I beg of you guys, PLEASE hear me out before going straight to dismissing. I know this is an absolutely insane take, and I promise to be as thorough as I can with my explanation. I just want to remind you all that this is all personal, and I completely understand anyone who disagrees. Also, I will mainly be talking about things I believe Blood does better than Mob, but will also bring up some elements that are the other way around. Lastly, if anything here sounds personal, it likely is. Just be prepared for that.
Now prepare for a literal essay…
Ok, so a lot of people hate this Blood, and I get it. It can be seen as too complex or unfair or tedious or just overall a slog to play. A lot of other people really love Mob for its atmosphere and gameplay. Me? I think Mob and Blood are both around A tier, but Blood is slightly higher. Let me just list some stuff off:
EASTER EGGS
Yep, that’s right. I think Blood just barely has a better egg than Mob. Mainly, it comes down to content.
Look, building the plane on Mob is miles better than the moving PaP machine on Blood. In fact, I find the bridge to be one of my personal favorite PaP locations in zombies. However, after you travel to the bridge, what’s the next step to the egg? Oh, you need to travel back two more times. That’s it. Ok, well maybe something interesting will happen- Nope, you just need to collect gas cans in the EXACT same locations as the plane parts to go back. Like, from a story perspective, I get it. The mobsters are trapped in a cycle. But having a reason for something doesn’t change the fact that these are conceptually lame Easter egg steps. The next few steps are a little better. You put in the prisoner numbers and then listen to audio reels. I think these reels are great at delivering the story for Mob, but again, not much is happening here. And then all of a sudden, we’re on the final step, and it doesn’t feel like we’ve done many real steps. Now, I think these final step is amazing. It’s fun to have all other players fight Weasel like that, and having two different endings is good as well. I think Mob’s egg, overall, isn’t terrible, but it’s only really the first plane ride and the finale I can bring myself to enjoy. Everything else, apart from the reels, is just playing the game normally.
Not to sound like a Tomb defender here, but to anyone who complains about Tomb’s egg for half of it just being building and upgrading the Ice staff… Have you played Mob’s egg? Literally half of this egg is playing the game normally by going to PaP multiple times. At least with the Ice Staff, you feel like you’re doing something different.
Also, while we’re on the subject, we have all these cool weapons: The Blundergat that can be turned into the Acid Gat, the Hell’s Retriever, and the Golden Spoon. Yet, NONE of these are required to beat the egg. Mob’s egg is the only one in BO2 to not require any map-specific weapons. I know it seems kind of small, but it’s just weird to me.
Now, compare ALL OF THIS to Blood’s Easter egg. Yes, some steps like the bird step, the new industries challenge, and the Morse code step are tedious as hell, but it actually feels like you’re DOING something. It felt like a real Easter egg.Plus, I’ve always thought the cutscene inside the prison cells was pretty cool, seeing how all hope was lost for a moment before the original mobsters set you free and help you defeat the Warden. And both cutscenes to the map, both the intro and outdo, are awesome. Seeing the crew trapped on this island, and seeing Richtofen get left behind was really sad as well.
Oh, and I happen to use Richtofen every solo game for one reason: Samuel. It’s such a small detail that you have to do at the beginning, but hearing his comments throughout the Easter egg is just funny to me, and always enjoyable.
Finally, you actually need the map’s weapons for this egg! The hell’s retriever, spectral shield, and spoon are all required to progress. (Admittedly, you don’t need the Blundergat as far as I’m concerned.) This makes the quest more linked to the map itself in my opinion.
Overall, I just find Blood’s Easter egg much more satisfying to complete.
One more thing: I think both versions of “Where Are We Going” are great. However, while Mob as both that and Rusty Cage, I personally think Blood’s version is better than both. It just feels so much more powerful.
