Why Ascension's Easter Egg was so Important

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Ascension was the first DLC map for Zombies in Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops, and it changed the game forever by introducing the story-based Easter Eggs that have become the trademark of the mode.
"A Zombies Retrospective" is a series in which I play through each Call of Duty Treyarch Zombies map chronologically, and analyze its place in the series.
Media:
Call of Duty: Black Ops
It Came From Outer Space (1953) dir. Jack Arnold

[@whitecliffgames]

Black Ops 1 was the first Call of Duty *ZOMBIES* game that took place outside of the World War 2 setting of course, missed a word there :)

[@MossadAgentEpstein]

understood. have a great day

[@coniyat]

I was very confused why u said that lol

[@jiml8637]

My friends busted my balls for years when this map came out I said “this maps so big we haven’t even found double tap yet”

[@Billbynight]

Dude, no overly animated and loud intro, no like begging, and extremely detailed and quality videos. Love the channel!

[@TheStarksRegards]

I like ya comment but you’ve got 115 likes so for obv reasons I cant

[@azurelectrium1100]

Ascension will always be a timeless masterpiece and a certified classic.

[@Halfbreedmofo]

Seeing the map turn into color when you turned on power was so dope

[@TheATFshotmyGerbil]

Black ops 1 as a whole is my happy place. The nostalgia i feel when thinking back to those days is almost unexplainable. zombies with the boys after school and SnD were just peak.

[@LilHaseProductions]

I was playing last night on ps3 and realised it's made the 1960s aesthetic nostalgic for me

[@Zephoriannn]

Honestly didn't even realize I wasn't watching some "big channel." Was put together quite well my guy! Really good takes, good throughput, excellent formatting. The main thing is at the outdoor, I couldn't hear you the greatest with how loud the soundtrack started off while you were still speaking a point. Maybe have it slowly build up to that volume once you're done speaking to enunciated said point. Other than that, phenomenal video!

[@whitecliffgames]

Genuinely thank you for the feedback, I listened back and you're completely right! I'm trying to get better at balancing the volume for headphone vs. speaker listeners and having smoother and slower transitions, but you're totally right I missed the mark here. Glad you still enjoyed the rest!

[@prestigini3150]

I think it looks like he got well over 300k

[@manguy831]

Bruh fr I tripped out rn. Great video!

[@simongamer987]

@@whitecliffgames you finna be one of the biggest zombie channels in 2023, keep up the consistency you won’t regret it

[@thesenate1844]

@@whitecliffgames You deserve a million subscribers my dude

[@KekusMagnus]

Ascension was by far my favourite zombies map. As an inexperienced player back then, it made training zombies very easy and it was the only map where I could reach relatively high levels, even with random players. Plus, nothing was more fun than abusing Doctor flopper on the stairs next to where you buy it. Also in practice people just defended Juggernaut on monkey rounds and re-bought all the other perks later, it was easier than trying to run around the map

[@IVIUT3D]

we stayed on rotations on blops maps and had each player defend the closest perk to their position. I played with a set team tho, with randoms I would do the same tho cause like you said everybody goes to Jugg.

[@MazeMaker4Life]

You need to realise that over time they stopped being Easter eggs and became "quests". By definition they're no longer Easter eggs the further through the chronological timeline of the maps you go through.

[@rohuffgamingakaLea1576]

Sadly you're correct

[@chadraygun5268]

That’s why I’ve started calling them Easter Egg quests. You still have to find and sometimes think about them, but it’s the main goal of the map regardless

[@isaacfaith9369]

It really annoys me that people call them Easter eggs when they’ve become the main objective. But I’m not above recognizing that it’s simply the term that stuck, so what can ya do about it.

