I'm fond of the Gears of War franchise, the original was released very early into the life of the Xbox 360. Epic Games had high hopes of creating a franchise to rival Halo and was a console exclusive for the Xbox 360.
Epic also chose to have Gears of War show off the Unreal 3 engine which at the time produced some amazing visuals that we hadn't seen before.
Since then the series has refined itself visually and mechanically. Gears of War 2 introduced some huge improvements with a more cinematic story and a greater variety of weapons, locations and superior pacing. It was a blast to well, blast with Marcus, Dom, Baird and Cole.
Gears 3 was a tonal shift, opting to portray a darker and even more bleak world than before with humanity on the edge of extinction, due to the Lambent creatures multiplying.
While it was a well paced and enjoyable game it lacked the punch of previous titles, losing some if it's identify with it's serious tones of extinction.
So we had Gears of War Judgement finally by Epic, that I personally see as the peak of the series. Baird being the comedy element of previous titles was put front and centre as the main character.
He's on trial and is in the process of disclosing his actions to superiors whilst the city is under bombardment from the Locust.
It introduced a really fun mechanic where the game gave the player to choose which "truth" Baird will tell regarding individual skirmishes. So we could choose to fight a horde of Locusts with just shotguns rather than tell them we had all our usual weapons.
It worked very well and was an intuitive method of making a prequel.
Epic Games then sold the IP to Microsoft, that assembled a developer called The Coalition with, I'm assuming, the aim of creating more entries into the series.
Like Halo, Gears 4 begins ahead into the future. Not as far as Halo 4 mind, it's just 25 years and we play as Marcus Fenix's son; JD.
JD joined the COG like his dad but at some point left to join the outsiders; people who decided to live without the protection of the COG (which stands for Coalition Of Governments).
As outsiders they raid fabricated COG settlements for resources and all seems well until JD and his friends are attacked at full force by COG robotic soldiers, commanded by Minister Jinn, who claims JD and the outsiders abducted her people from the settlements.
JD eventually enlists the help of his dad; Marcus when the outsiders he'd grouped up with are kidnapped in the night by strange creatures.
With the aid of his Dad, JD and crew repel Jinn's chasing forces and head to a mass burial site, where the COG had disposed of all the crystallised Locusts from Gears 3.
Turns out the ultimate weapon that was supposed to kill off the Locusts had only actually sent them into a state of transformation; similar to a cacoon.
Now the Locust re-emerge as The Swarm, who are kidnapping humans so that they can transform them in to more Swarm to bolster the ranks.
It's a shame that The Coalition couldn't really think up a way to expand the threat to humanity other than more Locusts and in a way that feels really half baked.
But that's a sentiment to the whole game really, I'm currently at the end of Act 3 (of 5 acts), and this game suffers from some poor pacing and poor scenario designs.
All the improvements to the Gears game by Epic have been put to the wayside and it's like The Coalition have gone back to square one.
Graphics are beautiful, the colour palette has been expanded further but it's suffered majorly in gameplay. I don't like to be overly negative but it's so sad to see a growing franchise take a step back and here is my issue with the gameplay scenarios.
Repetition with minimal variation. We all know shooting games can get repetitive, especially these days. Most shooting games are more concerned with how they look than how they play, thanks to a misguided understanding of what made games like Call of Duty so successful.
Call of Duty is effectively a repetitive game, but the way the developers design each combat scenario, feels unique and the series has some of the finest pacing around. Players are never doing the exact same thing for too long in the exact same place, which is essential when your gameplay boils down to a shooting range.
COD gets the presentation and the pace right to keep the player engaged. It's one of the reasons their campaigns can be enjoyed over several playthroughs.
Gears 4 does little to change pacing or what you're doing. Even when they introduce new enemy types they do so little to mix things up. It really does feel like a corridor shooter.
Environments don't feel organic and the game intersperses the obvious shooting areas with obvious transfer corridors, that funnel the player to a slightly different looking location and offer a chance for game to offer some exposition.
For a game that has multiple enemy types they're just not utilised well. The Deebee robots are very easy and straight forward to fight, serving more as bullet sponges than anything else.
There are small ball droids and they behave like Tickers from previous games and can be dealt with in the same way and lastly there are aerial drones with shields, that end up as just another type of bullet sponge.
It's a further disappointment when The Swarm appear, they act like the Locust we've seen before but the variety between them has been diminished. Differing enemy types feel shallow and don't require any distinct shift in tactics to deal with other than: shall I rush with a Shotgun or hang back with Lancer.
Speaking of the weapons there are a few new ones, but the interesting ones such as the Saw Blade don't appear too often. Otherwise you'll likely end up using the Lancer and Gnasher as both deal with any and all threats just fine.
The combat scenarios you face don't really change either so you don't really feel a need to experiment outside your comfort zone to achieve success in any encounter.
At one point the game gives you a "fabricator", a box that can assemble any weapon you want on the fly and later it's used to create defenses, but it doesn't last long and it just doesn't reach it's full potential. Even in the stage where you use it to create defenses it doesn't especially shine as such defenses cost far too much, are far too flimsy. I was barely able to afford more than two turrets and some barbed wire through all I think 5 waves.
Gears 4 really struggles to change the pace of it's game and in the odd sections it's done, they're far too short lived. You will blast through hundreds of robots over and over in level layouts that don't encourage experimentation or even exploration.
It really does upset me when a new developer focuses on the elements of a game franchise wrong and sacrifices other more interesting elements.
I remember Gears 2 specifically, it moved at an incredible pace and just mixed up those enemy types so much more. Locust behaved in more interesting ways and each Locust type felt unique in how you interacted with it and conversely how they interacted with each other. I'm just not getting this in Gears 4.
I've still got a ways to go before the end, but I sure hope it picks up. And if it doesn't then I hope The Coalition find their feet with the next Gears game and really show me what they can do.
You have the visuals down, the enjoyable banter is back, but the gunplay is weak. I'm rooting for you, and I look forward to what will come next.
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