This should actually be called "Hands-on: Gears of War 2 Dark Corners DLC -- One Map Only," because Epic wasn't showing off any of the single player campaign when we stopped by, and it only had two kiosks on the side of the Microsoft booth playing the Nowhere map. Even though the other maps appeared in the menu screen, they wouldn't let us select them. What are you hiding from us, Epic?
So here's a tiny review of Nowhere, and a big new video featuring the "Road to Ruin" deleted chapter of the DLC, along with a peek at the seven new maps just beyond the jump.
Nowhere is one of the smaller of the new maps, according to Epic. The company's short description of it reads, "Set in the middle of what was once a destination for weary desert travellers, the land is now barren and devoid of life. Pick off your enemies with the Longshot sniper rifle and make your way to the stairwell with a well-fortified team during this intense firefight." There are scattered low falls and burnt out vehicles throughout the map, which also includes one small building with a counter inside that provides cover. It has two entrances and multiple large windows as well, so it's not very an easy spot to defend, and serves as a grenade magnet.
One of the landmarks on the map is a large water tower, which Epic told us is perfect to hole up under when in Horde mode. We'd prefer to go up the lone staircase in the map to the rooftop, so to better fend off the Blood Mounts. Seriously, those things are creepy. There are the usual weapons scattered around the map, although during our brief time with it we didn't learn the spawn points for the more powerful ones. As mentioned in Epic's description, the Longshot comes in very handy in this level, particularly when you're on the roof.
One thing to note: the smoke grenades still cause you to choke and be disoriented for a moment, rather than knocking you back concussively, which happened during the recent Memorial Day weeekend event. Epic told us they have no plans to change back to the knockdown smoke grenades, which is good news if you like the new gameplay, bad news if you hate it. If you really want to follow along, check out the Epic formus on the issue. We'll just keep waiting for more info on the other maps until the game comes out in July.
One fun note: they brought all of the actors back in to record new dialogue. Which hopefully means no more emoting from Dom.
Reader Comments (16)
Posted: Jun 10th 2009 12:00AM Van Redd said
I hope this brings some people back to the game. My group and I kind of let GOW2 slip out of our playlist and that's a shame since GoW was one of are huge games. The map sounds neat, and the story content ingriges me but I hope we get more then just some level that should have stayed on the backburner.
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Posted: Jun 10th 2009 8:10AM Temidien said
I really enjoyed GoW2 but couldn't find myself investing more than the initial 20 hrs of multiplayer in it and I have a feeling that a lot of that was because everyone on Live was playing it religiously for weeks.
Hopefully this DLC will get more people playing again, prompting my epic return to chainsawdomy.
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Hopefully this DLC will get more people playing again, prompting my epic return to chainsawdomy.
Posted: Jun 10th 2009 8:13AM (Unverified) said
Microsoft should knock about 400 points of the final cost of this, since Combustible was crap and the only good map from avalanche was a remake from the first gears. Chances are, this'll be around 1600 msp. So like the GTA expansion. NTY.
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Posted: Jun 10th 2009 8:14AM (Unverified) said
*Snowblind, not Avalanche, the things not sleeping will do to you xD
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Posted: Jun 10th 2009 8:23AM (Unverified) said
I think I may be too much of a FF7 fanboy. When I looked at the image I saw Barret and Cid Highwind on testosterone.
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Posted: Jun 10th 2009 9:20AM RaQ Holiday said
This is good news; I'm definitely looking forward to the additional single-player campaign, and the multiplayer maps sound like a go; while I will say I pretty much enjoy all of the new maps that have been released so far, I can't pretend I'm happy about the price for the Dark Corners DLC; like seriously, I've bought two new map-packs already, I can't get a discounted price on the third one? Really? Phayl-worthy.
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Posted: Jun 10th 2009 12:05PM The Wicker Man said
The only "dark corners" im interested in involve the earth. Call of Cthulhu that is.
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Posted: Jun 10th 2009 8:39PM (Unverified) said
If only they would offer the option to choose Wingman on these DLC maps.... I rarely play other modes, and the only DLC maps that ever come up (and rarely at that) are the Flashback ones.
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Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:06AM (Unverified) said
the reasone why people are losing intrest in GOW2 is cause of how laggy the multplayer is part one is not bad but part is like a box of choclets. FIX THE LAG EPIC YOU MADE A BROKEN GAME!!!!
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Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:07AM (Unverified) said
The dark corners dlc might be ok just to see some new maps but as far as game play goes the campaign is what im interested in the campaign was awsome multyplay GARBAGE epic you made a broken game!!! the shotgun the hole part of what makes gers of war is broken the gun kills only when your host you cant run and shoot the list goes on and on but maybe they need to give us the maps for free for making such a BROKEN GAME epic you failed on part 2
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