That looks brilliant I’m guessing the new console has revived Gears 5 so it’s easier to get into for a newbie? Would love to give that multiplayer stuff a go.
HORDE EVENT: NEXUS SIEGE The Locust are back, and they are here to bring the pain! Drones, Bolters, you name it, they are all here and you will encounter a truly one-of-a-kind experience in Horde.
Every wave will see Locust enemies attacking you, each with unique stats and AI., You may even encounter Locust enemies foraging for weapons across the map to use against you.
The horde event is quite good for a change. Better variation and credit to trying something new with the new bosses. Hope they introduce these new enemies as a permanent wave set in normal horde.
Gears 5 has content on the way, and we’ll continue to release new operations through Operations 7 and 8. Each Operation will have two drops including new characters, new maps, and special events. Through the end of the year, we will have store updates with exciting new content as well as featured playlists.
Plodding along with this on PC at the moment, it's fun but very safe and at times just a bit ... dull. Something about the combat in these games has never quite clicked for me, it's decent enough but they never seem to find enough ways to shake things up and make it more interesting. When you've done one encounter then it feels like you've done pretty much everything the game has to offer. The abilities from Jack help with this a bit but they don't seem especially well integrated and the cooldowns on them are way too long so it feels pointless to use them at times.
I really don't think the "open areas" work in this either, it just feels like padding between standard encounters that I'm not really sure what allowing the player to navigate between on the skiff really adds to the experience.
The story seems pretty dull at this point as well (I'm on Act 3 at the moment). It probably doesn't help that I've not played a Gears game since 2 but even so I don't really have any backstory to lean on with most of these characters - it's notable that the highlights have been whenever any of the original characters show up.
Feels like a nailed on 7/10 game at the moment - most of the mechanics are solid enough but it's just not special in any way. That said it does look very nice so it's got that going for it!
Nearly done with this now I think, I'm on Act 4 Chapter 2 which is feeling suitably "endy".
It's been a decent enough experience but I still feel like they need to do something more to mix up the combat - it just feels like there are no new ideas at all as the game progresses, every encounter is almost identical. That core "cover shooter" gameplay is perfectly well done there's no doubt about it, but it really needed some extra elements to stretch what the player had to do more often. Once I maxed out the upgrades on the "stealth" ability that helped a bit because it allow a genuine different approach at times, but other than that the other "Jack abilities" didn't really make enough difference to the experience. Still, when it works the combat is big, crunchy and enjoyable enough so it's definitely far from being a bad experience, I just think it could have been pushed further.
Beyond that though I think the bigger problem is that a couple of the the gameplay mechanics in this is are fundamentally at odds with one another to the detriment of the overall package. Littered throughout each level are collectables, some of which are simply there for "lore" purposes and can easily be ignored (does anyone really give a gooseberry fool about the story to this franchise?) but there are also "components" that you can find to upgrade Jack's abilities which, although as stated I don't think do enough to shake the game up, are pretty important to making the game more enjoyable and achievable as they make your life easier in various ways. So you want to get these upgrades to make the game more enjoyable but the actual act of hunting around levels looking for them is not really fun at all and ruins the pacing of the gameplay. If you cut these scavenger hunts for items out and just had the game move from one intense combat encounter to another in a smooth and steady flow I think the game itself would be wholly more enjoyable.
I really enjoyed Gears 5 but I did play the campaign entirely in co-op online. The fact that the online for MP and co-op has dedicated servers means it's lag free completely. It's also eye bleedingly gorgeous at times (Series X). The fighting mechanics are samey, and although others didn't like the out door areas, personally we enjoyed searching about and doing side quests, it's a break from the never ending rigid set piece bombast of the linear acts.
Oddly enough, the Hivebusters DLC (free if have Gamepass Ultimate) is a throw back to classic Gears of War, with some of the things very reminiscent of experiences in the original Gears trilogy. It's short, (2-3hrs) but again, it's LUSH AF!
There's going to be a large enough gap till Gears 6 which is going to be on Unreal 5 along with a new IP which I'm looking forward to.
I’m guessing the new console has revived Gears 5 so it’s easier to get into for a newbie? Would love to give that multiplayer stuff a go.
