Call of Duty: Modern Warfare could have had a Zombies mode, it seems. Aaron Beck, principal artist at the game’s developer Infinity Ward, has shared an image “from early in production” showing what the mode could have looked like.
The image, which you can see below (via Dexerto), shows a Russian special forces soldier escorting two quadruped robots and three zombies. The setting looks similar to those seen in some segments of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – and its spiritual ancestor Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – and to that in Call of Duty: Warzone‘s Verdansk.
“Finally got clearance to share more art from Modern Warfare,” Beck says in his Instagram post. “So to begin here’s an unused concept from early in production. I was thinking it would be fun to play with the classic Call of Duty zombie gameplay, hinting here at some sort of Russian special forces soldier and his duo of quadruped robots, holding captive zombified soldiers by leashes around their necks.”
Of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare shipped without a Zombies mode, opting instead for the usual campaign and multiplayer modes and the co-op Spec Ops portion, before gaining the battle royale spin-off Warzone further down the line. Infinity Ward said last year that including the mode would “compromise the feeling of playing in a world that feels realistic and authentic and relative to today’s conflicts and things we face”.
Zombies mode was first included in Call of Duty: World at War and has appeared in every Black Ops game since then, as well as Advanced Warfare and Infinite Warfare. The mode has also been spun off as standalone games on mobile and Nintendo DS.