It’s been 25 years since we defeated the Locust and the Lambent on our planet Sera. It’s a war that has cost us many lives but we managed to win the war thanks to a brave squadron of soldiers. We’re slowly trying to recreate everything we ever had, trying to repopulate our planet step by step. Everything was going well until the day a new enemy we call ‘The Swarm’ started to kidnap entire colonies of survivors. It’s time to take up our guns and fight off this new danger once and for all.

Welcome to the future, outsider

A lot of things changed during the 25 years after the big war. Our planet lost a lot of lives and the Coalition of Ordered Governments created futuristic cities with walls surrounding them. They were created to keep us safe but to be honest, it was more like a prison than a new home. Some groups rebelled and formed the Outsiders, living outside of the big cities, trying to survive in a hostile world. Everything on our planet seems like it wants to kill us. Take the windflares for example, these started to appear the day we activated the Impulsion countermeasure to take down the Locust and Lambent. Since that day, deadly storms are haunting our planet. There’s nothing we can do about it except taking shelter, the deadly lightning and winds could kill us in seconds. No, life hasn’t really got any better now that we’re at peace.

You control JD Fenix (son of Marcus) and his friends Kait Diaz and Del Walker. All left the COG and joined the Outsiders. Now they are on constant scavenging hunts in the COG cities in order to find useful tools to create our weapons and defenses. The story of Gears of War 4 kicks off during such a scavenging hunt and it doesn’t feel like a Gears of War at all.

A very colorful and strange start

After you complete a brief flashback of the events of previous games, you’ll gain control over JD Fenix and his squad. They are on a mission to grab a handy tool that can create weapons and other objects. It’s something that’s very important to the Outsiders to stand a chance against the enemies. Grabbing it isn’t that easy however since the futuristic cities are guarded by Deebees, smart robots that will use lethal force to take you down.

Flirts with innovation but hides behind tradition

During your first missions in Act 1, you’ll have the feeling of playing an entirely different game. Everything about the futuristic city and its robots feels like something Call of Duty would do and has nothing to do with the Gears of War universe we know. It’s clear that the developers wanted to demonstrate that this Gears is set in a new era but I’m sure there were better and more fun ways to showcase this modern version of Sera. Defeating the Deebees felt like doing the same thing over and over again.

The problem with those robots is that they lack originality. Their forces consist out of alternative versions of regular soldiers, snipers and berserkers. Sure, you have more original enemies like Guardians and Trackers but those last ones are just a reskin of the Trickers from previous Gears of War games. To make things even stranger, everything is extremely colorful and sunny during the first missions. It doesn’t really fit the dark atmosphere of the franchise but it gets better once you’re able to complete the first missions. After bringing down the Deebees, it’s time to meet the new and mysterious enemy.

The Swarm is here to stay 

The new enemies are called the Swarm and you’ll run into them in all shapes and sizes. The most innovating and fun to battle are the Juvies. These are the younger siblings of the big guys and are extremely fast. They offer a lot of fun to the fights since they demand a different approach to take them down. Since Gears of War has always been a cover-based third person shooter, it’s interesting to see an enemy that forces you to get out of your cover. Juvies like to attack in packs and you won’t survive that long if you stay behind your cover. If you want to bring them down, you’ll need to be fast and careful with your bullets. The Juvies introduce a different way of playing, it’s a shame the other enemies don’t do the same.

During our Gamescom demo, we witnessed a Juvie evolving into a Drone. These Drones are the regular enemies in the game and resemble the Locust in many ways. There are different types of Drones but all of those types can be compared to an original Locust variant easily. It’s a bit of a shame that the enemies feel like the same enemies we’ve been fighting in previous Gears of War games. Of course, there’s a logical explanation for this; Locust wise but that’s something we won’t spoil for you.

Besides the regular enemies, you’ll need to take down bigger ones such as deadly Pouncers or the kidnapping Snatchers. Fighting those offer a lot of fun and excitement since they aren’t that easy to bring down, especially when you’re playing on a higher difficulty level. Running from cover to cover and actively reloading your guns to gain more firepower is crucial in order to survive those fights. During fights like these, you’ll have that classic Gears of War feeling where you’re really satisfied if you’ve managed to survive.

