How Blundell KILLED Chaos Before it Began
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- This video is, in a way, a follow up to the "BO4's Biggest Missed Opportunity" video, discussing the story of Black Ops 4 zombies. I go in depth into every major reason why the Chaos story failed, from it's introduction, to its presentation and legacy. For those wondering why I drew comparisons to Rian Johnson's 'The Last Jedi', it's because many apects of our pop culture is being put in the hands of people, who I believe, are not competient to continue these franchises. In addition, many of the interviews of Jason Blundell featured in this video are sometimes in refrence to the gameplay mechanics of BO4, but I believe his design philosophy is also aplicable to his story telling.
Chapters:
00:00 Clifhangers and Cancellations
01:49 Story Progression
04:23 Modern "Storytellers"
05:54 Chaos's Failings
09:55 Bad Characterization and Writing
13:40 Chaos's Biggest Problem
19:09 Blundell's Incompetence
21:49 Saved by Vanguard 
Игры
You can dismiss many arguments, but chaos trying to take away spotlight from main story that is about to conclude is shameful. Chaos maps seems to get better budget than aether. Every aether map is a remake, which is punch in the gut (but most maps are pretty good ofc). If he wanted to push new story he should ended actual one with respect and then try new things, and not squish 10 years old story between another new
Allegedly the main story was supposed to be concluded in Black ops 3 but Activision wanted to bring it back since it's lucrative.
i'll never get how remakes are "a punch to the gut" when most of them in bo4 where functionally different from their originals and lore wise answered a bunch of questions
Speaking of killing the past, if you look at interviews about the production of classified, they honestly thought that the ultimus characters were inferior to the point they were hesitant to write until they loved them after writing.
How do you just throw the ogs under the tranzit bus and make a game about killing them and have the hubris to think the chaos crew is any less of stereotypes?
Me before this video: “Jason made some of the best maps but I can see why some people are frustrated”
Me after this video: “Jfc, Jason’s the Vince Russo of zombies.”
Chaos is something JrRizzo would like
Yessir
You mean something interesting?
You hit all the nails on the head , the biggest fumble to me was not finishing aether first , it’s like if in the middle of endgame they showed the the new avengers or a whole new cast. We’re gonna view that other story as something in the way of what we’re already invested in and make us already resent it.
I didn't even realize that they canonized Chaos in vanguard, I hope that means they still have some plans for it, the chaos maps were some of my favorites because they really do feel like adventures, and they have a lot of spectacle. That and I have always liked when zombies digs into mythology for its maps.
Jason Plunder, the man who liked tentacles and aliens a little too much. Remember Craig? The man who can't write. Yeah, me neither.
Those two singlehandedly saved Zombies with BO3 from a disastrous BO2... But then killed it with BO4.
It's very weird honestly. You can have what people deem as one of the best written zombies maps (Blood of the Dead) in the same game with one of the worst written zombies maps (Voyage of Despair). Also I mostly blame Craig Houston. He had more L's than W's. From what we know from devs like Kevin Drew who claimed Blundell in Bo3 and Bo4 had little involvement in the writing process and it was mostly a collaborative effort with many others including Craig Houston. Blundell's main issue in Bo4 was mostly gameplay decisions, which we know as the director of zombies, he had most of the say in the direction of these changes. Things like making the Easter Eggs extremely difficult, changing the perk system, making boringly super op specialist weapons etc.
I truly think that if some of these maps like IX, DOTN, and Ancient Evil were on Bo3 with the gobblegum system and og perk system, many people would think very differently about these maps. Story however remains the same, and that is something to put blame on Craig Houston for. And trust me, he very much deserves it.
@@fatnakedjimmyneutron, fr. Now Craig's the main man there, senior lead writer, and look where it has led us to.
@@jasonblundelldobebussing I think the issue more so is how the story is given to us. Cold war has like 200 pieces of Intel.
@@Zaymont720, yeah, in a way. And my dead-ass collected all of them 200 (I have no idea why) 😂
BO2 was disastrous you posing clown @@jasonblundelldobebussing
I still prefer the chaos storyline over the new storyline in Cold War
The problem with Chaos was that the hands were too loose. So, not some random characters Jimmy fetched out of his arse during a fever, later abandoned, and they eventually got retconed by Blunder and Craig, but a full-on, by-the-book endeavor made by those two British lads. You know what happens when an auteur gets unsolicited creative control over a whole game mode-Black Ops 3's campaign does.
