Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Havoc is downloadable content for the first-person shooter game available from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. Havoc provides downloadable content for the multi-million selling Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare with the addition of the much requested Exo Zombies game mode and expanding the roster of multiplayer maps.

The Exo Zombies game mode has its own standalone story which revolves around Atlas dropping bio-tech bombs infecting everyone that do not have matching DNA coding resulting in an Atlas facility being overrun with zombified victims, while a small group of just four unaware and innocent survivors including a janitor called Oz, the Atlas facility CEO Kahn, an I.T. technician called Lilith and a security officer named Decker are looking to avoid being infected and find a way out of their Atlas facility.

The standout has to be the Exo Zombies game mode which pits four surviving characters against incoming hordes of zombies across an expansive map called Outbreak, while the four competitive multiplayer maps take the amount of content to another level by seriously expanding upon the original roster of maps.

The four multiplayer maps include Core which is a frenetic war zone set upon the ruins of a nuclear fusion plant in the Gobi desert which is perfect for both long and short range combat, while Urban is set within the confines of a futuristic mega structure referred to as Dallas Ward 3 which provides close quarters combat as blast doors create the scenario of an ever changing map, alongside Sideshow which centres around an abandoned motel and Drift set in the picturesque ski resort high up in the Rocky Mountains with a timed event that only adds further intensity by releasing an avalanche of snow and debris to disorient unsuspecting enemies, therefore creating a distraction which works perfectly to your advantage.

Havoc provides bonus weapons that are exclusive to owners of this downloadable content including the AE4 directed energy assault rifle and the custom variant titled the AE4 Widowmaker. As is the case with zombie modes from previous Call of Duty games; players earn credits for killing zombies or powering up generators for areas of the environment in which the credits can then be utilised to purchase better weaponry than the pistol the character starts out with. There are numerous weapons stations sporadically positioned on the walls of the surrounding environments including access to such weapons as the Bulldog, MK14, MP11, AMR9 and much more besides. There are also ammunition stores to replenish ammo, weapon upgrades, Exo Skeleton stations and the ability to open up new areas, while the 3D printing stations provide a randomly selected weapon upon purchase, although everything has its own price from 500 credits upwards, although a decontamination chamber can be accessed for 250 credits to heal a character after being infected by prolonged exposure to an infected zombie.

When in a group it is important to revive a downed member of your group as the character will eventually die from bleeding out for a prolonged period, therefore losing their Exo abilities, although the character will be respawned to the player in control when the remaining players within the group complete the current wave of zombies. Some of the zombies will drop power-ups such as a DNA bomb, one shot kills, score multipliers, full reload and much more besides which provides the gameplay of Exo Zombies with a certain unpredictability as players never know when a power-up will be produced.

The environment design of the Outbreak map for the Exo Zombies game mode is quite varied as there are a plethora of areas throughout the compounds of the Atlas facility, while the 4 additional competitive multiplayer maps provide environments that are just as varied as those found in the 13 competitive maps included upon the initial release of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

The enemy design is excellent as it consists of zombies, vicious zombified attack dogs, Exo Skeleton suited zombies, toxic zombies and much more with each zombie having different levels of aggression, their own unique looks and appropriate pacing in regards to how quickly they are capable of moving in on your position.

Havoc is the first of four downloadable content packs available in the year following the release of the game with each pack costing £11.59*, while also being available as a season pass to effectively pre-order each of the four content packs at a cheaper bundled price of £34.99* including the continuation of Exo Zombies, competitive multiplayer maps, new weapons and much more with the added bonus of the downloadable content being cross-buy between the PS4 and PS3 versions of the game.

The performance during remote play is stunning with the same quality of graphics and audio as the PS4 version with plenty of positive optimisations making the controls feel as natural as they do on the DualShock 4 controller as aiming has moved from L2 to L and shooting has been mapped to R instead of R2 which was important for two of the fundamental areas of the control scheme, while Exo abilities are now mapped to the bottom left of the touch screen and throwing grenades is now mapped to the bottom right of the touch screen, alongside sprinting of L3 now being moved to tapping the left of the rear touch pad, although players do not have to hold the touch pad and the melee has moved from R3 to the right of the rear touch pad, while the DualShock 4 control scheme and alternative control schemes remain intact from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

Graphically, the Havoc downloadable content generally looks amazing with a variety of well animated zombies, incredible environments, lighting and shadow effects, but particularly shines during third-person spectating of another character while waiting to respawn when playing Exo Zombies in multiplayer as it really shows off the phenomenal life-like representations of the four main protagonists as well as their excellent animations which makes it a shame that Exo Zombies is not playable through a third-person perspective.

The presentation of the game has a great user interface across various menus such as the main menu, mission select, options and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the touch pad and the right analogue stick. The background to the Exo Zombies menus are every bit as cinematic as those found in Advanced Warfare with the main menu panning around the environments within the Atlas facility, while the menu prior to starting the Exo Zombies chapter sees the four main protagonists standing back to back in action poses that scream out their scenario loud and clear as though it is us against the world.

