If you're looking for DTI codes, IGN's got you covered! In this article, you'll find a list of all the active and working Dress to Impress codes in November 2025 that you can redeem for free rewards and bonuses in DTI, including outfits and accessories like hats, bags, and jewelry.

Active Dress to Impress Codes (November 2025)

Here are all the active Dress to Impress codes in November 2025 and the free rewards you get for redeeming them:

• 2YEARS - Dress (NEW!)
• 2GETHER - Classic DTI Doll (NEW!)
• RDC2025 - Lanyard and belt accessory
• VANILLAMACE - Headscarf
• PIXIIUWU - Dress
• ANGELT4NKED - Helmet
• 3NCHANTEDD1ZZY - Wand
• ELLA - Skirt
• 1CON1CF4TMA - Sweater dress
• MEGANPLAYSBOOTS - Boots
• CH00P1E_1S_B4CK: Streetwear outfit set
• S3M_0W3N_Y4Y: Axe
• KREEK: Bear hat
• LANA: White shorts, shirt, and legwarmers
• LANABOW: White bow
• BELALASLAY: Black jacket with pink halter top
• LANATUTU: White dress
• IBELLASLAY: Red, green, and blonde hairstyle
• M3RM4ID: Orange mermaid set
• TEKKYOOZ: White handbag
• LABOOTS: Black boots
• ITSJUSTNICHOLAS: Black jacket
• ASHLEYBUNNI: Bunny slippers
• LEAHASHE: Sweatshirt and sweatpants
• KITTYUUHH: Black cat
• C4LLMEHH4LEY: Puffy dress and bear headband
• SUBM15CY: Necklace and eyelashes
• D1ORST4R: Bag and bow

All Expired Dress to Impress Codes

Below, you'll find a list of expired DTI codes that no longer work and can't be redeemed as of November 2025:

• GLINDA
• ELPHABA
• B3APL4YS_D0L1E
• Your unique Twitch Cyberpunk Wings code
• LNY2025
• HAPPYNEWYEAR
• Your unique Easter 2025 Easter Bunny Set code
• UMOYAE
• FASHION
• BADDIE4LIFE
• Your unique April Fools' Day 2025 Flamethrower code
• M0T0PRINCESSWAV
• CUPIDSCLOUD
• SWEETHEART (was only redeemable between February 15 and February 16, 2025 at 8AM PT)
• YEAROFTHESNAKE
• NY2025
• WINTERUPDATE (was only redeemable between 8 AM - 11 AM PT on Saturday, 14 December!)
• 4BILLION
• CHOOPIE10K
• THEGAMES
• EYELASHES
• REWARD4CLASS1C

How to Redeem Dress to Impress Codes

Follow the steps below to redeem Dress to Impress codes and claim free rewards in DTI:

1. Open the Dress to Impress Roblox Experience.
2. Click on the handbag icon on the left-hand side to open the DTI Codes menu.
3. Enter your code in the "Type here..." field.
4. Check for any spelling mistakes or errors.
5. Click the checkmark icon to redeem the code.

Why Isn't My Dress to Impress Code Working?

If the code you're trying to redeem in DTI isn't working, it's likely because of one of two reasons:

• The Dress to Impress code is expired
• There's a spelling mistake in the code

When inputting a DTI code in Roblox, make sure it's spelled correctly (for example, a capital I isn't a lowercase l, 0 and not O, and vice versa) and that there are no spaces before or after the code. We'd recommend copying and pasting codes straight from our article to ensure they're correct as we've tested and verified that the codes on this page are working ourselves.

If your DTI code still isn't working after checking for typos, it's more than likely expired and can no longer be redeemed in Dress to Impress.

How to Get More DTI Codes

To get more Dress to Impress codes, the best way is to join the official DTI Discord server. While we check for new codes daily, the quickest way to know about new Dress to Impress codes is to follow the Roblox experience's official Discord server where updates are posted in real time.

You can also check the Dress to Impress X account and the official DTI Roblox Group page.

Are There Any Upcoming DTI Codes?

We currently don't know of any upcoming DTI codes now that the two-year anniversary codes have been released. We'll update this article once we find out more information on new Dress to Impress codes.

What is Dress to Impress in Roblox?

