

The individual rounds within the levels are all very similar to each other, usually either being a reflection of the other levels or, later on, different weathers that can obscure the player's vision. Once at the last round of each set of levels, the player will step on a teleporter to transport to the next area.

Here is a brief overview of all the levels the player will encounter whilst playing Dead Ops Arcade. Most of the music in the maps are shared with the loading screen music of the Call of Duty: World at War maps, notably Shi No Numa's music being shared with the Room of Fate's. This grants the player who gave the life a random power-up (either a tank, a helicopter, three nukes or four lightning bolts) and this can be done multiple times per round provided the player waits 90 seconds in between lives stolen. However, if another player on the team has at least one life then the player will automatically be gifted that life to be revived instantly. Any downed player timers will automatically expire when entering a new round. Whilst playing cooperatively, if a player loses all their lives they will enter revive mode in which they will respawn in one minute and thirty seconds provided at least one other player is alive at the time. The player can die from one hit from all zombies, three hits from Hellhounds and explosives or instantly from other contextual factors such as Bulls or Electric Spikes.

The player begins the game with three lives and once the player loses all of their lives the game is over (though there are ways to gain extra lives). The bigger the gem, the bigger the multiplier boost. Gems are especially useful in filling the multiplier bar but are uncommon. This score multiplier is capped at 9 and reset upon death. When this bar fills up, the player's score multiplier goes up by one. Throughout the levels, the player will also be required to pick up treasure (which is marked by a gold or silver tint) to fill a bar at the top of the screen. The player can also pick up a large number of weapons and power-ups in order to assist them throughout the levels. Ammo is of no concern, as the player's main weapon has unlimited ammo and never needs to be reloaded. It contains many references to the zombie mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: World at War however, the gameplay has almost nothing in common. Dead Ops Arcade is a twin-stick top-down shooter, and, similar to all other zombie levels, its objective is to survive for as many rounds as possible against many waves of increasingly difficult zombies.
