A new Gears of War game for the current generation has finally arrived, and it does so with style. Not the ridiculous spectacle seen in the second and third games of the previous trilogy, but as an excellent homage to the original game. For those who have played the Xbox 360 original or the excellent Gears of War :Ultimate Edition remaster, you will feel right at home. Regardless of whether your interest lies with the campaign, the cooperative “Horde” mode, or the many competitive modes, there is a ton of value to be found in Gears of War 4.


Gears 4 kicks off with a short but entertaining prologue. This provides a basic tutorial while introducing many characters and key events. The Pendulum Wars, Emergence Day, and the defense of Anvil Gate all make an appearance.

The Campaign

Gears 4 picks up 25 years after Marcus Fenix and the remnants of Delta Squad rid the world of the Locust and Lambent threat. During this time, the world of Sera has been rebuilding under the new "Coalition of Governments" (the COG), a government that just can’t seem to shed its fascistic ways. A short but exciting prologue highlights some of the key moments in Gears’ history, while introducing the player to the major characters and gameplay mechanics. It also provides a great opportunity to see the classic Locust rendered in Unreal Engine 4 and had me yearning to replay the original trilogy.

Back in the present, we find James Dominic Fenix has gone AWOL from the COG, and is now raiding under-construction settlements to assist a non-aligned group known as the “Outsiders”. He is accompanied by fellow renegade, Delmont, and Outsider Kait. In a radical departure from the grim and devastated locations seen in the previous games, the opening act gives the player an idea of how a prosperous, peaceful – albeit rigidly policed – Sera could look. It also quickly introduces the player to a new environmental hazard, “wind flares”, huge, lightning-spewing tornadoes. Lastly, it introduces the current COG leader, First Minister Jinn, who serves as a minor antagonist and the overseer of the amusingly-voiced “DeeBee” robot peacekeepers.


While not the star of this new trilogy, Marcus is reintroduced early on and his mood has not improved substantially in the past 25 years.

After a relatively light-hearted first act, the story takes a darker turn when an entire Outsider village is kidnapped by the “swarm”, fleshy beasts that appear to be led by an all too familiar looking creature. This event kicks off a 24 game-hour adventure, similar in structure to the original Gears of War campaign. Moving away from mass military deployments and increasingly ridiculous set pieces, Gears 4 instead focusses on the chemistry between the young protagonists, JD’s relationship with his father, and the emergence of a new threat for a new generation. As much as I enjoyed the original Delta Squad, JD, Del, and Kait are much younger and combine many of the personality traits of Cole and Baird – equal parts enthusiasm and sarcasm. A pleasant change from Marcus and Dom’s incessant dour moods, although this does produce some cringe-worthy dialogue at times.

After a relatively light-hearted first act, the story takes a darker turn when an entire Outsider village is kidnapped by the “swarm”, fleshy beasts that appear to be led by an all too familiar looking creature.

Much like the original, this game gives the player time to explore the detailed environments – which tell their own story – using quiet periods to build up tension and provide exposition. That being said, the ending sequence of the game was definitely all spectacle, equal parts entertaining and amusing, and – most importantly – immensely satisfying to play through. The ending wraps up their current mission, while hinting at a much greater threat and some unexpected links to the past. I did have two nitpicks about the story however: Firstly, the number of contrived – yet admittedly amusing – encounters that ensure Jinn and her DeeBee forces remain at odds with the protagonists, when they should clearly be working together. Secondly, how are any structures, outside of the shielded COG settlements, still standing on Sera when the wind flares are shown to wreck every location they hit and have supposedly been around for a while?


Gears 4 tells a fairly grounded story, most similar to the first game, rather than the bombastic sequels. That said, it does let loose in the final act.

The campaign is where you will find some of the most balanced and rewarding gameplay, along with a stiff challenge at higher difficulties. While competitive modes may offer more dynamic opponents (apparently), the campaign offers well-constructed combat arenas, environmental hazards, a good mix of ranged and melee enemies, and the opportunity to play around with all the weapons. The experience only improves with cooperative play; you can tackle the campaign with a friend online or together on the couch in split-screen mode. Unfortunately, the four-player co-op found in Gears of War 3 and Judgment has been dropped back to two, and the split-screen has black borders which reduces the overall display area.

