Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | Onslaught Review

Zombies in Cold War seems to be the most lucrative experience of the entire game. It offers up XP in spades, and even has one of the game's only ways to earn special weapon blueprints. When it comes to the modes of play within Zombies there are a trio of different modes with their own separate variations. You've got your Die Maschine, Dead Ops Arcade 3, and Onslaught. I almost immediately took a liking to Die Maschine,and it's holiday spin-off, but after awhile I sought fun elsewhere in Zombies. That's where Onslaught comes into play. As of today I've spent a fair amount of time in Onslaught. Enough to give you the insider info you'll need to know if you dare to take it on. Unlike Die Maschine, and it's 4 player co-op setup, Onslaught is strictly a 1 - 2 player co-op experience that can be played publicly or privately. The goal is simply to follow an orb of Aether, and feed it the souls of the undead as you kill them wave after wave. The catch being that every few rounds elites are introduced, and the stakes in those encounters are raised as it is one of the ways you will be able to earn rewards.

Onslaught, the mode, comes in four different types with a similar rule. The only difference between the four being the maps, and event themes. There's regular Onslaught, Onslaught Nuketown '84, Onslaught Pines, and Onslaught Holiday. By going into these mode alternatives you will be facing wave after wave of lesser zombie hordes, and intermittent elite boss battles. The areas which the waves take place are sectioned off in a circular clearing around the mode's traveling Aether orb. The orb will move after each wave, and reposition itself until you've dispatched enough undead to clear the current wave.

Upgrades, weapons, and power-ups will drop as you defeat zombies, and the elite bosses. The bosses will appear in a rift anomaly a few waves in each time. Giving you a mild break, and a ways to capitalize on the lesser drops such as lethals, and ammo. Bosses, in particular, will drop the soda perks, and rarer weapons upon being defeated. In co-op play collected soda perks will be gifted to both players no matter who picked it up. One interesting thing to note about solo play, and co-op is that the way lives are handled is dependent upon how many players there are. If you go solo you get one self revive. If you go co-op players can revive each other, but once a player's revive health is fully depleted it will revert to solo play with the surviving player picking up all the slack. Making the co-op experience more viable for long term survival.

When it comes to weapon loadouts in Onslaught it's the same as with Die Maschine. You can have a fully decked out menu accessible primary, and the field upgrade which includes the frost burst, mines, aether shroud, healing aparatus, or the ring of fire. These are on cooldown as in Die Maschine, but will offer needed support in the later rounds when lesser zombies and elites become more powerful. Another thing to mention is that support items will sometimes drop after a boss elite is downed. Offering up things like the gatling gun, or mortar. Utilizing the perks, the power-ups, the weapon drops, and the support items will be crucial to your survival.

The lowdown ...

While onslaught is a lucrative mode for farming weapon XP, and XP in general it has it's downsides. When paired with random players who are not keeping up their fair share of killing it can end a run very quickly. The mode is heavily reliant on team synergy, and without that the RNG is the only thing left to carry you through. Speaking of RNG an Onslaught playthrough seems very dependent upon RNG as well. Whether it be power-up drops, weapon drops, or perks you you really do have to have it all complimentary or you will struggle. In solo I managed to beat three elites on my own a couple of times. This was on the Nuketown '84 map which is very cramped considering the fact that the Aether orb limits the safe space radius significantly. Of course the weapon of choice, and perks did make a difference. When it comes to completing playthroughs you have to defeat enough elites to gain the Gold chalice. The chalice is basically your trophy for killing so many elites. For killing three you'll earn a bronze chalice. For killing 5 you'll earn a silver chalice, and for 10 you'll earn the gold chalice. The gold chalice being the big goal.

When it comes to earning the limited time blueprints in Onslaught it is all about the mode type you choose. Some will simply have you killing one elite while others will require the earning of a certain amount of chalices. In regards to the holiday mode variant it requires that you kill zombies frozen by snowballs. I'm sure this will change with each holiday's theme. If they plan to include all holidays. Just know that these blueprints rotate every 24 hours making it crucial to grind for them if that's something you want. These blueprints do come with exclusive skins.

Beyond all that lies Onslaught's biggest issue. A nasty player problem that happens a lot with random matchmaking. I've personally encountered players who go AFK, and even players who will DDoS your connection before you can finish a playthrough. If you follow me on Youtube you'll find proof of that. I will say that I enjoy zombies when it's not ruined by other players. It is both fun, and rewarding, or at least can be. The gamble of course is up to you, but as long as you understand the risk and rewards it's all good.