A rollercoaster of intense moments 

That being said, the campaign mode is filled with epic moments once again. With only five acts and a length of somewhere near ten hours of gameplay, this isn’t the biggest game ever created. The things you’ll do in these hours however are pretty intense. Aside of the strange start, the campaign of Gears of War 4 is filled with memorable moments like a reunion with an older Marcus Fenix. Besides characters, you’ll have a lot of action-packed sequences and some vehicle escapes. We’ve seen most of those in older Gears games but thanks to the Unreal 4 engine, the franchise never looked this good, which is great for the immersion.

Some might say that the campaign lacks innovation and that it still feels like the same game that we’ve played years ago and I wouldn’t say they’re wrong. Gears of War 4 feels very familiar since the core mechanics haven’t changed that much but the developers did include enough innovation to keep it fresh. If you compare it to the first Gears of War, this version runs incredibly fluent. The story might not be the best within the franchise but it does have some surprising moments, which makes up for some of the lesser let-downs.

New techniques and weapons

Gears of War 4 also introduces some innovations to the gameplay itself, the biggest being the dynamic cover and melee executions. Dynamic cover is possible thanks to the pods. The bloody pods contain a Juvie but can also be used as cover. Be aware however, this is a cover that can be destroyed, setting the deadly Juvie free. The pods really change the way you play Gears since they can change the battlefield by disappearing or appearing on spots if you shoot them down from the ceiling. Thanks to the pods, you can always manipulate the environment to your likings. Besides pods, the game has some more destructible covers that really make everything feel as realistic as possible; it’s a great new mechanic that really raises the bar for other cover-based shooters.

Besides dynamic cover, you can also melee kill your enemies with your new and impressive knife. When you’re sharing a cover with an enemy, you can drag him over to your side to execute him using your knife. But that’s not all, if you time your slide correctly, you can even kick an enemy out of its cover to bring him down with your knife. The combat in Gears 4 became a lot more personal and up-close. It’s something we haven’t seen before and it’s certainly an interesting move.

Since the game is set in the future, there are also a lot of new weapons. We won’t name them all but the Buzzkill and Dropshot are worth mentioning. The Buzzkill fires a lot of buzzsaws into the environments, killing everything that’s in its path. The Dropshot, on the other hand, fires an explosive “Beyblade” into the air, by pushing the button; you decide where it will land on the battlefield. Perfect to take down long-distance targets. There are some more weapons to discover but that’s up to the players.

Conclusion:

The campaign of Gears of War 4 has a lot of epic moments and interesting new techniques like dynamic cover and the melee kills. Although it will only take you around ten hours to complete, depending on the difficulty, you’ll have a very intense ride. The only big problem I had with the campaign is that everything feels a little too familiar. The developers could have created an entirely new experience but instead, they decided to go with a very Locust-like enemy. It’s not a bad campaign for sure but I can’t shake the feeling it had a lot more potential.

8/10

The multiplayer of Gears of War 4 is a big deal, the team started creating it at the same time they were creating the campaign. Multiplayer once started as a nice little bonus but now it’s an equal part of the game, worthy of some elaborate information.

Go co-op

First of all, if you’re new to Gears of War, you might be surprised by the amount of great multiplayer options. One of my personal favorites is the co-op mode. You can play the entire campaign together with a friend and the game is actually better if you do so. Since Gears of War leans heavy on covering and the flanking of your enemies, a human friend can result in deeper strategies for you to explore. Don’t get us wrong, the AI of your teammates is strong but nothing can reach the same level as another human player. Since your friend is able to revive you when you’re down, you’ll really need to work together as a team.

The campaign is perfect for co-op missions since it also tracks your progress constantly, if one of the players dies, you’ll never need to restart that much the level. Also note that the levels themselves aren’t that big but are heavily relying on the action and you know you’re in for a lot of intense gaming hours. I remember completing the first Gears of War in co-op with my gaming bro in just one night and I’m sure Gears of War 4 can let me relive this legendary gaming night with more impressive tech and a story that will leave me behind filled with adrenaline and satisfaction.