THE MAP
Both Mob and Blood suffer from the same problem: there are too many doors. However, I think the prices are slightly more outrageous on Mob. Despite having more locations, Blood seems to have more agreeable door prices, and the progression doesn’t stop as much. This is due to you reaching the more expensive barriers later in the rounds than Mob, from my own experience. Speaking of locations, I actually think Blood has some cool new ones like Richtofen’s lab, the west area of the island, and the warden’s house. It’s not much, but it helps adding to a rewrite of the map.
Now, one thing I’ll give Mob above Blood for is the unique afterlife mode. It’s neat when maps give us new mechanics like this, and having to use it to power up perks or open doors is surprisingly innovative. It’s neat when also adds to the gloomy atmosphere in a way.
So what’s the problem with it? Hear me out… It makes solo play a little too easy. As long as you can progress one round after going down, you literally have infinite revives. Yes, the map is very tight, but if you’re skilled enough, you can reclaim all your perks and finish the round to get a new charge. Meanwhile, Blood still has a set number of downs on solo.
With that said, the spectral shield is definitely weaker than afterlife, even so. It’s nice to have a more unique shield, but suckin- I mean, DRAINING the essence out of zombies takes a while, and unless you spend time upgrading the shield, you’re gonna have a rough time with the egg, ESPECIALLY on the New Industries step.
One last thing: Blood brings back all the weapons from Mob, but also adds a new variant to the Blundergat: The Magmagat. I personally find the upgrade process simple yet fun, and it’s enjoyable using a sort of shootable monkey bomb while also avoiding the lava puddles.
THE STORY
Personally, I think I like Primis in this map more than the mobsters, mainly because I can’t find myself having much of a connection to them. They’re good for the map, don’t get me wrong, but apart from Weasel maybe, they have too similar personalities for me to tell them apart. Their story on killing Weasel and starting the cycle is cool, though, and turning on him in the finale is sick.
But Blood… oh man. Seeing Richtofen genuinely freaked out is kind of crazy, and seeing everyone’s hopelessness, being trapped on this island coming off of Zetsubo, is also interesting to see. Plus, during the Easter egg you directly witness the trapped spirits of Alcatraz, before you set them free in the finale. Speaking of which, having Richtofen sacrifice himself in the machine is a shock, and suddenly switching to Post Great War Richtofen is sick as hell. Witnessing everyone leaving Richtofen behind is saddening as he dies all alone.
To add on, finding out a bit more about the Warden before he went crazy is neat, and as I said, having Samuel along for the ride is always good fun.
CONCLUSION
Again, this is all a personal opinion of mine, and I’m sorry for the yap session. I think both of these are good maps, but after considering a mix of gameplay elements and story beats, Blood just barely wins out.
Well, now that I’ve finished, what do you all think of these maps and how they compare? If anyone has any details I forgot to bring up in my comparison, I’ll be happy to address them as best as I can!
35 Comments
no
I love blood(sometimes) but I wouldn’t love blood as much as I do if it wasn’t for mob
It’s hard to do a comparison, having the Primus crew enter a world foreign to them but familiar to us really adds to the story of the map
I like BOTD better simply because I don’t have to refuel the plane again every time I need to pack a punch
Blood’s only better than mob on the final cutscene, which is one of the best we’ve had,and mob doesn’t have one.
I love blood, because blood is what mob was supposed to be back in the day on bo2, all the extra playable areas on the island in blood of the dead was supposed to be apart of the original mob but was cut due to hardware limitations of the Xbox 360 and ps3 if you no clip out of mob youll find that most of those areas while very crudely modeled are modeled enough so you can walk on them, the ONLY thing I actually preferred about the original mob vs blood was the plane and pack a punch being on the Golden Gate Bridge, had they included that in blood it would probably have made it my all time favorite map , im not much of a Easter egg guy so I can’t speak for those but another thing I liked was the magma gat
This world is a scary place if there are actually people out there that care this deeply about having an opinion heard on a completely useless topic.
Blood simply isn’t better than mob. The removal of the bridge and afterlife made the map not hold up as well.
That being said, I still think it is a pretty good map. The Easter egg is fun, the magmagat is fun, the story for this map is arguably the best that zombies has to offer.
