➤ Gears 5, the review 🎮

La Gears 5 review: the new episode of the exclusive series Microsoft, available on Xbox One and PC (this first article is based on the console version), had a lot to prove after a very beautiful but not revolutionary fourth chapter, openly used by the development team as a test bed to fully understand what they were the mechanics and structure of the game, in a work of deconstruction that would prove invaluable in the future. And here we are, precisely, to admire what the boys of The Coalition they managed to achieve, both on the campaign front and on that of multiplayer. The events narrated in this fifth chapter are placed immediately after the story of Gears of War 4 and go to deepen in particular the past of Kait, revealing important information on the girl's family and her ties with the Locusts, but also on the origin of these creatures.

The authors have managed to put together various elements in a convincing way, answering questions that fans of the saga have been asking for quite some time and using a system that tries to get out of the confines of linear third person shooters, all using a very precise progression: the first act of the campaign acts as a link with the past, whereas the following ones introduce the novelty of the Skiff, a sailing sled that allows you to cover long distances, to project ourselves into open maps that are very reminiscent of the sections on the Uncharted 4 jeep: End of a Thief and allow you to try your hand not only with the main missions but also with some secondary quests that increase the duration of the single player experience, which is around thirteen hours. Then of course there is the online component, which starts from the possibility of facing the campaign in a cooperative and extends to a mix of modes that include absolute novelties (Escape, a fight against time for three players) and very well-tested elements ( the Versus in its various forms and the Horde).

The story and characters of Gears 5

In an attempt not to anticipate anything of the history of Gears 5, we can say with great tranquility that with this episode the series takes a big step forward in terms of narration, direction and characterization of the characters. Epic Games has created an undoubtedly fascinating lore, but without ever feeling the need to deepen it too much, an aspect that The Coalition seems to have put in the first place. The introductory sequences that see JD, his father Marcus, Del and Kait venture underground, in search of important data relating to the Hammer of Dawn, are extremely evocative and definitively close the door to the ocher tones of the classic chapters, turning on settings extremely colorful and suggestive, as well as always ready to remodel itself due to a sudden collapse or an unexpected event.

The phrases that the characters exchange, especially during the cutscenes, draw a picture of great uncertainty for what will become the absolute from the second act onwards. protagonist adventure, Kait precisely: the death of his mother and the mysterious connection with him Swarm they put her to the test by causing her nightmares, headaches and visions that are represented in a very interesting way in the game, passing fromin-game action to cinematics in real time seamlessly. Even in these situations, the influence of the works of Naughty Dog appears quite evident, but Gears 5 does not in any way give up its personality and rather imposes it frequently.

For example, there is a time when we see the good old man again Cole and it seems that the character has been considerably weakened with respect to his glorious past, put a bit on the sly; until he comes up with one of his spectacular actions that save goat and cabbage, redeeming himself big time. Action and narration go hand in hand, in a skilful mix capable of creating a great atmosphere between one firefight and another, and also able to take off some whim by rummaging through the lesser known releases of the franchise. Only note: a little bit of filing is missing in the closing of some scenes and there is a moment in the campaign in which the items some characters get out of sync, which is very annoying as it is a rather important scene. A updating, we hope, will fix these little pieces of the puzzle that are still out of place.

Gameplay and weapons

The mechanisms underlying the experience of Gears 5 are those that fans of the series know well, but the developers have added an interesting extra substrate giving greater relevance to the figure of Jack, drone accompanying the characters on their missions. In its new version, the robot is in fact used to activate distant switches, open doors, sneak into the ventilation ducts in search of a device to interact with and more. Its value in battle, however, represents the highlight: Jack does not limit himself to throwing electric shocks on the enemies, but can use a whole series of special skills to be unlocked during the campaign, upgradeable through the use of components hidden around, which enhance the exploration in an important way and provide us with much more interesting reasons than the collection of tags to sneak into the rooms and hidden corners.

The value of the "powers" of the drone embraces a wide range of situations: an impulse allows us to detect enemies and objects in the vicinity, a barrier makes us invulnerable to fire and gas for short distances, invisibility allows us to circumvent opponents and the turrets, the barrier also protects us from heavy fire for a few seconds, and then again the flash stuns them locusts enough to give us a real advantage, the electric trap proves very useful against the waves, the remote control allows us to corrupt a robotic unit in the hands of the Swarm, and so on. These are very important innovations, which together with the retrieval maneuvers (Jack can grab and hand us any weapon he is on the map, avoiding exposure to enemy fire) and an excellent balance in the amount of ammunition available adds a lot to the fun and definitely makes fresher the experience.

