Villordsutch reviews the Havoc DLC for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare…
Being given the job to create DLC that follows a game which has not only just given the Call of Duty franchise a rather enjoyable jolt of lighting, but also had Kevin Spacey acting his way through each scene must have been a rather daunting task. This must have had a feeling of the second album for Sledgehammer as they sat in their offices wondering how they can come close to what they served up on day one – for as we know us gamers can be a fickle bunch.
It’s with this first huge addition that they looked to the stars and they plucked out John Malkovich, Rose McGowan, a rather round in the face Bill Paxton and The Walking Dead’s Jon Bernthal and placed them in amongst a Zombie outbreak.
This isn’t just any zombie outbreak however – this is an Atlas Exo Zomibe outbreak where these hard punching, quick lurching, shock giving brutes are flying all over the place and it can – at times – make you jump. Gone are the days of quite cramped rooms were you spend your time boarding up windows, for now you have a very roomy map to unlock and explore; as well as this you’ve got 3D printers to generate and upgrade weapons along the way, that is if you’ve earned enough credits. Your check-list when you start is to get a get credits, get a better gun, get more credits, open doors, get a suit, get more credits and then finally survive as long as possible, whilst you’re doing all of this you killing waves upon waves of enhanced zombies.
Myself the furthest I’ve gotten to is Level 12 (so far). Upon death you float and observe the survivors and if they manage to survive the round you come back from the dead and run to your body to reclaim your gear, but not your Exo-Suit. To reclaim your Exo-Suit you need to run back to the Exo-Suit room, which at a low level is rather easy but at a high level it’s virtually impossible, and you’re guaranteed that you’ll be spending the next three minutes watching your reanimated corpse chasing the remaining survivors.
Having the Hollywood stars in the game is a nice touch, especially hearing the cantankerous one-liners from John Malkovich. I have however heard the lines repeated a fair few times already and this does make me wonder if they hired “Regular Joes” we could have had more in the way of witty throw-away lines to keep it sounding fresh. But then I wouldn’t be hearing Malkovich. Clearly I’m never happy.
The Havoc DLC also comes with four brand new maps and I’ll start with my least favourite to the one I’m happiest to see. This is just my preference however as the maps themselves are extremely well designed, well planned out and are catering for all play styles from extreme close combat, snipers and mid-range. You get four different environments with both horizontal and vertical planes to shoot from and be shot at, in my opinion these four new maps trounce all over the maps released with Advanced Warfare; this could be however be down to the fact that the original maps have been played so many times they now have a stale feel to them, or the fact Sledgehammer have pushed the boat out for this DLC. I’d like to think the latter.
- Sideshow, on initial glance this macabre Rob Zombie-Esque Clown Motel had me believing this was this expansions Nuketown, but I was very much wrong. If you hate snipers you’ll truly hate this map for they are everywhere, on the roofs, in the rocks, on the floor, you move you’re dead. Big bright and colourful with a giant clown sign in the middle that every so often spits cartoon bombs from its head, you can collect these novelty bombs and throw them at the opposing team members. As I’m not a sniper I despised this map as I don’t like to hide, I like to fight.
- Core, a round map with highs and lows around the edges and right at the centre you have tunnels leading to a fight pit. You can get a fair amount of kills staying away from the centre and being wise around the edge if you play it smart. This was once a Fusion Reactor and now it’s an industrial mess and with that you can use the metal shards as cover or the higher ground for your headshots.
- Urban, the fastest most frantic map in the pack! You need a quick gun on this level and if it’s lasted more than 3 minutes it’s because you’re clearly in this map on your own. A basic old school rectangle map, two opposite buildings and a walled off area in the midde. It’s extremely small and compact and you’re going to get a kill and also be killed. Do not stand still or you’re dead.
- Drift, not only the most beautiful map in the pack but the best as all play styles are catered for in one map. Set in an Austrian/Swiss looking town during Christmas you’ve got the run of the streets, the shops and the Merry go round! You have high levels to control and alleyways to bottleneck, snipers can hide on top of the Merry go round or on the corner near bushes and then midway through and avalanche hits and you need to move quickly. This map is a real thinker to play and I love it when it comes around.
The one real negative that came out of this DLC is that the weapon AE4 isn’t unlocking on the PS4 for me. After an uninstall of the game and a reinstall still no unlock, this has been raised to the people at COD via the ticket system and reading the chat on the web I’m not on my own, so hopefully a patch will be out soon.
The Havoc DLC is a storming addition to Advanced Warfare. It’s obvious that Sledgehammer have gone full hog with this release clearly wanting to keep people impressed; they also want to keep people playing and if they keep on kicking out pure gems out like this Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is going to be sat in peoples machines for a long time.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Havoc DLC is available to buy now via Digital Download from here.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMekjOsexHs&list=PL18yMRIfoszH_jfuJoo8HCG1-lGjvfH2F
Originally published March 6, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