People definitely hated it on it too much. I’ve seen tier lists that have mob in s tier but then have blood below bus depot and I don’t get how people can be that delusional.
BOTD is better or = too MOB. It’s a reimagine so the entirety of the map is there with additional areas that MOB would make you wonder what if that section was open. You can see real effort and thought was put into these new areas. Don’t get me wrong I love MOB but genuinely feel BOTD is more repayable and better version of Alcatraz. BO4 is part ZC2 with AO,BOTD,TAG Classified. Y’all missing out because of a perk or whatever excuse your choice but great game.
I’m going to tell you why Mob is “better” than Blood.
Because Mob is in BO2, a game the community loves and BO4 is a game the community used to hate.
I’m not going to state my opinions here because that’s not the point, all I’ll say is: Good Map in Bad Game : Bad. And Bad Game in Good Game : Good.
BO4 remakes will always be seen as inferior in the eyes of the community even if objectively they are better. Of course I can’t prove it but I’m pretty sure if the exact same maps were done on BO3 (with BO3 mechanics of course) the reception would’ve been a lot better, it’s not the map, it’s the game. And again I’m not saying BO4 is a bad game and BO2 is a good one but that’s how the community perceives them (at least when BO4 was new).
Great ragebait this
It’s a tough call to be sure. Mob has been my favorite zombie map since BO2 released. The dark, hopeless atmosphere mixed with sadistic traps and demonic weaponry truly told a singular story about hell, death, and eternity that Treyarch hadn’t had the balls to approach before that time. It was a landmark for the mode, that is until Origins followed it and everyone’s attention jumped there indefinitely. That said I was dumbfounded when Blood came out lol. Blood took the existing map and made changes/extensions to it in such a way you still felt at home within the confines of the world, while adding everyone’s fav four to the ever spinning cycle of Purgatory. Mob is still my fav, 100%. It’s nostalgic. But I also 100% appreciate/ can’t deny Blood is the superior map.
There are some steps you forgot from Mob. You have to get the Blundergat by picking up the five skulls with the Retriever. One player can get the Blundergat from the box but that will not complete this step.
You also have to knock down the poster in a cell by the Warden’s Office (which reveals a hidden Afterlife symbol and opens up a new area for Afterlife) to shock the spoon and teleport it to the cafeteria, which you can then pick up with the Retriever.
I actually agree, but tbh if you ask me which one is my favorite between Blood and Mob, i wouldn’t be able to choose
I agree OP. I love BO4 as a whole personally and always have
I grew up with MW-BO3 and skipped every call of duty after BO3.
So I came back last year to play BO4 for the first time. No negativity, no pre thoughts if it was bad or good.
I’ll tell you, that mode was hot garbo. Blood and declassified being the absolute worst. Nine was cool and I had plenty of fun. But man, wtf happened to BO4😂
ah yes, i love seeing praise for my 2nd favorite map of all time
I really enjoy blood but nah, mob is just the better map.
And actually putting in the effort and time to upgrade the spoon all the way to the spork-knife was TOTALLY WORTH IT. Strongest weapon in the game and I got to use it 4 times🤣🤣
Upvote for the take. I outright disagree with many parts though. I don’t think mob has too many doors, and I don’t think afterlife makes solo too easy and unengaging—usually if I go down once on a high round, I go down again immediately after reviving. I adore the layout of mob, and I love the characters and story.
You may think I’m bound to nostalgia, but I say many of the same things about blood too. I think blood is the most cinematic easter egg. (Also I’m not, I played mob for the first time two years ago, and played blood first lol).
My only gripes with blood are the electricity system being weaker than afterlife and the changes to map layout that downgrade the flow. I think that if you think getting the plane parts is redundant, so is putting all the codes in the box in blood as well.
Also it’s not all about Easter eggs—casual play on mob is far superior BECAUSE of the ease of getting special weapons.
Mob is my favorite map (next to soe), but I admire blood as well. It’s just a different map even though it looks similar.
