Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (IW) was basically dead on arrival for a lot of people. When that first trailer dropped back in 2016, the "dislike" button on YouTube got absolutely hammered because everyone was sick of the future setting. But here’s the thing: while the multiplayer was polarizing, the infinite warfare zombie maps were a masterclass in personality. Lee Ross and the team at Infinity Ward did something Treyarch wouldn't dare. They leaned into the campy, neon-soaked absurdity of 1980s and 90s cinema. Honestly? It worked way better than it had any right to.
If you go back and play these maps today, the difference in quality compared to the recent "open-world" zombies we've been getting is staggering. There was a soul here. A weird, funky, disco-dancing soul.
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Zombies in Spaceland: The Gold Standard
You can't talk about infinite warfare zombie maps without starting at the theme park. Zombies in Spaceland is, quite literally, one of the best launch maps in the history of the franchise. It’s set in a 1980s amusement park, featuring David Hasselhoff as a DJ and a soundtrack that includes everything from "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood to "The Final Countdown."
The layout is a classic three-lane structure, but it feels organic. You have the Polar Peak roller coaster, the Kepler System’s laser traps, and the Astrocade where you can actually play retro Activision games to earn "Soul Power" and get back into the game after dying. It solved the boredom of spectating. Instead of watching your friends struggle for ten minutes, you played Skee-Ball. That’s a brilliant design choice that modern CoD seems to have forgotten.
The Easter Egg quest here is tough but fair. You’re building the "Seti-Com," defending it from waves of zombies, and eventually fighting an Alien Grey in the center of the park. It's chaotic. It's loud. It’s colorful. And the Wonder Weapons? The "Dischord" and "Shredder" pistols didn't just kill zombies; they made them spin around like breakdancers or fly into the air like rockets. It was fun. Plain and simple.
Rave in the Redwoods and the Slasher Vibe
Moving from the neon lights of Spaceland to the foggy, damp atmosphere of Rave in the Redwoods was a massive tonal shift. This map is a love letter to 90s slasher flicks like Friday the 13th. You’re at a summer camp. There’s a masked killer (Kevin Smith, surprisingly) and a "Rave" mode where the entire map turns into a neon hallucinations-fest under UV lights.
What makes this one stand out among infinite warfare zombie maps is the melee system. For the first few rounds, you aren't even using guns. You’re swinging golf clubs, machetes, and spiked bats. It changed the flow of the early game. Then you have the Vlad Crossbows—four distinct upgrades that turn the map into a shooting gallery of owls, stags, and wolves.
It also introduced the Slasher, a chainsaw-wielding boss that actually felt intimidating. Most modern zombie bosses are just "bullet sponges" with glowing weak points. The Slasher felt like he belonged in a horror movie. He’d hunt you. You’d run. That’s the tension that makes this mode great.
The Mid-Season Slump? Shaolin Shuffle and Attack of the Radioactive Thing
A lot of people fell off the IW train around the third and fourth DLC. That's a mistake. Shaolin Shuffle took us to 1970s New York City. Think The Warriors meets Enter the Dragon. This map is dense. It’s got sewers, subways, and a rooftop disco.
- You could learn Kung Fu. Literally. Each character had a different fighting style (Crane, Dragon, Tiger, Snake) that allowed for special chi attacks.
- Pam Grier was the celebrity guest, acting as your martial arts mentor.
- The "Shuffle" was notorious for a complex Easter Egg involving a lot of Morse code and chemical mixing, which... yeah, was a bit much for some.
Then we got Attack of the Radioactive Thing. This one is weird. It’s a 1950s creature feature set in a sunny beach town. It’s bright. It’s blindingly white. It feels completely different from any other zombie map ever made. While the chemistry step in the Easter Egg is widely hated by the community for being essentially a college-level math problem, the boss fight against a Godzilla-sized monster in the ocean was an incredible spectacle. It pushed the engine to its limits.
The Controversial Finale: Beast from Beyond
Every story has to end, and Beast from Beyond is where things got... complicated. This map is a crossover with the Extinction mode from Call of Duty: Ghosts. You’re fighting Cryptids instead of just zombies for the first few rounds. It’s fast. It’s punishingly difficult.
The map itself is a bit sterile—a space station on an ice planet—but it served one primary purpose: the Mephistopheles boss fight. To even get to this fight, you had to complete every single Easter Egg in the previous infinite warfare zombie maps. This was the "Director’s Cut" reward.
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The fight against Mephistopheles is widely considered the hardest boss fight in Call of Duty history. It’s a multi-stage arena battle against a literal demon. No gimmicks, just pure skill and resource management. If you beat it, you unlocked the ability to play as Willard Wyler (voiced by the legendary Paul Reubens) and started every game with 25,000 points and all perks permanently active. That is how you reward a player base.
Why the Mechanics Worked Better Than You Remember
Infinite Warfare Zombies didn't just have good themes; it had better "quality of life" features than the Black Ops series at the time.
- Fate and Fortune Cards: These were the IW version of Gobblegums. The difference? You could choose when to activate them from a refillable deck. It felt less like gambling and more like strategy.
- The Lost and Found: If you died, you could go to a window and buy your guns back for a small fee. No more losing your Pack-a-Punched weapon on round 30 because of a silly mistake.
- Weapon Kits: You could level up your guns in Zombies and they stayed leveled up. You could add attachments and camos that actually mattered.
- The Bank: You could share points with teammates through an ATM system. It sounds small, but it made co-op play infinitely less toxic.
The game also didn't take itself too seriously. In Spaceland, you could summon a robot named N31L to give you challenges. If you completed them, David Hasselhoff would fly in on a spaceship and help you kill zombies for a few minutes. It was ridiculous. It was "video gamey" in the best way possible.
The Verdict on the Infinite Warfare Era
The main criticism leveled against infinite warfare zombie maps was that they were "too easy" or "too goofy." Compared to the deep, tragic lore of the Aether story in Treyarch’s games, IW felt like a Saturday morning cartoon. But looking back from 2026, that was its greatest strength.
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We’ve had years of dark, gritty, "serious" zombies that often feel like chores. IW Zombies was a celebration of cinema. It was a playground. It didn't care about being realistic because you were literally trapped inside a movie by a mad director.
If you haven't played them in a while, or if you skipped them because of the "IW hate train," go back. The servers are still up. The Director’s Cut is still the best completionist reward in the franchise. Spaceland alone is worth the price of admission.
Next Steps for Players
To get the most out of these maps today, you should focus on unlocking the Director's Cut. Start by mastering the "Zombies in Spaceland" Easter Egg—it’s the most straightforward and sets the foundation for the mechanics you'll need later. Use the M1 Garand with the "Scoped In" Fate card for easy early-game points, and don't sleep on the Mauler - Sentinel variant if you have it; it's arguably the best weapon in the entire game for boss fights. Once you have the first soul key, move on to Rave in the Redwoods and focus on the Ben Franklin crossbow upgrade, which provides the best crowd control for high rounds.