The odyssey through the Gears of War franchise continues to the most recent one, and I'm here on day 1 to play it! It's been a long, strange trip through this series and this one takes some turns I'm both happy with and pretty meh about. The gameplay remains very strong, and the art direction which took its very colorful turn in 3 continues here in spades. The two open Acts are exceptional in their vistas and shooting galleries. The story is... good? I guess? Up and down, I'll say.
Starting with the unreservedly good, the gunplay is still excellent and all of my old favorites return and the guns from 4 that didn't get enough time to shine make a solid showing here. With the addition of Jack as a real squadmate who can do various things for you (namely bonus powers and pick shit up) it really helps bring the Big Guns more to the fore, but there's a bit of a negative to this as because they're not part of your bread and butter I rarely felt like I was "good" with them, so I often skipped and just used my regular guns for fights. But still, the option is there and if I ever replay the game I'll be able to make better use of it. The combat arenas are generally pretty interesting in layout and they certainly are a delight to look at. There is a new gun or two in here but they were pretty crap as I recall.. also basically no new enemies? Or I think there were, but they were basically just variations on the old guys.
Speaking of the new Jack, this introduces a new "RPG" lite character building system to the game which I thought was good, but kinda tacked on. It encourages some exploration at least so that was cool, though I did not bother with it much. The open areas in Act 2 and 3 are very resplendent in their appearance but also a bit tacked on? There was only one sequence where the gameplay of maneuvering the skiff really came into play, it was mostly just an excuse to show off the area design and throw in sidequests (which I admittedly did not bother with. Gotta finish these games!). Seriously though, looked amazing.
Story wise, things get more murky. It picks up where we left off in 4, JD and the gang have found the swarm are 'reviving' the Locust (are they still locust even?) and we're trying to unite humanity and stop them. Well, shit goes down in Act 1 that shows that JD apparently at some point shot innocent protesters..? And then they attack and overwhelm a major human city and there's a timeskip. Oh JD is a huge dick now? Wait what?! This is a pretty obvious hit job on JD to have him pass the reigns on to Kait as the main character, and that becomes more obvious in Chapter 3 when he comes back (with new guy Fahz, or as Marcus says "Just Shut The Fuck Up") he is accepted more or less without a serious pushback after about 10 minutes. There is an interesting point here in the early game with "Is Kait going to go bad or isn't she" that is completely abandoned at the halfway mark and we get into a more traditional "Uhoh My Mom is a Monster Now!" main plot.
HOWEVER, the game ends with a very strong note pointing towards the future of the series, and I'm very curious how certain deaths will play into the story going forward. I just couldn't do it to my boy Marcus though. RIP in peace
Starting with the unreservedly good, the gunplay is still excellent and all of my old favorites return and the guns from 4 that didn't get enough time to shine make a solid showing here. With the addition of Jack as a real squadmate who can do various things for you (namely bonus powers and pick shit up) it really helps bring the Big Guns more to the fore, but there's a bit of a negative to this as because they're not part of your bread and butter I rarely felt like I was "good" with them, so I often skipped and just used my regular guns for fights. But still, the option is there and if I ever replay the game I'll be able to make better use of it. The combat arenas are generally pretty interesting in layout and they certainly are a delight to look at. There is a new gun or two in here but they were pretty crap as I recall.. also basically no new enemies? Or I think there were, but they were basically just variations on the old guys.
Speaking of the new Jack, this introduces a new "RPG" lite character building system to the game which I thought was good, but kinda tacked on. It encourages some exploration at least so that was cool, though I did not bother with it much. The open areas in Act 2 and 3 are very resplendent in their appearance but also a bit tacked on? There was only one sequence where the gameplay of maneuvering the skiff really came into play, it was mostly just an excuse to show off the area design and throw in sidequests (which I admittedly did not bother with. Gotta finish these games!). Seriously though, looked amazing.
Story wise, things get more murky. It picks up where we left off in 4, JD and the gang have found the swarm are 'reviving' the Locust (are they still locust even?) and we're trying to unite humanity and stop them. Well, shit goes down in Act 1 that shows that JD apparently at some point shot innocent protesters..? And then they attack and overwhelm a major human city and there's a timeskip. Oh JD is a huge dick now? Wait what?! This is a pretty obvious hit job on JD to have him pass the reigns on to Kait as the main character, and that becomes more obvious in Chapter 3 when he comes back (with new guy Fahz, or as Marcus says "Just Shut The Fuck Up") he is accepted more or less without a serious pushback after about 10 minutes. There is an interesting point here in the early game with "Is Kait going to go bad or isn't she" that is completely abandoned at the halfway mark and we get into a more traditional "Uhoh My Mom is a Monster Now!" main plot.
HOWEVER, the game ends with a very strong note pointing towards the future of the series, and I'm very curious how certain deaths will play into the story going forward. I just couldn't do it to my boy Marcus though. RIP in peace