Gears of War 4 is an amazing addition to the Gears of War franchise. However, its only fault, if any, is that it doesn’t try anything new.
Gears of War 4 is set 25 years after the events of Gears of War 3 with the humans rebuilding whatever was left of Sera but are now once again on the brink of extinction as they face a new threat. The COG has reformed and civilians are forced to live in walled cities under martial law, because that is apparently the best way to save humanity. Those who oppose the COG have left the cities and live as “outsiders”, this is where our main cast comes in.
The franchise finally sees new faces as JD, son of Marcus Fenix, takes centre stage with his friends Kait and Del as they fight of the COG and a new threat to humanity. In their tussle with the COG, our new heroes come across a deadly new foe, “The Swarm” that is abducting humans, and they turn to a familiar face for help. Marcus Fenix makes a dramatic return and joins our group in an effort to find answers.
This, however, is probably Marcus Fenix’s most convincing performance in the game as he carries the grumpy old man role pretty well and being out of the limelight actually helps his character a lot. Overall, the banter between the three young characters and Marcus is quite enjoyable and gives the entire experience a lighter undertone given the grim circumstances you always end up in a Gears of War campaign. The entire campaign is riddled with epic boss fights, crazy sequences and tons of wave defence segments, so be ready for one hell of a fight.
The world of Gears of War 4 looks stunning, on both console and PC something I never thought would happen and it plays just as smoothly. From destroyed cities being reclaimed by nature to grim crumbling buildings and mines; the game has never looked this good.
In terms of gameplay there isn’t anything revolutionary about Gears of War 4 but the new guns like the dropshot and buzzkill are tons of fun to use. The emphasis on cover to cover movement and roadie running remains the same while Splitscreen coop makes a glorious return as you can play the entire campaign in splitscreen. However the same can’t be said for Horde mode as its restricted to online coop only.
Horde mode gets a few big changes as now you get to choose a class when you start, allowing your time to come up with a nice spread of weapons and abilities. Each class even comes with booster cards that give them special buffs like extra HP, extra headshot damage and so on. Once in game, Horde mode now is based around a fabricator that you can place anywhere on the map so you aren’t restricted to any one location. You can keep moving should you desire.
Overall Gears of War 4 is an amazing addition to the campaign’. However, its only fault, if any’, is that it doesn’t try anything new. Sticks to a tried and tested formula in a new setting with minor tweaks; kind of like what The Force Awakens was for the Star Wars franchise; An amazing new addition despite not doing anything new.
The cross play and Xbox Play anywhere really add a lot of value to the game as you can now play with friends regardless of platform. If you’re a Gears of War fan or just looking to try the franchise, Gears of War 4 is going to be an amazing experience.