[@johnathanortiz3066]

That’s facts , all you had to go with for actual Easter eggs was getting a super wep for free , the countless Elena siegman songs and just small stuff that fit the term . That all changed with ascension and on ward . no doubt to where there was a “end goal” and giving extra lore/ voice lines that you can’t find naturally . But (B03 changed the formula big time and is still my favorite since you had actual boss fights lmao , and there were detailed cutscenes after finishing a sequence of events in a map) that’s just a personal nitpick though

[@truv_]

its just apart of the zombies culture, we called them easter eggs and never changed the name of them for our personal slang. if it aint broke dont fix it. what do you look up on youtube to find the maps easter egg. do you look up “moon quest” or do you go with the widely community regarded name “moon easter egg” lol

[@Exton_Z1]

Rich kid using perkaholic bubblegum on B03 Ascension Space monkeys: I gonna end this kid whole career

[@baileyapedaile8306]

Not of you don't turn the power on

[@Crazeforblaze]

They can’t take the perks with the power off? That’s op af just get perkaholic and get pack a punch gobble gum for guns and you’re set

[@CodeNameCheese_]

@@Crazeforblaze idk if I’d say it’s any more overpowered than a gum that skips rounds or gives you all the drops twice

[@steagle2592]

​@@CodeNameCheese_ giving all the drops twice isn't too op tbh, and skipping the rounds just saves time. Very different than giving every single perk instantly for free

[@yeahbuddy300lbs]

Ascension really was special to me. I loved it. I remember playing the hell out of it with my buddies. It was pretty difficult too, but not too much, in summary: proper fun.

[@Mavvyd96]

Abracadavre just slams. The song and Kino’s 115 are just brilliant metal tracks. The last great BO Zombies song, to me, was Origins’ Archangel. That’s a wonderful melodic deathcore song. Can’t wait until you cover Origins. I’ve enjoyed all your videos from Der Riese to Mob of The Dead.

[@iiTsMacca]

Ascension is still to this day my favourite map. Great video!

[@JohnnyXanax]

So is mine my guy. I play on Xbox One, and a shitload of gubble gum collecting fucking "dust," have 15 Perkaholic, 31 Firesales. Rain Drops, Power Vacum. Would love to do the easter egg again. Fucxk yeah, had some pals that would reach lvl 20 with hardly a hit.

[@bubhoward8642]

1:37 bro I can't believe they added that shit to zombies. I haven't played since bo2 and decided to look up newer zombies gameplay and was stunned to see that addition with medals and xp for each kill 💀 In mutiplayer it's fine but zombies? I don't needa receive a medal each time I kill some zombies lol

[@MisterJ355]

Dumb comment

[@Michael-lu2tz]

People nowadays can’t seem to focus on one thing without loud noises and hyper saturated colors flashing on the screen for every action they do

[@PedroKing19]

@@Michael-lu2tz that's not the people but the developers fault for adding those things. There were no complaints before that

[@B1g_B0sssss]

I recommend to play bo3, arguably thd best zombies.

[@irarelyupload6930]

@@B1g_B0sssss Only arguably, since I would argue that bo1 is the best for zombies. It was creepier and prioritised map design over quests, which is why bo1 maps are more fun for high rounds.

[@SWOL]

I’m always impressed by the level of professionalism in your videos. So many people have the idea of “I’ll try harder when I get more subs” but you came out of the gate swinging. Keep up the awesome content and you will surely blow up!

[@Udontlikeice]

That how u separate yourself from the others

[@Rkader11]

At 1:35 I can’t stress how much I agree with this. What made Easter eggs back than till bo2 special was the OPTIONAL investment in an otherwise glorified party mode (that you can solo play as well) the devs knew the most important element of zombies was the survival/strategy/team based gameplay over all else. Doing the Easter was just the devs allowing the player to delve into the mystery of the world of zombies and was rewarded for the investment if completed. The most important part was that all the benefits of Easter can be obtain by just playing the game nothing was locked from you besides a few benefits that didn’t hinder the gameplay you can still get majority of what the maps had to offer without Easter which is something later games forgot and turned to a selling point making them less interesting and unique

[@Pointblankmos]

Ascension is possibly my favorite Zombies map. The Gersch device was really fun to use and visually was very cool too.

