Gears Of War 3 : Raam’s Shadow DLC Review
Developer Epic Games
Publisher Microsoft
Platform Xbox360
Release Date 13th Dec 2011
The only thing better than Gears of War is More Gears of War, but the initial excitement of getting to play as General Raam (one of Gears toughest enemies) soon dissipated once I realised he is also one of the most boring characters in the game. Thankfully despite its name this DLC package is not all about Raam and for the most part you are playing as a member of Zeta squad.
The DLC pack acts as a prequel to the original Gears game and includes some familiar faces from Gears 1 & 2. It is set shortly after E-day with the majority of the city of llima still intact. You play two different characters within the game. Firstly as a Gear soldier Michael Barrack, a battle hardened veteran COG and part of Zeta Squad, and then as General Raam one of the most brutal and feared of all the Locust bosses, but as mentioned earlier this is hugely disappointing.
General Raam is not the tactical hardcore badass I had once thought but rather a slow, boring, mindless lump. Being in control of the Kryll initially is very exciting and unleashing them to rip apart the humans is brilliant but after a few minutes of walking slowly and pointing at people and listening to the incessant rambling of that silly bitch it gets really boring. Thankfully these Raam sections are quite quick.
The DLC gives you around 3 hours of extra blood soaked game time getting you into the action right away, the opening scene has your squad stuck behind a barricade battling an influx of Locust emerging from sink holes. Quite quickly you need to unleash the Hammer of Dawn and this introduces one of the new differences in game play as you control the Hammer of Dawn from terminals which give you a top down view allowing you to pin point your shots.
The second thing you will notice is that as the city is still more or less standing you are battling through everyday locations likes schools or banks and Epic have done great job of capturing the atmosphere associated with a city being massacred. Since E-Day the Locust have piled into the city killing everything in sight, Zeta are on a search and rescue mission to get the last remaining citizens out of the city. General Raam is setting up Seeders throughout the city, Seeders are huge Spider like creatures that can shoot a black ink into the sky blocking out the sun. Once the sky goes dark the Kryll can finish off anyone left in the city. Zeta squad have only a few hours to get the last of the citizens out before the sky goes dark.
As you work your way through the city streets and through the buildings you notice they are all left eerily vacated but still intact. All that is left are the remnants of the last attempts to hold off the Locust. Banks and Schools still look like Banks and Schools rather than piles of smouldering rubble. Although they are now reinforced with make shift barricades that emphasise the panic involved in the last gasp attempt to hold off the Locust.
Coming across these everyday locations really brings home that this was a living city and you can imagine the panic the people must have felt in their final moments, piling tables and chairs against doors in an inept attempt to stay alive, coming across their slaughtered bodies really highlights the merciless nature of the enemies they faced and the brutality of their demise.
Overall : The package is brilliant, more DLC should be this good. Adding 3 hours of brilliant story to an already brilliant game and including some extra Multiplayer items as well is well worth paying the extra cash for.
The game plays and looks amazing but this we pretty much expect from Gears at this stage. It was great to be back fighting the original Locust too, I personally love any prequel stories that explain more about the back ground of the franchise I’ve become so fond of. The ability to play as two different characters with their stories interweaving is a compelling way to play.
If this DLC is anything to go by, a rumoured Prequel trilogy would be amazing. Come on epic you have to make it.
Score 9/10
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