REVIEW

Gears of War 4 Review

by Luke Walsh, October 6th, 2016

Marcus Fenix and Co have had a pretty hard time over the past over the past 10 years, since Emergence Day, they have been a crack team of “Gears” who have been fighting back the Locust. There were many times in the previous 3 Gears of War titles which were “close calls”, but Gears of War 4 sets an entirely new pace. Set 25 years after the events of the third game, the world of SERA is healing from its battle scars and the Coalition of Governments (COG) have a new plan to repopulate and reform the human race.

Due to the lack of Imulsion, their previous power source, the COG have had to reverted back to other forms of energy such as solar, wind and hydroelectric. This has put strain on the settlements, and divided some who believe the COG are oppressing them, breaking away calling themselves “Outsiders”. This sets the start of Gears of War 4, where after a quick re-cap on the previous games events, you play at Marcus Fenix’s son, JD Fenix who has joined up with a group of Outsiders. Their goal is to go to the COG settlement that is under construction to steal a piece of technology to restore power to their village. The nice thing about the Gears series is that it is easy to pick up again, although I had not played any of the Gears games for a while, I was able to quickly get used to the control scheme, cover mechanics and other bits. For those who might be new to the franchise, coming in at the most recent game (not sure why you would), it still gives you mini-tips on what you need to do.

As you progress through the first act, you begin to realise that something is happening in SERA and everything is not as hunky dory as you thought. The game does well at taking you through the story as you progress through the game with cutscenes, but also dialogue between the four main characters. As you walk through each environment characters will chat to each other, joke around and ask questions, as they learn you also learn. I thought this was a great way to infuse the narrative of the previous games, and the current events without it being too in your face.

Like the games before, characters are well acted and play off each others personalities. JD is the typical, cool guy who is mega sarcastic, he reminds me to the Kirk from the reboot Star Trek franchise, while his best friend Del, is similar but it more has a more comical with his dry and sarcastic wit. There are many times in the game where they will both be playing off one another, which really brings the characters more to life.

They’re going to mess up my f***ing tomatoes.
– Marcus Fenix

Kait is the survivalist outsider, friend of JD and Del with a subtle hint of more than friends feelings with JD. Throughout the story, Kait shows to the men of the team she does not need looking after, and is done in a way that does not make her look like a man-hating snob. It is refreshing to see a game that is predominantly muscle head men, not be just that. Her character is balanced between being tough, but also being quite complex emotionally as she develops later in the story.

Some other characters make their way into the semi-main roster with Kait’s uncle, who it’s a beefy old dude who likes wine and women. Reyna, Kait’s mother also makes an appearance, the leader of the settlement and Kait’s reason for progressing in the story after her and the whole village are taken by Locus.

As you can guess, the Locus are back, (why would they not be) with some familiar faces from the previous games which is a nice hit of nostalgia. Personally, I like how they passed on the mantle to the younger generation of heroes, without pushing too much of the “hey, hey remember me? You liked me from the previous games so, here I am” over and over. The recognisable characters you do meet come in very close to the end of the game, adding some extra cool things you get to do, like riding a giant mech fitted with a monstrous weapon. An important addition to the 4 man team though is JD’s father, and lead man of the previous titles, Marcus Fenix.

Due to the lack of experience in the team, Marcus joins the team. Fear not, the wise old man still has more than enough muscle to kill a Locust with his bare-hands. What makes a this a good dynamic is the script, which sees the war veteran hero, come back from retirement. At a point in the game at the Fenix mansion, it is under attack and Marcus’ greenhouse is destroyed, where he shouts “they’re going to mess up my f***ing tomatoes”. Still being Gears though, there are frag grenades and convenient ammo boxes located next to some fertiliser and plant pots. Seeing how Marcus has changed over the past 25 years was really uplifting, and makes for a compelling and believable story of what a veteran would do with their spare time while not forgetting about their past.

The story is good and focuses more on family this time around, instead of just trying saving the world on its last legs. There are however some points in the game where it does seem to loose it direction and falls back into the standard, let’s just kill things. Most of the story is a massive fetch quest to save Kait’s mum, and although this is done well, it can feel a little two dimensional in places. It would of been nice to see The Coalition try to move away from the pillars of the previous titles, and made it a little more of their own.

Along with the Locust making a return, some new Locust archetypes have appeared which changes the previous combat formula for the better. It makes sense for them to stick to the roots of Gears of War, but the added monsters change it up just enough that combat is not just exactly the same as before. Juvies are the first new enemy type you come across and to be honest are pretty much like Wretch from the previous games. They look like underdeveloped Locust Drones that act in massive groups. They are born within sacks, which by accidentally bursting, can send it into a scratching frenzy waking all the others. As you can also use their sacks as cover, it is a careful mechanic of making sure it does not take too much damage otherwise they burst open, adding more enemies to the battlefield.

