Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Ascendance Review

"Ascend to Duty"

Multiplayer

Time for the second round of the yearly Call of Duty season pass with Ascendance. I'm fairly sure this name was used recently or a map pack, but whatever lets dig into it. Again as is standard we're given four multiplayer maps and one zombies map with a write-up you can find below. Onto the multiplayer aspect we have four new maps which seem to actually have a smaller scale focus this time around, with a higher focus on verticality and movement. Perplex is the first map which takes place in Sydney and is basically a very square map with multiple quick movement levels. It's a very strange map, yet quite enjoyable as you scale around looking for high points and watching your back since enemies can literally come from any direction. The second map is Site 244 just below Mount Rushmore where an alien craft has crashed and basically created a three lane environment of conflict. This map is also well designed despite it's strange layout and you constantly need to look around to keep alive. The third map is Climate which takes place in the new Gardens of Babylon where the plants are lively and water influxes to create deadly pockets of land come into play during matches. This one features an open map in the middle and lanes all the way around for a circle sort of map. Finally we have Chop Shop which takes place at an illegal underground exo suit building area. This one is the completely symmetrical of a map and is essentially just a straight line. Not a huge fan of these narrow maps as conflict is usually clustered and feels claustrophobic. Didn't particularly care for this map, though it will definitely be great for two sided objective modes. Overall this was a decent selection of maps, though none really stand out as iconic they're a nice addition to the roster.

Exo Zombies (Infection)

Zombies traditionally has always grown with each new level space and Infection is no different. Originally I thought it was some dumb game variant, it's actually the name for the map. Which is a stupid name indeed. The latest map brings back most of functions from the last map Outbreak including the annoying infection zombies and making that happen to areas of the map so players get unfairly screwed over. Other than that this map is much larger and has great areas for moving about from zombies. It's basically an underground sewer lane with three sectors that are open spaces. From there everything is largely the same as far as abilities or exo upgrades. New to the level is survivors which you can save for a bonus, traps to kill zombies with and a massive zombie boss character thing that occasionally appears.

The Conclusion

This DLC pack is much better than the first offering and really takes what Advanced Warfare makes unique about Call of Duty into effect. Finally we have levels that challenge the verticality and movement system properly for multiplayer. The zombies is much better, though there's some really annoying screw the team over type scenarios it makes. On top of that you also get a neat grapple like system in multiplayer which makes movement much more efficient and a OHM gun which is overpowered (AWESOME). It's essentially an assault rifle/shotgun combo weapon. Anyways, not an amazing pack. Just a solid addition to the Advanced Warfare package.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Review on Xbox One

Rating Overall: 7.5