Hot take: Huston, Texas and B-Jay were never good writers. What they excel at is writing onto the already established characters, like the original four caricatures from WAW. When they tried to create something original - Chaos crew happened. Now the King's throne is occupied by Craig and Craig alone. And after the writing of Cold War and MWZ... I fear what Gulf War brings.
👍
Exactly, man. Craig was just one of many writers during early Zombies, and it shows. Little known fact: Adam Gascoine was actually both the creative lead and co-writer for Zombies during WaW's DLC season. Dude also wrote the story and all the lore for DOOM 2016.
I just got BO4 for the first time a few weeks ago (having never played it). I really love the chaos story as a setting but I wish it was told a fair bit better
I do get why he wanted to ignore the community for a while, i mean, SoE was bashed and hated by most for a few years, then it became regarded as one of the best zombies maps ever. But that doesn’t change the fact that he ignore valid criticisms. Sure the can’t exactly patch a fix to the gameplay, bc that’s the foundation of the game, but they could’ve at least designed the maps around the gameplay, something only Tag Der Toten really did, and that’s only bc they were lucky that CotD’s layout mostly suited BO4’s gameplay
When it comes to the map design, most of bo4s maps were great. But when you push a story so heavily and it ends up being lackluster it brings the experience down 😬
@@CJSanta Right. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a BO4 lover, and the map designs were great, I just feel like the map layouts would’ve worked soooo much better on the BO3 engine. And they did realize this, especially with Tag, seeing how they fixed the dead ends you mentioned in your video about Tag. Ive been thinking about making a video about how BO4 zombies is a hidden gem, but I have other stuff to focus on before I can get to work on that
People hate chaos but now want it to come back crazy right. Ancient evil nine dead of the night are top tier maps.
Don't get me wrong, as maps, fantastic!
As a story, very cringe and embarrassingly written 😬
@CJSanta what let's down things most in bo4 is the new perk system and changing things for the sake of it
@@CJSanta I mean some of it was but the story wasn’t terrible
@@CJSanta Greek mythology is a badass way to name the perks
@@nathanieltyghe4526 I actually don’t mind it if it had jugg speed cola instead of being in ur base kit they should just be perks u can buy
I personally like the Chaos story line because i have a fondness to Norse and Greek mythology, but the way the executed the story was absolutely terrible and if they for some reason bring it to Black Ops 6 as their zombie story line next to dark aether, then that would be amazing but also PLEASE FIX THE MC!!!!! LIKE FUCKING HELL I CANT GET BEHIND A WOMAN WHO'S ONLY REASON FOR FIGHTING IS TO SAVE HER FATHER AND NOTHING ELSE. Like she needs to have some alternate motivation, but alas she just needs her father unlike the 3 others who are doing it for their own personal causes
I still believe that the community would be any better place if chaos continued. We would at least have characters to latch onto a story that is somewhat interesting. I never cared about the story that much in general. But, I actually quite liked the chaos storyline because the maps were so unique.
The community definitely would’ve been better off imo Cold War killed it for zombies fans that’s where I stop caring about the zombies storyline
@RawwRex don't get it mixed up too. Cold Wars story is still bad, but it's bad in a different way from chaos.
*R.I.P Chaos Storyline*
Having Scarlett as a main protagonist is like leading Dempsey lead Primis. "Oh great, now we have to go all the way to fucking Stalingrad and fly around on a bunch of fucking dragons just to kill Nikolai, all because this stupid fucking book said so. I'm tired of these portals and monsters and shit, just give me jugger-girl and let me be!" Btw, the Brigadier General from DOTN is the best character in all of zombies and I will not tolerate any opinions that oppose that fact.
Chaos shouldve been in cold war! BO4 was the game that shouldve closed the Aether storyline with a bang and at the end of it they could then tease us with the chaos story. Why do 2 stories at the same time when your audience had mixed feelings about how you ended your previous game? I personally only cared about chaos when i watched the whole story and cutscenes from videos in youtube explaining it.
