Gears of War 4 (2016)

The brilliance of the Gears of War franchise is that this is a series that that on the outside looks just like a bunch of big dumb guys fighting monsters with chainsaw guns, but in reality, this is a series about the tragedies of war, what war takes away from a person, and the hypocrisies and bureaucracy that cost men their lives, both physically and emotionally. While other shooters at the time were content to just let the player run and shoot to their heart’s content, Gears of War asked the player to not be so careless, to actually pause, hide in safety, and choose their next move wisely. Gears of War has always been a series about considering the next step, while also remembering the steps that brought these characters to this point. In a series with literal chainsaw guns, Gears of War found a way to be thoughtful, considerate, and strangely prescient.

I recently replayed the Gears of War franchise prior to Gears of War 4, and I was worried that I had made all of that up, that the series didn’t live up to the lofty ideals I once thought this series had. The opposite actually happened, as I found the original trilogy to be even more of a careful consideration of the cost of war than I had remembered. With the series moving from Epic to The Coalition with Gears of War 4, I worried that Gears of War was about to become what people saw on the outside, without the deeper introspective ideas that made this a great series when players looked deeper. Unfortunately, that worry was right.

Almost every aspect of the Gears of War series that Epic perfected with Gears of War 3, The Coalition has half-assed with Gears of War 4. The characters are one-dimensional, the story does a poor job of setting up these characters, the Cog as it now exists, or even why these enemies are back once more. Story is irrelevant, all that really matters is that the enemy is back and we have to kill them. Even the controls don’t feel as tight and rewarding as they once did. Gears of War 4 has turned this into little more than a run-and-gun through scene after scene, without any real thought of the larger questions or narrative focus that made this series something greater.

However, did I enjoy myself with Gears of War 4, once I was done being frustrated by the step down this franchise had taken? Kind of? My interest in the game truly shifted based on the level. Sometimes I wanted to keep going and see where the story would take me (spoiler: nowhere I hoped it would!), and other times, I lost interest to the point that I wouldn’t play for several days. Once I realized that this wasn’t going to be what it should be, I just sort of pushed my way through to get this over with. The action can be fun at times, but overall, this is pretty much a letdown in every way I can think of.

When Epic wrapped up this series on a down note with Gears of War 3, it felt right. It felt like the story had found its perfect ending that thematically made sense with the story I had been told. Continuing that story never sat well with me, to the point that it took me until now to finally play this game. I’m truly disappointed that this series continued in this way, without trying to at least attempt to be the type of commentary that the first trilogy was. Gears of War became a subversive franchise that had more to say than just there are enemies that need to be killed. By the end of Gears of War 4, I felt like the series had become the dumb action game that Gears of War looked to be on the outside, but anyone who gave it a chance would see there was far more going on inside. Well, not anymore.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the Gears of War Universe

Did you play the original Gears of War trilogy on your Xbox 360 and was saddened when the power fantasy came to a grinding but beautifully tropical stop? Did you cry when the doo-rag came off? Did you notice how unbalanced Marcus' face suddenly looked with only a soul patch? Well don't worry, that vascular no-necked man you controlled in the earlier games is still here and this game is about him passing the baton to the new generation.

In comes J.D. with his own team of rascals, slamming into cover better than his old dad. In comes a enemy new in only name, exploding into meaty chunks that make me miss shooters of the nineties. Chainsaws are still firmly attached to guns.

The game is a great entry into the series. It's fun to play, it's light and doesn't overstay it's welcome. The comparison to 'The Force Awakens' is quite apt, but doesn't entirely fit. Yes, new characters are introduced with the baton being passed from the previous generation, but the story isn't a straight up retelling of the first game, the way Force Awakens stayed way to close to the beats of 'A New Hope', for better or worse.

The Coalition did a great job setting the stage for a new set of games without changing too much that made the originals great.

I had just gotten used to using LB to grenade too... anyway, I missed "tagging" grenades with B button so it is just as well.

Gameplay, it is more of the refined "stop-and-pop" action of Gears 3. I mean this in the best way as that is still my favourite in the series.

