➤ Gears 5, the review for PC 🎮

La Gears 5 review to PC arrives a few days after the article dedicated to the Xbox One version, so as to be able to tell you not only how the new episode of the series developed by The Coalition on the most powerful Microsoft platform, but also how open server online multiplayer works, although for the moment reserved only for users who have the Ultimate Edition of the game or an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. But let's take a step back, returning to the general picture. After a rather conservative fourth chapter, made without daring too much in order to take measures to the franchise, Rod Fergusson and his collaborators have finally introduced some important innovations in Gears 5, both from the point of view of the campaign and the online sector.

The first, divided into four acts, sees a real passing of the baton from JD to Kait in the role of protagonist, enchanting us with a traditional introductory phase in the mechanics and in the structure but damn beautiful to see and capable of proposing a much more mature and profound narrative than in the past, in particular as regards the characterization of the characters. The second and third acts are the freshest and most original, as they take an approach openworld with a freely explorable map, providing us with a vehicle (the Skiff, a sort of sled sail) useful for covering long distances from one point of interest to another and inserting for the first time a set of secondary missions that are added to the main ones, increasing the duration of the experience.

The novelties do not stop at level design, however, extending to an unprecedented aesthetic, which passes from the cold shades of the snow-covered lands to the bright red of the sand expanses, in a work of chromatic enhancement that clearly cuts the bridges with the ocher tones of the original trilogy. The fourth and final act returns to the classic tracks for a dramatic and never so spectacular final confrontation, which for a particular event also opens up to replayability and therefore allows you to enjoy a second run, perhaps in a cooperative online (or locally via split-screen), raising the difficulty level for an even greater challenge. In short, let's talk about one campaign extraordinary, which on PC can count on an even more intense atmosphere thanks to the incredible detail that can be obtained on high-end configurations, as we will see shortly.

The multiplayer

The sessions multiplayer organized by the developers before the release of Gears 5 obviously did not give us a real picture of the situation a server open, and so on the occasion of this second review we had the opportunity to better try the sector online. After a first day with some too many uncertainties, especially in accessing the games via lobby selection, things started to get going and in any case we never encountered problems related to excessive latency, a sign that the infrastructure is working properly. . We will see how the global release of September 10 will be handled, because it is clear that with the various Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, the servers will be literally stormed by millions of people.

Il cross-play of the game extends to all areas: this means not only that it is possible to start the campaign on the console and continue it on the PC thanks to the loading of the saves on the cloud, but also that it is possible to play online without distinction of platform, entrusting the subdivision to matchmaking between users holding a controller and those using it mouse e keyboard, clearly advantageous in terms of precision and speed of aiming. This distinction is fundamental in terms of match balancing, and to prove the facts we found no anomalies that were not simply due to the quality of the connection, which is always visible to each user from the recap screen. That said, the multiplayer of Gears 5, just like the campaign, is presented as a rich mix of traditional and novelty modes.

By selecting the Versus item from the main menu, you can access the brand new Arcade Mode, an alternative version of Team Deathmatch in which the points of kills count and each character can pursue growth within the game, using the credits earned with unlock weaponry different. A few examples: Kait can access the Boltok pistol, incendiary grenades and the Torque Bow, Keegan can obtain the Buzzkill, Mulcher or RL-4 Salvo, Mac can call shock grenades, a Lancer GL or a Boomshot, and so on. Street. Have you heard any new names? The ten selectable characters include not only the heroes of the campaign (the aforementioned Kait, JD, Del, Fahz and Marcus Fenix), but also two Spartan soldiers from Halo (EMILE-A239 and KAT-B320) and the three protagonists of the new mode Escape, namely Jeremiah Keegan, Lahni Kaliso and Leslie "Mac" MacAllister. To these are added Sarah Connor and Terminator T-800 (on the front of the Swarm) from the movie Terminator: Dark Destiny for the Ultimate Edition.

What does the Escape mode? It is a challenge against time to be faced in a cooperative for three participants, in which you find yourself in the middle of a hive and you have to escape before a poisonous chemical agent spreads completely, making its way through the Locusts using the few weapons and ammunition. available along the way. Escape mode currently boasts three maps, but many more will also come thanks to the Map Builder, the new object editor that allows you to create environments from scratch and place inside the enemies and resources we want, then sharing everything with the community. The really interesting thing is that the same feature will extend in the coming months to the Horde and Versus modes: we will see some good ones, literally.

But let's go back to Versus, which beyond the aforementioned Arcade mode offers a range of decidedly well-tested options: Arms Race, in which the teams' weapons are changed every three kills; Dodgeball, an exciting challenge made up of continuous reversals in the face, since each elimination brings one of our mates back to life; Escalation, the territorial mode with the rings to conquer and defend during the match; execution, where the only way to kill enemies is to make a finisher; Guardian, reinterpretation of an old mode in which you have to eliminate the leader of the opposing team to be able to take out his teammates; King of the Hill, another very well known territorial mode, in which you have to conquer and control a ring that moves on the map; and finally Team Deathmatch e War Zone, which absolutely need no introduction.