I turn the voice volume down when I play as scarlet😂
I AM THE LIKE NUMBER 115, sorry I got excited xddd. Let's enjoy the video!!!
Always like before even starting the video lol
7:32 This ☝️🗣️🔥
JUST GIVE US ATLANTIS ALREADY
Imagine a world if bo4 succeeded like bo3 did
Careful you’ll have Mr Blue Waffle jumping to Blundell’s defense
Listening to that Scarlett rant was like injecting liquid catharsis in my veins lmao. This was a great video. I still like the original concept behind Chaos and would love to see it return with character writing that matches the quality of the maps they appeared in.
Rey Palpatine is better than Scarlett because Rey is atleast likeable, maybe on paper Rey had worse writing but Scarlett is WAY more annoying than Rey
Scarlet is just another Sweet Baby Inc, DEI, forced inclusion Character. Most of us didn't recognize it at first since it was in the early days of the current shitstorm we're currently in.
Amazing Video!!!
Yeah, I think it’s neat how someone made the Chaos story become apart of the Dark Aether story too.
Sorry not sorry , but Bruno is one of the best characters. If you play AE he has really fun lines and a personality, because of dark bruno. He is always the character I play just because he has 2 sides of himself. I like Bruno a lot.
I'll give you that in AE, they did give SOME better lines for the characters.
And as bad as they are, I'd still take them over the soulless operators from Cold war 😐
@@CJSantaexcept Scarlett
@@Sandman2000_HotTake true
Havent they confirmed in a roundabout way that with the inclusion of vanguard and MW3 zombies, chaos is part of the canon now?
Yea, I showed that in the last section of the video.
Your takes on chaos made me cry but they’re true
At least Craig Houston is trying to salvage Chaos' threads in Dark Aether.
I will say that I don’t think I can agree with the first 8-12 minutes of the video. I don’t think starting a new is a bad thing and I think asking them to stay in the same bubble forever is going to make it stale and boring too fast. If they just made it a separate timeline then that doesn’t make the ending matter in bo4 for primis and ultimus. Also if they were to just stay in that universe then there are rules that need to be followed or restrictions you might end up having that you can’t have if you don’t start over. Also he wasn’t destroying because it was easier he was destroying so that they could live a peaceful life where the zombies don’t exist anymore because they were to over exposed to 115.
That wasn't the point of the video. New isn't bad, how you present new is what matters.
First off, Great video! I always felt that the way Choas was handled was possibly the strangest way to introduce a story in the history of at least AAA gaming. I dont really know if I agree with blundell being blinded by his own ego/hubris or anything like that cause in every interview that I've seen he seems to me at least more like a passionate, dorky dude. In the case of BO4 he got really excited with this Idea but maybe felt he was shackled to an old story that he was done with long ago. IDK like its easy to say that he could have told the story he wanted to tell in a plethera of ways that maybe would have led the community to be happier but I think from his perspective he had an opportunity to tell a story that he was clearly really excited about and he took it, sadly it didnt pan out.
Old Zombie felt natural with story and simple, future zombie is…. Marvel/DC with Wizard and Sith & Jedis and aliens fighting each other sure
CJ don't put this all on Blundell, Craig was the writer, Jason the Director. Craig was the one writing most of the story but ofc Blundell had a role in it0
That's why I made sure to include Craig in the footage, the issue is that he and Craig work closely to develop ALL of the stories they worked on. And as Blundell was the director of the mode, he had final say on everything. So yes, id put it on him at the end of the day.
Having chaos being another part in the multiverse of aether would’ve made the story even worse. Scrap dark aether and bring back chaos
Unfortunately it's too late for that
@@CJSanta tbh I just want actual playable characters with personalities
@FiveByte I want that too, zombies has lost so much of what makes it entertaining when you don't have a playable character.
BO4 is a very strange game because, by all accounts, I should hate the game for obvious reasons, but something about BO4's gameplay loop and flow, along with a few other things I adore about the game, make it one of my favorite zombie modes in all of COD Zombies. It’s also important to mention that I didn’t play BO4 at launch because I didn’t even own the current gen console at the time or a PC so I never experienced the reasons why so many people hated the game at launch.
The game is my favorite zombies to PLAY, but the story is something that I don't care for.
Nor do most I feel.