In addition to these aspects are the new actions executable from behind a cover, in correspondence of an opponent, using the knife, and the unprecedented component stealth, which allows you to make silent eliminations where our presence has not already been detected. In support of this system we find a arsenal mostly borrowed from Gears of War 4, but with some interesting additions: the huge Mace Breaker, a war mace that introduces a new melee approach and allows you to literally tear apart enemies, even the biggest ones, in no time but has limited resistance; the Claw machine gun, which must be used for long bursts as it progressively increases accuracy rather than losing it; the Cryo cannon, which transforms opponents into ice to be smashed with a kick; Flashbang grenades, which stun anyone in range of their explosion; and the Lancer GL, which forgoes the chainsaw in favor of a powerful missile launcher.

Scenarios, structure and enemies

As anticipated, the Gears 5 campaign starts trying to offer us the best possible version of the classic formula, both from a technical and an artistic point of view. In short, the first act is an element of connection between the past and the future of the franchise, remaining anchored to a traditional structure with levels linear, without missing anything in terms of spectacularity and atmosphere. You move inside bunkers, but also in the middle of cities devastated by war, between the corridors of an abandoned hotel or behind the scenes of a theater that gives life to a particularly choreographic battle. The shades are completely new and you experience a bit of everything, from plant invasion to the mix of gold and blue, but it is from the second act onwards that things literally take off and on all fronts.

Kait takes the narrative command of the experience and her story is put at the center, leading us to visit settings as fascinating as they are fresh and diverse, which include for example a wide snowy valley and a "Soviet" region full of red sand. The developers have not forgotten about the wind storms, and this is how some of the most engaging sequences of the exploratory phase come to life, which takes place within large and freely explorable maps: small openworld to shoot aboard the Skiff, focusing on the main missions or taking the time and freedom to discover some secrets and identify secondary assignments.

Watch out, though: all quest must be completed during the run, because at the end of the campaign it will not be possible to return.

We come then to the enemies, which in Gears 5 play a role of great importance also on the narrative level due to the aforementioned link between Kait and the Locusts. Well, the bestiary that appears before us is certainly very large, going to draw on the rich roster that we already know and adding some new entry weight: the kamikaze versions of the larvae, which explode on contact; the Bastion and the Stump, corrupt mutations of robots in the service of the COG; the Guardian, who protects himself with his clubs before tearing us to pieces; new variants of the Swarm soldiers, with armor that makes them more difficult to eliminate; the terrible leeches that fly in swarm e boss like the most powerful Matriarch. An integration work has therefore been done which has the merit of increasing the types of "bad guys", adding some aberrations of sure impact and consolidating a system that already feared few comparisons.

The multiplayer modes

Gears 5 boasts an extraordinary campaign, but the series is also and above all known for its own Multiplayer, which obviously are not lacking in this new episode. We were able to try them out thanks to a couple of sessions organized by the developers, but it was a less thorough test than we would have liked, particularly compared to the amount of options available: we will keep an eye on the situation in the coming days for any adjustments.

Let's start from Versus, which we had tried during the Tech Test and which is more or less the same, obviously net of possible stipulations.

The multiplayer maps are currently twelve and offer an excellent variety, with some trespassing outside the traditional symmetrical structure (Mostra and Vasgar), and it is possible to set nine different types of match: Deathmatch Arcade, Arms Race (with weapons that are changed as kills are made), Dodgeball (each kill brings a member of our team back to life), Escalation (territorial mode in which you have to check the rings that appear on the map), Execution, Guardian (you have to kill the leader of the opposing team to be able to stop the respawn of his teammates), King of the Hill, Team Deathmatch and the classic War Zone.

La latency of each server is clearly indicated when organizing a custom game, as well as adjusting the functionality of the cross-play because users on PC and Xbox One also clash in ranked or not.

