems everywhere I saw at the time and even my friends hate the fact that progression is not outside of the match

[@FourDozenEggs]

I'm honestly impressed with Treyarch for what they can make in such little time. If only they weren't held back by Activision.

[@conmanay4563]

honestly, you echo my sentiments exactly. For all the crap this mode got, and believe me, it REALLY deserved it, there were some good things, like the art direction and covenants. The lore was genuinely interesting. I am excited for you to go back over IW zombies, but can you re-post the exo zombies review, I laughed so much every time I watched the into of "you haven't seen a zombie in an exo suit" edited by you, that I need to see it again I went back to IW zombies recently and had so much fun!!!

[@cryokuma79]

Rizzo dropping another video? this is the best Christmas ever!

[@thegamingandy4603]

And here I thought I was the only one who liked Vanguard's Zombies. It's nice to see someone who likes it as much as I do. :-)

[@endyjgb1527]

oh hey what great timing, just got done rewatching the cold war zombie reviews and now i get to see some vanguard zombie reviews.

[@Jerrycourtney]

Treyarch got the ugly end of _the stick_ two CoD cycles back-to-back. I feel bad for the devs and all the pure hatred they’ve received for the last 3 years.

[@JulioHernandez-vi9to]

3 cod bavk to back they were half way through bo4 before being pulled in cw then vanguard

[@MaddoxRaptorOne]

Oh no rizzo be careful! MrTLexify might tell you to kys for not absolutely hating it

[@looper4340]

Yeah because a bunch of soft twitter kiddies kept coming at him for being excited about a new dev team. And then idiots like them and yourself play victim and act like it's serious lmao. Get over it.

[@BlueFalcon619]

The god emperor has blessed us with a boon on this holiday.

[@dr.whoever6265]

Hey just wanted to say that I religiously played zombies from when Origins came out (got Buried the same day) and absolutely Grinded Exos zombies and started to lose interest at around Gorod. And then my interest peaks and drops with each zombies release proceeding. Lose me in the middle of the DLC season. Dropped off with Cold War cause bad Etherium Crystal system. Haven't played any since Cold War and getting distance and growing up and coming back to the mode over time as I get older always makes me go on a binge of your zombie reviews from WW2 to now (made me get back into and start to love WW2 zombies btw) and you along with a few other content creator have helped me have a newfound love for a mode that has always been near to my heart and appreciate it in a more intelligent designed and artistic sense and although I don't own Vanguard you really sold me on really checking it out one day and just want to thank you to contributing to keeping zombies loved more and more as I get older. It won't be lost to time on me :)

[@Fairway_]

I really hope Treyarch don't neglect the gameplay improvements they made in Vanguard for their next title just because of the game's reputation. Vanguard brought quite a few gameplay improvements to the table thay I'd love to see return.

[@NickHammer99]

Man imagine if we got a map like mauer on vanguards engine and art. It would be amazing

[@memeboirichard5985]

This is why I love your reviews John, the positivity (not to mention the amazing cinematics and fart sounds). It’s so nice not to hear, waaaaa it’s not a bo3 reskin so it’s automatically bad

[@amscarpi]

I think they could do a hybrid of cold wars and this perk and progression system, you unlock the upgrades to perks and different covenants (or something similar to raven perks from WWII?) through leveling up and spending currency that you earn, but select and buy those upgrades in game, that keeps the rng and cost aspect of it but still allowing for out of game unlocks and gives a reason for leveling up that isn’t purely numbers going up. You don’t have as many options at the beginning, but the more you play you get the ability to try more and more playstyles once you’ve got a hang of the core gameplay.

[@celtic19]

I tell you what that’s a really good idea so it would be like I put my crystals in unlocking jug tier 3 but that doesn’t mean when I buy jugg it’s tier 3 it just means I now have the ability to upgrade it up to tier 3 in game,it really would allow for players to grind whilst simultaneously still having the normal 0 to overpowered game progression, I’d love to see this applied to the guns aswell so you can customise the attachments and camo for your guns as normal in menu but instead of clicking apply blueprint or it just coming out personalised like in bo3 with weapon kits you would actually need to pack a punch it in order to apply your personalisation not only making the player earn it in match but also giving the pack a punch a sense of putting a basic gun and it coming out looking different rather then a stat boost

[@doomguyrox1156]

4:40 Imma have to agree, I've really disliked the out of game progression of zombies. I also wanna say that I don't think anyone would dislike it if the point system was back to normal, at least in my opinion

[@joshuahobkirk1187]

Did anyone else really hate that they tried to tie the chaos story into the dark aether? I really loved what they had going on for the chaos story and them using it in dark aether story just feels like a piss poor way to make it feel important and say "Oh yeah this little thing I guess I can do something with it." Maybe thats just me

[@bleachboy3213]

Love it when Jr Rizzo uploads ❤

[@masteryadiel]

34:14 THANK YOU for putting the viod round change. Its so good but literally no one has posted it by itself.

