Level 28: all in agreement this time

New HoC record for Call of Duty WaW Zombie Mode!

So after I finally convinced Q-Bert to leave last night (Saturday) I took a quick peek to see who was online. I saw Graybush and Stormblade online in Call of Duty World at War cooperative mode. Zombies. Go figure.

So I sent them a Live message saying that I might be on later.

I immediately got this missive from Stormblade:

Subject: Where the hell are you??
ZOMBIES!!!!

Graybush and I are losing.

Wow. I just couldn't wait to join them and lose. Couldn't wait...

So, anyway, after stretching my delay out to 25 minutes I finally booted up my Xbox 360 and went in to join them. Graybush, Stormblade AND Coxxorz? "hey, how did you get Cozzorz in here?

Coxxorz: "They blackmailed me."

That... sounds plausible.

Okay, let's go.

And we did. And went and went...

2 hours and 20 minutes. From 10:30 until almost 1:00 am. For one round.

And we rocked. We were Zombie Killers.

Blowing past our previous record of Level 27 right up to our new record of Level 28!

Twenty eight. Well, it felt like an achievement at the time

Surprisingly with all of us having upgraded Porter's X2 Ray Guns the real reason behind our extra Level was Graybush's upgraded Wunderwaffe DG-3 JZ. A single shot from this could kill twenty zombies at a time. And it did. Often. We went through one round of Hell Hounds without anyone else getting a shot off. "I just wanted to see if I could do it."

Around Level 25 however Ammo became a problem. Even with pacing and conservation we couldn't all end the round with $26,000. Graybush could, the rest of us were paupers who could barely afford to purchase a Trench Gun ammo reload ($4500 once upgraded to a Gut Shot).

And you can't buy ammo for Ray guns or Wunderwaffes. Max ammo power up or nothing.

Ammo and lack of planning were our undoing. Halfway through Level 28 (we made it halfway!) I decided to use the teleporter to zap across the map and grab shotgun ammo. Coxxorz decided to join me. In retrospect I should have gone alone. More importantly I should have planned a better route.

Graybush went down after I teleported. Stormblade went down shortly after that. I did get my ammo but ran the wrong route back. I reversed and went the better "Zombie Free" route but the REVIVE flag immediately afterward showed me that Coxxorz had paid for my route change.

I did actually make it back to the Catwalk of Hope and Love. And I did actually revive Stormblade. For two seconds. That was my doom. The Zombies caught me reviving Stormblade and they caught Stormblade standing up. It was an extremely brief revival.

It was discussed that I should have made a last stand without reviving Stormblade but I am thinking the sixty new shotgun shells I had just purchased wouldn't have got me to Level 29.

By Level 28, sixty Zombies is a small horde...

So Level 29? It's possible with 4 players. We need to have a better weapons selection and better plans for ammo reloads mid level. For those weapons that allow ammo reloads.

Past Level 26 you live and die by max ammo power ups and we didn't see any.

We did discover an interesting new tactic. The sacrificial team mate. Me in this case. One team mate is on standby to go after power ups. Usually we only get the power ups that appear on the Catwalk of Hope and Love. Last night with two players shooting off the side of the catwalk they would appear often off to the sides. At the bottom of the stairs, under the catwalk or in the courtyard next door. My job was to go get them. To jump off of the nice safe catwalk (relatively) into the horde of Zombies and fight my way through to the power up. And – this is the key addendum that my teammates were surprisingly clear on – if I went down, I stayed down. No attempt to save me or revive me. No one else had a problem with this. None at all.

It did make sense. Three players could still hold the catwalk and power ups helped the team. If I died I would come back at the start of the next level. Surprisingly, I went after a large number of power ups and made it back every time. Having a fourth player does make a difference.

The sacrificial team mate.

A Herd of Cat's tactic to live by.

Photographic Proof (for you unbelievers):