It was inevitable. After Capcom announced that they were pushing up the release date for Resident Evil 6 to October, the pre-order bonuses were quick to follow. Thankfully, it seems that the pre-order bonuses this time are not game changing additions that lessen the experience for other players.

The pre-order bonuses are coming in the form of maps for Mercenaries mode according to the Capcom Unity blog. Each retailer – GameStop, Amazon and Best Buy – will be getting one map each for your pre-order. It’s nice since it doesn’t give any one retailer the better bonus, so it’s up to the player to decide which one they want.

For those who aren’t acquainted with the super fun Mercenaries mode, here’s the description from Capcom:

The super-intense Mercenaries Mode lets you play as your favorite characters from Resident Evil 6 as you fight your way through hordes of enemies within a given time limit. Chaining together multiple kills and finding other surprises will help you reach the highest score and prove that you’re the world’s greatest mercenary!

Now onto the bonuses with GameStop’s map – The Catacombs – coming up first. While dark tunnels would already be bad enough in Mercenaries, the map has the added bonus of booby traps. One of the screens features a spike trap on the floor with a level that may control it. Maybe players will be able to use the traps to their advantage.

Next up is the High Seas Fortress from Amazon. This map seems huge with it taking place on top of an aircraft carrier as well as inside the ship. Interestingly enough, the post says that players will “hone [their] martial arts skills inside the narrow confies of the hangers.” Did Capcom just hint at there being more of an emphasis on melee combat in Resident Evil 6?

The final map coming from Best Buy is the Rail Yard. As you can probably guess, the map is set on a railroad yard. The description says that it’s a multilayer stage which should make things more interesting. The screens make it look more like a subway system, but the post says that players will be fighting on the “roof of the yard” so we’ll see where it takes us.

As always, you can expect this DLC to not remain retailer exclusive after the launch of the game. The maps you miss out on will be available at a later date for a price. I will be pre-ordering from Amazon personally because I really like that aircraft carrier stage.

Resident Evil 6 will launch on October 2 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Capcom announced a PC version as well with this post saying that the company will be revealing more on that later. Knowing Capcom’s track record, we won’t be seeing a PC version until a month later.

Are you going to pre-order Resident Evil 6? If so, which Mercs map do you want? Let us know in the comments.