[@djouze00]

Do I hate it? Yes. Are there good parts? Yes, and I'm happy you didn't jump on the bandwagon and trash talked it like most other youtubers would've done.

[@Pigpen_YT]

It's wild to me that they never turned some of those smaller portions of Der Anfang and Terra Maledicta into survival maps. I absolutely love the look of the windmill portion of Der Anfang. Throw in like one or two doors, perk locations, a single box location (maybe two) and some weapons on the wall and that could've been a crazy good survival map. They could've made more content with the content they already had. Hell the Stalingrad base area for Der Anfang could've been a great surival map too. Corrupted Lands could've been a great survival map as well. Maybe as rewards for beating some of the game's easter eggs? Out of all the Treyarch zombie modes, Vanguard's is easily the worst but even then I still think it gets overhated. Terra Maledicta (once you do the easy ass easter egg) is really fun, just chilling in the Corrupted Lands. And I will forever defend Shi no Numa Reborn. Very good map.

[@QU67Reacher6]

Well Merry Christmas to us. Always love a John Rizzo upload.

[@plplplplplpl7336]

15:10 how are you going to catch me when I can just outpace you with a jog

[@14o1chan]

My issue with this mode was that grinding the zombies mastery camos was so mind numbingly horrible and boring that I dreaded playing games in general because of it.

[@jespermakalintal751]

Hey Rizzo! Been watching you since high school and now I'm done university. Thanks for all your hard work in analyzing zombies content. I used to watch your Black ops 3, advanced warfare, and IW review on repeat. Since two of the three have been taken down since then :( It's awesome to know you're going to make another IW review :) I'll definitely be there when you post it! Anyways, I hope you're doing well! Side note: I started your saw retrospective ages ago but didn't finish it. I don't think the link to the video works anymore. Do you have the video posted somewhere else?

[@YCookieYMe]

I look up to rizzo alot his content has come a long way and his quality is perfection keep up the good work and happy holidays to all.

[@rbnola3340]

Yo that Kingsley covenant Clip was funny asf man

[@rexzombiesbrasil]

Rizzo editing has come to a level that he almost fools me to want to buy the game, even though i experienced 3/4 of the entire zombies experience in a single free weekend

[@chrisupton6190]

35:12 and the game still doesn’t perfectly pause, in solo or private where it just brakes and stops pausing forever, and private doesn’t pause at all with friends

[@dont4515]

Hey Rizzo, don't think I did not notice you using Gabriel in two of the clips

[@theslasherof78]

This video actually made me appreciate the great things in Vanguard. Now I might actually go back to it for a day or two

[@Uncledio]

Please keep uploading I love your videos so much

[@rampage7816]

Yes! I’ve been waiting for this! Not that I actually like Vanguard zombies, but I’ve been looking forward to hear your thoughts!

[@TerranPersoid725]

With so much venom from the community towards this game, I was wondering if you would even bother covering it. I’m glad you did!

[@waxmeltfan]

I love that all the vanguard footage is round 100+ Excellent detail jrizzo666

[@jonathanriches4419]

Bizarre comparison but this strikes me as the crash twinsanity of cod zombies. Rushed, buggy, noticeably incomplete, but the level of charm and personality in the game is what gets people to see the good in it. You can tell the devs really tried in certain aspects, while in others they just had no choice but to rush or skip development

[@parkerdavis7859]

10:06 you’ve done this joke before and it somehow got me even more in this video because I wasn’t at all expecting it. Bravo!

[@boatthechicken6745]

I absolutely loved that he used a clip from jerico because it's one of my personal favorite hidden gems

[@catwiffhat4274]

Rizzo blesses us!!!! Merry Christmas good sir

[@LucasDakami]

Rizzo coming out here delivering a great Christmas gift for all of us little gremlins. Thank you Rizzo, and here's to a much better 2023.

