Every Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 & 2 Zombies Maps, Ranked

For years, the Call of Duty franchise has featured enthralling campaigns based on real-world and fictional wars alongside addictive multiplayer systems, but arguably its most famous feature is the PvE mode Zombies.

Originally launched in Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War, Zombies has since become the third pillar of the COD franchise, even going on to be featured in non-Treyarch COD titles like Call of Duty: WWII, but arguably, Zombies peaked in Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops II.

With the first two Black Ops games having recently been ported to PlayStation 4 and 5, now is the perfect time to look back at both game's Zombies maps and rank them based on their design, wonder weapons, Easter Eggs, and overall fun factor.

13 Nuketown Zombies

A Post-Apocalyptic Nuketown

When the PvP multiplayer map Nuketown debuted in Black Ops I, it instantly became one of, if not, the most popular Call of Duty multiplayer map of all time, going on to be remade in most Black Ops sequels, but in Black Ops II it was also experimented with in Zombies as simply Nuketown Zombies.

Specifically, based on the 1950s iteration of Nuketown instead of Black Ops II's futuristic Nuketown 2025, Nuketown Zombies is pretty much all that its name entails: it's Nuketown but with zombies and a new fiery post-nuclear appearance with many of its rooms and pathways being blocked off with debris and rocks.

Nuketown Zombies was a nice bonus for those who purchased Black Ops II's Hardened, Care Package, and Digital Deluxe Editions, but it's really nothing special as it's a pretty small map and doesn't feature any new wonder weapons or fun Easter Eggs aside from the cameo appearance of Marlton Johnson in the bunker.

12 Dead Ops Arcade

A Bizarre Yet Fun Experiment

One of the best aspects of Call of Duty: Black Ops is the ability to get up as Alex Mason in the menu's interrogation room and access a computer to unlock hidden maps and secrets with one of those secret maps, after entering the DOA on the computer, being the retro arcade-like Dead Ops Arcade.

Unlike every other Zombies map featured in Black Ops I and II, Dead Ops Arcade is played from a third-person, top-down perspective and plays similarly to a twin-stick shooter like Halo: Spartan Assault, with the map allowing players to fight hordes of zombies, hellhounds, sasquatches, and even cosmic silverback gorillas in various rooms.

Dead Ops Arcade is a gimmick map, but it's an incredibly fun map to play solo or with three friends that perfectly embodies the comedic charm of games released during the seventh console generation.

11 Die Rise

Easily Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies' second-worst map is the game's first proper DLC zombies map, Die Rise, set in the collapsing Chinese skyscrapers of Shanghai.

What makes Die Rise an infuriating map is its signature skyscrapers, as players can easily fall to their deaths by being pushed off by zombie hordes or simply fall off when leaping from building to building plus the Pack-a-Punch and perk machines are stuck on active elevators, forcing players to potentially lose weapons or wait for perks to appear.

Die Rise isn't all bad though, as it features one of the most creative and fun wonder weapons in the entire series, the Sliquifer, which, after being built from collectible parts, allows players to fire slippery purple liquid that can destroy entire zombie groups and cause players and zombies to slip around if shot at the floor.

10 Shangri-La

A Crowded Time Loop

Similarly, Call of Duty: Black Ops' worst proper Zombies map is the second to last new DLC map, Shangri-La, set in mysterious ruins atop the Himalaya mountains in Central Asia.

Shangri-La has a nice aesthetic, but it can be very frustrating to play on, especially with friends, due to simply how cramped the map is with its tight tunnels and crowded areas filled with crumbling structures, not to mention how annoying it is to fight napalm zombies and zombie monkeys who will steal power-ups.

Aside from Shangri-La's great visual design, another great aspect of the map is the wonder weapon 31-79 JGb215, which allows players to fire shrinking rays at zombies, causing them to turn to the size of babies and let players kill them by simply running into the affected zombies.

9 Origins

The Beginning of Modern Zombies

This might be a controversial ranking of Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies' maps, but I honestly think that Origins is a rather disappointing final map for the game and is fairly overrated.

Origins, as the name suggests, is the origin of the alternate dimensional group of Dempsey, Nikolai, Richtofen, and Takeo known as Primis during The Great War, with the map being set on a dig site and trenches in France being besieged by zombie soldiers, Templar Knights, and three gigantic robots.

