Review
Played on: Xbox One X
Released: 2019
Released: 2019
Introduction
Finally it has arrived.
There's no denying that I get really excited when there's a new Gears of War title arriving. After the solid remake of the first Gears of War and the safe, but great, Gears of War 4, developer The Coalition have proven themselves more than worthy of continuing the legacy of the series. This time around, we see a long development cycle to sport brand new ideas, even with segments of an open world, added to the formula. Gears 5 is bigger than ever before.
Ever since the campaign trailer at E3 last year, it's been quiet around the campaign mode until they released a new trailer recently. Although the multiplayer has been beta tested and shown, it's been a long haul to wait for how the campaign unfolds. Finally it's here, I got the Ultimate Edition so I could play it early, complete with a beautiful steel book, featuring some amazing artwork.
Let's put this massive release to the test and take a look!
There's no denying that I get really excited when there's a new Gears of War title arriving. After the solid remake of the first Gears of War and the safe, but great, Gears of War 4, developer The Coalition have proven themselves more than worthy of continuing the legacy of the series. This time around, we see a long development cycle to sport brand new ideas, even with segments of an open world, added to the formula. Gears 5 is bigger than ever before.
Ever since the campaign trailer at E3 last year, it's been quiet around the campaign mode until they released a new trailer recently. Although the multiplayer has been beta tested and shown, it's been a long haul to wait for how the campaign unfolds. Finally it's here, I got the Ultimate Edition so I could play it early, complete with a beautiful steel book, featuring some amazing artwork.
Let's put this massive release to the test and take a look!
Plot and setting
Story, presented in incredibly detailed and beautiful cutscenes, sets off after the questions left at the end of Gears 4. Once again, it brings back the new friendship trio of JD, Kait and Del as they make their to finding out how to stop the swarm and find their origins. The first Act, with underlying chapters, serves as a introduction to the story with a focus on JD, just like Gears 4.
It's an unpredictable and large spanning plot, shifting in locations and gameplay variety. Apart form the actual, quite tense and dark story, there's a lot of Gears history to be learnt in the places you visit: there's clearly a uniquely larger ambition to the lore here, giving the player a larger picture of it's world.
After a rather shocking story reveal, the game puts the player in control of Kait for the rest of the game. Her relationship and history of her mother is of great importance in understanding what the Locust swarm intends to do. I think it's fantastic to see such a bold decision, of such an action orientated series, to put a female as the main character and on the cover of the box! A great move and Kait is a fantastic personality to learn more about.
Gears 5's story moves you along for vast distances, through it's large world, balanced between familiar named areas, to brand new ones. I love exploring this world and learning more about it's heritage.
Gears 5's story moves you along for vast distances, through it's large world, balanced between familiar named areas, to brand new ones. I love exploring this world and learning more about it's heritage.
It cleverly takes down the pace between the intense action with bite sized, open world areas. Here you calmly ride a wind sailed sledge, named the Skiff, to discover side missions, hidden special weapons and small side stories to the lore. As well as navigating to your next objective in the main story.
The way Gears 5 has changed the formula, lies in it's layout. Although it begins with a linear structure, similar to previous entries in the series, it shifts into larger, carefully sized, open world areas. Debated by the fanfs, but I found these areasas a welcome breath of fresh air. They could've made even more of these open worlds for my taste, perhaps scattered with even more hidden treasures. That said, I appreciate the simplistic approach to the open world structure.
I thoroughly enjoyed the main story, but would've preferred more focus for the last half of the story, towards a less predictable ending. The main story reveal, and it's tension build-up, is about halfway. As such, the grand scheme of the story fizzles out onwards, in comparison. Although there are some other shocks along the way after too.
The way Gears 5 has changed the formula, lies in it's layout. Although it begins with a linear structure, similar to previous entries in the series, it shifts into larger, carefully sized, open world areas. Debated by the fanfs, but I found these areasas a welcome breath of fresh air. They could've made even more of these open worlds for my taste, perhaps scattered with even more hidden treasures. That said, I appreciate the simplistic approach to the open world structure.
I thoroughly enjoyed the main story, but would've preferred more focus for the last half of the story, towards a less predictable ending. The main story reveal, and it's tension build-up, is about halfway. As such, the grand scheme of the story fizzles out onwards, in comparison. Although there are some other shocks along the way after too.
I didn't find the ending abrupt like others have stated though, I felt it came quite obvious with a build up of dramatic action. JD's change of personality was a bit abrupt, sadly, shifting largely in tone from Gears of War 4. On the other hand, Kait and Del are amazing personalities that unfold through the story!
