[Review] Gears 5 - One Step Forward from the Microsoft Exclusive
Compared to their rivals Playstation and Nintendo, Microsoft’s exclusive catalog is far behind for this generation. Not only the quantity is less, but also the quality of each released game often invites question marks. Not that all their exclusives are bad, but still when compared to its competitors, Microsoft looks like underdog.
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Gears of War is one of Microsoft’s flagship franchises since the Xbox 360 era, 13 years after the first game was released, the game has now been held by a new studio – The Coalition. Keeping old franchises relevant and up to modern industry standards is no easy task. But with Gears 5, The Coalition has modernized gameplay cover-based shooting typical of Gears of War with some new minor touches, some successful and some not so. What does Gears 5 look like and will Microsoft be able to prove that their exclusives can compete with their competitors? We’ll see right away.
A more personal story
Gears 5 continues the story of Gears of War 4 which ended with cliffhanger. In this game, the story is focused on the character of Kait Diaz, after letting go of his mother’s figure, Kait tries to find out the mystery behind his family, its relation to the locust and overcomes the psychological disorders that continue to haunt him. With the help of his colleagues JD, Del and Jack, who are robots like R2-D2 from Star Wars, Kait goes on an adventure to find answers to the problems he faces.
At the same time, humanity is again attacked by a new creature in the form of “Swarm” – the successor of the Locust horde in the previous 3 games. The attacks are getting more and more aggressive and the creatures created are getting fiercer, the Gears team is back together on one mainstay solution, namely Hammer of Dawn. Unfortunately the deadly weapon has been deactivated for a long time, so Gears is back in action to look for satellites that can revive the Hammer of Dawn to attack Swarm troops.
Through this fifth game, The Coalition prioritizes personal stories rather than the great wars and disasters that existed in the previous series. Not only that, it is clear that Coalition wants to deepen each character, especially the new generation trio – JD, Del and Kait which they introduced since the fourth game. Each protagonist is now presented in a more 3-dimensional way. Each is described as an imperfect hero and has his own trauma. The easiest example is the character of JD Fenix, since he was first introduced as a person who is very confident and often disobeys orders, but through this game his character changes completely because of events that he considers to be the fault of his overconfidence. The same character development goes to every other character and it’s a good move from The Coalition to make the final climax hit the player’s feelings even more.
Overall, Gears 5’s story is better than Gears of War 4, but of course not everything is perfect in the story aspect of this game. After the main conflict was introduced, the developer seemed to forget to continue the conflict until it was really the end of the game. A little diversion isn’t bad especially if the game is a little longer, but in the middle of the game, the story slowly shifts from the psychology of Kait’s character and his quest to find the truth behind him to be fetch mission which is where Kait and his trio share a joke while being shot at by Swarm. Gears 5 seemed to offer their best part only at the beginning and end of the game but didn’t know what to do in the middle, so the developers threw filler as much as possible before re-entering an interesting conflict.
Bigger doesn’t mean better
Gears of War already has a solid concept, not much else can be presented in the formula cover-based shooting which Epic Games introduced 13 years ago. But The Coalition is still trying to keep the franchise alive fresh then they present some new ideas that can be said hit-or-miss in execution.
Gears 5 is marketed as “the biggest Gears to date” and as you might expect, the game has added an open-world element to it. Now you can get around a large area using a vehicle Skiff which is basically a mix of skis and boats. In this open-world you can do various side missions that often give you new upgrades for Jack which we will talk about later.
Like God of War or more precisely Metro Exodus, Gears joins the “big map” trend by adding a semi-open-world session in the middle of the game. This session is basically a large hub area containing several point locations to explore. But it’s different from Metro Exodus where the addition of this large hub is quite reasonable considering the context of the game as well as being done as an effort to improve world-building, the vast territory in Gears 5 is more like an artificially extended game length. The game may reward you with cool upgrades for exploring the map, but there’s no lasting impression on the optional territory exploration. The execution carried out by the Coalition seems too basic and actually feels forced to be added because the next game also adds a similar open-world system.
