Call of Duty: WW2 will officially have an all-new Zombies mode, and you know what that means: it's time for another ARG to tease hardcore fans. The game was afoot as soon as fans noticed a hidden code in the rim of this Nazi zombie's helmet.
There's a "classified" page on the official Call of Duty: WW2 website styled after an old cipher machine. Punch that code - IUFDJ BHLOP JMUBA - into the typewriter and a message appears word by word: "A NEW HORROR RISES". Then you can look through a folder that contains two documents.
The consensus from the ARG-sleuths on Reddit is that first picture of Frederick Barbarossa is a reference to Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The second picture is a 16th century portrait by Italian renaissance artist Raphael, which has been missing ever since the Nazis stole it from a Polish museum in 1945. It remains one of the most sought-after pieces of art to disappear in the course of the war.
One last clue: the cypher machine itself has a set of coordinates on it that correspond to Dunkirk, France, the site of a major battle in World War 2. There's also another set of numbers on one of the folders (FORM YMF 212514 12123 131) - but that code hasn't been cracked yet.
So we have references to a French town and/or the battle that happened there, a painting missing from a Polish museum, and the invasion of the Soviet Union. And we know that Call of Duty: WW2's Zombies mode is not part of the Treyarch Zombies saga depicted in games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 - Sledgehammer Games general manager Glen Schofield said it would tell "an entirely new story". I'm sure we won't have to wait long for the next clue to drop.
For more on the rest of the game, check out our Call of Duty: World War 2 preview and, why not, watch the reveal trailer one more time.