[@sotastatesoulja]

I fucking loved this map more than any other map on bo1 there were so many places to loop zombies, my favorite spot was the spawn area, we made it to 52 on this map, great times.

[@enemiestoaster]

You've tapped into a great way of keeping zombies alive. Thanks.

[@cosgrovev2794]

I love how ascension looks in zombie chronicles it’s cool and colorful

[@JoeLiningToolFilms]

I may be the only one, but i feel like this is where the "easter eggs" stopped being easter eggs and turned into full on dark souls style quests...no hints at what you're supposed to do. You can either spend hours looking over the whole map, trying to interact with everything and get nowhere, or you can look it up on KZbin...I wish they would either make a straight up zombies game, or leave enough clues on the map that you can actually figure out the quests without help.

[@Judderplush]

Great video man, please keep going with the no nonsense and professional format, love it

[@KsanUwU]

I really love ascension. I will always remember going to the first lunar platform, learning to train zombies without even realizing it, while going back and forth for mp5k ammo. only reason i dont play it, is cuz i cant protect all my perks in a solo match and it just feels bad, even though it doesnt really matter all that much.

[@ImNotFine44]

The mokeys are the reason i dont ever touch this map. Just isnt fun.

[@samusaran7317]

@@ImNotFine44 Losing one perk isnt game breaking.

[@ImNotFine44]

@@samusaran7317 but its annoying. Its not fun. It ruins the map for me. Why go through an annoying thing every 6 rounds when i can just play something else.

[@samusaran7317]

@@ImNotFine44 Is point building really that difficult for you?

[@ImNotFine44]

@@samusaran7317 again, the map isnt fun. Im not saying it’s hard. Im saying ITS NOT FUN.

[@enbydeadly]

hearing the ascension music easter egg still gives me chills to this day, like damn i spent so many hours on ascension and that song would always get me excited to play it

[@JakeXLS]

I remember when this first came out, loved searching forums and videos online. Anyone remember people starting the rumor that you could get the PPSH? Loved the mystery and step by step lore that the internet was uncovering.

[@TheNav1993]

Yeah next gen tactics and mahalo games were the big boys back then , shortly after Dalek roll waffles and the other zombie youtubers branched out after The ee when this got released , the wunderwaffe behind the chain door if u shoot with death machines lol and then they actually added this into call of the dead cause the forums and Internet was so obsessed with it The hype around this map.and the ee was insane , the forums and the yt videos and there was no hacks into checking game code to finish the EE in a day , it took days and weeks what a great time 😢😢

[@LilHaseProductions]

Ascension was great. I was 14 and it was hard enough to get CoD games let alone be able to buy the DLC, so these maps were always mysterious to me and I played Kino and Five to death for the same reasons you highlighted, just to explore and see how far I could go and what secrets I could find. When a friend of mine actually had the maps I'd go over to his house constantly and we'd play all these maps til 5am.

[@PKMNTrainerKelly]

when you walked up to that ballistic knife at 3:58 i was genuinely worried you were about to trade the thundergun for it

[@DJones1048]

I dont think I've ever noticed the riddles in the lyrics of abracadavre. That's incredibly interesting and it does make me look at the song a lil differently. I love all the zombies easter egg songs they've done and this makes me wanna take a look into the rest of the songs a bit deeper to see if I can notice anything else like the riddles lol

[@savvyburritos]

i’d like to add that ascension has unique zombie types with their movement. the zombies on this map were the first to move and sway out of your line of fire and do tactical rolls too lmao. a lot of people miss this but it’s a really cool detail

[@chaisewhitlock1717]

Favorite map of all time. Very nostalgic

[@noflyyzone4857]

Im glad a video like this exists because it’s a topic I always think about to myself . This map was definitely groundbreaking and set the stage for what was to come . Moon made it tough where you had to go back and complete the previous Easter eggs in order to finish that final one . What I still think about so much to this day is if there is still more to the ascension Easter egg we don’t know about. Back then we kinda felt like the end of the Easter egg wasn’t the final step . I just wish I knew for sure so I can have peace of mind.

