Call of Duty: WW2's Zombies mode will be "unique to our Dead Space signature", Sledgehammer says

Call of Duty: WW2 developers Sledgehammer Games aren't the primary stewards of World War 2 Zombies. That honor belongs to Treyarch, the studio that started the Call of Duty Zombies craze in Call of Duty: World at War. So why should you care that Call of Duty: WW2 is going to dip back into the well? Two words: Dead Space.

Subscribe: Save time and money on more great gaming coverage with a subscription to Edge Magazine, wherever you live!

Before Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield co-founded Sledgehammer, they led work on the original Dead Space at EA-owned Visceral Games. If you've never played it, do so. It remains one of the best horror games of all time. And Condrey told Edge in its latest issue that its new take on Zombies will be "unique to our Dead Space signature".

That doesn't mean it's going hard into sci-fi territory. The Sledgehammer team took research trips to Europe to broaden their understanding of the game's setting, and that's helped inform Zombies mode as well: “There’s some really authentic stuff in there,” Schofield said. “There’s back story that’s based on real events.”

Schofield previously explained that CoD: WW2's Zombies mode is a "horrifying experience" that tells the "story of the Third Reich's desperate attempt to create an army in the final stages of the war". There were definitely some scary situations in Treyarch's Zombies story but it was always more campy than straight-up terrifying. Sounds like Condrey and Schofield are putting their horror gaming experience toward true WW2-era horror.

Make sure you subscribe to Edge Magazine to learn more about the biggest games.

For more rifles and boots and ground, check out our Call of Duty: WW2 news recap article. And don't miss our extensive interview about Call of Duty: WW2 with Michael Condrey.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.

Latest in Call of Duty
A player wearing a gasmask and holding a gun during the shooter, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Call of Duty season 2 brings back Gun Game and a fan-favorite Zombies weapon we haven't seen in 10 years
A player wearing a gasmask and holding a gun during the shooter, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
136,000 Call of Duty accounts have gotten banned since ranked launched for Black Ops 6: "We’re not slowing down in our mission to shut down cheaters"
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War reportedly surpasses Red Dead Redemption 2's huge development costs, with a massive $700 million budget
Black Ops 6
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 makes headshots deadlier while cutting back on weapon sway and recoil: "We will be keeping a close eye on sniper balance after this change"
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 movement.
Black Ops 6 player spent nearly 20 hours grinding to Prestige without getting a single kill, all by spamming Spy Cams
Black Ops 6 Zombies
Call of Duty hacker says "I had my fun" after reportedly getting thousands of Warzone and Modern Warfare 3 players falsely banned
Latest in News
inZOI Character Studio screenshot showing a young woman with short black/pink hair, black cat-like ears, and a black blouse with a bowtie
The creator of upcoming life sim Inzoi says he was "recklessly brave to even think about creating a game of this scale"
Rise of the Ronin
A year after its PS5 launch, Rise of the Ronin debuts on PC to "Mixed" reviews and performance complaints: "Stuttering on a 4090 is just... no"
Rise of the Ronin's photo mode offers some wonderful shots
On the heels of Rise of the Ronin's PC launch, its director says there's a "significant" amount of Japanese Switch gamers: "I am closely watching how this will change with the release of Switch 2"
Stardew Valley Castle Village mod
Stardew Valley Expanded creator is building an "even more ambitious" mod with a whole new city and "dungeons inspired by The Legend of Zelda"
Dino Crisis 2 art showing a young woman and man back-to-back amid tall green grass, both with their weapons drawn
Dino Crisis gets a fresh trademark filing by Capcom, but it might not mean the 26-year-old survival horror franchise will get a new installment like fans expect
Cujo
Netflix is making a brand new adaptation of Cujo, the infamous Stephen King book about a killer dog