Overall, a story that spans from classic Gears action, to tense and horrifying. I really enjoyed the ride!
Gameplay and features
Movement of the characters feels more precise and responsive than ever. The shooting mechanics feel satisfyingly heavy and brutal, with an even larger sense of accuracy than the upgrade we got in Gears 4. Added to the mix, is a controllable robot, named Jack. It was the very first Gears of War's unsung hero, which adds some strategic elements to the battlefield.
Jack can be upgraded with spare parts you find along the way. He can give you a limited timed armour, electrify enemies out of their cover or even stealth the players completely. It's a neatly added feature, that helps keep gunfights more actively strategic to the player.
Coop in campaign is, of course, a returning and much loved feature, be it splitscreen or online. Otherwise, multiplayer modes deliver a whole new batch of hours to dig into. Perhaps, the main feature for many Gears players! There are cool new maps and weapons to play around with, with a speedy arcade mode, giving the player simple weapon upgrades to unlock if you get in enough kills. It's fast and to the point team deathmatch rounds, with the added easy access to powerful weapons. Just like Gears of War 4, multiplayer Gears feels so much smoother and responsive in 60fps.
New to multiplayer, other than the classic versus modes and Horde, is Escape. Here you and up to four others are pulled deep into an enemy nest underground by a Snatcher. As you begin the round, you activate poison gas to kill everything. However, you need to fight your way out to daylight through randomly generated corridors, with lots of enemies and extremely limited weapons at your disposal. It's a neat new way to play Gears and one that becomes quite desperate with the added time pressure of the poison gas.
Coop in campaign is, of course, a returning and much loved feature, be it splitscreen or online. Otherwise, multiplayer modes deliver a whole new batch of hours to dig into. Perhaps, the main feature for many Gears players! There are cool new maps and weapons to play around with, with a speedy arcade mode, giving the player simple weapon upgrades to unlock if you get in enough kills. It's fast and to the point team deathmatch rounds, with the added easy access to powerful weapons. Just like Gears of War 4, multiplayer Gears feels so much smoother and responsive in 60fps.
New to multiplayer, other than the classic versus modes and Horde, is Escape. Here you and up to four others are pulled deep into an enemy nest underground by a Snatcher. As you begin the round, you activate poison gas to kill everything. However, you need to fight your way out to daylight through randomly generated corridors, with lots of enemies and extremely limited weapons at your disposal. It's a neat new way to play Gears and one that becomes quite desperate with the added time pressure of the poison gas.
Video
This game is mind blowing visually, it's probably one of the absolute best looking games I've played to date. The work done here with the Unreal Engine 4 is on another level and a step up from the already great looking Gears of War 4. On console they're miles ahead of other developers using this engine.
For base Xbox One owners, you're treated to a dynamic resolution of 1080p@60fps for multiplayer and a 30fps lock for campaign. However, the Xbox One X goes an extra mile in it's optimisation: not only are we treated to dynamic resolution up to native 4K, but we get 60fps on all modes. Yes, even in campaign. That's a massive upgrade for the enhanced console, probably the best optimisation of the increased hardware power yet.
Gears 5 has incredible detail, character models are more advanced than ever before, effects are poured on to the battlefield. Large scale environments, with open world segments, all make up a stunning package. Snow and desert levels come to mind as stunningly realised, adding visual and colour variation throughout. Characters leave tracks buried into the sand and snow. Indoors environments are littered with objects, cool lighting and dust hanging in the air.
For base Xbox One owners, you're treated to a dynamic resolution of 1080p@60fps for multiplayer and a 30fps lock for campaign. However, the Xbox One X goes an extra mile in it's optimisation: not only are we treated to dynamic resolution up to native 4K, but we get 60fps on all modes. Yes, even in campaign. That's a massive upgrade for the enhanced console, probably the best optimisation of the increased hardware power yet.
Gears 5 has incredible detail, character models are more advanced than ever before, effects are poured on to the battlefield. Large scale environments, with open world segments, all make up a stunning package. Snow and desert levels come to mind as stunningly realised, adding visual and colour variation throughout. Characters leave tracks buried into the sand and snow. Indoors environments are littered with objects, cool lighting and dust hanging in the air.
The visuals perfectly depict the worn down aesthetics of a world hammered by constant war. It all adds up to a fantastic submersion into a believable place.
