It’s almost been an entire year since Gears of War 4 landed on Xbox One and since that time, the guys over at The Coalition have been hard at work bringing us new maps and characters to expand on the experience… with a multitude of improvements and fixes coming along to bring a greater quality of life for Gears of War 4. Today sees the next two maps, Mercy and Harbour Haze, arrive for download via the Xbox Games Store, bringing the grand total of playable maps to thirty-two.

The first of the new maps, Mercy, sees the highly anticipated return of the well-known battleground from Gears of War 3, the home town of Dominic Satiago’s wife, Maria. Now in the final stages of a cold winter, the town is once again under siege. Mercy is a symmetrical map with very limited cover and is almost an entirely outdoors map except for the church and another ruined building to the side of the map. With the Mortar in play, the middle of the map makes for easy targets should your opponent be found stranded in the open.

Harbour Haze, the other new addition to the game, is a remixed version of another popular Gears of War 4 map, Harbor. This time however the map features mist that will roll across the map, drastically decreasing visibility and allowing players the increased chance for surprise attacks. An alarm is in place with the sound of the horn alerting players throughout the match of the incoming mist that will come and go at regularly throughout a match. There have been several weapon changes for the map too with the Longshot/EMBAR replaced with the Torque Bow, Bolo Grenades found where the Dropshot used to be and Boltoks replaced with Markzas.

Both of the new maps can be downloaded now for free with the Gears of War 4 Season Pass, or purchased individually for the price of £4.19 each.

The new maps add even more content to the Gears of War experience – an experience which was recently given a huge boost with the September update this past week, adding a total of 20 new achievements to the game, bringing with them a mighty 500 Gamerscore to better represent players early moments in the game, as well as Quality of Service improvements to the matchmaking system.

Also coming mid-September is Ranked Season 2, with all the rewards from Season 1 bring dished out to players who competed, Ranked Season 2 will reset the playing field once more, meaning players will once more battle their way up the ranks of the multiplayer playlists.

So, there we have it. This month’s new map additions and some fancy new achievements that are sure to keep players occupied. Will you be diving back into the Gears of War 4 experience? Let us know in the comments below or via our usual social channels, and don’t forget to check out our full review if you’re yet to get involved with Gears of War 4.