Awaiting the new Gears maps was certainly not an easy task, especially after seeing leaked footage a week prior to the release. Although fans of the first Gears such as my self can’t help but feel a little skeptical about the wave of new content that has been heading our way. Building a broken game and then releasing a bunch of maps to shut angry fans up certainly isn’t the way to follow one of the biggest titles of 06, that of course being Gears of War; GOW1, the Gears of War that is better than Gears of War 2. With that out of the way, let me begin by talking about the new maps for GOW2.
There are seven new maps, one of those being a remake of War Machine from Gears 1. Along with this, Epic decided to include a short campaign extension. Epic likes to think of the Campaign extension as a gift and the Maps being the ‘DLC’. Well if you ask me, the ‘gift’ was comparable to receiving a wool sweater from your grandma; its a nice thought but inadvertently still kinda lame. It took about 20 minutes to complete, and your biggest choice is between going stealthy or guns blazin’. Pretty much just more infiltration of the Locust base. The best part about it was the three easy achievements. The maps on the other hand were a nice surprise.
The first map that I played was Highway, and at first, I did not like it at all. Looking very similar to Ruins and being sorta difficult to navigate, I was kinda disappointed Epic decided to create some more of the same. After playing the map a few times, my opinion of it changed. There is an upper and lower level, along with two long staircases that lead up to snipe/torque. Not finding these may partially be a reason that I did not like it at first. But one thing is for sure: this map is awesome, and great for annex.
The next map that I came across was Way Station. When you spawn you are pretty much forced to move forward. This map is very vertical, or long, if you will. Separating the map is a stretch of lava, which can be bridged after pressing a switch. Grenades, snipe/torque and scorcher are all prominent weapons on this map. Way Station may look like Highway because of its Locust theme, but after playing one match on this map you can see it is completely different. One thing I did not like about this map is the placement of the weapons. That can be attributed to the fact that apart from grenades, they are all on the opposite side of spawn. This would not be a bad thing but as each round tends to come to a close it seems to take forever to find “the last guy” alive. Especially if you are playing with people who like to plant grenades and hide (reason #16 why GOW1 is better than GOW2).
Continuing along, we get to Sanctuary. This was my favorite map before I got to play Memorial; that I will get to next. Sanctuary, on the other hand, is a great map. Unless you are playing annex, of course. The way the map is set up, there’s an upper, middle, and lower level. All three can see the central area where sniper/torque can be found. The biggest problem with this map is that boom is overpowering, because…well, it is boom and it has 3! rounds now, no wait. Thats not what I meant to say. It’s overpowering because it is on the upper level and once picked up seems to rain hell on any unfortunate enemy that is seen strolling below. In case that explanation was a little vague, let me sum it up by saying whichever team controls boom will win the match. In annex, that is. When playing any other game type, this map rocks. It also is one of the more eye pleasing maps, looking somewhat like Clocktower from Gears 1.
Memorial is by far my favorite of the new maps. From spawn the teams are lead out to a big open area, then players can choose whether to head down the tunnels ending up at boom/scorcher, or up the stairs towards sniper/torque. One thing I love about this map is that there are not that many places to hide, it faces players to fight and rounds start and end within an appropriate amount of time. There are also a couple good places that are bottle necked, such as the stairs leading to the upper path, which more frequently than not, tend to lead to some pretty sweet battles.
Allfathers Garden is not that bad of a map, either; anyone who is a fan of sniping will tend to love this map. It is very spread out and full of narrow connecting paths. Snipe can be picked up by turning around at spawn, and it only takes a few seconds to reach. This map is also very fun for horde, it feels very balanced and if you are a fan of big maps, this is the one you should hop on first.
The last of the “new” maps is Nowhere. Of all the new maps, this one seems the smallest and sort of has a Raven Down feeling to it. This is definitely one of the more visually stunning maps, and it is obvious that Epic spent a lot of time making this one. Between the sandstorms and the relatively small size of the map, it makes for some extremely fun and competitive matches.
Rounding off the seven maps is War Machine, and while this may not be a new map it sure feels like one, and not really in a good way. Grenades are a bit closer to spawn and torque now cycles with boomshot. The level is still laid out the same, although it just doesn’t quite feel right. But hey, at least Epic tried to make us happy right? Apart from War Machine I would say they did a pretty good job on accomplishing that goal. The new maps are by far the best to be released for GOW2. If you have not already picked up this new DLC I strongly recommend it. The seven maps are priced at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15), definitely a bargain, and certainly worth your time. You’ll find yourself playing into the wee hours of the night with this one.
