Gears Of War 4 February Update Includes New Maps And Valentine’s Event

Gears of War 4 developer The Coalition has outlined a wealth of new content headed to the shooter over the course of February, including new maps and a Valentine’s Day event that brings a whole new meaning to being hit with Cupid’s arrow.

From today, two new maps, Impact Dark and War Machine, will be available for all Season Pass holders to try out in the Developer playlist, the first of which provides a unique spin on the existing map of the same name. The ‘Dark’ moniker added to this iteration of the war zone denotes the reduced visibility players will need to contend with when traversing the “remixed version.”

Large clouds of smoke have descended on Impact Dark, meaning vantage points, flanking maneuvers and other traditional tactics won’t be applicable here. Players will need to stay more alert than ever if they want to survive the new combat dynamic. Owing to the fact that long-range weapons would be largely useless in such a scenario, The Coalition has shaken up spawns with tools more fitting for close-quarters combat. The second new map, War Machine, is a reinvention of the classic map from the original game, replacing the abandoned train station setting with that of a pristine COG Settlement.

As for the aforementioned Valentine’s Event, it’ll go live on February 10th for all players and run for over a week. Alongside new Gear Packs to earn, suitably-themed bounties and a new game mode – Torque Bow Tag – will be available for its duration. You don’t want to be struck by these particularly explosive arrows. Trust me.

Looking ahead to the more distant future, The Coalition also outlined in the news post that big things are on the horizon for Gears of War 4‘s Horde Mode. Along with a new “Inconceivable” difficulty for both Campaign and Horde, the cap on class skills will be raised to six, with entirely new ones also in the works, although no clues were provided as to what shape these will take. The Horde improvements are planned for a summer release, so expect The Coalition to share more details in a few months time.

Gears of War 4 is available now on Xbox One and Windows 10. See here for our glowing review.