Dress to Impress is a popular dress-up Roblox Experience available on PC, console, and iOS and Android mobile devices. In it, you put on your best outfit to complete a specific theme and walk the runway in a bid to earn votes from other players and become a top model. As you gain votes, you gain ranks and can access more clothing and accessories, so make sure you're truly dressed to impress! Also, for toy lovers and collectors, you can now pre-order a mystery pack of 2 Dress to Impress minifigures right now for $30 at Walmart.

We've rounded up the best deals for Saturday, November 15, below, so don't miss out on these limited-time offers.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound for $32.48

This article contains spoilers for The Running Man (2025).

There are a number of burning questions lingering at the end of Edgar Wright’s adaptation of Stephen King/Richard Bachman’s The Running Man. How effective is the revolution fomented by Ben Richards (Glen Powell)? What happened to Amelia Williams (Emilia Jones) after she jumped out of a plane? But the one question that burns brighter than a boarding house lit up by accidentally ignited adult magazines is: Why isn’t Pennywise the Dancing Clown in The Running Man?

Okay, this probably requires some explanation, so let’s take a step back. This newest iteration of The Running Man takes place in the near-distant future as we follow Richards on the run as part of the titular game show. He needs to stay alive for 30 days while the world reports on him and elite Hunters, including the masked McCone (Lee Pace), track him down. Over the course of the two-hour-plus movie, Richards stays on the move throughout the East Coast, traveling from what is likely New York City (though not specified) to Boston to – and this is where Pennywise comes into play – Derry, Maine.

That last town is a classic fictional location from multiple King stories and novels, with the first reference appearing in his 1981 short story, “The Bird and the Album.” Following further references in The Running Man – published under the Bachman pen name on May 4, 1982 – and Different Seasons’ “The Body” (later the basis for Stand by Me) that same year, it then turned up in Pet Sematary in 1983, and two other short stories. “Uncle Otto’s Truck” (also 1983) and 1984’s “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” were later collected in the 1985 anthology, Skeleton Crew.

While King set more stories in the town of Castle Rock, and only three books were set mostly in Derry proper (including 11/22/63 and Insomnia), there is of course one novel that is most associated with the town: 1986’s It. You’re probably familiar with the bones of that one thanks to the resurgent popularity of the novel tied to the HBO prequel series, It: Welcome to Derry, but the short version is that there’s an evil clown named Pennywise who lives in the sewers and eats children. He’s also a supernatural alien/avatar of chaos who is nearly immortal until a bunch of kids known as the Losers Club yell at him until he dies.

Midway through the new 2025 film adaptation of The Running Man, Richards is sent to what’s supposed to be a safehouse thanks to Bradley Throckmorton (Daniel Ezra), a rebel against the Games Network that controls every aspect of American life and produces The Running Man game show. Richards flips over a card handed to him by Throckmorton to show the address he’s headed to, and if you’ve seen the movie, you likely heard a laugh of recognition from the audience when it’s revealed that he’s heading to Derry.

Welcome to… Well, You Know

Once Richards gets there, he does not encounter Pennywise at any point, nor does he head into a sewer or visit the house on Neibolt Street that offers access to Pennywise’s domain. There are no red balloons or other noticeable references to It; nobody floats down here in The Running Man, because they’re too busy running. Instead, Richards heads to the house of Elton Parrakis (Michael Cera), an inventor who publishes zines trying to take down the system, and who has a very complicated relationship with hot dogs.

Even though there is no real connection to the events of It in the movie’s Derry sequence, it’s difficult to get It out of your mind. Parrakis lives with his insane mother, Victoria (Sandra Dickinson), who has been damaged by past events in Derry thanks to her husband – Elton’s dad – being beaten up and killed thanks to his rebel hot dog cart (there’s more to it, but that’s the broad strokes). She’s very reminiscent of the also-damaged Pennywise-infected adults from It, in particular the sweaty, creepy Mrs. Kersh (Joan Gregson) from It Chapter Two.

To be clear, Victoria is definitely not Pennywise; she’s just a crazy old lady. But when Richards and Parrakis are attacked by the police, the sequence ends with them sliding down a firepole to an area below Parrakis’s house. It’s hard at that point not to think, “Underground in Derry? That’s where Pennywise lives!” Sure, it’s a secret tunnel and not a sewer, but wouldn’t it have been great if Pennywise popped his terrifying head into the action? And you know who loves secret tunnels? Pennywise the Dancing Clown!