I will say, this is the first time I did not roll my eyes at the "emotional" stuff. In fact, during the ending I inexplicably rolled a tear! You did it, you finally got me to react to your goofy story as intended.

I like the way the story started you off getting a sense of before the series and throughout to get you back into the world and widen the lore. I also like how it never explained anything but just kind of put you in it.

My only gripe is by the end you did not get some pretty big questions resolved and it also just... ends. Very suddenly. Considering this is the shortest of the Gears games I wonder how intentional it was?

The game looks great and this was the least buggy experience I have had with a Gears game!

It is a very simple gameplay loop but it is aurally and mechanically so enjoyable and this one is probably the best about the diversions not being too long or boring or frustrating. I would say the boss fights are just a little bit too long but nothing got in the way of my enjoyment.

It seems silly but I am actually into the lore of this series now, even if I have more questions than answers.

(Reviewing the solo campaign only...)

Imagine Marcus Fenix & Nathan Drake had a baby. You don't necessarily need to imagine the process it takes to make that baby. Just imagine the baby.

Boom! You've got JD Fenix.

Kind of beefy like Marcus. But not too beefy. Kind of snarky like Nathan. And he sounds like Nolan North without actually being voiced by Nolan North.

Oh wait, you want to hear about the game? Have you played the original Gears of War? Because I played that. It's another one of those. It's a meat & potatoes cover shooter, just like Gears of War 1 was. Imagine Uncharted without the climbing, with a lot more steroids, and with lots of grungy alien-looking dudes. That's Gears of War.

The graphics are very pretty (on my GTX 1060 & Ryzen 1600, it usually ran smooth & fluid, but at 5 or 6 random times, it turned into an absolute slideshow for about a 5 second stretch).

Sound & voice acting were great.

The story was a little more engaging than the original Gears, but nothing groundbreaking. I'm not sure if the YouTube recaps of Gears 2 & 3 (I couldn't play those on PC) forgot to mention these "Cogs" dudes, but I'm not entirely sure who they were supposed to be.

Teammates being able to revive you really ratchets the difficulty down from the original Gears, but later in the game, there are still some particularly annoying "Snatcher" enemies that can instakill you in special ways. The tower defense sections that they shoehorn in at random times are so barebones that they didn't seem worthwhile. And the final boss was surprisingly & ridiculously easy.

This has been my Gears of War 4 brain dump. Have a nice day.

Introduction

This was my first Gears game since I've never owned any xbox and the Gears of War: UE, also included in the game pass for PC, seems to run like shit, even after all these years. It's ridiculous how bad it runs and trying to play it at 4k ~60 fps is apparently an impossible task. The port for GoW 4 on the other hand is the complete opposite, very accomplished graphic settings and neatly optimized. I decided to just give up on GoW: UE and try GoW 4 instead, a shame because Marcus seems like a great character and it basically steals the show whenever he's in the cinematics.

Graphics & Performance

The game looks very good in High/Ultra, I specially enjoyed the outdoor sections. Very detailed backgrounds, good motion blur (the sense of speed in the "high speed" segments was great) and pretty nice explosions/gore. The overall art directions was on point in my opinion, you go from lavish outgrown ruins to disgusting mines and tunnels covered in alien filth everywhere. It really sets the mood for the game. I also liked how the game starts bright sunny in the morning and you get to play some levels at sunset and night as well.

The Windflares are these huge storms you'll regularly encounter, tornadoes and lightning mixed together. They are just fantastic and not only are they visually striking and imposing they also influence the way you have to play since they affect movement and environmental items. A sight to behold.

It runs pretty well, I was able to play at 4k almost locked 60 fps with a 5700 XT and a mix of High and Ultra settings. There were some odd frame drops or stuttering during cutscenes though, and the game also seemed to stutter a bit when transitioning from indoor spaces to the more demanding outdoors. All in all very satisfied with the graphic presentation and how it performed. I'm pretty sure I could've played it at locked 60 if tweaking settings a bit more or just playing at 2k.

