Hyped or Afraid? E3 Special: Gears 5 (it’s Gears of War 5)

<p>Why shorten the title&quest; &lpar;only fans can do that&rpar;&period; Why continue with &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Swarm” even though they’re just the locust&period; Why continue this series without any innovation or dynamic elements&quest; &ast;Sees Funko pop game&ast; Dear Sweet Jesus are you kidding me&quest; Well&comma; I’m kind of scared of what’s to come for the Gears of War franchise&period; It’s slowly being whored out and what could be next&quest; I’m expecting aGears of War Battle Royale soon enough&period; So no surprise that Microsoft would present Gears &lpar;of War&rpar; 5 and it was met with excitement and a little heartache&period; Maybe people are so happy that there’s an exclusive coming out next year&excl; But I may have some doubts and some praise for Gears &lpar;of War&rpar; 5&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Expanding the World of Sera<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;static&period;gamespot&period;com&sol;uploads&sol;original&sol;1578&sol;15787979&sol;3398474-gears-5&lowbar;squad&period;jpg" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From the initial E3 trailer&comma; we saw the world of Sera is bleak&comma; cruel and pretty grey from the off-set and &ast;sees the remainder of trailer&ast; wow&comma; color&excl; I can’t believe that the developers gave the world more depth in terms of environmental designs and color&period; I thought that Gears of War 4 just reflected industrial&comma; futuristic areas and plain boring gothic areas which lack any real charm&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Now the original games were very grey&period; Gears of War was set mainly within decaying urban areas and at the time&comma; the graphics were limited&period; Thankfully as the original series went on&comma; Epic games decided to push the boat and show more of the planet Sera with different terrains implement different weather effects and add vast detail to the environments thus creating a high level of world building&period; Gears of War 4 took a step back but now we’re seeing the same progression with some cool look landscapes and methods of traversing the world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>A strong leading lady<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;cgmagonline&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;06&sol;microsoft-reveals-gears-of-war-5-two-other-gears-games-1280x698&period;jpg" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Kait is pretty badass and stood out from the main cast of Gears of War 4&period; JD was fine but a little bland and Del while funny was mainly the comic relieve&period; Kait showed a personal attachment to the events of the new series&period; And she displays emotional gravitas and a firm capability to kick ass&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The original series decided to take the concept of the lone action hero and make it about the group&period; Thus we have four muscle-bound guys taking on armies of Locust and it worked very well&period; Now the tables are turning once again but with a female lead&period; This is an interesting idea as nowadays we see in most genres of films and games&comma; particularly action&comma; the focus of the group rather than the individual&period; Microsoft is showing us that Kait can be a strong lead regardless of gender and she can match up to any threats coming her way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even though it seems like she is guided by Marcus for a lot of the journey&comma; this is still an interesting dynamic&comma; considering his age and that Kait and he aren’t related&period; I like this approach and I’m sure it will work out for the series&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>The Swarm …<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn1&period;theouterhaven&period;net&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;06&sol;gears-of-war-5-screenshot-05-750x422&period;png" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I’m still not massively convinced that developers&sol;publisher and producer Ron are confident on moving away from the Locust&period; I like the more feral enemies of the new Gears of War trilogy but having the Swarm be born from puddles of the old locust is just a cop-out&period; Even more so when you have crystallized Locus enemies and a boss fight which is a Brumak with crystals over its body&period; It’s a shame really as its pretty underwhelming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I understand the theme of evolution and the new enemy is the next step up from the Locust&comma; but they look identical and now wear the armor to match&quest; Boring&excl; I hope to God that the Locust Queen doesn’t come back as some form of regenerated Swarm master-mind&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I’m not holding my breath&period; But I like to see more feral enemies or maybe we’ll get an induction to another faction altogether like we did in Gears of War 2&period; Then again&comma; I wouldn’t&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>More layers to the story&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;iamag&period;co&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;06&sol;Gears-of-War-5-4-1024x561&period;jpg" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As mentioned before&comma; Kait as a personal stake in this and there seems to be more character driven conflicts at play for Gears 5&period; The original games offered great characters but the stories were really just about survival and finishing the war that started for no good reason&period; The lore and history of Gears have always been a little lackluster and despite reading the comics and novels&comma; you don’t get much emotional investment or a well-constructed world that explains character motivations&period; By which I really mean the Locust&period; They’re just dicks really&excl; Plus we never know why people are still on the planet Sera&comma; why there’s an Australian there and really just why of anything&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But know we’ve got a glimpse of something more meaningful&period; What connections does Kait’s family have with the Locust&quest; It’s pretty interesting and hopefully&comma; the writing will be much stronger at this point&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Gears of War is still brutal than ever&excl;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;thumbs&period;gfycat&period;com&sol;FelineBlackCranefly-size&lowbar;restricted&period;gif" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I love the mayhem&comma; brutality and the level of tension in the trailers&period; The Coalition has captured the raw insanity of what made Gears of War a beloved tactical shooter&period; In Gears 5 we’re seeing more melee combat which if done right can add a new layer to the combat of Gears&period; It was attempted before and while not awful&comma; it didn’t have a lasting effect&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There seems to be a bigger focus on fighting in enclosed spaces which can increase the intensity and a frantic note to the combat between the tactical moments&period; This seems more dirty&comma; more hands-on and isn’t solely reliant on firearms&period; Love it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Overall&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>While this is a step in the right direction&comma; I’m personally not entirely sold&period; Just because the last few games weren’t as good as the first two&period; Gears 4 played it way too safe but then again this could be intentional&period; Star Wars did this were they gave fans what they&&num;8217&semi;re used too then deliver something a little more developed in the sequel&period; Once the fans and newcomers are engaged then could the developers advanced the framework&sol;gameplay&period; My passion for gears has been gone since 2011 but I’m willing to give this series another shot&comma; even if it’s for nostalgia reasons&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;