Vanguard Zombies players furious The Archon is just “green Terra Maledicta”

Luca Di Marzo
The Archon Zombies Season 5 Menendez EX1

Fans were eager to get a look at a new round-based Zombies map in Vanguard Season 5, but excitement turned to disappointment as a remaster of Terra Maledicta was revealed instead.

While Vanguard Zombies players will be getting a round-based experience in Season 5, The Archon isn’t exactly a new map. Zombies fans were under the impression that Season 5’s The Archon would deliver another brand-new Zombies map following Vanguard’s Shi No Numa.

Instead, the upcoming content is better defined as a new Zombies experience, since players will receive a round-based version of Season 2’s Terra Maledicta instead. It seems the announcement has caused unrest among Zombies fans, with several voicing their disbelief.

Vanguard Zombies Season 5 The Archon

Terra Maledicta was a new Zombies map that arrived with Season 2 of Vanguard. When it launched, players slammed it as a boring Zombies map that failed to change their initial poor opinion of Vanguard Zombies.

Given the poor reception, the devs claim that they were dedicated to using player feedback to improve the Terra Maledicta experience in Season 5.

“Earlier this year, the Vanguard Zombies team received a mountain of constructive feedback around the launch of Terra Maledicta. As we digested everything we heard from the community, one request kept coming up over and over: the map’s Egyptian and Dark Aether settings would make for a killer round-based experience. We agreed!”

This explains their decision to remaster or update Terra Maledicta by giving it a round-based makeover in Season 5. Unfortunately, the initial reaction from Vanguard players has been just as poor as that of the original Terra Maledicta.

It seems players were under the impression they’d be getting a new round-based map, which increased the disappointment they felt when a “green Terra Maledicta remaster” was revealed instead.

Zombies fans are obsessing over the green-tinted overhaul that Terra Maledicta seems to have received. Comments from the above post found on the CODZombies subreddit reveal that players believe this Season 5 content to be lazy: “This is next level lazy if they actually have used terra maledicta.”

Another player questioned if there would be any new sections around the map: “The fun part about it is the fact that on the official treyarch blog there’s NOTHING that says that there will be new areas, this is literally a s*** show.”

It’s certainly too early to pass final judgment on Season 5’s Zombies content, but it’s safe to say that The Archon will have to be a phenomenal experience to change players’ strong opinions.


For more, check out how to unlock Vanguard and Warzone’s new RA 225 SMG and Valois Revolver in Season 5.

Image Credit: Activision

About The Author

Luca is an Associate Editor at CharlieIntel. An accomplished, writer with interests in sports and gaming alike, Luca is focused on Call of Duty and FIFA as a content creator. After earning his BA in English Literature at Concordia University, he began writing for Gamelevate, OddsShark, and H4X. Luca joined CharlieIntel in 2021. You can reach Luca at [email protected], or via X @TheLucaDiMarzo.