The standout from the audio has to be the vocal talents produced in performances from a world famous cast including Bill Paxton who voices CEO Kahn having acted in such films as Aliens, Predator 2 and Edge of Tomorrow as well as being a very important part of the story arc of the first season of Marvel’s Agents of Shield. John Malkovic provides a gritty performance as the janitor Oz that is reminiscent of his craziest characters from Con Air and Red, alongside Rose McGowan of Charmed and Grindhouse voicing the IT technician Lilith with Jon Bernthal of The Walking Dead, Snitch, The Wolf of Wall Street and Fury voicing the security officer Decker.

The sound effects include weapons firing from you and your team, explosions, the Exo Skeleton, groaning of incoming zombies and ambient sound effects for weather conditions, when a door is opened to unlock a new area of the Atlas facility, weapons and weapons upgrade stations acknowledging a weapon or weapon upgrade has been purchased with a sound effect and voice-over, 3D printing stations and an alarm sounded at the end of a wave, alongside atmospheric and climactic music to signify the beginning and end of each wave of zombies, although the inclusion of an Easter Egg in which the player must interact with certain objects to hear the classical piece Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner played momentarily during Exo Zombies is certainly a highlight.

The DualShock 4 speaker implementation produces a sound effect when you navigate through a menu or toggling an option. Despite putting the DualShock 4 speaker to at least some use; it is not as ambitiously used as it should be in a game mode as Exo Zombies and a scenario with as much atmosphere as being chased by zombies as it could have produced the story based and in-game dialogue from all of the lead characters or perhaps even the Exo Skeleton, gunfire, explosions, ambient sound effects or the incoming zombies.

The trophy list includes 10 trophies with 8 bronze and 2 silver trophies. The majority of the trophy list is hard to achieve as it purely revolves around the survival of the Exo Zombies game mode, therefore the Survivor bronze trophy for surviving until round 25; the 20/20 silver trophy for upgrading 2 weapons to level 20; and the Game Over, Man silver trophy for calling in a rescue are certainly the hardest trophies to earn. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take between 3 to 5 hours to 100% the trophy list.

There are no difficulty levels for the Exo Zombies game mode as the difficulty curve is purely based upon attempting to survive hordes of zombies of all shapes, sizes, speeds and abilities. The clever part of how the difficulty curve is fused into the very heart of the Exo Zombies gameplay is that with each wave killed; the player will encounter a larger horde of zombies possessing stronger attacks, faster movement and generally increased capabilities until the horde becomes so large for any given wave that even a group of four players would find it comical to have any chance of overcoming, therefore the player is somewhat punished with an extremely tough challenge for being skilled enough to overcome each wave against ever increasing odds.

The Exo Zombies mode consists of 4 player co-operative online multiplayer including 2 of the 4 players playing split-screen from the same PS4, although the only negatives include the lack of 4 player split-screen multiplayer and not being able to select a character of personal choice as they are only randomly assigned which can be problematic if the player has to wait to play as their particular favourite character. The 4 new competitive multiplayer maps are compatible with all of the modes of play against bots as well as during 2 player split-screen competitive multiplayer and 2 to 18 players in online competitive multiplayer including 2 of the 18 players playing split-screen from the same PS4.

The Exo Zombies online leaderboards focus on global scores and friend scores from all time, weekly and monthly durations as there is a clear depiction of the total number of unique entries with each leaderboard containing each player’s rank; name (PSN ID); score; the amount of kills; revives; the amount of rounds survived; the duration of time survived; the amount of headshots; and the amount of melee kills with the positioning of each player based upon the score that has been accumulated during each player’s best performance in a single match or an overall accumulation of the points scored across every attempt at surviving every wave of Exo Zombies.

The replayability of the Havoc downloadable content stems from the excellent Outbreak map for the Exo Zombies mode, four competitive multiplayer maps to expand upon the variety of the competitive multiplayer environments, new weapons and Exo Zombies online leaderboards to competitively measure up individual performance within the co-operative game mode which collectively provides a huge amount of new content to experience and keep on returning to.

Overall, the introduction of the Exo Zombies game mode and an additional cast of likeable characters are the focal point of the Havoc downloadable content and is certainly the most fun anyone will have with Havoc, while four competitive multiplayer maps also increases the amount of variety showcased in the environments for split-screen and online multiplayer battles to take place upon.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Havoc DLC
• Developer: Sledgehammer Games
• Publisher: Activision
• System: PS4
• Format: PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: Yes (PS4 and PS3)
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 1-2 (Split-Screen Multiplayer)/2-18 (Online or Split-Screen Online Multiplayer)
• Hard Drive Space Required: 5.6GB (Version 1.14)
• * Correct at time of publication