I love it when games take long time and I love it when games have a lot of content to explore, but when the execution is so cliché and hundreds of other games have done it, open-worlds like the ones added by Gears 5 are more like checklists and doing so makes me bored with the game faster. .
The point is that the open-world session from Gears impressed pointless and even tedious to do. But on the bright side this aspect is made optional and not mandatory to continue the progress of your story.
Still the king of Third-person gunplay
Cover-based shooter has been done by dozens to dozens of developers, but Gears of War is still the king for this kind of gameplay. Gears 5 enhances the main design that was built 13 years ago in various ways. The simplest is the animation, starting from shooting, reloading, picking up weapons and taking cover, the animation from Gears 5 is probably the smoothest in the entire game series. It feels so satisfying to shoot enemies, move from cover to cover, and execute them because of the combination of animation and sound design that is so slick.
New experimental ideas are also added through this series. Remember the Jack I mentioned earlier? Jack as a robot sidekick on this game. He can not only make doors or access computers, but also plays a role in combat through the various utility gadgets he has.
Jack has 3 types of skills – Assault, Support and Passive. Assault gives you Jack aggressive action against enemies to make it easier for you to kill them such as flash, shock trap, control. Support provides various important utilities to help you in various things such as shields to make you immune for longer, sensors to make it easier to find objects, and invisibility to make flanking actions or escape easier. As for passive, as the name implies, will give Jack various abilities that benefit players indirectly, such as being able to transport heavy weapons, or allowing Jack to electrocute enemies with a larger radius, and so on.
Each skill that Jack has can be strengthened through upgrading using components. This component can be found in various areas whether it is hidden or openly visible. This encourages players to explore more often in every corner of the level because the upgrades that can be given through this component are so massive and make Jack even more useful throughout combat.
Jack’s implementation into the game may not drastically change the pattern of playing Gears, you will still be dominant in playing games like the previous series, but its existence makes Gears 5’s gameplay more dynamic and adds a few tactical elements to make it easier for you to pass the challenges that the game offers. You can finish the game without using Jack during combat, but it never hurts to take advantage of him while he’s still there to help you.
Multiplayer complete package
Gears 5 features 3 multiplayer modes – Versus, Horde and the new Escape mode. Versus is Gears’ standard multiplayer that presents a collection of game types ranging from Death Match and Capture. There’s not much to explain about this mode, if you’ve played Gears or multiplayer games in the last 10 years, then you know what Versus mode is like.
Horde is a wave-based mode where you and your team are required to survive for 50 waves of swarm attacks which are getting busier and more difficult. To make the action easier, you’ll collect points to build better defense objects and weapons. This mode is the mode that takes the longest but is also very exciting with the increasingly chaotic attacks from Swarm in each wave.
Escape as the name implies is a mode where players are required to be free from the Swarm base as quickly as possible and also avoid the poisonous gas that continues to spread widely around the map. In this mode you have to be good at using every ammo you have because it is very limited and the enemy is very aggressive and wants to finish you off. The easiest way to get ammo is from enemies you kill, but again you are forced to be frugal with the ammunition you have.
If you love the old Gears multiplayer mode, then Gears 5 will surely satisfy you. The only criticism I can make of this multiplayer game is that the number of levels the game currently has is very limited, making the game most likely only last a few weeks before it finally becomes boring to play. The loading problem also seems to be prominent in multiplayer, at least for the PC version, this can be fixed via a patch but still I have to say because it is quite disturbing playing satisfaction.
If you’re looking for a competitive game that lasts a long time, Gears 5 isn’t the game for you, but if you’re just looking for brainless fun to pass the time, especially with coop sessions with friends, then Gears 5 might be the right game.
Verdict
Compared to other big budget exclusives produced by Microsoft, Gears 5 is their best game so far. With combat that is still cool and now equipped with interesting story directors, even with an impressive middle filler, Gears 5 offers a gaming experience that is suitable not only for fans but also those who are looking for the latest shooter game to play. The multiplayer offered is also quite cool, maybe the game won’t last very long like other multiplayer games that have been circulating but it can be said to be enough to be your entertainment, especially when you have friends to accompany the coop session.
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