OXCGN’s Gears of War 3: Forces of Nature DLC Review

Posted on 18 April, 2012 by dkpatriarch

OXCGN’s Gears of War 3: Forces of Nature DLC Review

Forecast: Bloody with a chance of earthquakes

by: aksobey

©2012 Kent Sobey

For any fan of Gears of War the prospect of new DLC is an exciting one indeed.

The Forces of Nature map pack certainly adds a few things that make it worth looking at. Included in the bundle are 5 new maps, four new character skins and a whopping 250 gamerscore points to add to your tally.

As the DLC’s name suggests, there are a few surprises from the weather in each map that add a little excitement but unfortunately not a whole lot of change to the actual game play.

That being said, the weather effects are still fantastic and add a special something to each of the maps.

Here’s a quick description of each map and a tip or two to get you started.

Aftermath:

Aftermath is probably the biggest of the new maps on offer. Everything about this map is beautiful, from the way the sun seeps through small cracks in the wall to the massive ships seen looking somewhat derelict on the outskirts of the map.

Your best bet for this map is to rush your way to the long range weapons and start popping your enemies from as far away as possible.

An earthquake every now and again changes things slightly by bringing down buildings but the worst thing you can expect to happen from that is a scary noise; otherwise you’re not going to notice much of a difference.

Artillery:

Artillery is the next map in the pack and we have to say, it’s a goodie.

Artillery is not a very big map at all so you can expect a lot of close quarters battles which means your chainsaw is going to get a proper workout.

Of the bunch, this map was definitely my favourite for playing horde on.

Make sure you have a full team of people playing with you though; otherwise you’re going to get a chainsaw in your back because it’s pretty easy to be snuck up on.

The only real open area is in the middle of the map too so if you set your base up properly you can just about watch everywhere and never get any nasty surprises.

Every once in a while a nasty tornado will sweep past (the outskirts of the map) and leave some pretty heavy duty fog in its wake making it a little tricky to see what happening in front of you. It’s a nice change up and makes a close quarters map even more close quarters!

Cove:

If you feel like a stroll down a beautiful pier at the harbour…. well maybe you shouldn’t be playing Gears of War really.

Cove is set at what looks like an old port that was at one time extremely busy. It’s covered in warehouses, cranes and other such things you’d expect to see at the harbour.

This one is another winner and is sure to impress. There’s a rather thick layer of mist that is always around, making it a little difficult for the long range player but you just need to adjust your tactics a little and you’ll be fine.

This is another medium sized map that is great for a game of horde or beast mode.

Jacinto:

Jacinto will be familiar to anyone who played Gears of War 2 but it’s been upgraded somewhat and is now nothing short of amazing.

This former human stronghold is for the most part still intact so massive buildings and other structures are dotted around making for some interesting combat.

The best thing about this map is that there are so many escape routes from wherever you are that there’s almost no excuse for dying.

My advice is that if you take a little damage and think you’re going to lose the fight, just run away, regain a little health and then get back in the fight and kick a little butt.

This time there’s imulsion everywhere which has absolutely nothing to do with the gameplay of the map (but makes it looks awesome!) and a rainstorm, which some might say makes it a little more difficult to see what’s going on, but ultimately doesn’t actually change that much.

Either way, everyone will probably be happy with this one too.

Raven down:

Last, but certainly not least we have Raven down.

This map is a shot gunners dream! It a small map with lots of burnt out cars spread about for cover. It won’t be a problem to hide and wait for someone to run past and then pop them in the back of the head with the full force of your gnasher.

There’s a light dusting of snow and a little bit falling throughout the matches but once again this has no real effect on the game.

This is a great map but because it’s so small will probably not be a huge hit for anyone who likes to snipe or whip out the hammer of dawn once in a while.