Gameplay

The gunplay here is decidedly satisfactory, every weapon is different and feels great to use although I would've liked a bit more variety in the arsenal since you don't really have access to all of it all the time (you won't be able to use alien weapons if you're fighting bots and vice-versa) and they aren't all that many to begin with. Special mention for the Overkill shotgun and both sniper rifles, immensely satisfying to use and the sound effects just on point. The active reload system, which was a novelty to me, is really nice and it can both save your life or make it a lot harder if you mess it up. Pretty neat how they got an uninteresting mechanic like reloading which is there mostly for balance or realism and did something with it. The movement and the cover system were fine, I can't say I love either to be frank but it's probably more a personal preference than a game deficiency. I imagine it also takes a bit more time that the few hours you spend with it just playing through the campaign to get used to it a properly execute it. The roadie movement is too restrictive direction wise IMO and I think it'd felt better if you had more freedom to control it instead of just running mostlfy forward.

Regarding level design I thought it was overall pretty good. Although the levels are mostly just small arenas, often just corridors, they offer flexibility in your approach and you can just as well turtle and snipe or run & gun letting the Gnasher sing. They are also big enough that if you aren't careful or efficient in quickly disposing of enemies you'll soon get flanked and swarmed. A few stages feature verticality but most of them don't. A few times during the story you are required to hunker down and defend a position from waves of enemies. These situations were a nice change of pace and feature a small tactical play since you get to place defenses and play around them.

The enemy design is ok but probably just that. The first acts are pretty weaker compared to the later ones once you engage the Swarm. Bots just aren't that interesting and feel pretty generic, almost like filler. The Swarm is a lot better, the sequence that introduces the 'juvies' (small weak enemies that move fast, strife and bounce off walls) was great, such a change of pace from the boring straightforward bots; the drones which are the basic enemy for this faction have decent AI and they'll dodge nades, swap cover often, jump over your cover to crush you, etc.; the scions are the bigger elite versions of the drones and they can take quite a lot of punishment from regular weapons before dying, they are much slower but move forward methodically and represent a serious threat when they focus on you; the "special" enemies like the pouncer, carrier or snatcher are all appropriately different from one another and force you to adapt your tactics and respond adequately to their moves if you want to survive. The Act IV boss was a tough and long fight and it felt very rewarding once you overcome that thing. The final boss was a bit of a disappointment, too easily defeated...but you get to pilot a huge mech in exchange lol.

Story

The story is pretty basic and I kinda expected to learn more about the alien stuff, I don't think it's clear at any point during the game what the Swarm's goal is besides maybe reproduction? If they have an agenda, our characters don't give a fuck about it anyway. You go from one place to the next always chasing someone and there's no overarching story here, the goals of the main characters are pretty straightforward and urgent. They didn't leave room for much else in this game, it seems to be on purpose to set the story for Gears 5 but it makes the narrative here pretty insubstantial. There are a couple of big dramatic events though that move the story forward and were IMO pretty well done. Also the voice actors delivery was flawless.

The collectibles you find scattered through some levels seem pretty tacked on and they barely add anything to the story or seem to be just references to the previous games that I naturally don't get. They feel more like a bonus than something to pursue to learn more about the world/lore anyway.

Difficulty

I've played on the recommended difficulty "Hardcore" and it was about 8-9 hours, only had trouble at some spots, often because inadequate weapon load-outs (for example to take out snipers efficiently) and mostly in the first 2 acts, after that I kinda got the gist of it and it was kind of intuitive to choose between carrying long range weapons of strong close quarters weapons as secondaries to the ever present Lancer. Other than that only some of the tougher mini bosses and specially the boss of Act IV were able to kick my ass a couple of times, most of the time I died I can only blame myself and stupid positioning or reckless disregard for cover. In general I'd say this difficulty is a good starting point if you've played shooters before (I've mostly played FPS but in the end the main thing here is also aiming). Some enemies did feel a bit more spongy than I'd like and capable of depleting your ammo pretty fast, even when just headshotting the shit outta them.

Conclusion

Recommended. It's a good time and I'll play Gears 5 next. The best features of the game are the combat and the graphics, the weakest part is probably the story and the underdeveloped characters. And it wouldn't have hurt to have a bit more variety in enemy design, weapons and overall a stronger first half of the campaign.

7.5/10 is more like it, 3/5 stars seems too low.