A new month is here and that means a new update for Gears of War 4. This month sees the Easter celebrations make an arrival too, with a number of new festive additions for Gears fans everywhere. But April isn’t just about a few colourful skins – although they are included, instead we see some major changes that are sure to make for a nicer experience for everyone – Here’s what you can expect to find in the update.
First up is the Easter Event, and with just a week away, it’s time for the yearly celebrations to continue in typical Gears of War fashion. This comes in the form of a themed Bunny Hunt game mode, with the oversized bunny heads making a return from previous Gears of War Easter events, in a new variation of Guardian. An addition this year to the festivities, players will also get five custom Chocolate Easter-Egg themed weapon skins by registering on GearsofWar.com and completing the various challenges in the Bunny Hunt playlist.
Next up are the new maps. As with every other month, this update brings along two new maps for the Gears of War 4 experience.
The first map coming to Gears of War 4 is Hotel. Hotel was a firm favourite with fans who spent a decent amount of time with Gears of War 3. Set on a misty cliff-side, Hotel brings the abandoned beauty look to Gears of War 4 that should fit in nicely with what the Coalition already have in place. As before combat will retain the unique feel to both inside and outside environments and the long-range street fighting will be clearly separated from the closed down close combat of the interior. With new weapon positioning helping bring new weapons such as the EMBAR to the battle, fans of this once beloved map must relearn Hotel all over again.
The second map this month is The Slab, and is the unique place in which the Gears saga began, and one of my favourite Gears locations. The Slab, previously a post-launch map for Gears of War 3, takes players back to Cell Block 38. The location Marcus was held all those years ago when Gears of War first made its way to our consoles.
With the unique feel mixed with new additions such as a dangerously close windflare to help blend into the new feel of the Gears universe, The Slab is the map to check out for the long-time fans of the series and one many will be happy to see return.
Both maps are available to holders of the Gears of War 4 Season Pass with the exclusive Developers Playlist, and both will hold Double XP and 20% Bonus Credits also. They will be available to play for all from April 11th onwards in public matchmaking.
As well as the Easter content, this month also sees new Legacy Characters brought to the game. Much like Tai’s arrival last month, there will be a chance to find new characters in Gear Packs early, before they become available for crafting. On that topic, fans of the Locust Horde will be happy to see Kantus finally returning to lineup this month to give the fans more of the highly requested content they’ve wished for these past months.
This month the game modes will also see a shakeup with April 21st and April 28th seeing separate Horde and Versus events for players to sink their teeth into.
The final change then comes as no surprise and brings the much needed weapon tuning and ranking improvements to Gears of War 4. Changes come to both Core and Competitive play, with Core changes set to mostly focus on balancing starting weapons, with reduced range on the Gnasher, improvements to the Hammerburst and slightly adjusted tweaks to the Lancer. For Competitive Play it’s all about highlighting the need for teamwork with changes built around team-focused settings.
There will be changes to Seasons, Season Rewards and Ranked Play to go alongside these new adjustments that should all help to make Gears of War 4 a better experience with its online multiplayer offering.
So, there we have the latest changes you should look to find in Gears of War 4 this month. Will you be jumping in for the Easter festivities, let us know in the comments below or via our usual social channels.