The characters are ten, but in the Ultimate Edition they are added Sarah Connor and T-800 from the movie Terminator: Dark Destiny, respectively between the ranks of the COG and the Swarm. Apart from these extra figures, the new entries are represented by the presumptuous Fahz, by two anonymous soldiers in armor and by the three protagonists of the Escape mode. The latter is undoubtedly the most important novelty of the package: it is a cooperative for three players in which you find yourself inside a Hive and you have to escape by making your way through the enemies with very few weapons and ammunition, trying to be faster than the chemical agent we purposely released into the lair to eliminate its occupants. At the moment there are four locations available, but thanks to the unprecedented Map Builder It will soon be possible to download new scenarios created by the community and share your own to offer a potentially endless challenge.

L'editor of Gears 5 is simple to use, it works by chaining predefined sections and placing inside the enemies we want: easy to imagine a great enthusiasm from users and the quick debut of many custom maps. Finally there is theHorde, which in the classic episodes of Gears of War had the undoubted merit of offering a cooperative experience of great value, with damn engaging situations to be faced with a well-knit group of companions. In the fourth chapter the charm of this mode was a bit lost due to the robots, lacking the character of the Locusts, and unfortunately we find the same setting here too, with the same energy collection and crafting system but also a renewed focus on character classes. Precisely this aspect could give the new Horde a bit of freshness, but it is an element that we will have to evaluate in the coming weeks.

Xbox One achievements

There are 68 Gears 5 Goals: an abundance also and above all linked to the multiplayer modes of the game, which in fact allow you to unlock a large amount of achievements by performing specific actions for the first time. The rest depends on the campaign: there are Objectives that are obtained by upgrading Jack to the maximum, pushing himself as much as possible in the exploration of the scenarios and collecting collectibles, but also of course by completing all the acts.

Technical realization

Gears 5 spinge l'U at its best on Xbox One, and in fact the basic console from Microsoft (in our case the S model) undoubtedly struggles in some situations, while using the expedient of dynamic resolution that scales the load according to the moment to keep the frame rate of 30 frames per second as stable as possible. It does not always succeed, indeed there are moments of obvious uncertainty and maybe some further filings will come with the updates, also because there are some glitch annoying enough that it would be appropriate to eliminate: pieces of enemies that remain suspended in midair after an explosion, for example, or the simple fact that sometimes the companions do not follow us as they should and we end up resorting to a little elegant respawn to avoid stalls.

In this regard, theartificial intelligence of this new episode keeps in line with the past: enemies lurk and change positions, but do not expect great strategies and encirclements. After all, we are talking about Locusts, that is violent creatures, angry and little inclined to tactics: there is.

The support of the companions during the action is good, with very few smudges, and the possibility of playing the entire story in co-op with friends adds an extra of great value, which, however, maybe it is worth resorting to during the second run, simultaneously raising the level of difficulty to obtain a more consistent challenge. There realization of the characters it is excellent, basically in line with what we saw in the previous episode, but there are many new animations and the cinematic sequences are really very beautiful. The absolute protagonists, however, are the scenarios, which revolutionize the style used in the past by offering an airy level design in spite of linearity, very prone to exploration for its own sake, capable of alternating very different shades of color to provide an always dynamic show, which it does not fossilize but rather experiments.

The open maps that characterize the second act of the campaign and the following ones contribute to this vision by projecting us into settings never seen before, with many evocative views, rich in elements and made with great attention to detail. Part of this approach is inevitably lost in multiplayer, although the maps included in the package have a certain personality.

The accompaniment sonoro it is excellent, extremely delicate but also capable of strongly involving during the most excited sequences, and is enriched by excellent sound effects. The dubbing in Spanish it's really well done, net of a couple of slightly out-of-focus dialogues (due to the usual "in the dark" recording?), and the performers certainly gave it a good try.

Comment

Tested version Xbox One Price 64,90 € Resources4Gaming.com

9.2

Readers (200)

8.6

Your vote

At the end of the Gears 5 review, we believe the game succeeds in taking the Microsoft series to new heights. It does so thanks to an engaging and well-directed campaign, which at first focuses on the visual impact and the atmosphere and then takes off, opening up to a different structure than usual, less linear and more oriented towards an exploration without constraints. . The spectacular firefights and the novelties of the gameplay, in particular the interesting role of Jack, keep the interest alive for the duration of the story, which once completed leaves us to a multiplayer capable of alternating the solidity of the most known modes and the charm of new entries, complete with an editor. Net of some technical uncertainty on Xbox One and a few minor flaws, the work done by The Coalition is excellent: a new benchmark for the genre.