Call of Duty Ghosts Extinction ~ The Watcher

Imagine the franchise loving gamers frustration when Treyarch and Infinity Ward decided to go their separate ways. There was a small consolation of the companies taking turn about to exploit the gamers wallets with further renditions, but zombies was to be regulated to every second year. The lack of Zombie maps sent shock waves (well mild tremors), through the gaming scene. Well no more will there be a sense of a crucial 'something' missing. Infinity Ward has delightfully saw fit to take survival map to a new level with aliens. About time as far as I was concerned! I loved the first foray into zombies, but the follow ups seemed too tied up in their own glory, for me it lost its watch-ability and for some the playability.

It is worth noting before I go much further that the Extinction is not initially unlocked. At least one mission must be played or reach rank 5 in multi player (the first level is only 10-15 minutes), then it will be available in the main menu.

The ranking levels from standard multi-player do not count towards your levels in extinction and vice versa. Therefore it is advisable to get your level up in single player before jumping into multi-player version. A large majority of the higher levels will not play with lower levels as it affects their stats. I have seen first time players being talked through the game and carried to completion on their first try, which is great for their future games. On the whole, the higher levels have little patience for 'n00bs', which results in bouncing in and out of game lobbies and precious slaughtering time being wasted.

The first map is called Point of Contact, and in a massive departure from zombies it actually has an end goal. You play as an American(obviously!), and have to evict the aliens from your fair land by destroying their homes ('hives'), whilst protecting the weapon of destruction from the impending homeless aliens. Still not sure where these refugees came from or why, but I'm sure that point is wholly unimportant as they don't have a Green Card between them.

The game is split into 3 main sections in which there are several hives and a barricade. The hives change location slightly each time and reaching the barricade activates a helicopter to destroys it. The barricade is also the only hive you can help destroy, if you haven't used up the propane tanks or grenades etc now's the time. Not that you'll have much time in the insanity of this boss fight, but if you wait until the barricades health bar is showing, you can throw them at the barricade (one at a time does the most damage). The waves of aliens will be drastically culled if you can get rid of the barrier quickly. However in the later barriers it becomes almost essential as a hidden timer will activate if it takes too long, spawning the hardcore Rhino aliens.

The aliens predictable get tougher as the game progresses, from the initial scouts (which take two bullets or slashes), you progress to the long range scorpions which gleefully spit acid at you and at helicopters (this will cause the helicopter to evade and stop shooting at the barricade). The second section introduces exploding scouts (in red), lots more scorpions and if your very unlucky rhinos, the heavily armoured murder machines who really seem to have an issue with your existence. Meteor strikes also start up here with giant red crystals dropping from the sky to spawn more monsters. The third level is everything and chaos if you haven't levelled up.

The final stage is pretty much running. Once you destroy the final hive a nuclear countdown comes up, and its time to gather your turrets and retrace your steps to where you entered the area. Plonk them down at the entrance to the alleyway and toddle merrily back to the nuke. Make sure you've upgraded all you can (now is the time for running for your life), upgraded feral helps out as does upgrading your pistols to run faster and wishing you'd gone the nimble footed medic. Start the nuke and run
back to your turrets destroy the aliens (mini gun is great for rhinos) and restock supplies while waiting for the barricade to drop. The next stage just run, remembering that dragging a turret will really slow you down, wait at the barricade and repeat. The final stage is a flat out dash for the helicopter. Any players downed will be left behind once someone enters the circle, so wait before entering (or just go for glory).

As you progress around the maps you'll find the various weapons, but also searchable containers, usually a small box or open bin bag on the ground. If you fancy theft from the deceased or simple bin raking, then these will contain essential items. Extra ammo, cash, flares (the aliens love to sing  Kumbaya round these little babies!), Soflam airstike (ideal for barricades or the over whelmed), Hypno knives (turn that pesky monster into a faithful attack dog, not usable on rhinos!).
Gun attachments also feature in these treasure troves; grips optics etc. Whilst you are hunting about take note of the traps like electric fences and fire walls, as well as the mounted guns. Handy for making aliens fly and run around like an Olympic torch.
Weapon locations are helpful detailed here.

There are four main classes available, each with there own advantages, and as you collect skill points they can be upgraded like your weapons and armour, to provide better team support. The choice is down to personal preference, but I have a fondness for medic, fully levelled up they can out run most things (ideal for the final stretch) and are unaffected by scorpion acid. They can also revive quicker, handy when it all goes to hell in a handbag!

Boosters are part of the load out as well and provide some handy perks in times of distress, this is were the skill points you've earnt become great fun. To increase your skill you can also play with Relics, a nifty handicap that requires a great support team or amazing confidence in your own talent.

One of the main ways to find your game suddenly empty is by not completing the challenges (circled below in red). Whilst completing each section will give you a skill point, doing these challenges will also give you one, making upgrading and later levels more manageable. Its a simple case of reading the screen, if you can't afford the required gun or can't do the challenge stay back and help others complete it.
To find the leper just search the edges of the map, if everyone goes in different directions he should be found, feral is also an advantage here.
The accuracy challenge in the later levels can be helped with sentry turrets.
Dropping money doesn't count as spending money, it will just allow you to collect more from kills, and can be picked up after the challenge.

              Here's how to do the alien Easter Egg.

Thanks for sticking with me to the end! I really enjoy this new map I found it refreshing, and there's confirmation of new maps in the extinction range shipping with the latest map pack. So I'm quite hopeful that the competition is going to heat up with Treyarch for the Zombie/ Alien map downloads.