The twelve locations currently available offer a great variety of scenarios and situations, with some new features (the ability to descend from a high wall, for example) and a truly successful design, which often takes the fight outdoors (see Claimed ), in the charm of an urban glimpse (District) or in an area traveled by a fast and deadly train (Asylum). We finally have theHorde, which with its fifty waves still represents a cooperative experience of great depth, ideal to play with friends for the necessary organization of the team. The maps are the same as the Versus, the characters instead are eight (plus possibly Sarah Connor) and each boast unique characteristics: Kait is a Scout and her Ultimate skill it is Camouflage, so it can approach enemies without being seen; Del is an engineer and can therefore access advanced defense and attack constructions, with an Ultimate calling up a team of support robots; JD belongs to the Attack class and his Ultimate causes fire to fall from the sky with a targeted bombardment.

We then Marcus Fenix, a Tank: his Ultimate allows him to automatically shoot enemies in the head; Fahz is also an Attack class and his Ultimate are the X-rays, with which to identify opponents even through walls; the two Spartans EMILE-A239 and KAT-B320 are Attack and Engineer respectively, and their Ultimate consist of an energy shield and a hologram; and finally we have the drone Jack, a Support unit that flies on the battlefield in a completely new role, of great strategic value: its Ultimate allows it to momentarily control an enemy. The difficulty levels available for the Horde range from Beginner to Master and imply a progressive increase in the health and power of the enemies, which are really many and really bad. The first waves are naturally a bit boring, but the action quickly becomes frenetic and the challenge becomes more consistent, taking on the contours of something truly inconceivable in the final stages.

The technical implementation on PC

Gears 5 is a visually stunning game when run on PC a 4K in HDR and with all the adjustments to the maximum: seeing it in motion first on Xbox One S and then on Windows 10 is an experience that is very striking for the profound difference that is perceived not only in terms of frame rate, which is exactly double compared to the console Microsoft home base (and if you want you can go up to 120 fps), but also and above all for the quantity of details and the quality of the effects that you can appreciate. We are also talking about a decidedly scalable title, which for the setting of the resolution adopts a very interesting solution: the output is left identical to that of the screen, but you can decrease the real value (which is then upscaled) without having to submit to the constraints of the official resolutions, so as to be able to squeeze your configuration to the maximum and obtain the best possible compromise between definition and performance.

In this regard, even on PC there is a function that activates the dynamic resolution and that works very well: by setting the value of the reference frames, the game will automatically change the pixel count to maintain constant fluidity in any situation, even the more chaotic and lively. You can see what actually happens by changing the settings and launching the benchmarking: on ours configuration, with an outdated Intel Core i5 6600K, an NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti and all adjustments to Ultra (including the optional texture pack), Gears 5 runs at an average of 42 frames per second at 2160p, 73 frames per second at 1440p, and 98 fps at 1080p.

This means that by activating dynamic resolution to keep i 60 fps it moves, depending on the case, between 2160p and 1800p: an excellent result, considering the extraordinary quality of the graphics. As also highlighted in the technical analysis of Digital Foundry, the guys of The Coalition have in fact pushed theU towards new heights, substantially improving the polygonal models of the characters and the scenarios, implementing very sophisticated effects (see ray tracing-style shadows) and an unprecedented degree of interaction with the settings. The end result is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful titles to watch of this generation.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Processor: Intel Core i5 6600K
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
Memory: 16 GB of RAM
Operating system: Windows 10

Minimum requirements

Processor: Intel Core i3 Skylake, AMD FX 6000 series
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760, AMD Radeon R9 280
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Hard disk: 80 GB of space required
Sistema operativo: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 10 a 64 bit

Recommended Requirements

Processore: Intel Core i5 Skylake, AMD Ryzen 3
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, AMD Radeon RX 570
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Hard disk: 80 GB of space required
Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit

Comment

Tested version PC Windows Digital Delivery Windows Store Price 69,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

9.2

Readers (63)

8.4

Your vote

Gears 5 gives absolutely the best on PC with a high-end configuration, so much so that seeing the game in action first on Xbox One S and then on Windows 10 produces an unusual feeling of amazement and leads to notice many less valued details on the basic version of the Microsoft console. The presence of an automatic scaling system allows you to enjoy the best possible visual quality without having to worry too much about the many adjustments present, which in any case allow you to scale the experience on different hardware to always find the best compromise between definition and performance. There is little to say about the quality of the experience: the campaign is absolutely spectacular and introduces several important innovations also on the structural front, while the multiplayer manages to combine the richness of the classic modes with some interesting new features, with the enormous potential of the Map Builder that will certainly be put to use in the coming weeks.