That may sound awesome from a story perspective, but the Origins map itself is somewhat unimpressive as it's mostly flat and can be a bit overwhelming for players with all the new mechanics introduced, such as being forced to charge six generators to gain access to Pack-a-Punch and gaining access to The Crazy Place.

8 Buried

A Subterranean Western Town

In contrast, I think Black Ops II's second to last Zombies map, Buried, is far more well-balanced, easy to understand, and overall fun than Origins thanks to its unique setting, mechanics, and wonder weapons.

Buried is primarily set in an underground western American town, featuring a classic saloon, church, general store, mine, hedge maze, bank, courthouse, jailhouse, processing plant, and a haunted mansion, home to the ghost of Ms. Brown, the mother of Jebediah Brown who created the first Pack-a-Punch machine.

The sheer concept of a 19th century western American town being underground is a great idea for a Zombies map, but Buried is made even more fun thanks to Arthur, a giant man who can help fight zombies, build items, and destroy barricades, and its two debut wonder weapons, the Paralyzer and Ray Gun Mark II.

7 TranZit

An Ambitious But Chaotic Bus Ride

Arguably, Call of Duty: Black Ops II's most divisive Zombies map is its first map, TranZit, which is centered around players traveling around a small Washington state town via a robot-controlled bus that doesn't remain at its stops for long.

For the time, TranZit was the largest and most ambitious map in COD Zombies history as it saw the debut of buildable items for the mode, was designed to be divided up into four smaller survival maps, and featured the first buildable wonder weapon in the form of the admittedly underwhelming Thrustodyne Aeronautics Model 23.

Despite TranZit's many flaws, with the most egregious probably being the fog-spawning Denizens, TranZit is still a ton of fun to play all these years later, especially with friends as you coordinate access to the Pack-a-Punch, activate the pylons for the Easter Egg, or simply laugh as someone gets left behind by the bus.

6 Ascension

Russian Zombies

From this point forward, every COD Black Ops Zombies map is great through and through, offering fun wonder weapons, map design, and ample replay value, with one such map being Call of Duty: Black Ops' first Zombies DLC map, Ascension, which sees the original Ultimis group of Dempsey, Nikolai, Richtofen, and Takeo travel to a Soviet Cosmodrome during the 1960s.

While Ascension is somewhat of a copy of the PvP map Launch and the campaign mission Executive Order, Ascension is still a unique map as it initially starts out being played in black and white until the power is activated and is the first COD Zombies map to have someone direct the player with Anton Gersh.

Ascension may seem to be a cramped map at first, but players can easily avoid zombie and space monkey hordes by using the new PhD Flopper and Stamin-Up perks, black hole creating Gersh Devices, lunar landers, and by simply having zombies get crushed by the large spinning centrifuge in the first area of the map.

5 Five

Zombies in the Cold War Pentagon

Players can unlock the Dead Ops Arcade map by typing in DOA on Black Ops' interrogation room computer, but if they type in the words 3ARC UNLOCK or simply complete Black Ops' campaign, they'll gain access to the free Zombies map Five set in the Pentagon during 1963.

Here, people will hilariously play as the 35th and 37th Presidents of the United States John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and Prime Minister of Cuba Fidel Castro, as they strive to fend off zombies in the Pentagon's offices, War Room, and secret labs.

While Five can be rather cramped to play on, especially with friends, and it can be annoying to fight the teleporting Pentagon Thief, it's still a ton of fun to run through the Pentagon using the new Death Machine power-up and the freezing Winter's Howl wonder weapon whilst attempting to reach the Panic Room.

4 Moon

Going Out With a Bang

Originally, Treyarch strove to set the final Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies map in Paris, France, complete with the Eiffel Tower housing the Pack-a-Punch Machine, but instead they chose to send out Black Ops' Zombies with a bang by sending the Ultimis crew to the Moon.

Initially set in Area 51, Moon was a fantastic way to end Black Ops' Zombies as it functions unlike any other Zombies map before, with players being forced to wear P.E.S. space suits, fight zombies in zero gravity, fend off the teleporting Astronaut Zombie, and ultimately blow up the Earth after completing Richtofen's Grand Scheme Eastyer Egg.

On top of all of these new mechanics, Moon additionally saw the fantastic debut of the Mule Kick perk, allowing players to carry three weapons, as well as the dual-wielded Wave Gun wonder weapon.