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Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle DLC: This is a bit of a strange one for me, I must admit, given I had never watched the anime based on the Manga and Michael reviewed the first game, as well as Attack On Titan 2.
This Final Battle DLC was only on PC, which is more my department. So me being me, I started watching the admittedly rather good anime on Netflix, albeit, just the first season of three so far. No other seasons are available on Netflix and the 4th season is due to air some point in the near future, which finishes off the story, unlike the hundreds of episodes of One Piece and Dragonball!
After watching the first 5 episodes on Netflix, I finally knew what was going on with the walls and Titans etc and started playing a bit of the campaign to get to grips with things, before starting on this.
The Final Battle DLC is essentially 2 components added to the original Attack on Titan 2. There is Territory Recovery Mode and Character Episode mode. Alongside these two new modes, you have numerous new weapons to try out including firearms – if you don’t want to use your blades – and the Thunder Spear, which is needed for taking down Armoured Titans and makes things a bit easier as it can one-shot kill smaller Titans.
The Character Episode mode has stories from the first 3 seasons of the anime and you will play as different characters that you will have seen on the show. This essentially gives different views on what was happening at the time from someone else in Eren’s squad or another team. This is structured by combat and story sections, and as you complete a section, it opens up different options on a tree; all of which can be played through no matter what branch/route you choose. Whilst playing through this mode, it unlocks extra characters for use in other game modes (another mode option where you play online co-op as an example).
Essentially this is more of the same as the main game, taking out human opponents round the town inside the walls or heading out to take out Titans beyond the wall. Unfortunately, there isn’t a great deal of difference really in the missions, barring the new human enemies or new Titan classes to take down. Don’t get me wrong, it is interesting enough, but if you have already seen the anime and are up to date with it, I feel you will have already seen what this has to offer. One gripe, however, is that you cannot use your created character from the main game in this mode, as it is squarely on the anime characters from the show.
Territory Recovery Mode is what I spent most my time playing. This mode plays out in different phases for the want of better words! You have red place markers outside the wall where you have to reclaim them from the Titans. Once you select the area, you then go into combat outside the walls in the main world. Once outside, you are in a large open area where you can build towers to restock or Attack Titans. You will see a small map in the corner with Titan locations which looks very similar to commander positions in the Dynasty Warrior series. You will also come across green smoke where you need to go and help other characters take out the Titans. The more Titans you take out, the more resources and score you get.
The characters you come across, if you have helped them enough, for the camaraderie bar to fill you can then recruit them for your Garrison once you return to base. It is definitely worthwhile to take out as many Titans as possible before heading for the main objective and taking out a harder, larger Titan. Once the mission is complete, you return to the map and more routes with red dots appear (think like the map on Wasteland 2 where the route is dotted lines with stop off points). You can only move so many times before having to head back into your Garrison and each set of moves is classed as one turn, which I feel gives it a strategic board game vibe.
Once you return to the Garrison, you can hire anyone that you have helped out enough and also build up your base. You can expand the amount of people you can bring in (Garrison can only hold so many), be able to take more people out with you, gain more turns before the phase ends and a few other upgrades all making things better for you, for when you head out. The Garrison/Base does change when you have done some of the upgrades, which is a nice touch. Again, with this mode, you will unlock characters to use in other parts of the game. You can bring your character from the main AOT2 campaign over to this mode as the unit commander, if you wish, and select company logo.
Attack On Titan 2: Final Battle is certainly worthwhile playing through but it is a bit pricey. If you look at cost of AOT2, you would have paid around the £40 mark for the game a year ago, and then to get this DLC it is another £40, which is a bit on the high side given what you are getting. If you hadn’t purchased the main game back then, you can get the Final Battle pack which includes plenty costumes, Final Battle & AOT2 for £55. This, to me, isn’t really fair on the people who bought the game a year ago when it first launched. I do feel pricing should be around the £20 mark.
Then, looking at the Character Episodes, which is great if you haven’t seen the anime, but if you are a fan of the show, then you may know what is coming next.
Overall, however, it is a decent expansion to an already decent game and compliments the anime and Manga nicely
Overall Score: 7/10
Attack On Titan 2: Final Battle is out now on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.
Important info:
- Developer: Koei Tecmo
- Publisher: Koei Tecmo
- Players: Single-player and Co-op
Retro at heart and lover of all things ’80s, especially the computers, the music and the awesome movies and TV shows! Crazy huge retro gaming collection spanning the ’80s and ’90s with hundreds of tapes, discs and carts for various machines on top of a 600+ strong Steam library that is ever-growing. No I am not a serial hoarder, just a dedicated retro gamer!