I want them to end all the cliffhangers that you mentioned in the beginning. Especially ghosts
"That ain't gonna happen...there ain't gonna be any ghosts." -Rorke 😔✊️
I loved the chaos maps
The maps were fine when separated from the story
The biggest hype video ever, the comparison between the BO3 story and the Star Wars sequel trilogy is something I can’t unsee now
Yeah, it only goes to show that people making our entertainment are extremely incompetent.
@@CJSanta honestly yeah, the way they killed of Primus and Ultimus, makes Luke Skywalkers death look respectable
@@Sandman2000_HotTake oh boy, don't get me started on that 🫢😂
@@CJSanta when I watched that scene I quoted a certain blue blur “That’s NO GOOD!!!”(as in the Last Jedi scene)
90% of Scarlet's lines be like:
"bUt DiD i MeNtIoN mY fAThEr" 🤡
Samantha Maxis in Cold War despite being an operator, was someone we knew and like during the story and made us kinda happy to play as her
Honestly she is better than all of the Chaos crew characters(except maybe Shaw)
@@Sandman2000_HotTake don't diss my boy Diego like that.
@@it2spooky4me79 he’s ok
@@Sandman2000_HotTake 😡
@@it2spooky4me79 Diego has his moments but he is a whatever guy
agree with everything besides the bo3 take
Yo CJ I just wanted to ask if you know any good ways to self promote? I’m trying to grow out my zombies channel a little bit
lol I have absolutely no idea 😅
All I've done is upload a video every week for the last 5 months I think.
Consistency is what gets pushed in the algorithm I think. So just be consistent!
I'll check out your latest video though 👀
@@CJSanta thank you so much man.
Lemme know what you think 🙏
I'm in bro!
After eating I'll watch your video on Shadows of Evil no doubt! Excited 🙌🏼🙌🏼
scarletts a baddie idc
Have been looking for a video on this topic. Thank you
Hope I covered all the bases when if comes to this 👀
One problem is as you said the characters just give off exhibition dialogue, like the Chaos lines are way fucking long and when you think of all the great Ultimis lines they're short and sweet. Chaos drag on so much longer and make it uninteresting.
Warning: Paragraph ahead
I will say I liked this video, but I do not agree with plenty of the points you made, and a lot of this is just made to take a dig at something or someone you're not find of
I'll start with this, you are correct with the story telling aspect, you giving away the story is a problem, but that's not just a Blundell issue, that's a 3arc marketing issue, the devs have a poor time explaining things.
I also agree with telling people to just forget the past, that does suck, but you can only do so much with Aether before it got bland, and you can tell how bland it is now because 0 people are talking about the story in MWZ
Zombies was never scary, I know this is a small point you made, but it has never been scary, and I don't understand where this came from.
Also a lot of these points are incorrect or poorly perceived, remember, Scarlett was dragged into this, she had no choice in the matter, that will leave one distraught and upset, and now she has to try and fix Alistair's problems. And before I hear "they were all dragged into this", they weren't forced by their parents to take part in a life they didn't ask for, so yes, Scarlett's attitude is justified. Also this is a nitpick, but Misty sucks, and maybe cause you all didn't play Tranzit 800 times, but I was going to lose it if I heard "Stupidger" one more time. At least in BO4 she's tamer so she's bearable.
Bruno trying to fix his past is fine, yes the tough guy lines suck but for the most part he's been a more grounded character struggling with his darker side controlling him
DOTN being a prequel is fine, plenty of media have prequels, that point just sounds like a massive nitpick, scheduling issues happen
And Vanguard retconning Chaos was the most stupid thing, now the story is incomplete and being dragged into a rebooted Aether story which captivates 0 people. It needs to be its own thing. And on another note, I'm sick of this time-line and Multiverse BS, it's the most drone piece of writing ever and is usually used to retcon, make up excuses, and undo entire events, making it all worthless in the end which is trash and also tells people "why does it matter"? The same issue you had with Chaos IS the issue with Multiverses
Chaos was going to fail being alongside Aether, which is true, they should've capped off Aether first, then did some events for Chaos, that I agree with.
Paragraph over
Zombies themes was always based in horror, but starting in bo3 the maps and story lost any semblance of that.
I will say as a self contained story, dead of the night is great (until Scarlett shows up).
