As I make my way through the latest in the Gears of War franchise I can’t help but notice the parallels between Gears 5 and the game of the year in 2018, God of War. Although, sometimes being compared to elite company isn’t always favourable if you don’t reach the same heights.

In 2014, Epic Games sold the Gears of War IP to Microsoft after the franchise had lost its way and failed to grow up with its audience that helped establish the game as a bonafide blockbuster. For Epic Games, making Gears became a riskier proposition for a company, who at the time, hadn’t even released Fortnite. The franchise was then given to what we be known as The Coalition and they were tasked with making the series relevant again. Its not like there was a lot riding on Gears 4 after having to follow the release of Halo 5 Guardians and how that game failed to set the world on fire. At the very least Halo was supposed to generate interest back into the suffering Xbox One, which had been through a tough few years at this point.

Gears of War 4 released at the end of 2016 with glowing critical reception but was it enough to get fans back involved. Gears of War 4 didn’t set the charts on fire but I think it sold well enough in relation to Microsofts expectations for a franchise that needed a fresh take and I think that Microsoft understood at this point that they needed to nurture their IP for future exclusive content. It also had a pretty big list of demands it needed to fulfill, including reviving a franchise that had seen interest waning and help save the Xbox One. Gears 4 played it pretty safe as far as reboots go, especially considering it was set 25 years after the previous mainline game. It introduced us to a new set of protagonists, who are somewhat familiar once you play the game Eventually, the farther you played, the game actually featured the characters we knew from the first three games. Gears of War 4 was the first Gears game to be played on the new generation of Xbox so it had to look and play great. Gears of War 4 featured HDR, varied environments and a decent frame rate. The gameplay didnt feature anything overly revolutionary and instead took the safer route and just continued to do what the previous games had done well. It felt like The Coalition just wanted to crawl before they could walk with that game. The Coalition had to establish their Gears of War universe before they could see their vision for Gears fully realized. What could the studio do once it had built a solid foundation for their Gears.

This is where Gears 5 enters the picture. Gears 5 is available on launch day on Game Pass and is even available 5 days early for Game Pass Ultimate subscription holders. I didn’t finish Gear of War 4 as i’m sure many people didn’t, if they even played it at all, because I wasn’t able to connect with JD, the son of Marcus Fenix, the way I was able to attach to other gears games. This is one of the reasons that I wasn’t overly anticipating and somewhat avoided the pre release marketing. Microsoft and The Coalition clearly understand this because at the start of the game there is large recap of previously on Gears. This was a very welcome feature and played out like something you would see before starting a new season on Netflix. I estimate that I probably played around three quarters of the game, This recap was crucial because at the end of Gears of War 4, Kait has to kill her mother after she is found attached to the swarm and won’t be able to survive. She gives her daughter a necklace that features a locust symbol of Queen Myrrah. This would lead you to believe that Kait comes from a bloodline of Locust and humans. The main plot of Gears 5 is focused around Kait venturing into the wild to try to find answers about her heritage and I thoroughly enjoyed the change of pace for the storyline in Gears 5 as it ventured away from the big bro storyline formula that it had used for the rest of the series and grounded it with the human condition. Dont worry, there is still plenty of gunfire and explosions.

This is where the parallel between Gears 5 and God of War can be drawn. Another larger than life series that took a large chance and reinvented itself by looking within. In early God of War, you were constantly murdering everything in your path and chasing after the gods until the latest entry when it became about a journey of father and son. In a similar change of pace, Gears 5 puts the focus on Kait and her journey to discover her past

Before I get too deep into the story, it’s important to take a minute to focus on the gameplay and mechanics. As we have come to expect from the Gears series, its looks amazing. Especially on the Xbox One X, where its almost always running and 4K/60 with HDR. There were a few times when the frame rate dipped but over the course of the campaign that was few and far between. The engine still features very realistic environmental effects like trying to throw grenades in windstorms and have it land about thirty feet left your intended target helps make you feel like you are part of these wind flare storms.

The main new twist on gameplay in Gears 5 is the addition of Jack, a little robot, who is given to you early in the game and can provide you with special abilities. You find components, especially in the open world that you can use to upgrade Jack’s abilities. One of the highlights for me was the cloaking ability, which allowed you to approach certain areas a little differently. Once fully upgraded, chaining together stealth kills extends its duration allowing you to almost avoid gunfights in smaller areas. I would have really enjoyed the ability to level up the main character as well instead of just your robot companion. I hate to go back and use God of War as an example but its allowed you to upgrade Kratos and Atreus. If you’re going to clearly take inspiration from that game then unfortunately, you are gong to have to take the criticism when you fall short in certain areas.

The other big twist here is that they have tried to incorporate open world, almost identical to how God of War added in open world, but instead of a canoe, you have a skiff that you use to sail over the ice and desert. In God of War every time you returned to the canoe to go to new areas, Atreus and Kratos would constantly engage in dialogue which really helped flesh out the relationship. Here, Kait and the rest of her team try to do the same but it generally misses the mark as it is just too inconsistent and doesn’t happen enough but when it did happen you got deeper looks at the characters.

I very much appreciate The Coalition trying new things from the Gears franchise like incorporating an open world into this series but it just felt empty and bland. All of the side missions locations were all the same, find some components needed to upgrade, but first, defeat waves of enemies who are just at these locations for reasons unknown. You knew exactly what the location was going to offer so rather than poke around and explore, you just sprint until the enemies appear, defeat them, and sail to the next area. Most open world games offer a larger sense of mystery and exploration. You never know what you might encounter on your journey. That is not the case here and by the end of the open world areas, I was just happy for it to be over.

If you are familiar with Gears than this will all feel right at home to you and even though there are plenty of guns throughout the game, I would find myself always using the original lancer and it just felt the best. The rest need more balancing in my opinion and the other options would either lack punch, have too much recoil, or lack practicality for most gunfights. I would have appreciated the game forcing me to use other weapons than the lancer for once in a Gears game.

I think Gears as a franchise is still trying to figure out what it’s trying to be in 2019. It attempts to use the formulaic approach that Gears has done in the past with larger than life enemies, world ending threats and waves after waves of cover shooting. By the end it wasn’t the gameplay it was the story that kept me interested.  The gameplay had worn out its welcome with predictable patterns of checkpoints and battle arenas.

Why does the swarm decide to spread out so much ? 

My thoughts for where Gears should go next would be smaller, more intimate storytelling. They have overdone these huge games with epic battles but they don’t have the same impact they did in the first few games. It’s always ends the same way by trying to use the Hammer of Dawn to destroy these enemies after fixing whatever problems it might have first.

At around 8 hours for the campaign its did feel a little bloated and I spent a fair amount exploring the open world, competing side missions and finding collectibles. It’s possible that Gears just isn’t supposed to be an open world game or it needs to have more life to it. When we have had games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and God of War, these worlds need to feel lived in and believable and the open world areas in Gears just didn’t meet the same level of quality of its peers.

The game ended abruptly but did clearly leave it open for a sequel and where the franchise is headed next, although I wonder how they plan to address some of the events from Gears 5 in Gears 6. Overall, I think Gears 5 is heading in the right direction especially after finishing up the story and the choices it took this time around, and that leaves me hopeful for Gears 6.

7/10