[@Brandonian]

Ascension was a bad ass map. It was hard as balls trying to learn it all in the beginning. But lots of fun! I loved the Russian side of the zombies. This map was great. I also like Shangri-La a lot.

[@LtWret]

I love your Shadow Stalker sound effect & Plazma burst 2 music I don't know if you know thats where some of the effects you use are from but it was really nice to pick up on them

[@flubber1557]

I loved using phd flopper and acting like an explosive god. You just held a grenade and boom your fine but the zombies around you caught up in the blast were not so happy. It affected your resistance to explosive equiptment as well as explosive weapons. It also made the ray gun worth it in close quarter situations. Good times.... good times.....

[@TeddylsALiar]

One of the best for sure. EE song alone is the Goat

[@Kaspar_Houser]

One step of the easter egg on Ascension is not well known i feel. Remember that you can jump into the black holes that the Gersch Devices create to get teleported to a different part of the map? When doing the last step of the easter egg you have to jump into one of the black holes of the gersch devices which you threw to power that small light orb!!

[@jesserusso5598]

This video is insanely professional for someone with 12k subscribers. Good voiceover and clarity with the audio

[@Shamano37]

And Ascension had the most BA Easter egg song, in my opinion!

[@JTKroll12]

ascension is my favorite zombie map ever

[@pilotmender043]

I kinda hate when people say PHD is overpowered. Especially since Double Tap 2.0 is at least equally good but never gets acknowledged as being op. Sure you take no explosive damage but that ties back into what you said. You choose your perks since you can only have four. If Double Tap 2.0 was in ascension or just bo1 as a whole then you would have a legitimate choice between increased gun damage or no explosive damage. Or you could sacrifice Speed Cola or another perk for both.

[@ActualBreck]

Ikr? People saying phd is OP but like… it literally made all the explosives viable instead of useless with the exception of the ray gun which basically became a real wonder weapon. Meanwhile DT2.0 is literally like “oh yea u can keep ur unupgraded smg u bought of the wall as ur best till round 20 why not?”

[@K_Kobe]

I love this series. I hope you go all the way to the newer games

[@hunterboucher3070]

I've been trying to solve the second puzzle for so long, thank you!

[@SoapySupreme]

Great video. Continue this formula and you will definitely grow, you’ve got it man. Goldmine!

[@bigtarzan44]

one of my all time fav maps

[@tomzomb8749]

I still play classic zombies, Anything after 2 was dog poo Well except 3 the chronicles is what made me give it a 8/10 I mostly play WAW zombies on there is hardest, They grab, They hit fast and the game is a bit buggy but unnoticeable unless you have jug and die by one hit, I need that zombies back.

[@Apocrypha303]

Ascension was the greatest map ever when it was the only blops1 dlc map. Those were the glory days of zombies before it became the quest driven, prestiging, calling cards thing it is now. Simple ee and one of the best zombies songs.

[@DWo1fR]

talk about every easter egg too and story line on every map

[@davidlongsioux367]

how do people NOT know about your videos, they are made great

[@geoffreyporter7567]

My PB out of all zombies is a round 61 run on Ascension in BO3 (video of my death on that run is on my channel, incidentally). I can 1000% confirm that, as much as I love Ascension, high rounding gets soooo boring. I didn’t organically die… I got to 60 after hours and hours and got bored and decided to just hold out as long as I could without really moving and just let myself die. Could have kept going forever, as long as I continued to get max ammo drops.