I like blood cause I get to run and then run some more while being able to run on top of running. With an added bonus of running
Blood is a bastardised version of mob
Blood is cooler but they nerfed the gat and that sucks a lot plus the catwalk is stupid I don’t wanna get smacked by zombies I can’t get rid of
see the motd vs botd debate is like trynna compare silent hill 2 and silent hill 3. both classics in their own right, and either preference is valid
Blood lovers are something only found in the Twitter community god bless you🙏
My issues with blood is that the catwalk from spawn is really annoying, the acid gat is weaker than the magma gat, and the hells redeemer upgrade step with the dogs is super obnoxious and can prevent you from having a grenade for like 7 rounds. Otherwise it’s a pretty cool rendition of the map.
Disagree, but respect your opinion. Mob of the dead is basically a puzzle. You need all of the pieces for it to be an S tier map. The characters and lore work perfectly with the prison itself. When you take out the characters and lore and replace them with different characters and a new story it doesn’t work as well. It’s still a great map with a good story to tell, but not as good as mob in my opinion.
As a genuine bo4 hater I can definitively say, this is a beautiful argument for why blood is better. And I’d like to say if I had blood in nearly any other game it would 100% top tier it for me, but I can’t enjoy the way bo4 plays, mechanicly, in any way. I know it’s a personal problem (and probably a skill issue tbh) so this post genuinely makes me understand why people can rank the bo4 maps so high in their ratings when I can’t seem to find it in me to enjoy them. Good on you man and would honestly love to see some more analysis from you on other bo4 maps o7
Blood has a bad PaP mechanic and Mob has an easy PaP mechanic
Blood is my 2nd favorite map of all time, only beaten by Origins. It has everything I want in a map, other than its boss fight being underwhelming and no indicator for where PaP moved. And those things don’t bother me too much.
That’s funny considering blood has a bottom 5 if not 3 ee whereas mob has one of the better ones😭
having played both over 30 times I can say that I like blood better.
I feel like blood could’ve been done without the starting area because it’s better off not existing since you never really use it after the intial waves like why not do what buried did and make it temporary
I like the idea of Mob so much more than Blood so I do think I like Mob more for that reason alone. Having said that, I think Blood has better gameplay.
For me the difference is almost entirely due to atmosphere and a little bit of gameplay. Spawning in and being almost entirely contained to the prison itself really sells the isolation and immersion of Alcatraz to me. The outside of blood just feels like a vaguely zombies themed space for lack of a better description with most of the connection between areas feeling extremely tacked on. The bridge is also iconic as far as aesthetic and vibe are concerned, and blood’s PAP does absolutely nothing for me and the nostalgia bait of the banner actually kinda annoys me.
I’m not too opinionated about this one but I like the mystery in mob of the warden and Brutus being separate originally, even though his new personality in blood has its moments. The separation in mob gave kind of a warden Norton and Hadley (Shawshank) vibe to mob even if just barely.
This one is entirely personal but I think primis just feel out of place on blood, which granted is intentional, but I like the struggle and cruelty of the prison being unique to the mobsters. Inserting the primis and victis crew into the map and then contorting the story around it to make it work just feels more forced than clever to me even if I do like what they did with Richtofen.
Finally as far as gameplay goes this is more of a general point but I don’t think casual/easy makes a map necessarily worse. Spaceland in IW is extremely easy with the right setup (barring the boss which I find to be extremely fun even if it’s a pain in the ass), and I’d still probably have it tied with origins as my favorite map. Afterlife was just too cool not to recycle for blood and its absence is a mark against it. Also even with how cool it LOOKS the bridge to the prison with the arms that swipe you can go fuck itself. Credit where credit is due I like Brutus spawning the hellhounds on you in blood, the magmagat, and the idea of the shield even if it’s not super good.
TL;DR: Mob’s greatest strength imo is it’s isolation from the rest of zombies, and rehashing it without that understanding fully realized handicaps its defining features even with the good stuff that got added to the map.
Ain’t no one hearing you out lil brochacho 🙏😭