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Gears of War 4 Xbox One X Review UPDATED

Gears of War 4 Xbox One X Review

Game Info

Platform Xbox I

Publisher Microsoft Studios

Developer The Coalition

Release Date Holiday 2016

Note: portions of this review previously appeared in our pre-review check-in with Gears of State of war four in September.

Gears of War 4 is about abode and family unit.

That might sound weird. Gears of War equally a serial has dealt with accusations of hyper-masculine excess and an accent on gore and violence since information technology was beginning announced more ten years ago. And it'southward not that those observations are wrong, exactly — the characters have always been larger than life, the men in particular wide and heavy, and the violence of the series has always been extreme and enthusiastic. But below or fifty-fifty in parallel to that aspect, there'southward always been consistent themes of friendship, of relationships of back up and esprit that would seem corny in most other games but, somehow, work in Gears of War for a passionate fanbase.

New Gears developer The Coalition's job with Gears of War 4 is many-fold. To bring the series back to relevancy v years after it last had an impact; to serve as a standard-bearer for the Xbox platform; to legitimately lay claim to a property started by another studio. And, maybe, to exercise something fresh with a series that seemed to attain its logical endpoint.

Oh, and to make a keen video game.

The Coalition doesn't succeed on all fronts. Gears of War 4 at times seems to have more than ideas than it has time or bandwidth to explore. This often results in a game that feels similar a refined reboot rather than something truly new or different. Only Gears of War iv serves equally an effective statement of intent, bringing Gears frontward and competing with the mod vanguard of competitive shooters.

It'due south too a hell of a lot of fun.

Equally Gears of War 4 begins, decades have passed since the human race narrowly survived the Locust War (with a tight, playable history lesson that gives a brief timeline of events). After the events of Gears of War 3, the Locust threat was over, and humanity began to rebuild.

The line running through Gears of War four is family

The survivors of the Coalition of Ordered Governments, or Cog, live in cities closely supervised by a authorities with a tight grip in place. This is partly to ensure the survival of a human being race almost snuffed out by the Locust State of war — the globe is total of propaganda that tells its story, like books and posters espousing the heroism and service of breeding for the time to come of the species. However, some survivors live outside the walls of large, robot-built cities at odds with the Cog, engaging in raids on certain Cog storehouses for supplies and living in a state of common cold-ish war.

Sitting somewhere betwixt these factions is J.D. Fenix and his best friend Del Walker, who have gone AWOL from the Cog and joined an outsider group with their friend Kait Diaz. But when a mysterious new threat invades their settlement and steals abroad their friends and family, J.D and his companions go to the merely neutral party they can think of to find help — J.D.'s father and Gears of War protagonist Marcus Fenix.

Gears of War 4 is a more than focused, less sprawling story than the last few entries, following the three friends through the forests and ruins of Old Sera as they try to observe their friends and family. Information technology feels more action-horror than action sci-fi, and it tin be every bit enthusiastically fierce as previous games — sometimes fifty-fifty more and so, as there'southward even more than gainsay chatter than before and J.D. is a less morose lead than Marcus ever was. But the line running through Gears 4 is, every bit I mentioned before, family unit. A lot of time is spent exploring the strained relationship between Marcus and his son, with a lot of perspective on both sides of the equation.

Meanwhile, Kait'due south relationship with her mother Reyna and uncle Oscar gets some infinite to grow and develop as well. And J.D., Del and Kait'southward relationship also gets a lot of room to develop and grow — it'south non a two-mode street the way it often was in previous Gears games. If annihilation, my main character disappointment is Del, who gets little in the way of whatever character backstory or history, other than being childhood friends with J.D. and having a less contentious relationship with Marcus.

The game's overarching story is more constructive than its predecessors or fifty-fifty well-nigh other action games in recent retention, in role because it'due south comparatively elementary. J.D., Cait and Del want to become their friends dorsum, and they're following breadcrumbs to do it. I besides appreciated small touches elsewhere, like small story moments that are optionally triggered that in turn affect later on conversations slightly. Information technology's not game-changing, but information technology was a prissy touch.

Gears of War iv's story and character time works besides as it does for several reasons. The writing is matter-of-fact, avoiding over-stoicism and also overwrought fluff for the most part. It too helps that Gears of State of war four is stunning. It's easily the best looking game on Xbox Ane, and a number of brightly lit daylight environments in improver to a alluvion of colour everywhere else, especially deep reds and greens, remove the "dingy" and "monochromatic" qualifiers that were often flung at the original Gears of War and its sequels. From kinetic setpieces that feel ripped from activity adventure franchises like Uncharted to quieter moments often pierced past brilliant storms in the distance, Gears of State of war four stands next to whatever other release this yr.

