Gears of War 3 DLC Review - RAAM's Shadow
Out now for 1200 MSP, Raam's Shadow represents the second instalment of Gears 3 DLC. Worth buying? Read on, but beware of the spoilers. Fairly be ye warned.
Play as this guy. A bit.
Set shortly before the events of the original Gears of War, this 3 hours-ish mini-campaign tracks the actions of both COG and Locust forces in the last few hours of daylight in Ilima City - after which, things presumably go to hell in a handbasket.
One of the two unique selling points of this DLC is the ability, previously only partially explored in Gears 3's Beast Mode, to take control of a squad of Locust. In this case, you get to take control of the most dangerous grub of all, Gears 1's boss General Raam, and when played co-operatively up to three friends can fight alongside you as Maulers or Theron. This all probably sounds cooler than it really is in execution, as the handful of short and completely linear Raam levels are over in the blink of an eye. Raam himself is little more than a waddling damage sponge, but to more than counterbalance this is imbued with a Kryll attack which allows you to kill COG soldiers just by pointing at them - Raam also has his trademark sword, but you'll find this rusting with lack of use as the Kryll attack is so ridiculously effective. Overall, the Raam sections of the game are insubstantial but feel unnecessarily padded; the one or two genuinely cool set-pieces are few and far between, and you'll find yourself itching to get back to the "real" COG-centred gameplay. Surely playing as the villian should feel more fun than this?
"Like, yoiks! Is that Raam?" "Let's go, gang! Puppy Powah!"
The second unique selling point, to which I earlier alluded, is the insight into a different group of COG marines: Zeta Squad. Sergeant Kim Young Minh (last seen being eviscerated by Raam in Gears 1) is back, but any opportunity to flesh-out his character is squandered as the focus of the campaign is placed on newcomer Barrick, a cigar-chomping ex-Stranded with a Chopper 'tache. Minh's only bit of characterisation is hastily crammed into the final 5 minutes of the campaign and seems like an afterthought. Tai returns from Gears 2, but his only role in the proceedings, apparently, is to play the part of The Big Philosophical Tribal Dude. Alicia Valera is the token girl, and... hell, you didn't expect them all to get out alive, did you?
Another slightly odd decision was to make Raam's Shadow serve as Jace Stratton's "coming of age" story. It would probably be a little unfair to say that Jace is the Jar Jar Binks of Gears 3, but he's by no means a fan favourite and his poorly characterised and highly predictable ascent from weedy kid to weedy COG trooper adds very little to the story. Speaking of the story: I know that criticising a Gears game for its plot is like complaining that the drinks are too expensive at a strip joint; first, what the hell did you expect, and second, focus on the main event, you fool. But even so, the plot of Raam's Shadow is notable in that it's pretty damn bad even when taken in context. Our little band of COG troopers end up wandering all over the city with no real purpose, except, it seems, to chase every whimsical passing mention of possible survivors with a frantic tenacity that doesn't so much suggest selfless heroism but a positive death-wish. This is a short campaign, but it attempts to pack in as much emotional weight as possible - in the same way that a lazy student might read his pizza instructions, and think "30 minutes at 200 degrees... 10 minutes at 600 degrees should have the same result, right?" To put it bluntly, the attempts at raising the stakes are ham-fisted and clumsy. Implied civilian carnage? Check. Self-sacrifice? Check. But an orphanage? Really? Why not throw in some kittens while you're at it? The fact that the headmaster is basically Morgan Freeman just confirmed my suspicions.
Approximately 2,109 of these vehicles get blown up during the course of the campaign
In terms of gameplay, this DLC pack was fairly run-of the mill. The Raam sections, previously mentioned, are mostly forgettable. The Zeta levels are more conventional, and although the stages are aesthetically on-par with Gears 3 proper, they seem to have been designed by one of Croteam's level designers - the sunny exteriors, wide courtyards and plazas, and buildings whose interiors are 80% corridors by volume, would feel right at home in a Serious Sam game. The enemies are the standard Locust, although the encounters feel a lot more simplistic this time. You'll often face forces of just one type of enemy, making the fights tactically one-dimensional, and the game follows a fairly regular pattern of two or three stand-offs in a row before an end-of-level set piece. It's so predictable you could almost set your watch by it, and to long-term players of the series the larger monster fights won't constitute anything radically new. I played through Raam's Shadow solo on Hardcore, and the overall difficulty seemed a little too easy. I'm not flattering myself here - there are points in the game where you can barely move because of all the ammo boxes, and with three AI team mates on hand to scrape you up, you're virtually invincible (that's not to say that the AI doesn't periodically forget how to path-find and gets left behind at the start of a level - that happened more than once).
A final jumble of thoughts: firing the Hammer of Dawn from orbit is quite a cool touch, but this only happens twice during one playthrough. Canonically, it seems odd that there are so many Retro Lancers lying around. This DLC pack also allows you to use the four Zeta Squad members in multiplayer, plus Raam, and adds 250 Gamerscore-worth of achievements - some of these are easy, while a few are of the much-hated multiplayer-only variety and are virtually impossible to get without boosting.
In summary, Raam's Shadow is a moderately-entertaining side-story which suffers from mediocre level design and gameplay. The extra multiplayer characters and achievements will appeal to completionists, but the 1200 MSP price tag feels rather steep - and Season Pass holders could be forgiven for starting to question exactly how much value for money they're getting. Frankly, Epic needs to up its game for DLC Pack 4.