We get things started in New York with Quarantine. A seemingly abandoned animal testing facility shows off a medium build with comparable engagement lengths. There are opportunities for “Long Shot” sniping and “Point Blank” SMGing, but most of the map’s sight lines are of the mid range variety. The outdoor areas are littered with objects like high walls that act as cover as you boost from one feature to another, avoiding detection and incoming rounds. There are also a few elevation changes that are crucial to winning and holding map control. A main indoors area has four points of access that come together in the middle as a four sided box of cross fire. Many a game can be won and lost here as it is the best way to quickly get from one corner of the map to another. Most of the action happens here, so be prepared to fight your way through. And at about the midpoint of the match, the floor of the room opens to unveil an insta-death pit, making Exo movements paramount. This place breeds close games, regardless of match type. But I did find that Hardpoint played the best for the well placed scoring locations.
Live the high life in the Middle Eastern retreat of Overload. Aesthetically speaking, this selection is awesome. Walls of gold are surrounded by lush colors and resplendent lighting. Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. Most of the map is divided into flat chunks of varying length and width. That in itself wouldn’t be a bad thing if not for the heightened levels surrounding said areas. Spawn trapping is a huge problem here. Because so much of the map can be seen and accurately fired upon from these platforms, having a fair chance to battle back from a death can be a huge, frustrating chore. Also, breaking control over key areas can seem futile for the same reason. To try an combat this problem, there are these purple lights standing tens of feet tall that emit an electric charge when shot that fry anyone in the immediate area. As a way to even the odds in a TDM game, their effect is often insipid. In an OBJ game like Domination, they turn into this incredibly unfair construction with no counterbalance whatsoever. This might be the most imbalanced map made for AW. Even tied and true Mosh Pit games like Hardpoint and Kill Confirmed are a nightmare because of the aforementioned lookout spots and terrible control areas.
The largest MP addition of Reckoning is Fracture. A frigid Arctic outpost gets the heat turned up with shots from end to end as well as smaller areas of medium length. The long range opportunities are limited due to a handful of huge features that cut off the middle to sniper shots. The map’s traversal side alleys are open to looks hundreds of feet away, but they are cramped and takes someone with a really confident shot to wreck shop over these areas. Instead, most of the exchanges happen in the middle, where big crates and ramped structures make skating around looking for kills a tense, but fun affair. The main bases at either end can be fortified with snipers and range-y ARs so that spawning balance can be kept at an acceptable level in most matches. But if the book ends are routinely left up for grabs, then the middle becomes the main place of rebirth, which spells disaster for fluidity. All in all, I have a positive notion of Fracture, despite it not being the most “interesting” place in the AW MP world. Three of the main OBJs (Domination, Hardpoint, and Kill Confirmed) all play very well.
The last Advanced Warfare map ever is my personal favorite from this pack. For me, Swarm is a shining example of what Exo can be at its best. A diminutive area of downtown Seoul, South Korea is a multi-tiered, switch-back, high flying, 1,000 miles-a-minute hotbed for boosting, jumping, and of course shooting. The streets harbor long sight lines with very few objects in the way of potential targets, but they are relatively narrow and are surrounded by a plethora of higher positions. Playing down isn’t impossible, but constant “peeking up” is a must. Predictably, most of the action happens on the 2nd and 3rd levels. Inside and on top of buildings feel like mini combat arenas in which the last person standing gets to shoot down at targets below. That is, until, another group quickly Exo up and try to lay claim to the area. This constant game of bullet tag feels like what the MP devs at Sledgehammer wanted their game to be: a fury of bullet laden mayhem played at breakneck speed that rewards accuracy, intelligent positioning, and a fearless attitude. And despite the many, many avenues of travel and features a-plenty, the layout can be digested rather quickly. After a few matches, zipping around to get from one place to another becomes second nature. As good as TDM is here, it takes a backseat to the two territory game types. But the best showing of all is Uplink. The back and forth battling for the node makes playing offense and defense a fluid situation that can change from second to second.
