Thursday, 14 November 2024

DLC #190 - Call of Duty : WWII - The Resistance

Here's something I've finally realised about Call of Duty Zombie-based DLC content;

If you're like me, and disliked the direction they took trophies for completing complicated Easter Eggs, all you actually need to succeed is a couple of people who know exactly what they're doing. You can be a complete passenger to success and nobody will care about it.

The Resistance adds The Darkest Shore map - a beached war compound complete with trenches, artillery bunkers and a U-Boat pen. Fog intermittently rolls in across the landscape between waves to add a dynamic of reduced visibility for both you and your enemies alike.

The Ripsaw is a newly added wonder weapon, upgraded by ripping out the spines of zombies, and allowing you to fire off circular saws with enough force to kill handfuls at once. If you want to venture deep enough, the Pommel of Barbosa, awarded upon completion of the Easter Egg, is an explosive projectile that can trigger a double explosion for additional damage.

Perks are now renamed to Blitz, and some of them are either slightly tweaked or brand new, but they're still purchased via machines dotted around the map for a specific cost of jolts, and will last the duration of the game unless you die.

Loads of freshness bought to the experience, and yet I'm still not that into any of it.

The Easter Egg is still it's usual, convoluted self, but there's an added bonus of fighting a boss at the end of each one now. Admittedly, this is a nice little addition. Mainly because there's finally some combat-centric action to get stuck into, rather than holding a crawling zombie alive for 30 minutes whilst you process a load of tedious steps in-between. They're not my idea of fun and never have been, but the boss fight climax is at least palatable.

There are 10 additional trophies to be earned on The Darkest Shore, and my experience with this DLC pack was an absolute joy.

For full disclosure, there are potentially some challenging trophies here, but I managed to wrap this content up within just 2 playthroughs of the map.

In the first one, I jumped into a lobby with 2 veteran zombies players, who guided me through the entire Easter Egg, and helped me achieve 7 of the 10 trophies in the process.

The "Severe Pommelling" trophy, awarded for killing 250 zombies with Barbarossa's Pommel in one match, is one to watch out for though. You'll only be able to earn this trophy once you've completed the Easter Egg. Barbarossa's Pommel is only unlocked as the reward for beating the Super Meuchlers and finalising the last step. It cannot be crafted from hidden parts around the map, nor can it be pulled from the mystery box. It was pointed out to me by the people who were running the Easter Egg, and I probably wouldn't have known this without their guidance.

If you leave the match without getting this trophy, you'll have to run through the Easter Egg all over again, just to earn the Pommel and unlock the trophy, and who really wants to do all that when you're only in it for trophies?

This session, along with unlocking all the other trophies attached to it, took just over an hour. This is probably fairly normal for time estimations regarding putting the steps into practice, but the underrated part to this level of efficiency is not having to do all the background research that goes into understanding an Easter Egg and it's various steps, and this may also include practice runs to get familiar with it. The benefits of running with a couple of experienced players who are more than happy for you to get a carry in their lobby are mainly down to the fact you can bypass all of this, and are not to be understated.

The second playthrough was in commitment to the remaining 3 trophies. These took around 30 minutes, with assistance from the same people who had supported me previously.

We loaded up a lobby together, and I just did exactly what they told me I needed to do in order to get the remaining 3 trophies required to complete the set - All whilst expecting nothing in return. Seamless and minimal effort. I have said previously that one of the biggest positives of zombies is the supportiveness of the community that sits around it, and this experience is an exemplary example of that.

A total completion time of less than 2 hours across just a couple of runs of the map should tell you all you need to know about the ease of which I found the experience with this DLC pack. It has the potential to be more challenging, especially if you're committed to learning the Easter Egg and attempting to run it yourself. Some additional trophies can also be tricky if you don't know some key strategies.

Bear in mind that the only way you can kill 13 zombies with one Ripsaw shot is to have an insta-kill power-up active. You can easily kill the elusive Meuchler for a charged spine when you first enter the hidden sacrifice room as part of the Easter Egg. This sort of knowledge is vital, but again, was something I had to rely on the more experienced players to advise me on.

There is a greater challenge lying in wait for those without the beneficiary of support from seasoned zombies players that can certainly make this more difficult. Just not for me on this occasion.

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