Mob of the Dead brought players into the infamous Alcatraz Prison and the Golden Gate Bridge, which is now overrun by zombies. Bad news to those who had this place down for their Zombie Apocalypse hideout. Although this map does not follow on the same timeline as the main Zombie Story, it still is involved in the story and is still an impressive and immersive map that is worth the effort to complete.

Additions: This map introduces several new features, one being Afterlife Mode. Afterlife Mode allows the players to literally step out of themselves and enter a more ethereal existence for a short period, allowing the player to travel through certain walls and power up certain components necessary to complete the Easter Eggs and obtain all available machines.

A new Perk-a-Cola is introduced as well, the Electric Cherry, this causes the player to be surrounded by an electric field whenever they are reloading, a useful addition in this map.

Another Zombie boss comes into play here, Brutus, this gargantuan can disable the Perk machines, Pack-a-Punch, Mystery Box, Workbenches and traps, as well as dealing significant damage to the player. To ensure a smooth game it is best to take him out as quickly as possible when he appears.

A new Wonder Weapon also enters the fray here, the Blundergat, a meaty shotgun that can take apart enemies at will. However in this map the Wonder Weapon can be combined with another new feature, the Acid Gat Kit, which is a buildable item that when combined with the Blundergat creates a new weapon the Acid Gat. The Acid Gat fires in three round bursts and sticks onto surfaces and zombies leading to an explosion of acid. If this is Pack-a-Punched into the Vitriolic Withering then the projectiles will attract zombies before exploding.

A new Melee Weapons appears, the Hell’s Retriever, this can be obtained after feeding the three large Hell Hound/Cerberus heads around the map with zombies. The Retriever is a Tomahawk that can be thrown and returns to the player and can go through up to six zombies at a time.

New traps include the Fan Trap, the Acid Trap and Tower Trap (which can be upgraded in Afterlife to fire Rockets).

Easter Eggs: As this map is an almost stand alone map there are many Easter Eggs hidden in the winding corridors and cells. One being the Golden Spork, a powerful yet ridiculous melee weapon that can kill in one hit up to round 34 (this is obtained by following certain instructions in order to find the Silver spoon and upgrade it, the player must have visited the Golden Gate Bridge, have the Hell’s Retriever and Acid Gat). Another Easter Egg involves finding Ciphers and pieces of paper which reveals the backstory to the characters. The main Easter Egg which follows Pop Goes the Weasel Achievement or Trophy.

-First you will need to have the Hell’s Retriever, so locate the three dogs head symbols at the jail cells just below the Gondola, the next one is just below the roof next to the Valves airplane part, the third is on the dock (the symbol is on the brick wall of the Jail). At each one kill a zombie this will cause a Cerberus head to appear, continue to kill zombies and make sure the Head is eating them, after a few zombies (roughly around 7-10) the head will disappear into the wall. Once this is done for all three then go to showers and into the citadel tunnels, you will notice a new hole in the wall with the Hell’s Retriever Tomahawk in the middle.

-Assemble the plane. There are five parts around the map that need collecting, some require fairly detailed steps so please seek a specific guide for this.

-Head to the Golden Gate Bridge and sit yourself into the electric chair to be sent back to the Prison.

-Now you are back in the Prison you will collect a spoon (yes a spoon). Firstly head to the jail cells next to the Warden’s office, one will have a nice movie poster on the back wall, throw your Tomahawk at it to reveal a hole behind it (guess someone watched Shawshank Redemption), head into Afterlife mode and access the area behind the cell through the portal to the left of the Afterlife, head to the area behind the hole and shoot the spoon on the floor with electricity. If you hears Samantha’s laugh then you’ve done it correctly. Then head to the Cafeteria and Tomahawk the spoon, which is on a metal table behind a barrier to the left of the blueprint. Brutus will laugh if done correctly (apparently these demonic things find it amusing that they force us to collect spoons).

– Now time to go get some skulls. There will be 5 blue skulls sitting around the map (some are hidden and some are just outside the map) therefore the Hell’s Retriever is needed to obtain these skulls. If the golden gate bridge has been visited then they will be visible to the player, if not then just look up a guide to find the exact location of the skulls. I will briefly talk you through the locations (if you need more detail there are plenty of sources to look up) one is in a jail cell near the library, the cell should contain some hooks, blood and a larger skull, the blue skull is in the toilet so throw your Hell’s Retriever until the blue skull flies out of the toilet. The next one is on the roof with the Jump Scare Easter Egg, if you face to the back of the roof go to the right hand corner and throw the Retriever at the corner of the building in front of you. The next one is on the dock, head to the edge of the dock (there should be some water and then another dock) throw the Retriever at the third pillar on that dock across the water. Head to the Juggernog (in the dock area) and above the wall of the map should be a lamp post with an orange lamp (above the corner connecting the brick wall to the iron fence with barbed wire) aim for the top of the lamp to get the skull (you need to be right in the corner to reach this one). Go to the Warden’s office and head to the window next to Speed-Cola, look at the Power cable out the window and throw the Retriever at the top of the pole (either on one of the two cross beams or just hit the pole), some suggest you need to shoot the right wire first. Also go into the Wardens office now to get a free Blundergat, which now appears (a wise move would be to turn the Blundergat into an Acid Gat using the Acid Kit).

