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Though I’m a fan of the series, my expectations were not particularly high for Gears 5. Microsoft barely showed off anything from the game’s campaign until last week, and it’s been hard to escape the feeling that the franchise is running out of ideas. 2016’s Gears of War 4 wasn’t a bad game, but it was an extremely safe and unambitious one. In my review, I said I’d be disappointed if developer The Coalition took a similarly conservative approach for the sequel.
I am not even slightly disappointed with Gears 5.
The Coalition has delivered an electrifying campaign that shakes up the Gears of War formula while preserving its inimitable action. Don’t worry, Gears 5 is as gory and intense as Gears has ever been. You still get to chainsaw hulking enemies in half. But the game adds several smart new elements and, above all, has a lot of heart.
Gears 5 is divided into four acts. Two of these acts more or less play out like every other Gears game: you’re moving along a linear path that expands into larger areas that play host to the series’s uniquely muscular take on cover-based combat. You spend much of your time hiding behind walls and pillars, waiting for a chance to get your shots off.
Here, Gears 5 is as good as Gears has ever been. The level design is tight and inventive, with each weapon and enemy serving as a welcome new ingredient. The biggest change is that your robot companion, which previously stayed invisible until you needed it to conveniently open a door, is now an active member of the fireteam and has various abilities that can be upgraded with an RPG-ish skill tree.
The developers have experimented with open-world design
The other two chapters are quite different and see The Coalition experiment with open-world design. Gears 5 isn’t exactly The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but these segments are a largely successful addition. You explore large vistas on a skiff, a mechanically implausible vehicle that’s like a cross between a kite and a Ski-Doo, and the sheer physics of the thing are entertaining enough to make you want to see as much of the world as you can.
What you will find, admittedly, is that there isn’t very much in the world. The spaces are pretty large but generally barren, with just a few minor locations and hidden items to discover. Imagine if Shadow of the Colossus had, like, 10 side missions and the horse controlled like Tony Hawk, and you’re pretty much there. It’s not a revolution in design, but the freedom to take on objectives at your own pace does make Gears 5 feel a lot less repetitive than its predecessors. This is still a game predominantly about shooting monsters. But for much of its campaign, you can at least decide when you want to shoot them.
Often, you won’t want to, but rather soak in the atmosphere instead. Gears 5 is one of the most visually stunning games ever crafted, and the skiff sections show it off at its best. From blood-red deserts stricken by lightning storms to icy tundras where enemies are just a well-placed bullet away from plunging to their watery doom, The Coalition flexes its artistic muscles as well as its technical abilities throughout the entirety of the Gears 5 campaign. It’s the most colorful game in the series, and it’s all the better for it.
‘Gears 5’ is one of the most visually stunning games ever crafted
It’s also by far the best-written one. You play as Kait Diaz for most of Gears 5, and the shift in focus does wonders. Nothing about the series’s move to its first female lead feels forced or is even directly acknowledged. Gears 5’s plot centers on Kait’s heritage, giving emotional momentum to the storytelling even as the world collapses all around your characters. The game does a great job throughout of establishing the stakes on both a personal and global level. Driven by a strong performance from Laura Bailey, Kait’s struggles play out with a surprisingly delicate touch, including some genuinely shocking moments.
Gears has always had intriguing lore that the games never quite delivered on, but 5 uses its more nuanced characters as a way to delve deeper than ever. The traditional Gears banter is still there, of course, and I won’t say that every joke lands. But the difference is the extra dimension. Again, this isn’t as radical a reimagining as, say, last year’s God of War, but it’s a big step forward for Gears.
My only real criticism of the campaign is that it ends too soon, which isn’t the worst problem to have. Nevertheless, Gears 5 spends a long time building up its antagonist without delivering a real payoff. The game essentially ends on a cliffhanger, which I suppose is a power move given the quality of the preceding hours, but I’ll just say I didn’t expect the credits to roll when they did.
It drips with passion and confidence
Gears of War 4 felt like a game made by a team with something to prove. The Coalition wanted to demonstrate that it could make a real Gears game, and it succeeded. But with Gears 5, the studio had something else to prove: could it meaningfully add to the formula and reassert the series’s relevance?
The answer is an unequivocal yes. Everything about Gears 5 drips with passion and confidence, from the heartfelt writing and depth of the lore to the structural creativity and the willingness to experiment. This game couldn’t ever replicate the technical shock to the system that the original Gears of War delivered in 2006, but it makes a good case for itself as the strongest entry in the series overall.
Gears 5 is unexpectedly phenomenal. It’s the best game Microsoft has published in many years — perhaps not counting anything with “Forza Horizon” in the title — and it establishes The Coalition as a serious creative force. Even if you’ve never been interested in Gears of War, I’d recommend checking this one out on Xbox Game Pass at least. It’s about as good as blockbuster shooters get.
Gears 5 will be available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on Xbox One and PC on September 6th, and it will be available to buy on September 10th.
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