[@Pogchamp57]

Honestly we need more people like rizzo in the zombies community

[@jackmcnally8706]

Der Anfang (The Beginning): We have yet another amazing Rizzo review! Vangaurd zombies is a game I admittedly like more than most, even if that is largely becuase of Cold War’s mechanics, and I still play it somewhat regularly. Even the objective modes from time to time for a change of pace. Time for another essay lol. You’ve been warned. Mechanics: I really like how the artifact is now in game progression now too. However, I don’t think the out of game progression is awful, it does give a sense of progression that many people like, yet also has that annoying barrier and can make the player so overpowered it removes any challenge. I propose that if out of game progression is going to exist, you should be able to customize it based on your level unlocks. For example, turning them off, or setting them to any level you have unlocked, like putting juggernog to tier 2 even if I have tier 5 unlocked if I want to challenge myself. It would almost be like custom mutations, and fix the “always OP” issue, although it would still unfortunately have that level gate. I still don’t like the perk rebuys though, without Wunderfizz 2.0 and with boring upgrades, it’s super tedious, but I do agree that the point sinks are REALLY great for late game progression, I just think they could have been better utilized. Covenants are a cool idea and mostly good in execution, particularly the separate currency to keep progression stable, but I find that there are a lot of them that really just should not be covenants. The biggest offenders are the ammo mods (good thing they aren’t needed for any EE steps…) and bloodlust (or rather the damage aspect of it) since the knife is not a one shot forever without even even at max pack a punch, which is incredibly stupid imo. But overall, the new mechanics of this Terra Maledicta (cursed Earth) that we play on here has major potential. Overall Gameplay: You hit the objective modes on the head, surprisingly fun late game, but suffers from a really long setup and too many teleports, as well as the loss of open world exploration options. I also really wish the void objective gave you a heart for every wave survived instead of every three, as it actively punishes you for taking it before getting a tier 5 artifact and your determined covenant setup. And yeah, from the forced respawn zones in that swamp of death (Shi No Numa) where any zombie not incredibly close to you respawns at certain “checkpoints” between the areas (thankfully there is a spawn delay preventing it from being the absolute cluster-truck of a respawn system from BO4), wonky hit animations (not just that sound thing, but the actual hit), and the brilliant idea of dedicated servers in solo (to be far, they fixed public matches finally, but it should not be in solo for obvious reasons), this game is Janky with a capital J. I’ve never really been a “story” person, so I have nothing major to add there. I really didn’t like that Chaos story fake out though (or is it one…), as much as I want it to return, not by merging it with Dark Aether. Small note: That gun blur, smoke, and muzzle flash was actually in the multiplayer alpha of the game, and was removed due to negative player feedback, but this took until season 5 FINALLY changed it in zombies. Side notes: I LOVE the little touches (or should I say the little things, see what I did there?) like how you cycled through the maps in order with the juggernog upgrade diagram, the color corrections like from the IX review (I personally loved the full correction on that one, I just love bright colors and even run the cartoon mode filter in BO4 for that Borderlands-like effect), and using the exfil ending for the good, the death screen for the bad, and that Kortifex full screen from der anfang for the ugly. Also, I can’t help but mention with the (virtually non-existent) ending, how Kraft says NOTHING. The guy we have been trying to help this whole time. Not. A. Word. Let alone how the map keeps going like nothing ever happened (outside of a zombie apocalypse of course). I kinda wish you had that ridiculous livestream clip of the machine pistol with a sniper scope from one of your livestreams, but I know it would have given viewers a seizure so I get that being excluded lol. Side Side Note: I think the Persona 3 remake hits shelves soon! First persona game, have high hopes, and really excited to get to watch your review without fear of spoilers. P1 and P2 to my knowledge aren’t really accessible anymore sadly, someone correct me in the comments if I’m wrong. The Archon. Thanks Treyarch for saving me the need to make an ending joke!