-Refuel the plane (the fuel tanks should appear in the same locations as the plane parts), head to the Golden Gate Bridge again and jump back into the electric chair. Repeat this step again so that in total you should have gone to the Bridge and returned 3 times.

– Go to the top of the spiral ramp near the place where you pick up the rigging for the plane in the Citadel Tunnels (above where the large combination is). Go into Afterlife mode and head down to the numbers at the bottom of the spiral ramp (if you have someone reviving you and then stopping before the revival bar is completed then your Afterlife can be hugely extended). Head down to the numbers (which should be changing without you doing anything) and type in these codes; 101, 872, 386, 481 (representing the prisoners’ numbers). After each successful code the numbers should reshuffle.

-There should now be an audio sequence (the game now becomes black and white), once this is done walk up the ramp and back up the stairs, you will see a set of headphones (first spoons and now headphones, wtf treyarch) pick them up. Once picked up another audio clip is played, this will tell you where the next headphone is, follow each audio clip and collect all the headphones around the map. You will finally end up on the roof, go to the nearest Afterlife panel. All of you go into Afterlife mode and head back to the roof (you will see the plane is now built and your Afterlife does not deplete), hop onto the plane (it has been said that only one player needs to do this and the others will automatically be put on the plane in Afterlife mode).

-Once on the Bridge head to where the electric chairs are and you will find yourself already sitting there (spooky!), revive yourself. After a little bit the person playing Weasel will become the enemy, all players must try and kill Weasel whilst whoever is Weasel tries to kill the other players. It doesn’t matter who wins, so have fun, either way the Easter Egg will be completed. All that changes is the end message, which will read “The Cycle Continues” (if Weasel is killed) or “The Cycle is broken” (if Weasel kills the other players).

The Story: Mob of the Dead is a one-off story; it does not link into our traditional story apart from the whole Zombie invasion thing, however it both includes and starts many processes used by Group 935! Since Mob of the Dead takes place before the creation of 935 and WW2 it is plausible this takes place in the same universe and timeline. The Warden of Alcatraz somehow gets hold of a little bit of Element 115, he starts to mess around with it, creating a drink (Electric Cherry). This in turn will later inspire Group 935 to make Perk-a-Colas. However the Wardens meddling with 115 causes him to be contacted by the Evil lurking within the Aether, he therefore starts worshiping this Beast and torturing inmates (creating the Hellish version of Alcatraz). This explains the portals allowing the Cerberus heads to appear, the Hell’s Retriever, Afterlife and such. The zombies came about because of the reanimation properties of 115 left in the Prison.

The playable story focuses around four imprisoned Mobsters; Michael “Finn” O’Leary, Albert “Weasel” Arlington, Salvatore “Sal” DeLuca, and Billy Handsome. From ciphers found and decoded around the map we gain a brief glimpse into the personal lives of our four main companions. Sal DeLuca is the Mob boss, with trouble arising from Chicago Police DeLuca is attempting to keep peace between rival gangs. Finn O’Leary is the right hand man for Sal and is the fraudulent master. In Finn’s Cipher there is mention of is distain towards his wife’s (Angela) choice to leave him, claiming she can only leave the marriage “when she leaves this Earth”. Billy Handsome is the groups ‘dirty work’ specialist, he takes out ‘problems’ in gruesome ways that will make the news. Billy’s Cipher seems to be talking to someone outside the city (Chicago), he speaks of how well work is doing and how he a success, however he has decided to take time off (because he is in Prison) and will write once he is back (after the escape). Weasel is the conman, someone to get things done, not trustworthy but good at what he does. From his Cipher he writes to an unknown company sending illustrations and ideas for a comic, he mentions he is in Hospital and that he has more time to draw and improve his skills. His drawing in one Comic becomes the inspiration for the Ray Gun.

The Audio Logs around the map paint a completely different picture to the one we experience. This story is told from the perspective of Stanley Ferguson, a Prison Guard, in these Logs he provides an account of the attempted escape of the four inmates. He begins by stating the Weasel had convinced the others to follow his plan of building an aircraft and flying off the Island, however there was no aircraft and things started to break down amongst the group. Weasel was lured onto the roof and brutally murdered by the other three, who were sent to the electric chair as a result. Now this next part is away from the Audio Logs but reveals how we got to the scenes on the map. Once the executions of the three mobsters are complete they are sent back in time, with no memory of death, to a slightly more Zombie infested Alcatraz (possibly signifying a literally Hell where they are stuck in an endless cycle of horrific deaths). It seems only Weasel has any memory of the events, possibly due to his Journal keeping, and this time his plan of building an aircraft succeeds. However the plane crashes into the Golden Gate Bridge, where they are killed by Zombies and returned to the Prison. Eventually the mobsters realise that they are stuck in a loop and are already dead, meaning there is no reality of escape. Upon this realisation they remember all that has happened and again set out to kill Weasel. If they succeed the cycle resets, however if Weasel fights back and wins then the cycle is broken and Weasel can leave. Once all is done, America brushes the events under the rug and rebuilds, but Group 935 investigates all this later.