In the current gaming landscape, it's just widely believed now that nearly every AAA game gets some level of post-launch support. Thanks to the live-service model becoming increasingly popular, most big publishers ensure that their biggest titles are supported for at least a year after release, with a handful of free updates adding some new content to the game in order to keep players invested. If the player-base is still there, then that's when developers start creating paid DLC, which are often large-scale expansions to the game's story, just like Resident Evil 8's upcoming Winters Expansion.
Releasing on October 28 2022, Resident Evil 8's Winters Expansion is adding a whole new story DLC to the game, along with a third-person mode, and some new content for the title's Mercenaries mode. First seen in Resident Evil 4, Mercenaries mode sees the player go up against waves of lycans and other enemy forces, earning points with each kill. This paid DLC adds three new playable characters to Resident Evil 8's Mercenaries mode, including one of the game's main antagonists, Karl Heisenberg.
Karl Heisenberg Mercenaries Breakdown
Releasing as part of Resident Evil 8's Gold Edition, the new Mercenaries update, called "Additional Orders," adds Chris Redfield, Lady Dimitrescu, and Karl Heisenberg as playable characters to the game's horde mode. Just a week ago, Capcom revealed the first in-game look at how these iconic characters are going to play when the DLC releases on October 28.
With Chris Redfield using the same silenced SMG from the end of Resident Evil 8's story, Lady Dimitrescu and Karl Heisenberg are probably the more anticipated characters to play as, with neither of them being playable before this point. While Lady D uses her extendable claws to attack, Heisenberg uses his iconic makeshift hammer.
With the Additional Orders gameplay trailer only being around a minute and a half, fans only get to see about 10 seconds of Heisenberg-centered action. That being said, quite a few little gameplay details are shown off, and eagle-eyed fans are able to get a good idea of just how the mutant will play. Based on the trailer, it seems as though players will have access to quite a wide range of Heisenberg's abilities, most of which center around his hammer.
The first shot in the trailer shows Heisenberg holding his hammer in front of his face, and using his electromagnetic powers to pick up metallic debris around him. He then slams his hammer down, releasing a bolt of electricity and knocking back the enemies in front of him. Heisenberg then fires a bolt of electricity out of his hand into an electrical supply, which creates a momentary barrier in front of the player that fries any enemies trying to get through. Another of Heisenberg's electromagnetic moves is then shown off, with the player picking up a sawblade and firing it into a boss. The final scene of Heisenberg in the trailer shows him snapping his fingers, triggering one of his hulking robot zombies to rush into a swarm of lycans and knock them all aside.
Where Chris Redfield and Ethan Winters are slightly faster on their feet, and are more ranged-focused, Lady Dimitrescu and Heisenberg seem much heavier and focus a lot more on melee attacks. This "Additional Orders" update should add quite a bit of variation to Resident Evil 8's Mercenaries mode, giving the player some distinctive play styles to choose between.
Resident Evil 8 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.