Gears of War 4 finally got its new maps along with some fresh new customizable cards to deck out your COG or Swarm multiplayer characters. As detailed in the Xbox Wire, the update goes live today for the Xbox One and PC as part of the series 2 package for the game.
The new maps are Clocktower and Blood Drive, which already made their debut in previous installments on the series. Blood Drive first made its appearance in Gears of War 2 before being remastered for 3, with its most notable feature being the pillars in the center of the map. The Second map, Clocktower, is a remastered map from the original Gears of War. Described as being “The imposing classic Gears architecture brings back memories of the battles you know and love, from the intense close-quarters combat in the lower streets to the Lancer-heavy crossfire at the Bank entrance.”
As of right now, the only people who can enjoy the new maps are season pass holders. They will receive double XP and a 20% credit boost when playing on these maps before they are released to the general population on January 17th.
In addition to the maps, players will also be able to collect new cards to customize weapons and characters. The new cards can be collected through the same process of purchasing Gear Packs with either in game money or standard currency. There will be 13 new character customizations along with 260 new weapon skins across 13 weapons.
This special Season Pass Airdrop is loaded with twenty Gear Packs containing sixty random cards from the Series 2 Characters and Weapon Skins, giving you a head start on building your new collection of content. This new Airdrop will be awarded on January 13th to anyone who has purchased the Gears of War 4 Season Pass, and instantly to any new Season Pass holders from that date onward.
Lastly, the developers chose to implement a new quitting penalty onto players who, well, quit the game. There will also be a new “Join In Progress” feature that allows players to jump back into the fight if they have an issue and are dropped. The example they provided is if your dog pulls out your power cable, you can plug it back in and rejoin the match you were playing in.
The new content was implemented this morning at 10 AM PT, so if you have a season pass then all you need to do is log on and get playing.