Just unlike many other action games, Gears of State of war 4 allows yous time to explore spaces without fighting. Encounters can often be spaced apart by minutes, rather than seconds, and not usually by cutscenes. The Gears of State of war series has always been adept at this, but The Coalition takes things a step further, oftentimes throwing red herrings your way almost when a fight might intermission out. Previously, cover objects placed strategically always meant a fight was about to showtime. In Gears of State of war 4, the game might just be fucking with your head. It leads to a more refined but clearly present sense of combat tension.

When that combat breaks out, Gears of State of war four strikes a strong residual of familiarity and experimentation. If you've played other Gears of War games, so the nuts should be easy. You'll need to rely on cover-based gunplay and smart, strategic positioning throughout each combat scenario. Motility is incredibly shine, and Gears of State of war 4 feels like a natural evolution of the series that began mod in-game cover systems equally we know them — even if Gears of War 4 is a clear stride back from its immediate predecessor in ane notable regard, every bit campaign co-op play only supports ii players.

It was easy to fall back into former muscle retention and appreciate how sophisticated Gears' combat is. The active reload system is a subtle simply constant consideration in firefights with real effects in-game, for example. Companion AI is greatly improved from previous games — I rarely felt screwed or boxed in by my computer-controlled teammates, which is such a common problem in games with AI partners that its minimal presence here is worth noting.

Gears of State of war 4 besides refines and expands on the sense of button, pull and defend at work in gainsay scenarios. I felt less safe sitting in whatever one spot for more than than a few moments, because there are so many enemies with means of overwhelming a position, whether through raw physical violence or weapons that circumvent any site-specific protection.

The new antagonists in Gears 4 underline this. DBs, automatic robotic enforcers commanded by the COG government every bit a pacification force, are markedly different than previous Gears enemies. Their patterns of aggression are very dissimilar from the wilier Locust of previous games (and the time I spent shooting at the new monstrous antagonists the Swarm). They fight in waves and have little sense of self-preservation for the most part, which they make up for past taking a lot of hits and, in the case of larger foes, suicidal rushes once they've hit a certain damage threshold.

The Swarm has their own sense of give and have, and their biological science has interesting effects on the battlefield. Many are born from fleshy pods around the globe, which can be used as comprehend — but if the pod takes too much damage, it will burst. If you're lucky, that pod will be empty. If you lot're not, things might get a lot more than interesting in a bustle.

As a consequence of all of this, Gears of State of war 4 feels more active than other third-person shooters, including its predecessors. Environmental factors are also a much bigger chemical element this time effectually. In the aftermath of the previous Gears games' campaign against the Locust and the almost destruction of the planet of Sera, the atmosphere is in a state of revolt, resulting in powerful and subversive windstorms. In-game, this has diverse furnishings, from the cosmetic — i.east., lots of rustling of vegetation and foliage, which looks neat, simply doesn't do much — to the more dramatic in terms of its issue on game mechanics. Wind tin grow violently strong, which in turn affects projectile weapons like Boomshots and grenades. In stronger atmospheric condition, you can actually destroy some support structures to trigger environmental violence on your enemies (or yourself, if you're non careful).

All of these factors are woven together into a game that is, at a basic level, a joy to play. The guns are differentiated and interesting, each with its own quirks and employ cases, and the feedback loop of shooting and hit your target and nailing an agile reload and shooting more is incredibly stiff. Gears of War iv could be far less complex in its environment pattern and enemy behaviors and it would nevertheless exist fun to shoot things. In that location are even multiple dominate fights in the game that are not miserable guessing games punctuated by death, which near every other shooter beats its head against.

Merely not every idea is successful. The huge battlefields that often divers Gears of War iii are replaced by smaller arenas. This doesn't brand the Gears of War four less fun — in that location are a lot of great firefights waiting to happen, and large, fun moments. Simply it tin't help just feel scaled dorsum, which, in a sequel, tin be a difficult thing to reconcile.

I could also see spots where The Coalition seemingly thought nearly adding major new mechanics and enemy dynamics only drew back. For example, later in the game, there's one scene where DBs are fighting the Swarm, and when you get involved, information technology becomes a 3-way battle. But this never happens once more. Similarly, a cutscene shows a bizarre interaction between a particular kind of Swarm animal and a certain blazon of DB, but the thread is dropped and never picked back up again. And at a few points in the game, attempts are made to fold in elements of Horde way, Gears of State of war's wave-based survival staple, but these are arguably only successful half the time, and business relationship for around xxx-twoscore minutes of a game that took me eight-and-a-one-half hours to play to completion on the 2d-highest difficulty setting.

