World War Z: Aftermath Review

World War Z or WWZ from here on in, has received a healthy update in the form of the Aftermath expansion. Coming in a few flavours for PC; a full-fat £30.99 release for anyone who has yet to obtain the game, or a 15.99 expansion for existing owners of WWZ. In addition to the multiple choice SKU offerings, this release also marks the addition of Steam to the list of available platforms you may find the game on.

So what do you get for your £30.99/£15.99 or regional equivalent? Well, definitely not Brad Pitt for one.

Aftermath brings two new campaigns, four new characters, a brand new class and a drizzling of additional weapons to highlight the bulk of this update. Navigating the streets of Rome or trying to survive the cold wastes of Kamchatka, each of these new missions brings new mechanics to the table in an attempt to spice up each playthrough.

Beginning with Rome, we take control of four new characters to the series, including a Daniel Ricciardo lookalike, if you had ordered the race driver from Wish.com after a heavy night of drinking. They add some more lore and backstory when reading their descriptions, but don’t really add anything to the actual gameplay.

When it comes to the campaign spice, each one brings an additional challenge or two which need to be considered as you’re battling the seemingly never-ending hordes of zombies. In Rome, you’ll come across APCs which have automated turrets on the roof. However, said turrets require ammunition crates which are scattered around the level, so they may continue to deliver those sweet rounds of freedom.
These ammo crates will vary in number and spawn location each time you run through the mission, so you can’t always count on having the ammo to hand as you escort the APCs towards their end goal of the Vatican.

Kamchatka is where it dials it up one more notch as you’re literally battling the sub-zero temperatures. Utilising the characters we had from the Tokyo campaign, we’re deployed to save a Japanese town, by working with the Russians in this chilling chapter.

Staying exposed to the elements will frost over your vision and will start to kill you unless you’re able to find one of the few industrial heaters that are waiting to warm you up.
This adds another level of pressure for the group when you’re trying to complete the objectives. It can become quite overwhelming when you see that frozen vision and depleting health bar, followed by the blur of a zombie swarm. This definitely prompted my group to bring our A-game, in planning our next moves and communications as we ventured further into the frozen wastes.

It’s not all fun and games though. Our time in these new missions felt bittersweet, while the campaigns and new elements are fun to tackle, it was also jarring and disjointed when progressing from one section to the next. Rather than having a small in-game cutscene as we’re used to from the pre Aftermath campaigns, we were greeted with sudden breaks and fade to black, before loading the next area. It definitely felt something was missing here and can easily break immersion.

Speaking of which, the new first-person mode that was added to WWZ is also something that I tried, but ultimately reverted back to the default third-person view. It’s great that you can switch this mid-game by going to the settings menu, but don’t expect ironsight levels of aiming. Think more of other third-person shooter aiming systems, where it zooms in a bit more and this is what you get, but in first person. This definitely disoriented me for the first half-hour or so, as I’m expecting the ironsights of the gun I’m using, adjusting my aim as if that’s going to transpire, then re-adjust as there were no sights, just a bit more zoom, with the standard crosshair in the usual place.

The Vanguard class that was introduced was another divisive point for us, while we were playing. It felt too risky in its early, perkless form with little opportunity to deploy the shield that it touts. Something about charging into a swarm of zombies that can quickly tear you to shreds goes against everything we’ve learned about the game prior to this expansion. We learn to avoid melee confrontations where possible and keep these hordes at a distance.

That’s not to say it’s not a bad class, I’m sure there are many that can make this new addition sing on the battlefield and love more of a melee playstyle. This makes the inclusion of new melee weapons the perfect choice for these players.

Introducing light, medium and heavy melee weapons, with a new combo style system, most definitely complements those who wish to get up close and personal. You’ll find each weight of weapon changes how you wield them against zombies. With light weapons relying more on quick successive strikes on single targets and heavier weapons pushing you more to an AOE approach, culling several Brexiteers with one arching blow.

Overall, the negatives within the new chapters still couldn’t deter me from enjoying my time in the update to WWZ. For those looking for a co-op zombie shooter fix, new or returning players should have plenty of fun within this game.