Also any issues the devs had or writers came up with, Blundell oversaw and had control over what was approved. The interviews prove this as he says that word for word.
The bottom line is the creative concepts of Chaos should and deserved to be done better, to be the best they could be.
But like much of bo4 it was squandered. 😢
It was based on horror yes, but it wasn't ever scary, the branch into story elements was a massive upgrade, it gives sustenance and purpose, a lot of the old maps are boring just cause, if you're making that argument then it ended in BO2 when buried was released. The only zombies that did horror correctly was WWII
It honestly was fine regardless of Scarlett showing up, I'm fine with you not liking her, but she's still integral to the story cause of her father, also no, I don't like Scarlett that much, but perspective does matter
Yes I do know he oversaw everything, but things like delays happen, and usually that's out of one's control, which he did mention
I do agree, chaos should've been much better, and even though I'm glad with what we've got, it could've been handled much better in all honesty
Black Ops 3 still does tamper with horror from time to time. I didn't really get why you said it didn't. Shadows of Evil deals with cosmic horror, and Zetsubou no Shima is, well, itself. A map like Gorod might not be scary, but not every map *was*. Can you say that Der Reise or Ascension were all that scary?
@bloodybeesting775 Der Reise and Ascension? Yes I can. Their atmosphere and theming certainly had a horror element to it.
if we're accounting things like the Apothicon then it's fair game to account for Cold war with Anything Dark Aether and Mauer Der Toten but people aren't willing to consider that cause they'd much rather pick and choose, not to mention even IX has some horror moments and that's chaos rather than Aether
But I do get what you mean, I still think the only game that did the horror stuff correctly was WWII
when controlled by the order godfrey and bruno and shaw have red symbols on head similar to kortifex's zombies, therefore they could be controlled by a dark aether entity
👁👁 good visual catch
So they just wanted to make us divided for there own wants while we wanted a awesome conclusion to the Aethir(Probably spelt wrong) story and then give us a whole game for chaos story.
Chaos was a story no one really cared about most people focused on the OG characters storyline chaos was a good idea but if it had those OG or mythical /historic characters not some made up crew if they had julius ceasar, cleopatra, mark Antony ect it would of made a good story. Legit having the characters fight in the Egyptian era to the 1920s on the titanic playing as different historical figures.
That's why I like the Dead of the night crew, they feel like a group of people out of a completely different era stuck in their own little adventure trapped in this haunted mansion.
Well made video
Truly a missed opportunity, poor Chaos
Another vicitm of wasted potential, and budget cutting.
TBH kinda thinking about it, even if the budget was high, with Scarlett, it would still fail
@@Sandman2000_HotTake yeah but i really enjoyed Diego.
I feel like this whole video is forgetting the fact that no one knows Jason Blundell and his intentions except for Jason Blundell.
Not sure why you need to bash on a guy you probably have never met just to make sense of something that didn’t turn out the way you wanted it.
All that said it’s a well made video and I was entertained and informed on a few things. I definitely agree about Scarlett though.
10:37 the order is trying to access the Library of the Nine. The Orded is more important than you think CJ. Like you said, They literally tell you, and the Kaos maps are designed for you to keep moving in an onslaught, especially (IX). Its pretty simple to get whats going on, and theres even radio tapes/scrolls on the maps. To be honest its better than Aether, Due to the mystery of what kind of horrifying games gods play, rather than breaking a cycle.
They are still uninteresting vilians though, and Medusa killing members of the order while also putting on the mask at the end makes for a contradictory ending from what ix shows.
IX was the only real hit on bo4 tho, if it didn't come out at launch I feel like the zombies would've been way more hated
IX is the worst map in bo4
Yeah it's possible, maps and how they play means alot. But again, the story was always a mess so I don't think many would have cared because of how "not connected" blundell made sure to make everything.
@@Sandman2000_HotTakethat belongs to alpha
@@JoeyCa87 don’t attack my boy Alpha Omega, the map is perfect
@@Sandman2000_HotTakeit's one of the worst maps ever though. I've played so much nuketown in multiplayer from bo1 to bo4 and also in blackout which is why it's one of the worst map I ever played up to firebase z and forsaken. That map should of never Been released
Hot take but my top 3 maps are
1.dead of the nigth
2.shadows of evil
3.buried
I like westerns🤠
Buried! Deep underground.