The Horde hooks in question are directly related to the mode's movable construction unit, chosen the Fabricator. The fabricator is part of The Coalition's play to re-accept the crown for best cooperative mode in an arena Gears franchise is arguably responsible for creating. The ability to build emplacements and a new economy aspect add a smashing opportunity for experimentation and improvisation past teams.

Horde three.0 (considering it's the third iteration) is almost everything I could think of wanting from this kind of mode past virtue of its economy and building. That said, I'm not totally sold on Horde 3.0'southward new class system. It's full of proficient ideas, simply the dynamics experience off. Engineers are extremely useful, scouts (who get double points for energy nerveless from fallen enemies when it's deposited earlier a wave is cleared) are required, and everyone else feels like a hodgepodge of overlapping roles with different weapon spawns. The absence of support classes exterior of the engineer prevents other players from having a ways of success that isn't linked directly to the enemies they kill, and also an absenteeism of variety of player adequacy in a mode where a unmarried session could last hours.

Hours long sessions aren't a bad thing. Information technology's going to be like shooting fish in a barrel to dump time into Horde, both considering it'south a naturally fun iteration of a game with really strong mechanics and enemy design, and considering of the player progression systems in identify. The carte upgrades are as well interesting, though I'one thousand not certain how the involvement of in-app purchases will consequence them — The Coalition doesn't seem overly concerned, since Horde isn't a competitive style.

Merely virtually importantly, Horde 3.0 offers what then many cooperative modes in other games — and fifty-fifty the campaigns of many other shooters — frequently fail to provide: breathing room. And non just the 30 seconds between waves, either. Horde 3.0 escalates, but information technology likewise resets somewhat afterward each dominate wave, allowing the game to ramp dorsum upward after moments that feel especially climactic. It takes a break from kick the crap out of you, and that keeps Horde'south tension from tipping into exhaustion, at least until you fail a moving ridge a few times.

As for competitive multiplayer, as always, it will take fourth dimension for Gears of State of war 4 to show whether or not it has the legs to keep an audition and build a community. Just the ingredients are there, and information technology feels like The Coalition is off to a bully start. The decision to crash-land Gears of War 4's frame charge per unit in multiplayer to threescore frames per second, over the campaign'southward 30 fps, offers specific improvements to the game'due south controls and responsiveness (which were already pretty not bad). In return, Gears iv is the best-playing multiplayer in the series. Twitch response is dramatically improved, and there are fewer moments where expiry feels like it came because you lot couldn't turn in fourth dimension.

The maps I've spent time with so far take a skilful mix of encompass points and line of sight, and there almost always seems to be an opportunity for strategic motion and positioning. I'm more than concerned with the number of modes Gears of War 4'southward multiplayer is trying to focus on. It's non that anything in particular is badly implemented. Arms Race is a fun gimmick for people who liked Gun Game in the Telephone call of Duty games. Dodgeball — where each player has a single life, but is "tagged" back into the match when a member of the other team dies — is inspired, and leads to some keen dorsum-and-forth stories. But I wonder how many of those modes volition be alive a few months afterward the game launches, and whether that variety might hurt the community'southward ability to coalesce around specific game types and grow from there.

Microsoft and The Coalition have likewise committed to an aggressive, if confusing, DLC plan where new maps will exist free of charge for all content in most circumstances — offline being the exception. It would announced that Gears of War 4 and the Coalition are post-obit Halo v and developer 343's atomic number 82 with an aggressive post-release update schedule of new content, which should bode well for the game's longer-term prospects.

Wrap Upwards:

Gears of State of war 4 is a remarkably consummate package.

When I was finished with Gears of War four'southward entrada, I remember wondering why it didn't practise more than. The adjacent morning, I was playing the game once again, not out of obligation, but because I wanted to. Taken all together, Gears of War four doesn't completely reinvent the genre, and it's not always "bigger." But it's a remarkably consequent, complete package with the kind of refinement and focus few other games can manage, providing excellent solo, cooperative, and competitive options that rank it as one of the best activeness games of 2016.

Gears of War was reviewed in part at an outcome held at The Coalition's Vancouver offices over the form of 3 days in September, as well as time spent with a pre-release "retail" Xbox lawmaking provided past Microsoft. The game was played alternately on a Windows 10 PC and Xbox I Southward. You can find additional information near Polygon'due south ethics policy hither.

Gears of War 4 Xbox One X Review UPDATED