Sledgehammer’s Zombies remix reaches a dramatic conclusion in (dun, dun, dunnnnnnn) Descent! Lennox, Lilith, Kahn, and Decker are back once again to fight the undead army of darkness (get it?), only this time they’ll also have to do battle against an old ally in Oz. Set at an underwater Atlas facility in the middle of a storm laden, tumultuous ocean, this last chapter features much of the same type of gameplay seen from the previous level, Carrier, without some of the more drastic changes in room size. Instead of one or two huge areas buttressed by several small corridors, all of the main areas and hallways are roughly symmetrical in terms of square footage. The main caveat is how each place handles scaling. Some rooms are great for Exo-ing around trying to train zombies while others aren’t. For instance, the Spa is dozens of feet high with a flat ceiling and a few platforms that can be used to quickly evade the collection of horde on the ground. Many a round is won or lost in this room because of its inherent training quality. In comparison, the Galleria is terrible for “holding up.” The top platform holds the Exo suits, but that area gets swarmed quickly as the rounds progress. Worse yet, the walkways are super cramped and littered with seemingly useless features. Run in to get the suite and Health, but then leave as soon as possible! The biggest weakness of Descent is the lack of good wall guns. You’re looking at the TAC-19 and the HBRa3 being your best bets. Nothing against these arms, as they can be serviceable for about the first half hour of a run. Eventually, though, they get outclassed by stronger, quicker walkers, and anything less than Mk 5 upgrade stage for those two becomes an exercise in futility. Clearly, the map wants you to hit the 3D Printer in hopes of getting something that really cooks like the Blunderbuss or the brand new KL03-Trident. A weapon inspired by crossbows of CoD yore, it projects charged bolts that bounce off walls and one hit kill zombs. Getting good guns upgraded and Exo suits buffed up by round 13 is an absolute must. Why, you ask?
This is when the boss battles with Oz begin. A preview of the arena is given after round 5, as he quickly teleports the group to his playroom of death. At the start of 13, you’re transported there once again, only this time it’s for real. The object is to destroy Oz while he controls the action from these bullet proof sky boxes along in the middle of each of the four walls. For periodically brief moments, a door will open making him accessible to bullets and grenades. But to seize those opportunities, you’ll have to contend with many ill mannered traps like electric floors and an Exo cancelling laser detection grids that keep you planted to the ground as you wart off seemingly endless waves of lame brains. Fortunately the two main traps don’t happen at the same time, but they can occur in quick succession of one another. The most deadly aspect to contend against are the Sentry turrets. A set of four embedded in the walls along the ground are accompanied by a few more hanging high in various spots. While it doesn’t take much to disable them and the red laser can be used to trace their position, they are by far the most lethal aspect of round 13 and must be dealt with immediately. And make sure you locate Oz’s whereabouts and always keep an eye out for when his blast door becomes ajar. Missing out on these precious moments will extend the round longer than need be. And trust me, you’ll want the madness to end at the earliest juncture. There are some other “challenge” rounds that await you at later stages, but it’ll take a considerably well conceived effort to get there. The problem with Descent is the same problem that haunts all the other maps: it simply gets too difficult too quickly. Up to round 13 is perfectly fine, as is 13 itself. It shouldn’t be easy, and it isn’t. But keeping the key points in mind and taking accurate shots will put you and/or your team in prime position to succeed. But from this point on, things get unfair. You’ve expunged most of your ammo reserves and have most certainly lost the Exo upgrades by being “downed” in r13, but the minute you’re sent back to the facility, the horde gets quicker, meaner, and considerably more ferocious. From round 14 on, it feels like you’re fighting an losing battle. Difficulty could still be had if things seemed more equal, but they don’t. You’re reward for fighting the most intense battle yet to be had in Exo Zombies is coming back to dozens of the undead while you’re down on supplies. For some, this sounds like an awesome challenge that screams “let’s play” views/likes/follows on YouTube. For the average AW participant, I fear this comes across as more trouble than it’s worth. Despite that one, but critical, complaint, Descent might be the best showing of Sledgehammer’s main co-op offering.
Looking back on all of the DLC packs for AW, I don’t think there was a “dud” of the bunch. Sure, there where some not-so-good maps like Overload here and Perplex from Ascendance. In large part, though, I believe purchasers of the packs and season pass should feel positive about their extended investment. The multiplayer maps in this last download are no different. Swarm is just awesome, while Fracture and Quarantine have good things going for them as well. And despite my main problem with Exo Zombies, I don’t think the level designs were bad. In fact, they did nothing but improve over the course of the past several months. Descent offers a way for players to feel accomplished with “boss” type rounds sprinkled here and there so that when the run goes sour, you may still find solace in the event of beating a tougher checkpoint. If you’ve purchased the other DLC offerings so far and think those are worth the asking price, there is absolutely no reason not to complete your digital collection.