Over the course of the campaign you will get your hands on a range of new weapons, fight through disorientating gusts and dodge lightning strikes during wind flares, defend locations “Horde-style”, and utilize the much-needed grab-and-execute mechanic that can be used to tackle enemies clinging to the same piece of cover as you. When encountering the swarm, fleshy pods that litter infested areas provide cover, but also a potential threat as they can spawn “Juvies” when destroyed (think Wretches, only far more annoying). Overall, the game has a much better balance of ranged vs. melee enemies; you will certainly tackle deadly swarms of “Juvies” or “Tracker” robots in tight corridors, but you will also fight across many open environments, shifting from cover to cover, while avoiding incoming fire and flanking opponents.

The experience only improves with cooperative play and you can tackle the campaign with a friend online or together on the couch in split-screen mode.

The one major gameplay issue I had with the campaign was the inconsistent companion AI. While they excel at reviving downed players and closing up swarm nests (think emergence holes), they are awful when it comes to tackling some late-game enemies. One enemy in particular will carry off downed players and, if it happens to be you, the likelihood of the AI shooting at the creature to free you is entirely dependent on their position. If any sort of obstacle is in the way, you can expect to be dragged around for 30 seconds before having to restart at the last checkpoint. The “Normal” difficulty provided the most balanced experience when playing solo, whereas “Hardcore” was perfect when playing cooperatively. For the sadists (and Achievement junkies), “Insane” will prove one hell of a challenge without a co-op partner.


Gameplay is not always limited to crouching behind a waist-high wall, shooting at enemies. While not as frequent as before, Gears 4 has some entertaining and visually stunning set pieces.

Horde 3.0

Ever since Gears of War 2, Horde has been a fan-favourite cooperative mode. Up to five players can tackle 50 waves of increasingly tough enemies and bosses, with subsequent games adding the ability to earn currency that is used to build defenses. Horde 3.0 expands upon this template even further, adding a mobile “Fabricator” unit (a concept introduced early in the campaign) that can be carried around the map and used to fabricate a range of defensive structures, which can now be placed anywhere on the map. The currency used by to fabricate defenses (and to make repairs) is collected from downed enemies – rather than simply awarded at the end of a wave – making it riskier to accumulate in the middle of a firefight. Throw in numerous wave-based challenges, such as achieving a specific number of execution kills, and players will find Horde 3.0 rewards aggressive play and punishes excessive turtling.

Another expanded feature in Horde 3.0 is the class and perk system. Rather than simply levelling up a character to unlock new defense options, there are now five player classes and associated perks. Defense options now open up over the course of a Horde session, as more and more of the power resource is deposited at the fabricator. Each class has distinct perks and weapons, such as the Engineer’s repair gun, and with each level gained, more perks can be equipped per session. It is much more involved than previous games, but the balance is currently off. The Engineer is all but essential as they are the only class that can repair defenses and have numerous perks to reduce the cost, or improve the efficacy, of defense structures. Similarly, the Scout class picks up double the power resource for each enemy slain and has their own defense-related perks. During my Horde 3.0 sessions, it was rare to see someone playing the Sniper, Soldier, or Heavy class.


The Fabricator can be picked up and relocated around the map as needed. Defenses are no longer limited to specific locations and the resource pool is shared between all players, ensuring communication and coordination is essential for a strong defensive line.

Aside from the absence of wind flares and environmental kills, all the basic gameplay mechanics from the campaign are present and accounted for in Horde 3.0. With up to four human companions, the escalating difficulty is offset when you have more adaptable players and effective communication. The split-screen mode is available for Horde 3.0 and can be combined with online play to fill out the roster – something I’d strongly suggest as we never managed to complete a casual-difficulty Horde match with only two on the couch.

…Horde 3.0 rewards aggressive play and punishes excessive turtling.

Unfortunately, Horde 3.0 loses some of the balance seen in the campaign by shifting the combat towards messy melee or shotgun-range engagements. With the exception of the first three waves of a 10-wave cycle (that is 1-3, 11-13, 21-23 etc.), the game throws an ever-increasing number of enemies that will charge to melee distance. This can make sense for certain opponents (shotgunners seem to be the majority humanoid enemy in any given wave), yet I found that even enemies carrying rifles would simply empty one clip before running up to melee the player. It turns the majority of waves into chaotic brawls that render most of the arsenal useless and only emphasize some of the weakest, most imprecise combat mechanics in the game. If you don’t always hold onto a shotgun in a weapon slot, you can expect to have a miserable time trying to hold off the horde.


The split-screen mode works well when playing the campaign and Horde 3.0. Unfortunately, the display is cropped on either side and there were some minor but noticeable framerate drops during larger battles.