Regular multiplayer modes 

Besides an amazing co-op experience, the game also features some more regular multiplayer options you’ll find in many other shooters. Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Guardian, Execution, Dodgeball, Escalation and Arms Race are the playable modes that veterans will remember from older Gears of War games. All of them offer a different kind of fun and based on your team’s skills and the skills of your opponents; you’ll really need to work together as a team if you want to be victorious. As tradition demands, the game launches with ten playable maps, this number will increase in the future thanks to DLC but for now, the first batch of maps all have something different to offer. All of the maps feel like a worthy addition to the game and have their own atmosphere, set in a futuristic city or dark hole filled with enemies.

New, however, are the two separate balances the developers added, Core and Competitive. Core settings are aimed to deliver the usual balance setting with slight aim assist, normal damage and normal power. If you want a real challenge however, you can go for the Competitive setting where your damaging power will decrease and the damage taken will increase. There’s no aim assist in Competitive mode, this mode aims for the true Gears players who are seeking for a challenge online. If you know that the game supports crossplay with the Windows 10 version, you can be sure to find a lot of good players online community very soon.

The last thing worth mentioning are the character rewards. You won’t get those by clearing certain levels. Instead, everything you do earns you Credits. A system that can be found in a lot of modern online shooters nowadays. If you acquire enough Credits, you can buy Gear Packs, including weapons skins and skill cards for your character. These skill cards can give certain abilities of your character a small boost. The developers made sure everything remained fair for everybody but the character cards can make the difference without a doubt. In order to keep things fair, you can discard certain character cards, granting you Scraps money. With this, you can create almost every card you want, so you can train specific skills of your characters. The multiplayer certainly improved a lot!

Horde 3.0 

The last multiplayer mode is the new Horde 3.0 mode which you can play with up to four players. The horde mode sounds very basic at first, it’s your squad against different waves of enemies. Survive them all and you win the Horde. But things aren’t that standard in Gears of War 4. Horde 3.0 feels like an extremely addictive tower defense mode inside a third person shooter. Everything works or fails with how you use your Fabricator. This handy device can best be described as a military grade 3D printer, printing several weapons and defensive tools like turrets in exchange for money. Before each wave, you can spend some money on the Fabricator and place your tools wherever you want on the map. That’s right, there aren’t forcefully indicated spots anymore, this time, you’re truly free to pick the spot that works best to defend your base.

Also new are the character class cards that will divide the players into classes like normal soldiers, snipers and many others. You can increase your skills by playing as the same character a couple of times. The better your skills, the more chances you have for survival. It’s a rather deep extra RPG layer over the Horde mode but it works surprisingly well.

The maps and enemies are all amazing and they’ll offer a true challenge. Work together with your team, pick the class that suits your style most and pick the correct spots to defend. That’s the way you play this Horde 3.0 mode and it’s truly incredible.

Conclusion:

The multiplayer of Gears of War 4 is extremely impressive. There’s a lot going on and tons of modes, characters and new weapons to discover. This is without a doubt the best multiplayer effort we’ve ever seen in a Gears game and we’re sure you’ll have a lot of fun with it until the release of Gears of War 5. Be sure to play the new Horde mode as well, since that’s truly an amazing mode.

9/10

Gears of War 4 is a very impressive game but the campaign mode feels a little too familiar. It’s a shame since this new era could introduce a lot more innovations, instead, we face familiar enemies and use familiar weapons most of the time. That being said, the campaign itself is still impressive thanks to the new dynamic cover and melee system. It offers a lot of intense fights and action-packed moments. The multiplayer is on another level, adding a lot of great new maps and a character card system that gives the game a small RPG layer. The Horde 3.0 is a very impressive take on a modern tower defense game and is certainly worth your time. Gears of War 4 flirts with innovations but hides behind tradition, it’s not a bad game at all but we would love to see something entirely new next time. The multiplayer on the other hand reaches a near perfect level of epicness.

8.5/10