Pouncers are one of the new beasts that can be difficult to deal with, they have armoured shells and spiked tails that fling quills at you while jumping around the map. They like to use cover as their points for jumping between and stops you from staying behind cover all the time, if you do they’ll jump onto your causing you to become “downed” frantically bashing B to get them off. One other new monster I found particularly frustrating were the Snatchers, you come into contact with them quite early into the game but don’t fight them until the later half. They have the ability to down you or a teammate in one shot, walking over and sucking you up into their body. This is where you need to pound it with all your ammo to make it coughs up the person inside. This is great in theory, but sometimes the AI can be a little slow to empty a magazine into it, allowing it to leave the map and it is instant game over. The first time to you do fight one, you’ll be in a small area where it can quite quickly escape so be prepared to reload the save quite often until you manage to control its behaviour, making it chase you around the map.

On the other side, there are new robot enemies to deal with each one requiring a new slightly different tactic to combat. As they like to come in hard and fast in large numbers, they require a different approach than the Locust you’ll be used to. They do take on similar roles like the old enemies though, one is a grunt, the other is a bigger brute and there is also a shielded flying robot that fires rockets.

Weapons in Gears of War 4 are plentiful with a good mix of old school ones you’ll recognise, and some new ones to spice up the mix. The Lancer is back and still packs a punch with a chainsaw on the end, but the default one given to JD and his team are a customised variant picked up which sports better accuracy, recoil and magazine size. Some other weapons such as the Locus ones are weaved into the story, where you stumble upon where the bodies of the Locus were stored along with all their weapons being able to pick up the Hammerhead, Boltak and Torque Bow. Once the Locust come back, it’s no longer just a case of finding them on the ground but off their recently bullet torn corpses.

The new weapons that really pack a punch is the rarer Buzzkill weapon that spews ricocheting saw blades that can slice through enemies in one go. Dropshot is the other killer weapon, that sending airborne mines into the air that can come crashing down on the enemies. Both weapons are extremely satisfying and allow you to get enemies hiding behind cover with the correct angle of the saw blades or dead on top of an enemy.

Gears in its prime created the third-person shooter mechanics that we see today, learning to cover, getting an active reload and firing upon enemies with the bonus. There is a chess like element to the combat where your position and your allies are vital to success. Gears of War 4 brings in a new mechanic to shake up the standard hiding behind cover, with the ability to pull enemies from cover and instantly kill them. The mechanic is not also limited to just you, sitting behind cover for too long can cause your enemy to do the same to you (which can be countered), keeping battles always moving rather than becoming a stalemate.

Multiplayer is to Gears of War, what fish are to water. The competitive multiplayer is still almost perfect with your previous modes back once again, but in full 60fps such as King of the Hill, Execution and Warzone.

The new map types are what sets The Coalition apart from the previous creators. Arms Race is a weapon swapping match where players will start with the Boomshot, the most powerful weapon and after three team kills switch to a less powerful weapon ending on the pistol. Escalation is a twist on King of the Hill, where teams need to capture up to three control points. Each control point speeds up the counter which finishes at 120, scoring a point for the match. The matches go on for 10 rounds and can end quickly if one team holds all three points for 6 seconds. This mode definitely has the most eSports potential, but matches can last for 30 minutes which can sometimes be a little too long.

Alongside multiplayer, Horde mode has had its biggest change since it first appeared in Gears of War 3. Each team player has a class and set objective which is centered around the Fabricator which allows you to build defences such as turrets, attractors and barricades. Classes range your typical Soldier, the Engineers who looks after the Fabricator, the Scout who has the ability to travel around the battlefield, the Sniper who can take out enemies from a distance and Heavy with most powerful weapons.

Classes add some spice to Horde mode but what makes a big difference is having to move around to keep the Fabricator powered up. If you try and stay in one place, the energy will run out which means no more defences and the ability to revive players is lost. This makes playing your class well vital to success for the group, otherwise you could leave a gap for the Horde to plough through. If you don’t have a chance to play with friends, the story does have sections within it that allow you to taste the Horde mode but does not show it at its best. Horde 3.0 works well when you are in a team that can work together, and the AI just does not have that same fluidness and reactiveness to the different things that can happen in the online mode. Although in the story mode it works, it by far is no where near as fun or exciting as the real thing.

The Coalition have started with a solid attempt to continue the Gears franchise. There are a couple bits that could be better in terms of fleshing out the narrative, more for the main story and trying to make it their own rather than follow the previous formula. As a new developer though, they have set a good foundation to build on and take Gears of War in a new direction. The gameplay is solid, and has it own little tweaks to bring it more into the next-gen era. With the new addition to the monster archetypes the combat feels different, but still treats the previous way with respect but does have some frustrations from the monster AI and level design in some battles.

It is great first insight The Coalition have given us as the new developers for Gears of War 4, and look forward how they can continue to expand the franchise but also watching them grow as a team and come into their own to really bring out the best in Gears. If you are a fan of the series, you’ll definitely enjoy the title, and new comers get just enough handholder and back story for it to make sense to get through it without going backwards to do it.