I appreciate the change of pace and the spectacle of it all even more now that there is a contrast between the loneliness and the violence. When I get to be a soldier doing what I do best, which is shoot things and solve problems, the game still knows exactly how to make me feel powerful and effective. This doesn’t mean that Gears 5 suddenly drops the combat. Nothing is quite as it seems, and Kait’s head begins to seem more and more like a ticking time bomb. Evil scientists who were forced out of their work, except that maybe the sickening science continued someplace else.

Gangly monstrosities preserved like mosquitoes in amber, occupying dim and deserted facilities.

The story and the hints about what has happened in the past, to friends and main characters alike, are horrifying. The more I learn, the more I think I know about where this is going, and there’s nothing to do but half-dread getting there. I will not leave until I’ve sucked the marrow out of this place. It’s a complete 180-degree turn away from what I expected from Gears of War, and I’m hooked. I love this rhythm - riding and talking, catching things in the distance, setting sail for question marks on my map. The Coalition seems to have set out to redefine what a Gears campaign could be, and the final product shipped with a lot of varied ideas and set-pieces, many of which sound anathema to Gears of War when described in print.Īnd yet Gears 5 manages to cohere into something captivating, credible, and incredibly well-polished, especially on PC. This is what makes Gears 5 so remarkable. These shifts in tone and pacing shouldn’t work, and yet they do.

Other parts are as rumbly and explodey as an Avengers movie, like every time I shot my way yard by yard through small corridors, big rooms, and enormous factories, peeking out from cover to reduce monsters into meaty roast-sized pieces.Īnd sometimes it’s a bit of both, like when I discover a credible stealth sequence and botch it, and the cerebral calm transforms into a rumbling firefight. Some of it is designed for sipping, mulling, and savoring, like the hours I spent slowly and deliberately exploring large, open-world areas, discovering secrets and learning about the Gears of War universe along the way. Gears 5’s campaign wants to be many things.

Gears of war 4 campaign length