Even with the addition of a semi-open world, Gears 5 as a whole is treading water. The Locust are still around (but they're called The Swarm now), you duck and cover your way across a string of tunnels, decrepit settlements, and abandoned factories, until it all comes to an apocalyptic set-piece of a finale.
The shift of main characters from the glum Fenix-men to Del and Kait is a welcome change. But the Gears games seem to struggle with acknowledging that the CoG is a pretty oppressive regime, or at least doing something interesting with it story-wise. Obviously Warhammer 40K has always been a point of reference. However, the storied miniature game franchise makes a point of hammering in how satirically fascist the Empire of Man is and obviously not the good guys of that particular setting. Gears just shrugs it off like “Yeah, but what are you gonna do?”.
Anyway, Gears 5 is fine. but it feels like we’ve been here and seen this before. A little bit grating to play on your own, but I guess that’s on me for preferring analog co-op to online multiplayer.
The shift of main characters from the glum Fenix-men to Del and Kait is a welcome change. But the Gears games seem to struggle with acknowledging that the CoG is a pretty oppressive regime, or at least doing something interesting with it story-wise. Obviously Warhammer 40K has always been a point of reference. However, the storied miniature game franchise makes a point of hammering in how satirically fascist the Empire of Man is and obviously not the good guys of that particular setting. Gears just shrugs it off like “Yeah, but what are you gonna do?”.
Anyway, Gears 5 is fine. but it feels like we’ve been here and seen this before. A little bit grating to play on your own, but I guess that’s on me for preferring analog co-op to online multiplayer.