[@itsallogre6411]

Amazing video. But couldn’t help feel anxious when I thought you were going to trade a jet gun for ballistic knives

[@ghostwhencodghosts9114]

Wait what how did you do the easter egg with 3 people

[@whitecliffgames]

You only need 4 people to physically press the buttons during the monkey round, after that everything can be done with 2! One of our players was there for the start of the game but then disconnected, that’s why we ended up finishing with only 3

[@ghostwhencodghosts9114]

@@whitecliffgames extremely underrated channel

[@theniddhogg799]

So many memories on this map

[@lostgrace3274]

That's still why I play zombies oh we only made it to round 60 let hit 70 now I used to play when I was playing in high-school I would play for literally hours from when I got home to dinner pause resume sleep pause pick up next day

[@GrandMasterZenoBoi]

Running trains....We litteraly sat in front of the tv fof hours running in circles to hit high rounds

[@CaptainEarls]

Completing Ascension EE pros & cons Pros: 90 second death machine reward Cons: no sleep tonight

[@abdansyakuro1105]

Regarding the visual appearances of BO1 zombies not only Ascension bur also Moon, it does feels so bland and dull, i personally love BO3 visual vibes even more because it feels more lively and appropriate especially for two said maps

[@Phoenix-MX1]

This makes me wanna plug in my PS3 get a homey and play some splitscreen bo1 zombies

[@wolfeyq7536]

0:00 Im sorry but black ops 1 was not the first cod to take place outside the ww2 setting bro. That was cod4

[@fate3071]

"Black ops 1 was the first call of duty game to take place outside of that WWII setting" CoD4 would like to have a word with you

[@mqrkoh]

You didn't see the pinned comment right below the comment box??

[@fate3071]

@@mqrkoh yeah I did, after I posted the comment.

[@irbaker7977]

If they had a jungle or maybe something like shadows with wizard of oz effect it might worked out better

[@Rictofen9792]

Forgot how much I missed Elena's voice in the easter egg songs.

[@Christianthemagician_]

This video was put really well 🔥🔥🔥

[@matercheff]

i was never a fan of how big training got in zombies. Its easy and players all just do there own thing and it gets boring. Wish maps evolved more around five and vurruckt the madness of those modes is so much fun

[@drawde5762]

I actually think widows wine is more overpowered that what PhD Flopper was

[@Harm00se]

Great take

[@kingtut7366]

This is a good video , if I had to knitpick at one thing it’s you more explained ascension and really didn’t say why the Easter egg was so important or how it lead to future eggs and storyline

[@bradenpetty3828]

First game to take place outside of ww2 was cod 4

[@ryanmorris986]

and modern warfare 2

[@jtonthatrack3984]

10/10 love this content bro ❤️

[@yourfavoriteroach1531]

I’ve just discovered your channel bc KZbin finally decided that I’ve had enough of of their bologna ass content That their algorithm has been bringing me and finally blessed my recommended home feed and I’ve got to say I’ve only watched this one video but doggy keep doing what your doing bro 💪💪💪👍👍 your content is solid, and well edited. There’s no doubt in mine or anybody that’s competent’s mind that your gonna blow up no kizzy 🚫🧢

[@HuntingTheEnd]

Whats the silhouette animation at 2:45?

[@pickelssalvation7196]

Classified intro

[@silvy3047]

Cod zombies players spending 2 hours a match trying to get a song to play instead of killing zombies

[@Freelancer837]

"Black Ops 1 was the first Call of Duty game that took place outside of the World War II setting." Umm... what?

[@hebjdhdhdbbshshshshs9119]

Modern warfare and mw2 both launched before black ops and were set in modern time period.

[@FappleJackity]

Good videos, friend

[@hondsdollekat]

Did MW1 and 2 take place during WW2? Woah

[@clangnk3504]

I remember playing zombies, not even knowing about easter eggs but knowing there was a story behind the outbreak. And I was SUPER involved with the story, until BO3 came out.... then I gave up cuz the story just took so many dofferent unrealistic branches, with origins n such.... i gave up

[@sykadelikie]

So Yuri Became Randy Orton? Got It✅

[@sniffitbigtime5056]

Black ops one wasn’t the first COD to take place out of the WW2 setting I swear MW and MW2 were before weren’t they? (Unless you meant zombies only)

[@chadraygun5268]

He probably meant Zombies

[@UAa320]

My favorite zombies map ever, I have so many good memories. Back when zombies were great, not like today's warzone inspired garbage.