Competitive Multiplayer

Full disclosure - I’m not much of a competitive gamer, nor have I ever taken to Gear’s competitive modes. For a time, I played a lot of “King of the Hill” matches in Gears of War 3 and – with a constant, reliable team – I enjoyed the objective-based mode that kept players moving around the map and holding points together. With my former teammates having moved on to other pursuits, my multiplayer experience this time was primarily with random players, devoid of communication, and primarily played out as one-on-one encounters as my teammates were scattered across the map. Over a few hours spent in the competitive modes, 80% of my deaths came at the hands of a Gnasher shotgun, blind-fired at close range. Nothing much has changed it seems.

If you are looking to spend hundreds of hours accumulating experience, ribbons, customization items, and climbing up the global rankings, Gears 4 has you covered…

For those who enjoy the multiplayer experience, all the expected modes and customization options return intact or expanded from Gears of War 3 and Judgement, with 10 maps initially available across all modes. If you are looking to spend hundreds of hours accumulating experience, ribbons, customization items, and climbing up the global rankings, Gears 4 has you covered and then some. As with the other game modes, split-screen is supported for competitive play (you can even team up against bots if you need practice); however, the faster and more chaotic nature of these matches made it much harder to follow what was happening on screen. I would not really suggest it unless you have a massive TV.

Presentation

Gears 4 is an incredible-looking game throughout, and has near-perfect performance across all game modes. For a brief moment, I was really worried when playing the campaign – three spectacular locations are visited during the brief prologue, followed up immediately by a COG settlement still under construction. I was initially put off by the incredibly clean and sparse looking locations until I realized it was designed to show the rigid, authoritarian designs of the COG. While it makes for a bland setting in the opening hour or two, the eventual switch to an Outsider village (and all subsequent locations) feel all the more impressive in comparison.

For those who have played Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, the visual design remains similar, but with much more detail and - most importantly - a colour scale that stretches beyond grey-to-brown. Man-made environments are almost gothic in appearance, at least twice as large as they need to be, blending sci-fi elements with archaic industrial architecture. Natural environments look incredible, though the many pieces of cover can look incongruous. Once the swarm are introduced, fleshy tendrils and pulsating pods infest the environment, adding a suitably grotesque appearance to any previous designs. Wind flares and lightning strikes also look fantastic during the campaign, bathing the environment in a harsh orange glow, lashing about the vegetation, crumbling structures, and flinging around objects.


Fighting through wind flares looks incredible and also affects gameplay. Projectile weapons and grenades become wildly inaccurate, while certain objects can collapse and wreak havoc as they crash across the battlefield.

Cutscenes look incredible and voice acting is excellent, even if the dialogue itself is often awful and the one-liners have become a little stale. Thanks to the youthful personalities of the main cast, the cynical grumbling is mostly relegated to Marcus. In fact, almost every major character from the previous games will have at least a few lines over the course of the campaign. Additionally, the new leads still shout out familiar phrases when picking up a new weapon, ammunition, or killing particular enemy types; resulting in gameplay feeling both fresh yet familiar (“Get back in your pod!”). The only weak element is the forgettable soundtrack. Perhaps it was simply drowned out by constant gunfire, explosions, monstrous roars, and splattering gore, but nothing stood out for me, not even the main title theme.

For those who have played Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, the visual design remains similar, but with much more detail and - most importantly - a colour scale that stretches beyond grey-to-brown.

For the campaign and Horde 3.0, Gears 4 targets and remains locked to 1080p/30FPS, whereas the competitive multiplayer targets 60FPS and mostly maintains this with dynamic resolution scaling (dropping the resolution below 1080p when needed to push up the framerate). Playing these modes solo or online, I never once felt controller response affected, even during the most crowded scenes. When playing split-screen, however, there were slight drops and sluggish controller response in certain large battles during the campaign and Horde waves. I found it noticeable on rare occasions, whereas my co-op partner felt nothing, so it will come down to your own sensitivity to framerate.


The design of many locations is consistent with previous games – chunky, industrial architecture with massive weapons and armour. It is incredible how much better they look when someone remembers to add colour.

Conclusion

Gears of War 4 is a great return for the series. It looks and sounds incredible, just don’t expect any radical overhauls to the mechanics. For anyone who loved the pacing and atmosphere of the original game, the campaign will impress. Horde 3.0 offers more depth than ever, and the competitive multiplayer has dozens of modes, ranked matches, customization, and plenty of maps. Best of all, the series remains one of the best cooperative experiences and the split-screen mode is now supported across all game types. There is a lot of content on the disk, and both retail versions include download codes for the previous four games, all playable through backwards compatibility. If I had to make a movie comparison, it would be Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens. Gears of War 4 is excellent in its own right, but it still feels designed as a homage to the original, rather than taking risks and establishing a unique identity.