You remember the first time you beat the campaign in Call of Duty: Black Ops. The credits start rolling, the music swells, and then, suddenly, you’re in the Pentagon. It wasn't a glitch. It was "Five." Honestly, looking back at 2010, nobody expected to see John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara, Richard Nixon, and Fidel Castro sitting around a table debating politics before blasting zombies into green goo. It was absurd. It was difficult. Most of all, Five in Black Ops remains one of the most mechanically unique maps ever shoved into a Treyarch game.
Most players hated it at first. Let's be real. If you were coming off the high of Der Riese or even Kino der Toten, Five felt like a claustrophobic nightmare. The hallways were tight. The elevators were death traps. And then there was that guy. The Pentagon Thief. He didn’t want your brains; he just wanted your Mustang and Sally.
Why Five in Black Ops Was a Total Risk for Treyarch
Treyarch took a massive gamble here. Normally, Zombies was about nameless soldiers or the "Ultimis" crew we grew to love. Shifting the perspective to real-world historical figures—especially ones as controversial as Castro or Nixon—was a bold move that probably wouldn't fly the same way today. It worked because the game didn't take itself too seriously. You had Nixon grumbling about "checkers" and JFK shouting about a "breach in the portal."
It broke the fourth wall without shattering it.
The map design itself reflected the tension of the Cold War. You have the pristine, upper-level offices that feel sterile and safe, contrasting sharply with the "War Room" and the grimy, blood-splattered labs downstairs. This wasn't just a map; it was a vertical gauntlet. Unlike Kino, where you could run circles in the theater until your thumbs got sore, Five forced you to use teleporters and elevators. If your teammate pulled the elevator lever too early? You were dead. Simple as that.
The Pentagon Thief: A Different Kind of Boss
We have to talk about the "Science" of the map. Or rather, the lack of it. Instead of Hellhounds, Five introduced the Pentagon Thief, a frantic, shimmering figure rumored to be Yuri Kosygin.
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He is arguably the most annoying boss in Zombies history.
When those lights turn red and that siren blares, the panic is palpable. He doesn't damage your health. He steals your primary weapon. If you’re holding a Wonder Weapon like the Winter’s Howl, and he grabs you? It’s gone. You’re left with a pistol and a prayer. This mechanic changed the meta of the game. Players started hoarding "useless" weapons like the China Lake just to swap to them when the Thief appeared, essentially offering him "junk" so they could keep their Ray Gun. It was a meta-game within the game.
The Strategy That Actually Works
If you're still playing Five today—maybe on the original hardware or through backward compatibility—you know the old strategies don't always hold up. Most people try to camp the elevator. That's a mistake. Eventually, the spawns overwhelm the narrow doorway, and you're trapped in a metal box with nowhere to go.
The "War Room" is where the real high-round players live.
By staying on the middle floor, you have access to the most space. You can "train" zombies around the large central consoles. However, the windows are deceptive. They break fast. You need to be constantly rotating. If you get caught near the Defcon switches, you're done. Speaking of Defcon, that was the first real "interactive" Pack-a-Punch quest. You had to flip four switches to reach Defcon 5, which opened the portal to the President's Office.
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It felt like you were actually achieving something.
- Flip the switches in the War Room.
- Run like hell to the teleporter.
- Upgrade before the doors open and the horde pours in.
The Winter’s Howl, the signature Wonder Weapon of Five, is a bit of a tragedy. It looks cool. It freezes zombies. But it's essentially a "puff" gun by round 25. It lacks the infinite damage of the Wunderwaffe or the sheer killing power of the Thundergun. It’s a defensive tool, not an offensive one. You use it to clear a path, not to hold a line.
The Lore Connections You Might Have Missed
Five isn't just a standalone joke. It's deeply woven into the Black Ops narrative. For years, fans theorized about the "Broken Arrow" connection and how the experiments in the basement linked back to the Nova 6 gas from the campaign. We now know, thanks to the Classified remake in Black Ops 4, that this map happened simultaneously with the events of Moon.
While Dempsey and the crew were on the Moon, JFK was holding down the fort in D.C.
There's a specific radio you can find that mentions the "American version" of the zombie program. It adds a layer of grit to the map. It’s not just magic or Element 115; it’s government bureaucracy gone horribly wrong. The inclusion of the "Pig Room" (the labs with the hanging carcasses) was a gruesome nod to real-world biological testing during the 1960s. It’s uncomfortable, which is exactly what a horror game should be.
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Why We Still Talk About It
The reason Five in Black Ops sticks in our collective memory is the sheer personality. Gaming today feels sanitized. Everything is balanced to death. Five was unbalanced. It was cramped. It was unapologetically weird.
It demanded a different kind of skill. You couldn't just "train" and zone out. You had to manage elevators, watch for the Thief, and listen to Nixon complain about the "hippies." It represented a time when Treyarch was willing to throw everything at the wall just to see what stuck.
Actionable Tips for Your Next Run
If you’re heading back into the Pentagon, keep these three things in mind to survive past round 20:
- The Claymore Trick: Place your claymores in the hallway leading to the War Room teleporter. They don't disappear at the end of rounds, so you can stack them for the Pentagon Thief.
- The Mustang and Sally Priority: Since the Winter’s Howl falls off in late rounds, your M1911 (upgraded) is your best friend. Just make sure you have PhD Flopper (if playing the Classified version) or be very, very careful with your aim on the original.
- Don't Move the Box: Keeping the Mystery Box in its original spawn location for as long as possible prevents Fire Sales from being cluttered. It's a small optimization, but in a map this tight, every second matters.
Five wasn't the easiest map, and it certainly wasn't the most popular, but it had soul. It challenged the player to think vertically in a way no other map had done at that point. Whether you love it or hate it, you can't deny that the first time you heard that heavy metal riff kick in while JFK grabbed a shotgun, it was pure gaming magic.
Go back and play it. Just don't let the Thief take your gun. Honestly, it's embarrassing when that happens. Use the traps in the labs if you have to. Keep moving. Stay out of the elevators unless you're desperate. And remember: "Need more beans for the chowder!"