Not Clowning Around

There are several good reasons Pennywise is not in The Running Man. The simplest, most straightforward, and easily the most boring reason is that the two movies, despite both being based on Stephen King novels, are from two different companies; It, its sequel, and the currently running prequel miniseries are all produced by Warner Bros. Discovery, and The Running Man is produced by Paramount. While that wouldn’t necessarily preclude including a reference to It in The Running Man, having actor Bill Skårsgard show up in full clown gear would likely be a no-go. Sure, these kinds of character trades have happened between companies before – see the complicated rights between Sony and Disney re: Spider-Man for more on that – but figuring out contracts so a clown can briefly appear in an otherwise unrelated movie just doesn’t make a lot of business sense.

Okay, that was no fun, so let’s pivot to some less dry explanations. One of them? The Running Man takes place in the future. While the new movie doesn’t specify the time period, the original Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, which strays vastly from the book, is set in 2017. More to the point, the King/Bachman book is set in the unimaginable future year of 2025. Regardless of how the Wright/Powell movie squares with this, The Running Man is set beyond any known timeline for It, either in the movies or the book; that book is set in 1957-1958 and later in 1984-1985, while the recent movies are set in 1988-1989 and 2016.

Why specify this? Well – spoilers for the end of It – the Losers Club (aka the kids who were plagued by Pennywise) destroy the clown for good as adults. Even if for some insane reason the new Running Man is set in 2017 and links up with the timeline of the new movies, Pennywise was still defeated a year earlier. But given the more likely possibility that The Running Man is set sometime in “our” future, it’s been years if not decades since the Losers Club purged Derry of Pennywise’s influence. He can’t show up… because he’s dead.

Another very good reason Pennywise isn’t there is because while many of King’s books contain references to each other, canonically they’re all part of a King multiverse but not the same direct continuity. It’s likely that King was planting some fun easter eggs for fans throughout his writing, but didn’t start to tie them all together until his landmark fantasy series, The Dark Tower. The simple version presented there is that at the center of the multiverse is the titular Tower, and everything grows out of it like spokes of a wheel. So, for example, the events of It may have canonically happened in both Dreamcatcher and The Mist, but the events of Dreamcatcher did not happen in the world of The Mist and vice versa. There’s even a spoke of the King multiverse where King exists as a writer, which raises a whole host of other questions. Then there are King novels and stories that just exist as is, unconnected from anything else.

Different Spokes for Different Folks

Confusing, right? You really don’t need to worry about it unless you’re a hardcore King head, and even then, it’s not really important to the enjoyment of his novels. Given that King wrote The Running Man under his Bachman pen name years before he released It, there’s no reason to think the version of Derry that Richards visits and the version where Pennywise eats a little kid named Georgie are on the same spokes of the wheel anyway. It certainly could be that they are, but King has never specified whether the Bachman books – which also include Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981), Thinner (1984), The Regulators (1996), and Blaze (2007) – are connected to his other work in any way other than that Derry mention and him existing as a writer in Thinner (remember, he wrote that as Bachman, so it sort of makes sense in that case).

But the real reason Pennywise isn’t in The Running Man? It’s because that would have been too hilarious, too awesome – perhaps the funniest thing ever committed to screen. Edgar Wright didn’t put Pennywise the Dancing Clown in The Running Man because, to not mince words, he’s a coward. A braver man would have had Pennywise pop up in that tunnel below Parrakis’ house and chase Glen Powell for the rest of the movie or at least to the Derry border before he gave up and went looking for some kids to snack on.

Or how about this? Have Pennywise as one of the contestants on The Running Man! The whole purpose of the game show is ostensibly to punish criminals, and Pennywise is a millennia-old child murderer. He’s a perfect contestant for Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), the show’s producer, to recruit. If you subbed Pennywise in for Ben Richards, though, the former would win The Running Man easily. While the movie tries to tell us that Richards is a master of disguise thanks to (poorly) gluing on a mustache, or pretending to be a blind priest, Pennywise can look like anyone or anything at any time. Unlike Powell, who just can’t hide his chiseled, pleasantly stubbled chin, Pennywise can look like a small child, or one of the Hunters, or even a giant clown-spider; the latter would probably draw too much attention, but he could do that if he wanted to. Heck, he could make himself into a mailbox so he could mail the daily video tapes that cause Richards so many problems throughout the movie.

Even beyond the whole disguise thing, nobody knows the sewers of Derry better than Pennywise. While McCone and his Hunters stumble around in the dark, Pennywise would always be two steps ahead of them, easily evading capture and winning the billion dollar prize at the end of 30 days. What would Pennywise, an ancient entity from a race known as Deadlights, do with that much money? That’s unclear, but it sure would be fun to watch.

