So here it is, Advanced Warfare’s final DLC pack. Its fond farewell. Its swan song.

It has been a bit of a rough ride for Sledgehammer and AW. I can’t remember the last time a CoD game divided the community as much as this one. sure there have been some that have favoured less well than others, but this AW has literally split the CoD fanbase in two; the lovers and the haters.

Personally I loved it when it came out, with its frenetic pace and all out action. However my interest has waned of late, with a lot of the failing to get the balance right between combat and exoskeleton movement. Will this DLC fair any better?

Overload

Described as being an exotic compound in downtown New Baghdad I found this map to be a little disappointing. It looks very nice and the plasma lamps are a pretty cool addition, but all in all it felt very dated. It is designed mostly for medium to long range combat, which mostly involves running around the perimeter of the buildings. It was a shame they didn’t use the centre of the map more for close quarters combat. Overall it’s quite a bland map that fails to grasp both traditional CoD mechanics as well as AW’s exoskeletons.

Quarantine

This is a much better map with a good mix of long, medium and close quarters combat. The theme this time is an abandoned biological test centre and it works very well. There are little rat-run corridors, a monkey enclosure, various buildings to explore and generous outside areas. It’s a well balanced map which lends itself well to double jumping around the map as well as running around inside.

Fracture

Designed to be set on an Arctic excavation site this is quite a small map with a lot of obstacles. The map also gets smaller as you play due to the ice sheet you are playing on cracks and disappears into the sea. Being small makes it a very quick map to play, with only a couple of spots at either end suitable for sniping. It’s not a bad map and its frantic pace makes it fun to play. It feels a bit generic though, and the exoskeleton is of little use.

Swarm

I really liked this map as its setting lends itself perfectly to how the map plays. Set in Seoul (South Korea) there are streets for long/mid range gunfights and also offices for mid/close range encounters. The inside bits are set on different levels too, making it more interesting to explore as well as mixing it up a bit during a battle. Exoskeletons are useful for navigating around making it less easy to camp in a corner somewhere. It is arguably the best of the maps in the Reckoning DLC.

Zombies: Descent

This final part to AW’s zombie quadrilogy, this is the chapter that explains it all. Expect more of the same in terms of gameplay, but there are a couple of additions in terms of the types of enemy you will face and a new weapon to boot.

Overall I was a bit disappointed with this DLC. I really liked ‘Swarm’, and ‘Quarantine’ was not too shabby either. I found ‘Overload’ and ‘Fracture’ to be quite drab, and the zombie map (whilst probably appealing to those who love the whole zombie thing) I found to be just like the other maps; once you get used to the layout it’s business as usual.

It’s a bit of a strange time at the moment with Call of Duty (well it is for me anyway). I loved the Black Ops 3 beta and I’m really hyped for that, which has added to the feeling that AW has run its course now. It had a good run and brought something completely new to the CoD franchise. I really like the exoskeletons, although having played Blops3 I think what they have done with boost jumping is better.