Exo Zombies: Revolutionary or More of The Same?

Hey guys! As you probably already know, the first DLC pack came out yesterday on xbox, and my brother and I bought it as soon as it came out! Today, I'll be talking about the new zombies mode and my thoughts, but to start I'll give you a brief rundown of the history of zombies in Call of Duty.

Zombies mode started in World at War back in 2008, where it was loved by many gamers all over the world and thought to be one of the best modes ever in gaming. Following WAW's success, Black Ops continued the tradition in 2010 with Kino der Toten and Nazi Zombies and was once again well received by players. In the sequel Black Ops 2 in 2012, zombies made yet another appearance in the new and challenging game mode Tranzit, which made players get on a bus and travel around the map to find more guns and the mystery crate and turn on the power, which was truly fun and innovative in my opinion. Are you beginning to see why I think that Treyarch should develop all of the Cod games? 

Yes, the zombies get jet packs too. 

So now, Activision and Sledgehammer games have brought zombies back through DLC packages in Advanced Warfare. Although I thought that this was greedy and a bad move for the two developing companies, I still bought it anyway and immediately found that it was really familiar to me as a veteran Black Ops player. 

Then again, maybe it's that way because the exo zombies is similar in pretty much every way to the zombies mode that we already had back in WAW, Black Ops and Black Ops 2. You've still got the killing zombies before they can climb through windows and doors (there's no way to repair barricades which IMO was a key feature in the previous zombie modes), finding better wall weapons, unlocking doors, turning on the power, the list goes on and on. Although you start out as a normal dude, you can find an exo suit in one of the rooms that gives you exo abilities like the slide, double jump and dodge that we are used to from the game's multiplayer. 

I also felt like the zombie types were unoriginal and boring and stayed too close to what they looked like in previous games, instead of diversifying and adding some fresh air into the gameplay. The only zombie types I've ever seen are the normal one and the one that explodes and sprays acid everywhere, which brings me to my next point- the mode is way too difficult.

(Video Creds: Ali-A)

No, I don't suck at the game. I've spent about 50 hours in the online multiplayer and reached prestige 5 rank 35, and have a 1.1 K/D. Still, I can't help feeling that they made the mode too hard like in the original Black Ops, and there is no easy mode. Black Ops 2 had an easy mode, and it was the only way I could really enjoy zombies because it was way too difficult any other way. Furthermore, the one map that the game includes is full of tight twists and turns and narrow hallways, where it is far too easy to just get pinned against a wall by a pack of 10 gazillion zombies who will then murder you without too much effort. Seriously, I was playing co-op with my brother, and we only reached up to round 9, which is half as far as I got in Black Ops 2 easy mode playing solo. It doesn't help that you lose all of your weapons when you die and that there's no obvious place to buy respawns, you just have to revive each other when playing co-op. It's just way too hard for me.

Of course, since the game takes place in the future, you are in an Atlas laboratory trying to survive against waves of abominations. There is also a futuristic look to the mystery box, which is a nice touch, and the Advanced Warfare weapons are obviously present. Some are wall-buys, like the MK14, Bulldog, HBRa3, and Tac-19 (those are the ones I've found), while most are obtained from the mystery crate, like the AE4, EM1, ASM1, and many more.

One more problem is that the Havoc DLC which has zombies in it only includes one map! I think that's really unfair, and my theory is that we won't see more until the next DLC pack, where they'll add one more map each time, leaving us with four near the end of 2015. Sucks, don't it?

And remember how the Ghost DLC's had extinction with an actual story mode? Well, you can forget about that in Advanced Warfare, because the "story" is a lazily put together two-minute video that doesn't contain any meaningful content. At least Infinity Ward tried with the story, but Sledgehammer is really skimping and the same survival mode on the same map every time will get boring eventually.

To Wrap It Up...

The new exo zombies mode is really fun, but that may be because it doesn't do enough to set itself apart from the previous zombie modes. The exo movement is cool, but it doesn't really help you all that much since there are so many tight corridors and hallways that you will be easily pinned against a wall and beaten to death. The futuristic look is definitely cool, but not only doesn't add much to what was already there, it really detracts from the gloomy and bleak world of Black Ops 2 zombies with the thick haze blocking the sun, the farmhouse (which was really creepy), and most importantly the barricades that could be repaired. Why isn't that present here?

I give Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Zombies a 5 out of 10.

Pros: (still) fun gameplay, great co-op, cool weapons

Cons: Too similar to previous zombie modes, maps too small and tight to make full use of exo movement, too difficult with no easy mode, no barricade repairing, confusing revive station placement, only one map included, no story (although previous zombie modes didn't really have that either)

I hope you guys enjoyed this review, and that it helped you decide if you're going to get the new DLC! I might also stream some live zombies gameplay to youtube if I can figure out how to do it on my xbox 360 (anyone know how?)

I'll be doing a rundown of the four multiplayer maps included in the DLC, so look out for that as well. Later bros!