You hear us, Paramount? Make that deal with WBD. The people want – nay, they demand – Pennywise to appear in a sequel, and I’ll see you in the theater in a few years when The Running Man 2: The Floating Man, Part 1 – Welcome (Back) To Derry comes out!

We’ve seen stories built around redemption arcs plenty of times before, and if I’m being honest, I’m a total sucker for them. A sarcastic baddie who, despite their disdain for the law, gains enough empathy to save the day – what’s not to like? After eight episodes full of cliffhangers, surprising plot twists, and patience-testing puzzles, Dispatch has finished its own rumination on the topic, allowing me to take a more active role in determining who amongst its strong cast of charming superheroes deserves a second chance. It’s fitting, then, that developer AdHoc Studio has similarly revived a style of video game I worried was fading into the background, confidently injecting the interactive narrative genre with exciting new life.

Dispatch takes place in a captivating bizarro Los Angeles where superpowered beings, aliens, demons, and all manner of extraordinary humanoids coexist with regular people. As you can imagine, not every gifted being is benevolent, and many choose (or are forced into) a life of villainy. To help manage the onslaught of supers roaming the streets, an organisation called the SDC has stepped in, launching an insurance-type racket that allows citizens to pay for the privilege of a powerful watchdog. One of the aforementioned good guys is our discerning protagonist, Robert Robertson — otherwise known as Mecha Man — whose heroic aspirations are dashed when a rogue explosive renders his suit useless, leaving him to take on the role of a call centre worker at a small branch of the SDC.

That’s not all, though, as due to his lack of tenure, Robert is tasked with managing a group of barely reformed villains, lovingly called the Z-team, whose snarky attitudes and violent tendencies leave a lot to be desired. Across Dispatch’s approximately eight-hour runtime, it’s compelling to watch Robert grow in the wake of this sudden downgrade, experiencing the peaks and valleys of shift work. I found myself invested from start to finish thanks to Dispatch’s grounded, witty writing and the heartfelt performances delivered by its sizable cast.

Your time with Dispatch is split into two distinct parts: most of the time, you’ll be chatting through beautifully animated cutscenes, picking between amusing dialogue options and completing quick-time events like those seen in The Wolf Among Us or the Life is Strange series. Certain decisions trigger a heart-pounding ‘X Person remembered that’ notification at the top of the screen, which feels like a refreshing jolt of nostalgia in 2025. Not every decision is as impactful as you might expect, and more often than not, my choices led to unique jokes or funny animations rather than game-shifting consequences. Crucially, though, when the credits finally rolled — avoiding any spoilers — the ending I received still felt true to my version of Robert. It says something that I’m keen to jump in again, to see how the other narrative branches pan out.

The rest of your time is spent working at the SDC as a Dispatcher, assigning superheroes to a variety of jobs. Using your mouse and your wits, you’ll monitor a city map where hazard notifications periodically pop up with a timer, alerting you to various jobs the SDC needs to handle efficiently. Each hero under your command has a stat matrix, similar to that seen in Pokémon. You’ll receive a verbal description as a job appears, with your own task being to match your best hero, or in some cases heroes, based on their stats and personalities. You'll be told very soon after whether you’ve passed or failed, with success earning you experience points that lead to a permanent stat boost for each hero. Failure, on the other hand, can lead to your heroes getting hurt or, worse, being taken out of commission for the shift. Managing their individual skill sets as multiple clocks tick down in front of you is a surprisingly stressful task that compelled me to lock in.

On top of stat boosts, the Z-team can also earn special skills that impact how efficiently you operate. The superstar-turned-superhero Prism can use her powers of duplication to extend the timer on jobs, carving out precious moments to find a resolution. Elsewhere, Invisigal can utilize her lone wolf status to increase her speed if sent solo. All these moving parts compound over time and meld together well, creating a satisfying feedback loop that complements the complexity of the surrounding story without overwhelming you.

Aspects like team morale, along with how you impact poignant story beats, shape how effectively the Z-Team will perform, too. During one shift early in the series, the heroes are fighting against one another, hoping to avoid being cut from the team. This argumentative overtone bled into the dispatching minigame, with each member acting on their own accord rather than on my explicit orders. While I was frustrated by this at first, hoping to overcome the challenge with my wits, these moments of disobedience did well to integrate the interactive segments into the overarching story, with AdHoc effectively conveying Robert's irritability by ensuring you feel it firsthand. It’s one thing to write an emotive character for me to play as, it’s another to actually make me want to quit a job I don’t really have in the exact way they do.

