➤ The definitive edition? 🎮

First step towards the unified Xbox platform that Microsoft seems to have in mind for a while now, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is the remake of the third person shooter by Epic Games that revolutionized the genre in 2006, offering a solid gunplay like never before. and a multiplayer sector that made history.

The war that devastated the planet Sera, the personal stories of Marcus Fenix and the desperate attempt of his team to repel the attack of the cruel Locusts are therefore told in a renewed and spectacular guise, thanks to the use of excellent quality cutscenes, remade from scratch, which however represent only the proverbial tip of the iceberg for a remastering work carried out with passion, attention to detail and intelligence, in which the developers have enjoyed enrich the scenarios with unpublished details functional to the plot. The Xbox One version of the game had certainly convinced us in this sense, while ultimately offering an excellent technical sector but less brilliant than what could be expected from a first party production of this level, see the choice of 30 fps for the campaign in single player and some small uncertainty in performance. Absolutely nothing to say, however, on the yield of competitive multiplayer, which ran at sixty frames per second and which quickly won over both nostalgic and novice, making its debut successfully in eSports. So what were our expectations for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on PC? Simple: an even more advanced product, without limitations from a technical point of view but with the same, very valid contents of the Xbox edition. Have we been satisfied?

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition confirms itself as a remake of great value, but with fluctuating performances

The single player

On the front of the structure, as already mentioned, the Windows 10 version of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition takes up exactly what was seen on Xbox One, in this case a single player campaign enriched by the five chapters originally present only in the first edition for PC, for a total duration of about ten hours.

The story is playable in cooperative multiplayer mode and is supported by a side of interesting extras that are unlocked as you go, such as the Gears of War comics. The missions offer exciting firefights but also challenging bosses (like the one, unprecedented, with the huge Brumak), and are equipped with crossroads that enhance the replayability of the campaign, to be completed several times by focusing on co-op and difficulty levels. higher to get an exhilarating challenge. Of course, the artificial intelligence of companions and enemies has remained the same, discreet but often subject to blunders: on the one hand an active attitude is evident during the stalking, with the Locusts coming out of the shelters and coming towards us for a frontal attack; on the other hand, it often happens that they do not notice our presence when we go around them and approach them, giving rise to at least bizarre situations. The very solid gunplay strongly enhances an arsenal full of personality, thanks in particular to the limited quantities of ammunition available around each single weapon, which lead to often change the equipment we use in battle and, therefore, to discover the advantages of alternative instruments.

The multiplayer

The nineteen maps of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition ensure a great variety and different strategic approaches in competitive multiplayer, which is in many ways the focus of this production. As happened for the campaign scenarios, the locations remained consistent with their respective original versions, introducing however substantial changes to the polygonal structures and, of course, to the textures.

The feeling of historical stages such as Ingorgo, Mausoleum or Canali has remained unchanged, the positions to be conquered to have more chances of winning are the same, as well as the location of the most powerful weapons (Boomshock, Hammer of the Dawn, Arco Torque, etc. ) and grenades. For the nostalgic, it is therefore a bit like going home, with the big difference of 60 frames per second, which change the cards and deliver an experience that has never been so fluid and responsive. On the modality front, every effort has been made to combine numbers and popularity, with a total of nine variants including Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill and War Zone, but also more "restricted" modes, such as Gnasher Execution for four participants. In terms of unlockable items, the seventeen characters from Gears of War 3 stand out. There is also a selector on PC that allows you to set the geographical area for matchmaking, so as to take advantage of the servers with lower latency, but unfortunately there is an element that would have been missing. certainly increased the value of this production, namely a cross-platform feature to make sure that Windows users could challenge Xbox users and vice versa. The servers have only been open for a few minutes: although we have few doubts about the quality of the online experience, given its central role in the framework of the product, we will update the article to confirm that everything is working properly.

