So, it’s pretty much a 1-4-player co-op versus AI Rush / Conquest combo, with the same maps, but with, like, different lighting. That’s somewhat less than my commissioned 350 words or so, however, so here’s a bunch of paragraphs saying the same thing in more words.
Onslaught features four recycled maps – NOW WITH NIGHT/DAY LIGHTING REVERSED SO THEY MIGHT AS WELL BE TOTALLY NEW MAPS, AMIRITE! – including Valparaiso, Atacama Desert, Isla Inocentes, and Nelson Bay, now also under relentless and implacable assault by deployments of AI enemies whose mission objective apparently mostly involve planting flags. International politics really are the stuff of inscrutable wizards or something.
Anyway, the big idea is for you and up to three intrepid comrades to replace those enemy flags with your own flags, in the classic A, B, C order, without everybody on the team magically turning into hotdogs in one of those instantly regrettable 40mm grenade launcher GAME OVER incidents. Which is where I should probably mention that playing with anything less than a cohesive, rigorously organised unit is going to end in snot and tears, because Onslaught is all sorts of uncompromisingly brutal.
I say “uncompromisingly brutal”, of course, but there’s no subtly malevolent Left 4 Dead Director-style ingenuity here. Bot spawns rely on overwhelming force over clever strategy or emergent contingency, and the game quickly becomes a predictable sequence of engagements that’s not altogether unlike the single player campaign.
Somewhat inexplicably, Onslaught uses your existing multiplayer unlockables, but this arrangement doesn’t work in reverse – there’s no XP awarded, and no additional weapons or loadout junk which makes the whole lot feel a bit superfluous if you’re looking to grind out some ranks or pins. Not least of all because, really, there’s nothing much new here. Oh, there’s a new SPECACT-class boat. Memo to DICE: Seriously?
As such, it’s something of a mixed bag. Sure, it’s loads of fun, but the lack of new maps (or anything much else, for that matter) makes this premium add-on (800 MS Points) feel a bit been-there, shot-that for anyone who’s played this game regularly since launch. With no XP or other additional multiplayer incentives, there’s simply not much replayability, and outside of the 8 new Xbox Achievements / PS3 Trophies and leaderboards, it’s hard to recommend this one to hardcore veterans looking for something with real substance.
That’s a 6/10 then.
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