A secondary hacking minigame is also part of your day-to-day activities, as Robert flexes the only superpower he has left: his mind. Here, you’ll roll a 3D object through a cybernetic maze as the clock ticks down, using directional inputs to forge a path towards the end goal. On top of the clock, you’ll also need to evade undulating anti-virus orbs and transfer power sources between light blocks to unlock new paths. It can be overwhelming at times as the difficulty scales over the course of Dispatch’s eight episodes, and muscling through these puzzles sticks out as some of the least compelling moments in a game that is otherwise full of them, which is a shame.

Still, despite all the roadblocks I faced at the hands of the Z-Team, I found myself defending them at every point, like a parent going to bat for their misbehaving children. The concept of ethically murky superhumans has been explored across film and TV before, but Dispatch often subverts expectations through a steady mix of dark humor and sincere interactions that kept me on my toes.

For example, while celebrating a win at one point, Robert and his team visit a villain bar, but the Thing-like Golem is forced to sit outside due to their humongous size. At this point, I’d taken quite a dislike to them and their attitude, and yet watching them slumped on the gutter with their earbuds in made them appear more human than rock monster. Just like that, a switch had flipped inside my head, and I was putty in the palm of AdHoc’s hands.

What makes Dispatch’s redemption story so effective is how it portrays its villains as emotionally complicated souls who may have lost their way rather than one-dimensional brutes. This empathetic lens makes it enticing to peel back the layers of the group, no matter how horrible they’re being or how petulant they seem. That’s not to say every character is worth forgiving, but instead, if you’re willing to make a risky dialogue choice, you may be rewarded with precious lore that could sway how you react in future situations, or what kind of ending you will receive.

All this drama is delivered through incredible vocal performances that bring Dispatch’s most profound moments to life with finesse, from the main cast of heroes to the background characters as well. Laura Bailey’s Invisigal masterfully dances between bratty and sincere, often encouraging me to break the rules with her flirty, if not threatening, style. Erin Yvette, on the other hand, subtly switches between Blonde Blazers' heroic prose and dorky banter with sharp precision. Notably, Aaron Paul’s Robert is more than just Hollywood stunt casting – he’s a standout here, delivering a nuanced performance as a man struggling to hold onto his optimism while reconciling with who he is outside of his giant mech suit.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but with the holidays comes tons of travel. Whether you’re joining family on a beachy vacation for the festivities, checking out the iconic European Christmas markets, or planning an epic New Year's ski trip with friends, you’ll want to stay connected. The easiest way to do that is with an eSIM, and Roamless is one of the most user-friendly options available.

With the Roamless eSIM, you can enjoy access to cellphone data in over 200 countries without the hassle of swapping SIM cards, complicated setup, and hidden fees. An app allows you to select plans, be it pay-as-you-go data and/or 30-day prepaid plans tailored to a specific country or region, for ultimate flexibility.

Starting at just $1.25/GB, pricing is shockingly affordable and considerably less expensive than international roaming charges with traditional plans. You even receive a $1.25 credit when you sign up, and IGN has a special code to use at checkout, IGNSAVE20, which gives you 20% off plans sitewide

20% Off Travel eSIM Plans

Once the Roamless eSIM is activated, you can use your own cellphone like normal, sans traditional texts and calls. From maps to navigate a foreign city to social media apps to share your travels, Roamless makes that possible across the globe. Additionally, rather than relying on apps like WhatsApp, FaceTime, and Facebook Messenger, Roamless is one of the few eSIM providers to offer in-app calling, allowing users to dial an actual phone number.

Even if you don’t have any big travel plans this holiday season, you can buy data now to use on a 2026 sojourn. Out of gift ideas for someone on your list? A Roamless eSIM is a great budget-friendly present for someone who loves to travel and wants to stay connected. IGN’s 20% off code will expire at midnight as we ring in the New Year, so grab this offer before it’s gone.

What is an eSIM?

Rather than relying on a physical card being placed into your smartphone, an eSIM, or embedded SIM, is a digital alternative used for a cellphone plan that can be programmed from anywhere. That means swapping carriers and plans can be done remotely. When using a global eSIM for travel, such as Roamless, simply install it on your phone and purchase a plan or data. Then, when you reach your destination, you turn it on in your phone settings. I used an global eSIM plan during a trip to Scotland this year and can attest to how seamless they are to use. Just note that most global eSIMs will not allow you to use your home plan's number.

