Gears 5 developer The Coalition detailed a few of the events already in the game or coming to it to celebrate Halloween, alongside balancing one of the game’s weapons for multiplayer.
The first Halloween event for Gears 5 is Pumpkin Ball, a versus mode that first appeared in the previous installment Gears of War 4.
Pumpkin Ball is a slightly different version of the Dodgeball mode, where players can come back after being eliminated after an enemy has been eliminated.
The difference is that players can not go down-but-not-out and will self-revive, requiring a more close-up method. Players also sport giant pumpkin heads due to the holiday.
Players who complete 13 Pumpkin Ball matches will receive the Frankenstein Imago skin. The Coalition also announced a new Horde event called The Mad Man’s Monsters with 13 Jack-O-Lantern weapon skins to earn when the event goes live next week.
The Marzka rifle received a few changes with the weekly reset to reduce its body damage and increase recoil. The full changes as follows:
- Reduced body damage by 30%
- Removed active reload effect for weapon rate of fire (was 25%)
- Added active reload effect for bullet damage (25% increase)
- Increased initial recoil by 30%
- Reduced recoil & recovery speed by 20%
The weapon will still require three shots to a player’s head to kill, but requires more skill to land multiple shots.
The studio also added the Foundation map to matchmaking, more cosmetics to the Supply Drop, and a new Escape Hive called The Labyrinth.