The multiplayer - update

As promised, here we are to take stock of the functionality of the multiplayer sector of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition for PC a few days after its launch. The contents, as mentioned, are the same as the Xbox One edition, which we have been able to try for quite some time; we also confirm the lack of cross-platform, a feature that in our opinion, in the perspective of a unified Windows platform, should have been among the priorities of the developers. Unfortunately, the Microsoft infrastructure leaves much to be desired, with some sensational shortcomings and various problems affecting the Windows Store, in particular as regards the download and update of the application. During the online games, the lack of technical optimization already reported for the single player is also paid, with shots that force you to lower the graphic parameters in order to count on the fluidity necessary to obtain a certain precision during movements and attacks. Not the show of strength we expected from DirectX 12, in short. Fortunately, we are talking about aspects that will certainly be put in place with the next updates, and which are hinged on a solid and efficient frame, with fast matchmaking (but be careful to get an open NAT), many online users and able games. to engage and entertain just like on Xbox One.

The PC version

Beyond what has been said about the excellent gameplay and the rich structure of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, which we already know and which we have appreciated during these months on Xbox One, it is clear that for the PC version the discourse relating to the sector technical is central. We are in fact faced with a title that on paper uses DirectX 12, which can go up to the resolution of 4K, has no limitations in terms of frame rate (you can freely decide whether or not to block the fps at 30) and therefore should being able to shut the mouth of those (myself first) had pointed out some opacity in the console version.

Well, so far we have often talked about the new Microsoft libraries for their contribution in terms of performance, waving benchmarks with incredible results compared to DirectX 11. Unfortunately we have not had the opportunity to appreciate such wonder, instead experiencing a frame rate that often becomes a dancer in the open field (although the situation improves with the dedicated NVIDIA drivers), all on a system capable of running Dying Light: The Following at 60 frames per second, Rise of the Tomb Raider with respectable performance (net of some tricks ) but above all Batman: Arkham Knight (of course the reference is to the current version of the game) at 1080p and sixty frames per second with all settings at maximum. We didn't mention the Rocksteady title at random, as it uses the same graphics engine as Gears of War. The leak regarding the system requirements of the Ultimate Edition had worried us, they were too tending to high even considering the great work done on the assets, but the reality is precisely that of a game that needed a better optimization. The FRAPS counter and the NVIDIA counter are blocked by the software and it was therefore not possible for us to verify the extent of the uncertainties, but in the most agitated situations they are quite evident, especially if the texture quality setting is set to "very high", which is probably the value designed for those who play at 4K, given that we are talking about 20 GB of textures that the engine has to manage. Setting the textures to "high" and the shadows to "low" improves the situation, but there is a lack of advanced anti-aliasing adjustments (there is only FXAA, for the moment) and in the game configuration file there seem to be many effects deactivated at the start, perhaps precisely to avoid disappointing performances on machines that, in theory, should be able to run this title without problems. Let us also try to be clear here: the visual rendering of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on PC is excellent, the textures are crisp and some effects have been further improved compared to the Xbox One version, but on the performance front we expected more, considering the use of DirectX 12 and the hardware used for testing.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Processor: AMD FX 8320
Scheda video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Jetstream
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Operating system: Windows 10

Minimum requirements

Processor: 5 GHz Intel Core i2,7, six-core AMD FX
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti, AMD Radeon R7 260X
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Hard disk: 60 GB required
Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit

Recommended Requirements

Processor: 5 GHz Intel Core i3,5, six-core AMD FX
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, AMD Radeon R9 290X
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Hard disk: 60 GB required
Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit

Comment

Tested version PC Windows Digital Delivery Windows Store Price 27,79 € Resources4Gaming.com

8.0

Readers (39)

8.1

Your vote

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is confirmed on PC as a remake of great value, able to offer a gameplay still very valid today, an engaging campaign and a multiplayer sector among the best in circulation. The use of DirectX 12 should have made this edition truly "definitive", combining the extraordinary visual impact guaranteed by the highest resolutions and an unlocked frame rate also for the single player sector, but at present there are uncertainties that leave the bitter in the mouth and are difficult to justify, especially if you consider the disproportionate hardware demands of the game.

PRO

Gameplay still current, solid and spectacular
Extended single player campaign, an added value
Great job of remaking the assets, even the single player at 60 frames per second

AGAINST