Buried. In a western town.
Honestly DOTN at the number one spot is a W take, I love DOTN
I need to see a zombified version of The Gods in Kaos, i want to know how Prima materia connects to element 115 frl. Since they connected the two storylines it makes me really wonder who the true Gods of Zombies are. Is it The Shadow man and Monty, Is it Kortifex and the other Eldergods, or is It the Divine Pantheons of ancient earth. Who knows….
It's really funny how Joshua Shaw made a more compelling story with all of these elements with his president plays series.
And that was meant to be a parody! 😮
You forgot Jessica when talking about female characters
She really is that forgettable to me😬
Somewhat valid👌🏻
Remembering Larry King Cnn News Dies Age At 87 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
this is the worst take i’ve ever heard tbh
@mediamanic4381 I don't think calling the poor writing and handling of the Chaos story is "the worst take ever".
Had the studio or developers been confident in it, they would have continued it after Blundell left the studio.
But they didn't, because it had no major positive impact on the community.
Personally I think its better if Chaos is different because for example imagine if the sentinel artifacts were just 115 like that would be so boring. I get what you're saying about ignoring the past 10 years of story but after tag (ik the chaos story was before tag) I'd much prefer just a different story unlike cold war that's trying to be aether but knows it can't but still tries to act like it is. I also agree that the chaos characters and story are boring for all the reasons you said. Also this is a personal thing but I don't like Shaw because as a British person he does come off as too stereotypically British like he sounds like a scientist that James bond gets his gadgets from
I don't mind the more out there concepts, but that's the kind of thing you SHOULD introduce into a multiverse. They could have connected it all later down the line. But no, they just had all these creative ideas but didn't think to turn them into concepts that all fit together intelligently
@CJSanta I agree but like if they added chaos to the multiverse and said that the sentinel artifacts are linked to these other gods who are more powerful than the apothecans it really undermines all that happened I'm bo3 and bo4 in my opinion also not that creative
@lambda1863 not if this took place before the bo4 Aether maps, but again they had no idea what they were doing.
And if you're of the opinion that all of Aether after bo3 WAS planned, it's still a bad and embarrassing ending imo.
@CJSanta i understand the bo4 aether story was quite improvised I'm not arguing that and I'm not in live with the tag ending but I still think that chaos is better by itself
@lambda1863 it would have been if the main characters been good
13:48 last thing, before the topic even starts.. i agree.. scarlet sucks, i prefer misty, hell even NPC sophia is better than Scarlet.
DOTN Crew >>>>> Chaos Crew
100%
Shame they're the last celebrity cast we'll ever see because whoever is in charge of zombies now don't have the balls to put characters back into the mode instead of operators. 🙄
@@CJSanta sadly that’s true, unless someone removes operators, I would want to play as Kevin Bacon in a zombies mode
@@CJSantathe DOTN crew I used to not like but they grew on me
Having Boss Nass as a playable character made the DOTN crew far superior
Honestly the Infinte Warfare zombies crew have more charm.
This video sounds like the mad ramblings of some 80 year old who only wants sequels and derivative content and stories and hates anything new. The type of person to want a form of media to go on for 30+ years with no changes or evolution.
Like bro wants the story to be mysterious for 10+ years? Like a story with no context and no answers? What kind of story is that? It seems like you are blinded by nostalgia and are letting that frame the story of zombies as better than it actually was in the past.
@AlyxaundryaWynter You can be dismissive about what I have to say all you want, but like I even said, it's not the issue that it was "new", it's that it was poorly written.
Chaos was a failure and the proof is in pudding. The series isn't going to return to chaos nor its characters because they didn't resonate with the audience.
Also saying I want things to be a mystery for 10+ years with no context is a strawman argument. I never said that, nor is that what I want. Your making things up and putting words in my mouth because you don't agree with what I have to say.
In my Tag video as well as the 'Biggest Missed opportunity in Bo4' I show how there are plenty of aspects of the bo4 Aether story I DO like just wish they were fleshed out more. Instead of them trying to divert attention to two different stories at the same time.
You can disagree with someone without having to lie about what they're saying and criticizing. 🙁