[@jackmcnally8706]

I don’t like adding addendums onto my own comments but I totally forgot probably the worst offending polish issue: Terra Maledicta on PC. For those who never played it or play on console (to my knowledge this was a PC exclusive issue), nearly the ENTIRE hub world’s geometry (especially in the main hub) was Z-fighting, creating a potential seizure-inducing scene, or at least one that is very uncomfortable to look at. Der Anfang also has/had this issue to a lesser extent. It took MONTHS for this to get fixed and was never mentioned in the patch notes. It only got fixed after the Archon was released (since, you know, it’s literally that map but round based and is probably the best thing about that map aside from the boss fight)

[@dang3rdomo]

Best Christmas present so far

[@DizzyEyes94]

Seeing the art direction of this game makes me damn angry that they forced the team to rush the gameplay so much

[@soviettoaster_9323]

I love how despite how bad a ma can be. John can show me many positives of a map. And it makes me appreciate it as a map and not just ignore it in disgust

[@space9545]

Holy shit u actually stayed true to the bit and in almost every clip u were above round 100 😭 Edit: discovered another funni bug. If you use energy mine on zaballa the ball will install kill her without it detonating

[@looper4340]

This is the pinnacle of content creation Rizzo

[@doomshill110]

Love to see that clip you tweeted about stayed in. My mom says thanks for the shoutout

[@TundrousOfficial]

Really well made video, earned a sub my guy. Your energy, input and timing of the different points in the video really added to it :) Watching your YT career with interest ^~^

[@ethanhawkins3391]

New Rizzo review dropped 🚨🚨 these are some of my favorite zombies videos, always worth the wait 💯

[@AiRsTrIkExXzZ]

For the tiering system for perks I think you should spend the amount for every perk like you do in Cold War but be able to upgrade the perk in some way. Maybe you should have to extract aetherium and survive for 2 minutes and when times up you can go to any perk and it’ll upgrade it. It could also make the perk machines actually useful since that’s where the perk upgrade is. The wunderfizz would have the default perks and not upgraded ones(you wouldn’t be able to upgrade the wunderfizz either until all perks were upgraded until half of the perks were upgraded)

[@TheBuster0926]

As a Superfan. (I miss the MOTD Spooky Crews./Meme Teams.) I'm glad I have closure on my favorite video to listen to while hanging out. I had to have listened to that IW review 200+ times. Oneyplays is right guys. Always backup your favorite videos.

[@hoked2194]

Same. There's just something appealing about watching goobers play video games. Although, considering how much shit went down since then, I can understand why they're removed and aren't coming back.

[@TheBuster0926]

I guess they were never my memorys to cherish anyways.

[@Spooky_Sal]

Bellekar feet must smell reaaally musky after being in that artifact for so long. I mean haha could you imagine what that smell like? Not that I’m interested in anything like that. Nope. I definitely don’t want Bellekar’s grimy musky feet sweat smothering my face. Not at all. That would be gross. But it would be funny to image right?

[@Jrrizzo]

jesus christ...

[@toastthevideomaker9331]

Why Sal?...

[@Scorched_earth404]

Merry Christmas Rizzo

[@sergeantwolverinehulk8554]

Merry Christmas Rizzo!

[@TheDutchDude532]

I personlly do really like the out of match progression system from Cold War, it gives me a reason to keep playing besides just achieving a new high round record.

[@gobreen4391]

i do also like the alter i just wished they went further into the roguelike maybe you "no longer get headshots but your body shots get slightly stronger"

[@highoctanesynx7950]

15:44 why can't we have this perfect world for just one game....... The entire idea is beautiful

[@xXsillysussyXx]

24:00 gotta love the jerma laughing at a vehicle accident

[@impshade3208]

16:00 So which existed first? The Elder Gods of the Dark Aether or Keepers of the Aether? I wonder how the Elder Gods reacted to the arrival of the undead after Tag Der Toten

[@Ermac43]

I literally didnt play Vanguard Zombies almost at all besides using the Weapon XP farm to level up my gun, but you made really excellent points at the end that the game really tried its best to react directly to the criticism of Cold War through its art and level designs. Cold War even though had really fun and fresh gameplay its world and environments weren't as interesting as it could get but I understood that Cold War was a restart to the story with the dark aether and the whole plausible deniablity but Vanguard just shows how creative the devs can still be so the next zombies game I believe will have that gameplay from Cold War and that environmental creativity that Vanguard has to make an incredible game with full dev time.

[@ThatguyOverthereLLC]

Idk how you do it but you make this game look so gun and refreshing in the good section

[@VesperEm]

Omg rizzo is finally reviewing the sequel to the Chaos story!

[@shotgun3225]

I don’t like how unstable it is. Today I was streaming, and I got to round 456 then my game crashed lol. I’m 2nd place