by: Justin Amirkhani

Add-on content can take on many shapes and forms, but often developers get trapped into thinking single-player expansions are too costly to develop with little lasting appeal. That’s why it’s uncharacteristic to see a piece of downloadable content like RAAM’s Shadow that adds a sizable side campaign instead of a few more multiplayer maps for the online enthusiasts.

We’ve seen Epic produce content like this before, but unlike the repurposed “deleted scenes” of Gears of War 2, the first in a season of DLC for Gears of War 3 doesn’t feel like it was scraped off the cutting room floor.

Putting you in control of Zeta squad – a mishmash of characters not featured in the core campaign along with some new ones – the 2-4 hour adventure takes a big jump back and provides some perspective from before the whole trilogy began. Set in a capitol city under siege by Gears of War 1 villain General RAAM, the story is a throwback to the franchise’s genesis both mechanically and thematically.

The lambent that plagued the tertiary entry aren’t around yet and we see a return to classic firefight scenarios less predicated on special objectives. There are a few times where the game pulls a Star Wars: Episode I, throwing in recently added weapons and enemies that feel out of place because they’re more modern than what we saw during our first exposure, but for the most part this is classic Gears as you remember it.

It’s remarkable how much the dynamic of the game changes with the elimination of the glowing, exploding enemies and allows you to fall in love with the core gameplay that made the series a hit to begin with. With more opportunities for close-quarters chainsaw mayhem, it scratches an itch that I didn’t know the main game created.

Some of the level design doesn’t do a great job of exploiting this difference, relying on spaces that are often too spacious or circular, which is a shame considering the potential for this to be a thoroughly unique addition. As a linear experience there are a fair number of hallways, causeways and highways to march down but they’re rarely populated with the kind of enemies that give the opportunity for maximum gib-creating carnage.