[@cluckendip]

I thought the answer to the second riddle was "Money"... huh

[@bradenpetty3828]

Carrion, the song for tranzit, mentions the answers to this riddle in the lyrics

[@kawallygaming7372]

Cod 4 was the first cod game not set in WW2 no Bo1

[@glover2903]

I will say I played with BO3 ascension with my friends and the only challenge was the monkeys. we could kill zombies all day no issues. but those monkey kicked our ass

[@shiloh6915]

This commentary best shows why in zombie chronicles the Easter egg is getting to a really high round, it was out of respect for the map design of internal motivation 💪

[@BabzaiWWP]

intro is wrong, modern warfare came out before world at war

[@Jack-fq6mq]

Wasn't cod 4 the first COD game that took place outside of the WW2 setting? 🤨

[@gamermanzeake]

This is my least favorite DLC map for BO1... That being said, it is literally miles above anything Kino could possibly bring to the table. Definite step up, and though I love the more difficult maps like Five and ShangriLa, it's good to have variety I'd say.

[@zanthemeximan]

i miss the old days of just playing for fun. Now it seems that you are playing for $3849039 in a tourney

[@user-hn3uu3gj2g]

8:09 bro is really complaining about soviet era architecture and color scheme what was he looking for ffs

[@Litty2Shoes]

Well he said “to be subjective for a second”. You’re right, but he just finds it bland and I agree with him even tho I think it’s fitting for the Russian map

[@Ehrenfried2740]

After BO1 the developers became caught in their own success with zombies. And it went down the drain after BO1.

[@confoglclips4865]

Are you a HUNDRED percent sure that Black Ops 1 was the first COD game that wasn't set in WW2?

[@whitecliffgames]

Oh no! The way I wrote it down, I meant to say it was the first time the *Zombies* mode hadn’t been in WW2, I absolutely misspoke, that’s on me!

[@confoglclips4865]

@@whitecliffgames Hey, it's no problem. If anything, it was pretty funny. I wish everyone held themselves to your standard of quality for making videos.

[@AdrX003]

YES! YES! YES!

[@coleozaeta6344]

Where was the Easter egg? I heard a nice critique, but nothing of an Easter egg

[@rohuffgamingakaLea1576]

I tried responding to this twice and both my comments just vanished so if you see 2 responses to it I apologize

[@coleozaeta6344]

@@rohuffgamingakaLea1576 I’m scared. Comments are disappearing. Who’s next?

[@rohuffgamingakaLea1576]

@@coleozaeta6344 I tried posting my comment on one of your videos and it still disappeared! Wtf

[@rohuffgamingakaLea1576]

@@coleozaeta6344 KZbin doesn't want me to help you for some reason

[@rohuffgamingakaLea1576]

@@coleozaeta6344 g o o g Le casmir mechanism on the call of duty f a n d o m page

[@finnmacdiarmid3250]

Is this an unpopular take or do the remastered maps kind of suck? It’s like they’re missing the original magic

[@mqrkoh]

Yes it's true.

[@DWo1fR]

more videos like this

[@lucasbenko1]

The very first line in this video was an incorrect statement lmao

[@BirdParsons]

You didn’t really discuss the Easter egg 😂

[@bobbobby5089]

Bro overthinking things about an early zombies map

[@presidentjosh8252]

I think i'm your 80 or 90-somethingth subscriber :)

[@MrHkil3]

Cod 4 modern warfare was first though

[@SafetyNugget]

I can agree with you in ascension being kinda boring but i think ascension is one of the best because when it came out ut was the SHIT. I loved that map and so did everyone i knew. In comparison to all we have now i understand it falling but that maps historical to me 😂