Danielle is a Tech freelance writer based in Los Angeles who spends her free time creating videos and geeking out over music history.

Sometimes it’s impossible to beat those sugar cravings. The problem is, most sweets aren’t good for you — loaded with sugar, artificial flavors, and unnecessary ingredients. Beyond temporary joy, there are virtually no benefits from these treats, and the cycle continues, leading to more cravings and overeating.

Maybe you opt to go for that “healthy candy?” But the fake, alternative sugar almost always leaves an awful aftertaste and just can’t compete with the real McCoy. Enter Tandy Protein Nom Noms. These new bite-sized chocolate candies will satisfy your sweet tooth while using ingredients you know and adding a boost of protein for more health benefits.

OLED TVs are considered the best TVs for gaming, but they can also be very expensive. Fortunately, LG has a B-series OLED lineup that's hundreds of dollars cheaper than its other OLED TVs while still offering incredible image quality. As part of its early Black Friday Doorbuster Sale, Best Buy currently has the 48" LG B5 4K OLED Smart TV for a low price of $549.99 with free delivery. At this size, the TV could also be used as a big-screen gaming monitor for your PC.

48" LG B5 4K OLED Smart TV for $549.99

The LG B5 is equipped with a W-OLED panel that boasts superior image quality compared to non-OLED TVs thanks to its near-infinite contrast ratio, near-instantaneous response times, and ability to produce true blacks. Compared to the LG C-series TVs, it lacks the Evo technology which means it isn't as bright as an more expensive C5 model, however, it's very similar to the previous generation's C4 because the generational performance improvement closes the gap.

The LG B5 is an excellent gaming TV for the PlayStation 5 console because it has a native 120Hz panel and four HDMI 2.1 ports. That means it will properly display games running in 4K resolution at up to 120fps. The LG B5 also supports variable refresh rate (VRR) and auto low latency mode (ALLM).

The 48" size makes it a solid option as a PC gaming monitor.

At this deal price, the LG TV is by far the least expensive OLED "monitor" with a screen size of 40" or bigger. Some of you might think that 48" is much too large on a desktop, but there are quite a few dedicated gaming monitors that are 48" or bigger. I myself use a 48" LG TV as my primary monitor and I love it. The LG B5 connects to your PC via HDMI 2.1 and newer GPUs like Nvidia's RTX 50 and 40 series and AMD's RX 7000 and 9000 series support 4K at 120Hz over HDMI 2.1. The LG B5 also supports 4:4:4 chroma sampling for clear, sharp text.

Is the LG B5 OLED TV a good TV for the Nintendo Switch 2?

Despite being a current generation console, the Nintendo Switch 2 has lax TV requirements compared to the PS5 or Xbox Series X. When the Switch is connected to its dock and a television, it is only capable of outputting a 4K resolution signal at up to 60 frames per second. It can go up to 120fps if the resolution drops to 1080p, but the data rate required for both these options is pretty much the same, and you would much rather play any game in 4K. That said, the Switch 2 will still benefit greatly from the OLED panel's stellar image quality (much like how the Switch OLED was a substantial visual upgrade from the original Switch).

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Note: This review specifically covers the Zombies mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. For our thoughts on the other modes, see our campaign review or our multiplayer review.

Despite playing a new one every year, I never know what to make of modern Call of Duty – a first-person shooter so big, so successful that it is no longer a standalone game but a platform with file sizes so large it asks you to choose the other two things you’d like to have installed on your PC or console. This year’s PC release comes with a frustrating new anti-cheat that seemingly caused my CPU fan to choose death instead, so while I would normally base my playtime on that version, as God intended, I am initially slumming it on PlayStation 5 to bring you some early impressions of this year’s Zombies mode. I still have tons left to see as the community collectively hunts for Easter eggs and solves mysteries, but so far I’m interested in digging into what’s here, even if it may take a bit to get to the vital organs underneath these bones.

Zombies is my favorite part of Call of Duty, simultaneously the stupidest, silliest side thing the series has ever done and probably big enough to be a small video game in its own right. I remarked on a similar feeling in last year's review, but remember when this was a serious game series about war, and you were storming the beaches of Normandy, machine gun fire spraying sand in your face? When you died, you used to get quotes about how terrible war was from men who had lived it. Now, I play roulette on a big mystery box covered with skulls for weapons, the best of which is a ray gun, so I can shoot zombies in the face while a disembodied voice who calls himself the Warden taunts me from afar; my character quips about how said voice reminds him of his high school gym teacher. Zombies has been doing this for a while now, but I still don’t know whether to laugh or weep.

