| It’s
safe to say that Epic’s first attempt at an, er, epic-style
video game has been a smashing success. With seven-figure sales
numbers and a huge multiplayer contingent still lingering around
months after its release, it’s easy to consider Gears
of War the Xbox 360’s golden child…at least until
Halo 3 invades.
You didn’t expect Microsoft and
Epic to leave you hanging until Halo 3 or (gasp) Gears of
War 2, did you? Of course not. On Thursday, May 3, at 9 a.m.
sharp, you’ll be able to download the Hidden Fronts
multiplayer map pack via Live Marketplace for a fresh GoW
online experience. Yes, it’ll set you back 800 Microsoft
Points, but that’s a small price to pay for four brand
new COG/Locust skirmish fields.
A recent visit to Microsoft took an
unexpected turn when I was asked to partake in some Gears
of War multiplayer matches. I figured this was a leisurely
activity; you know, the kinds of things that programmers,
testers and PR types do around noon instead of eating lunch.
What I didn’t realize was that the local multiplayer
action was to take place solely on the Hidden Fronts maps—yeah,
the ones that nobody outside of Microsoft had played yet.
I couldn’t really see my competition,
as the lights were set low in the LAN room at Microsoft. It
was probably better that was the case, as I repeatedly got
my backside handed to me. Many of the recruits for the Hidden
Fronts action were testers, after all, which happened to be
my only saving grace for playing poorly, having to “unlearn”
the Rainbow Six Vegas control scheme that has been etched
into my gray matter over the past months.
The first map that my three-man COG
team (I played as the COG the entire time; I still can’t
bring myself to play as the Locust.—DN) tackled was
the Garden. The term “garden” just about suits
this map, in the context of Gears’ post-apocalyptic
art style, that is. Sporting more odd flora and fauna than
Jurassic Park, The Garden is a sight to behold. Dense cover
abounds, which is also parlayed with multiple atrium rotundas
that break up this decently sized map.
The amount of natural light in the
Garden is evident from your first step, which may surprise
some Gears of War players for a bit. Once you adjust to the
amount of light, you may also want to start paying attention
to those wisps of fog that have a distinct green tint to them.
In fact, this eerie cover isn’t fog at all, but a deadly
gas, which is surely some type of over-engineered Miracle-Gro
for the future. Enticing you into the fog-of-death are weapon
pick-ups, but I found out the hard way that a plod through
this stuff is instant death. To shut the gas off, you need
to interact with a nearby control panel—only then can
safe trespassing can commence.
The near-antithesis to Garden, Bullet
Marsh was our follow-up map. A map can get no more dimly lit
than Bullet Marsh; at one point I had to double-check to see
if the LCD panel was still plugged in. Yeah, it’s that
dark—on purpose, of course.
You’ll probably see about seventy
percent of Bullet Marsh. The other thirty percent is nearly
blacked out to keep suspense high around the structures, outdoor
pathways and wetlands of the map. Did I mention there’s
a deluge while you’re trying to see three feet in front
of you? This helps cast a bit of a shadow on some of the environmental
objects, but you still don’t want to be the soldier
leading the brigade if you haven’t gotten your feet
wet in the marsh yet.
I overheard one of the Locust players
talking about taking out the generator. Once this old dog
was taken out, the map—believe it or not—got even
darker. The path I was on was nearly pitch black and not safe
by any means. An experienced teammate told me to “Watch
out for the…” but before he could finish, I was
near a car, being decimated by the Kryll.
The Kryll lurk in the very darkest
corners of Bullet Marsh, so you’ll definitely want to
steer clear of those areas. If you wander into one of those
spots, it’s almost too late, as once the shrieks kick
in, it’s lights out for your soldier. Since I was lagging
behind and trying to follow the footsteps of my teammates,
there was nobody behind me to realize that I was down-and-out
from this futuristic take on Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Without hearing gunshots, the team didn’t know I needed
to be saved, which meant I just had to lay there until the
adversaries made their rounds near our spawn point. They were
nice enough to put me out of my misery, though.
Then it was on to Process. We spent
the least amount of time here, because it seemed to be the
least favorable fit for our slightly smaller clan size (or
maybe they were still working on a few things…it’s
hard to say for sure). Process is short for “processing
plant,” as in a subterranean Imulsion (a futuristic
fuel source) unit still chugging along—or so it appears
to be.
There’s natural light in Process,
but it’s apparent that the plant is in the caves, so
any bright sources are sporadic and from high overhead. The
cave dwelling also makes the terrain very uneven, a mixture
of traversble (earth) and impassable (water, toxic waste,
etc.) areas. Connecting the passable and impassable areas
is a maze of metal catwalks of varying elevations. Many of
these catwalks are elevated, which help to bring a vertical
scale to Gears of War that has rarely been seen up to this
point. This allows accurate marksmen to excel in Process,
while the narrow catwalks, at the same time, seem to take
the edge away from the melee ballet.
One thing that everybody can benefit
from in Process, however, is the use of stealth tactics, as
quick movement on the metal grating of the walks is a telltale
sign that something evil is literally afoot. It’s also
safe to say that higher ground locations in Process, especially
those with heavy cover in the form of plant objects (flutes,
generators, pipes, etc.), are the best routes to victory.
The cover in Process may be a bit more open than most Gears’
maps, but the trade-off here is that you can find peep spots
through these lattice-like structures for stealthy shots.
The last and probably most impressive
of all of the Hidden Fronts maps is Subway. The name couldn’t
be any more self-explanatory (except maybe to commercial celeb
Jared)—you’ll be battling in what looks like a
modern day, but desecrated, subway station. This means that
the once-bustling station is situated underground a good ways
to make room for the mechanics of the rail system. Subway,
therefore, possesses similar verticality as Process, albeit
in a southward instead of northward direction.
The elevation changes in Subway are
more gradual than in Process, but once you are at a certain
elevation, the variance in height is greater. This means heading
to and controlling the higher ground is of utmost importance
in Subway—and also why this is the best Gears of War
multiplayer map to date.
The built environment
of the abandoned subway makes for some interesting combat
moments. Multiple railways equal multiple trenches, which
can be used uniquely for cover. If there happens to be a subway
car occupying said trench, it, too, can be used creatively
for cover. The abandoned subway cars not only bridge the gap
of these indentations in the earth, but they also inspire
heated melee combat, since they are so closed-quarters in
nature. Some have only one entrance and exit way, while others
continue right on through, which allowed for several occurrences
of disgruntled COG Southbounder versus agitated Locust Northbounder.
Of course, there are the usual GoW
cover items, such as chunks of concrete and various other
rubble, that will keep you covered when not playing around
on the trains. There’s also a fair amount of light that
creeps through from the surface in Subway. Subway cars also
throw off light for effect, and gaping holes in the ceiling
allow in splinters of brightness that give this map that signature
GoW “beautiful destruction” look.
Although I would have had more fun
wasting a bunch of noobs—instead of being the noob—the
Hidden Fronts proved their worthiness after only a few short
minutes of gameplay. The look of each map carries on the aesthetic
that Epic worked so hard at perfecting (and perfect it the
development house did), but it’s really the chances
that the studio took with elevation and variance of cover
that pays off in the Hidden Fronts set. The usage of interactive
environmental objects, such as the generator in the marsh
or the gas controls in the Garden, pay the user dividends,
too, by helping to carry out the concept of team throughout
the experience (Annex and/or Assassination gametypes come
to mind).
>>
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By: Dale Nardozzi
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