Treyarch worked on a GTA-meets-Resident Evil game before introducing Zombies in Call of Duty

Treyarch is commonly known as a celebrated Call of Duty Zombies studio, but there's a mystery attached to the developer's history concerning its early days after being acquired by Activision. Before bringing the Zombies mode to the CoD franchise, this developer actually worked on a game that had elements associated with IPs like GTA and Resident Evil. Unfortunately, this game was canceled and never saw the light of day.

This article will mention various lesser-known details regarding Treyarch's scrapped Zombies title before the studio brought the mode to Call of Duty with World at War in 2008.

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Before Call of Duty Zombies, there was Dead Rush by Treyarch, in 2004, but it was scrapped

For those unaware, Treyarch was planning to come up with a title that was similar to games in the Grand Theft Auto and Resident Evil franchises. In 2004, the studio unveiled a project called Dead Rush, which was going to be published by Activision. At launch, the project was supposed to be available for the PS2, Nintendo's GameCube, and Xbox console.

A still from zombies mode in Call of Duty series (Image via Activision)

An announcement trailer was provided for Dead Rush during 2004's E3 event. It was also the only footage of the game made public. The title was planned to see a 2005 launch.

After its E3 preview, some magazines called Treyarch's Dead Rush "Grand Theft Undead" and "Grand Theft Evil" due to the trailer featuring characters using cars in a futuristic setting involving zombies. In short, this title was supposed to be a sort of hybrid of GTA and Resident Evil that offers a unique post-apocalyptic experience.

Dead Rush was about using cars scattered around a town while fighting zombies (Image via Rockstar Games/Capcom)

Speaking of the story, Dead Rush had a main character named Jake. Playing as him, one could operate vehicles scattered around the town of Eastport while dealing with zombies.

This game was canceled shortly after its original reveal at the E3 event and was never reintroduced by Activision.

While Treyarch couldn't make a Zombies mode/game in 2004, the studio finally brought it with 2008's Call of Duty installment World at War. At the end of this title's campaign, the developers first introduced zombies as an Easter egg, and the rest is history. Since then, the mode has become one of the most adored experiences in CoD history.

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