There is allegedly a story here – Raul Menendez, who apparently has been alive and drinking beer on his porch for the last decade, is back and threatening to cause chaos the world over, there’s a shady security company somehow involved, and massive, violent zombie death, of course. All of it is very well-produced and so goofy that the only thing I could do was watch the introductory cutscene while emulating the face that I imagine a cow would make if you gave it cocaine, chuckle a little, and get on with it. I suppose I answered my own question there, huh?

This year’s Zombies is hard to get a handle on so far because so much of what Zombies does will come down to the community working out the new maps in the coming days and perhaps weeks. Right now, we’re all kind of bumbling about, figuring out what’s what, which is simultaneously fun and frustrating. Many of the pain points from last year remain early on – for instance, you can’t make your loadout until you hit level four, which means if Zombies is all you want to do (and for me, it is), you’re stuck with a pistol and whatever you can earn by buying stuff on the walls after you’ve dispatched enough undead. Remember when games just let you have fun from the outset instead of unlocking it?

Otherwise, the underpinnings of Zombies feel much the same. You’re on a map, you open up new doors and paths with currency you earn, and you’ve got Pack-a-Punch machines to upgrade your guns. There’s additional armor you can apply plastered to the walls, an Arsenal to really crank up specific aspects of your weapons, Gobblegums for a little flavor if your mouth is lonely and you want a mid-battle pick-me-up, and so on. And of course, while you’re managing all of this, the undead rise and hunger for flesh. Ghouls, man.

The gameplay here is similar to last year’s – I still love sliding at a group of zombies and firing off a shotgun until they’re just paste and all that. No, what’s new are the maps. I’ve played both maps in their round-based modes, Ashes of the Damned and Vandorn Farm (the latter seems to be a part of the former, but I haven’t reached it in the standard mode yet), and so far I prefer the farm. Ashes of the Damned seems to be home to what will be the more traditional “find the secrets to finish the map” fare, while Vandorn Farm is more of a “you’re locked in here with the undead, kid, so try not to die too much” deal.

Our run on the former ended when one of my teammates, who didn’t communicate with the rest of us, grabbed a truck and started driving it to the next objective… before he decided it might be more fun to smash into the zombies until it exploded. The rest of us spent most of the map either trying to catch up to the truck or waiting in vain to be revived after we all died. It went about as well as you’d think. I’m interested in seeing what Ashes of the Damned has to offer with a more talkative crew; right now, if you’d told me I’d hallucinated the whole thing, I’d believe you.

The farm is more old-school. Zombies hang from the rafters in the big barn, the smaller one houses the Mystery Box where each of my teammates made offerings in the fleeting hope of a Ray Gun, and there was a house with a skeleton family sitting at the dinner table and a roof in desperate need of, well, more roof. It was a much more interesting map than Ashes of the Damned, and I enjoyed navigating its twists and turns, learning where everything was, and spending the in-between time killing the misbegotten horrors that were formerly people.

The problem, once again, was that we couldn’t figure out what to do yet. There was some mysterious infection growing on one of the machines that seemed to power the farm, but after we destroyed it, our objective told us to wait for it to come back. So we did, killing zombies and upping the round count. The issue is the infection never did reappear. Normally, this is a good thing. The antibiotics worked and the patient is recovering well, thank you. In this case, it meant we got to round eight, nothing happened, the four of us spent several minutes looking for any zombies we somehow missed or a way to progress, and then all three of my teammates left the game after we couldn’t figure out what came next. Hard to blame them. The farm’s cool, but I'd prefer something with some warmer colors and fewer rotting corpses, you know?

Like I said, I’m never sure what to make of Call of Duty, and that extends to this year’s Zombies. It certainly plays well and you can see the absurd amount of money spent to develop it on-screen – but the ooey, gooey, juicy parts of the mode haven’t revealed themselves to me quite yet. As is usually the case, its success will largely depend on how the maps shake out. I’ll need a bonesaw and a ribspreader to get to the still-beating heart of this thing, but that’s fine. I can’t say I’m not interested in seeing what’s in there. I just hope I don’t get anything on me in the process.