Making things go bump in the night usually has a very different meaning in Call of Duty – you’re usually surprising an opponent with a well-placed grenade. But Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II’s Season 06 – The Haunting has been adding supernatural elements to Multiplayer, and Call of duty: Warzone since last month to help give that phrase a delicious double meaning.
We’ve seen a zombie outbreak in Call of Duty: Warzone’s Vondel map, a limited-time Zombie Royale mode, spooky map reskins in Multiplayer, and Halloween-themed twists on classic Multiplayer modes. But perhaps most exciting are the crossover characters we’ve seen arriving as playable Operators, and themed weapon packs based on iconic franchises.
Headlined by Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, we can now see Skeletor from “Masters of the Universe” in-game, Ash from “Evil Dead 2,” and Diablo IV’s Inarius will be making an appearance soon as well, among others. It’s clearly been a massive undertaking to bring so much Halloween-themed content to Call of Duty – but Infinity Ward Production Director Dino Verano says it’s been an enjoyable one.
“It’s been super fun, and you could literally feel the excitement through the walls and Zoom calls. We were lucky enough to work with such iconic partners and be able to bring it all to life in a Call of Duty way we know players will love.”
Of course, bringing iconic characters to the game comes with its own quirks – we made sure to ask about the process of introducing some of these big names came about.
Spawn
The Haunting’s Spawn content (out now) is anything but a single Operator skin. We’ve seen Spawn’s human form, Al Simmons, added as an operator alongside his classic costumed look (above), a Burned Spawn Al Simmons skin, and skins for many of his greatest foes – from Violator to Disruptor.
“Working on Spawn with Todd McFarlane was an absolute blast,” says Verano. “He’s always got a great story and never fails to make us all laugh – the hardest thing with him was ending meetings on time. ‘Take my creation and turn it into something awesome!’ — what a legend…”
Doom
One of the originators of the FPS genre, it’s no surprise to see Doom represented as part of The Haunting. This Tracer Weapon Bundle (out now) adds the original’s long-range shotgun and chainsaw to the mix.
“A lot of us here grew up playing Doom, but some of the younger folks in the studio were wondering what Doom was, so we took a stroll down memory lane and watched some gameplay, which was so much fun – and it’s still awesome by the way.”
Hellsing
The classic manga and anime series “Hellsing” focuses on an organization dedicated to battling vampires and other supernatural forces, so it’s a perfect fit for The Haunting. The Hellsing Bundle (out now) offers players the chance to step into the shoes of Alucard, the vampire turned vampire hunter.
“Even though Alucard is always smiling, there’s really nothing funny about that one… but he really turned out fantastic, the team really nailed the anime aesthetic, even the way his glasses sort of glow in the darkness.”
Evil Dead 2
Ash Williams is no stranger to fighting off the forces of evil, so this Operator Bundle (available now) fits in very nicely. Adding the version of Ash from “Evil Dead 2,” complete with boomstick Weapon Blueprints and more, there’s even a special extra detail the team worked on:
“For Evil Dead 2, our partners mentioned, ‘OK, just remember that no matter what, Ash always has blood on his face.’ And on a call, our team was just like, ‘OK, so what if we make it reactive, and his face and weapons all just get bloodier as he goes?’”
Diablo IV
The Call of Duty team didn’t have to look too far for fellow developers with experience of creating games about fighting off the forces of Hell. Their Activision Blizzard colleagues on the Diablo IV team opened the door to creating Operator Bundles based on the fallen archangel Inarius (coming soon), and the demon queen herself, Lilith (out now).
“We had multiple meetings discussing Diablo content with the team down at Blizzard. We had an awesome time discussing the project with them overall, and every single one of the meetings involved several people yelling, ‘fresh meat!’”
Skeletor
One of the greatest cartoon villains ever is quite literally (and some would say confusingly) a musclebound skeleton – I personally cannot wait to see him sharing the field with other Operators. The Skeletor Bundle (out now) comes with a wonderful new Operator, sorcery-themed Blueprints, and new Emblems – but it had an unintended side-effect for the team: “Don’t even get me started on the Skeletor laughs and impressions you constantly hear up and down our hallways…”