The HDR implementation is a fantastic too, bringing out the detail in dark environments and the proper brightness for light sources. The colours are so rich in HDR, the red desert landscapes coming to mind as the most eye catching. Daylight covers the world in amazing lighting, while gunfire and explosions blind the screen with brightness.
Absolutely stunning and beautiful game.
The HDR implementation is a fantastic too, bringing out the detail in dark environments and the proper brightness for light sources. The colours are so rich in HDR, the red desert landscapes coming to mind as the most eye catching. Daylight covers the world in amazing lighting, while gunfire and explosions blind the screen with brightness.
Absolutely stunning and beautiful game.
Update: Gears 5 has been patched alongside the Series X/S launch to have 1440p@60fps for the Series S and closer to full native 4K without any drops from the 60fps framerate on Series X. There's more visual detail added, better textures, ray traced aobjects and the option for 120fps in versus multiplayer.
Audio
Soundtrack is handled by Ramin Djawadi, of Westworld and Game of Thrones fame, he delivers a dark and orchestrated sound to the table, incorporating classic Gears melodies. It's a soundtrack that works well when the action spins up, becoming an extra dramatic effect during large scale battles. Ending scene has a beautiful and soothing piano theme, bringing back nostalgic memories of the famous release trailer of the very first Gears of War.
For the general sound usage, we're treated to Dolby Atmos once again, just like Gears of War 4. With an excellent usage of 3D audio space. Enemies, voices and guns sound like they're scattered all around you, in different heights and placements. Weapons have distinct sounds and have a much more gritty and loud spund to them than Gears of War 4. Explosions throw heavy bass thumps into the audio experience, while helicopters thud heavily.
For the general sound usage, we're treated to Dolby Atmos once again, just like Gears of War 4. With an excellent usage of 3D audio space. Enemies, voices and guns sound like they're scattered all around you, in different heights and placements. Weapons have distinct sounds and have a much more gritty and loud spund to them than Gears of War 4. Explosions throw heavy bass thumps into the audio experience, while helicopters thud heavily.
I love the small Gears styled melodies that play when you're finding new areas too, the ones they've always used for discovering items and areas.
Summary
There's so much I want to revisit again on completion of Gears 5, I can't wait to replay it and let the whole world and all it's details sink in. I definitely will be replaying it in coop!
I've put a lot of hours into the Gears franchise through the years and ended up clocking in about 12 hours for completion on normal, that's counting in finding all the main side missions in the open world segments too. For more casual Gears players though, wishing to find all collectables and hidden relic weapons, then I guess w'ew talking 15-20 hours. It's a large Gears release, or even as a shooter in that regard.
I guess you could accuse the game of having little content in it's open world segments, they simply serve as a hub world to calm down the action between travelling. But I really appreciated them, it makes entering new battles more dramatic again, with a contrast to the calm. I also liked that it kept the levelling system away from the main characters, and only as upgrade points for Jack.
There aren't many types of shooters like this anymore, both in singleplayer and multiplayer. I can't recommend Gears 5 enough, for veterans of the series and newcomers alike. The satisfying and tight gameplay, the incredible optimisation for both Xbox consoles, the open world segments, the pacing, the intriguing story and the revisits to old locations. It all blends in to a fantastic world that you can sink into for hours.
Gears of War hasn't been this inventive and incredible in years, it ends up as being one of the best in the series for me, if not, the best one!
I've put a lot of hours into the Gears franchise through the years and ended up clocking in about 12 hours for completion on normal, that's counting in finding all the main side missions in the open world segments too. For more casual Gears players though, wishing to find all collectables and hidden relic weapons, then I guess w'ew talking 15-20 hours. It's a large Gears release, or even as a shooter in that regard.
I guess you could accuse the game of having little content in it's open world segments, they simply serve as a hub world to calm down the action between travelling. But I really appreciated them, it makes entering new battles more dramatic again, with a contrast to the calm. I also liked that it kept the levelling system away from the main characters, and only as upgrade points for Jack.
There aren't many types of shooters like this anymore, both in singleplayer and multiplayer. I can't recommend Gears 5 enough, for veterans of the series and newcomers alike. The satisfying and tight gameplay, the incredible optimisation for both Xbox consoles, the open world segments, the pacing, the intriguing story and the revisits to old locations. It all blends in to a fantastic world that you can sink into for hours.
Gears of War hasn't been this inventive and incredible in years, it ends up as being one of the best in the series for me, if not, the best one!
