Call of Duty: WWII - The Resistance (DLC) Review

As I have mentioned several times before, I am a sucker for FPS games. I can load up a game and instantly know what I am doing and adjust to the slight learning curve of the mechanics. I love the grind of unlocking new weapons and using them as soon as they are available. COD WWII has been that game where I can play for ten minutes and be done with it. I am not as hardcore as others may be, but I am on my fourth prestige and sunk a few days in game time into it. Just when I found it getting a little stale, Resistance DLC arrived just in time, and let's just say ... I couldn't resist!

Years ago I had to have all the DLC that came with a game even before there were season passes. I wanted to experience everything the game had to offer and the achievements or trophies that came with it. That's because I also felt for the price I was paying I was almost getting another game to play due to the amount of depth being offered. Nowadays I feel even with standard game releases we are getting less and yet essentially paying more. Not to diminish the amount of work and effort that is put into games or DLC, but I just don't think gamers are getting their money's worth. COD WWII even at face value gets you hours of campaign, a single map of Zombies campaign, and nine multiplayer maps with various modes. Plenty of content to sink your teeth into for hours and days on end. Find the game at $30 or less and it's a steal. Resistance outside of the season pass will cost you $15 which is fairly typical and will net you three multiplayer maps, one war map, a new chapter of the Zombies campaign, resistance class, skins, and a handful of new weapons. Worth the price of admission?

I loaded up my game and immediately went into a Resistance featured playlist that cycled the maps and the game types. Other than that I was going in blind. I selected my go-to class and went to town on a map called Occupation based in Paris. It was HUGE! I found myself running around trying to flank yet not being able to catch up unless other members of my team were keeping pressure on the enemy or someone on the opposing team had a similar idea to flank. There are a lot of potential pressure points like long alleys and shops to hide in, a sniper or LMG gunner's dream. There were also so many trees and boxes to climb also acting as chokepoints or as places to camp hide and melee people. I of course found this out the hard way. I was playing my typical run and gun style but found I was getting killed by melee way more than gunfire and just couldn't get an edge on anyone. How in the world could this be? After finishing the match my ego was hurting. I was taking a look at what else might be new while the next match loaded and discovered the new division. Its perk is a lower fuse on lethal equipment and my, my look what we have here, the division perks are a pistol with a tactical knife (bingo), scramble nearby enemy mini-map (I rarely look at my map anyway), additional pistol attachment (meh), and a mini-map indicator that points in the direction of close hostiles (say what now?). It's my turn to give this a shot. Of course I had to level it up to unlock all perks, but I had the tactical knife and pistol combo.

Next map was Anthropoid based in Prague. This map is fairly straight-forward, with buildings that funnel to an open area split by a river which, yes, you can swim in. The buildings on each side have a balcony to take cover in or to pick-off players daring enough to walk right down the middle. Flanking left and right are almost the only options. Not very impressive compared to the last map in my opinion. Again it seemed to be all about the hiding spots and jumping out to melee people. Which, now that I was outfitted with a tactical knife, made me smile a few times. Everyone seemed to be doing the same thing so this match was definitely slower paced than the one before. I am sure the type of game will determine the amount of movement and flow.

Third and last of the multiplayer maps was Valkyrie, and yes I did in fact get them in this order with no repeats. This map feels pretty small, based in the woods but most of the action happens in small one story buildings and streets in between. The paths almost seem to make a square with smaller squares in between. We ended up playing Domination on this map which of course encourages camping, but also leads to a lot of corner kills and being shot in the back. It's evident that a lot of detail went into this map, but I just didn't get a lot of value added for gameplay.

One of my favorite modes in this COD is War which sadly only brings a single new map, but it can be a blast or a nightmare. From the attacking perspective you need to go into two separate buildings housing Resistance fighters that need to be freed. Each building can be outfitted with machine gun turrets or walls on the defensive side, theoretically funneling enemies in a desired location. If the prisoners are freed, then the next step is to destroy/defend communication radios which are centrally located in a two-story building. There are a lot of equipment and angles to work which enables a lot of surprise attacks and potentially a flood of enemies to kill. Say the Resistance does in fact destroy all the comms, then it moves to escorting a tank through a train yard that has a lot of rail cars for the enemy to hide in and hilly terrain to go prone on. The only real protection the Resistance has is the tank and to continue pushing in waves of attacks. If the tank reaches the end the goal is met, which is to derail the enemy train. First experience with this map was great up until the tank session. All of a sudden the game went from run and gun to raining 'nades. I could barely take two steps before a 'nade was blowing up in my face. Our team barely got the tank escorted up the first hill, it was a disaster. Later on I was in another match that went a little more smoothly and we were successful, though it was without a hailstorm of 'nades. The games of course will vary and if you get a fairly decent structured team together attacking or defending they will be successful no matter what. Of course any time you are on the winning side it is fun. Overall this was the best experience in the DLC so far.

Now on to Zombies campaign. I haven't played Zombies since the first week. I did enjoy my time playing it, but without proper communication and cooperation we were never successful. The Resistance DLC is no different. It does seem like when clues are picked up to progress the story it's more in your face but still not to the point where the game is holding your hand telling you exactly what needs to be done. The map starts you off on the beach of an island where Dr. Straub is in hiding. Immediately a large wave of zombies are in your face giving you that sense of urgency, but also filling your pockets with the cash required to buy weapons, blitz perks, and access new paths. After a few waves, getting some weaponry other than a pistol, and opening some paths, you start to focus on upgrades and restoring power to the island. Restoring the power also leads to unlocking a mine cart tunnel system which acts as a type of fast travel through the island. It's basically a carnival ride to kill enemies. After a couple of unsuccessful sessions the only new things I noticed was a saw that is primarily a melee weapon but can also shoot blades after an upgrade and a new evolution of zombie. Other than that there was still zero communication and didn't seem like anyone knew how to progress beyond restoring power to the island. I like the game mode, I just don't like when people don't communicate. I would recommend taking a look at a guide but then that may ruin the experience.

Batting in the cleanup position for Resistance DLC is the skins and weapons. I have no care in the world for how my character looks, so skins do absolutely nothing for me, though they are vastly popular with others. If you like it, you got it. As far as I know there is a new pistol and the tactical knife, but other than that I am not certain what other weapons are available. I assume there are more and I just haven't unlocked them. Grind those loot crates and eventually they will come to you. Overall, Resistance is nearly futile. If you are a fan of the series, then you more than likely already have the season pass and will enjoy every bit of content delivered to you. Otherwise, if you are hand-picking your DLC experience then this content could probably be put on the backburner until it's more affordable.

Final Rating: 75%