19.10.2016

I'll try not to reveal too much about the game but warning, there may be some SPOILERS ahead. You have been warned.I.ve been looking forward to this game for quite some time. As a massive fan of the original Gears Of War trilogy I was excited to be getting a true sequel after the (in my opinion) slightly underwhelming Gears Of War Judgement. For those that don't know, the original trilogy took place roughly 15 years after "Emergence Day" (the day the Locust, and main antagonists of the franchise first appeared and wreaked havoc on the humans of Sera) and told the story of the last two years of the conflict and end of the Locust vs Human war. In the original trilogy you played as Marcus Fenix,a gruff, testosterone filled, tough as nails soldier in the CoG army and leader of a four man team named Delta Squad, consisting of Dominic Santiago, Damon Baird and Augustus 'Cole Train' Cole. Along with the other three members of Delta, Marcus pretty much single handedly defeated the Locust horde and saved humanity, and in the process became a fan favourite of Xbox 360 players across the globe.Gears 4 takes place 25 years after the events of Gears 3 and the end of The Locust war. Life on Sera has begun to get back to some sort of normality. This time around you take control of Marcus' son JD. Once a soldier in the CoG army himself, he has become disillusioned with the CoG and has turned his back on them. However all is not as it seems and a new enemy is stirring in the dark... or is it?The gameplay is solid. Classic Gears with slight tweaks and updates to make movement, cover, and combat mechanics smoother than ever. It really is a joy to play. Graphics are top notch as you would expect from a triple A titles such as this and the sound and music are great. However the story for me was a slight let down. I know this is entirely my opinion, and others may love the story, but I felt it was all a little bit safe. The characters felt a little mundane. JD, whilst a solid leading man, for me, lacked that spark that endeared Marcus to fans of the franchise. His squad members, Kait and Del, can't really hold a candle to the original Delta squad and their dialogue and interactions with each other just feel uninspired. To me it was telling that the highlights in the story, and easily the strongest moments character wise are when, the now slightly greying, surviving members of the original Delta squad show up (R.I.P. Dom, it still hurts.)The story arc itself was relatively strong, but again, no real fireworks anywhere. Don't get me wrong there is plenty of action, lots of bad guys to shoot, lots of things to go BOOM, and some gorgeous and interesting locations. Plus the wind flares make an interesting addition to the game, change up the mechanics when you have to fight not only the enemy but also the environment, and make for some truly great spectacles. But like I said before, it all just feels a bit safe. The main gripe I have is the enemy itself. I was really expecting more. I was expecting a completely new enemy. Ok, maybe some links to the Locust, but at least some kind of interesting and engaging story about what these new enemies are and where they've come from. What we ended up with however is (SPOILER) Locust version 2.0. Oh what's that, you didn't actually manage to kill the Locust in Gears 3, they were just 'dormant' and now they're back with some new variants? Oh, ok then.I understand why Microsoft may have wanted, and therefore instructed The Coalition to play it safe with this game. Gears is one of the most important franchises to Xbox. Along with the likes of Halo and Forza it is one of the crowning jewels in the Xbox Ones exclusives catalogue. With the luke warm reception of Halo 5 and it's completely lacklustre storyline, Gears needed to be a hit, and for the most part it is. It may sound like i'm being incredibly harsh on the game but I suppose this game was the one I had the highest expectations for this year. Overall the game is good. In terms of mechanics and the way it feels to play I would say that this is easily the best in the franchise. I just wish they had been a little bit more adventurous and bombastic with the story line. Hopefully this will provide a solid base for them to push the boat out a little more come Gears 5.Well that's the single player portion of the game taken care of, now onto the multiplayer.Multiplayer on Gears is huge and is easily one of my favourite games to play online. My favourite Gears to play online was still Gears 1. It may be nostalgia talking but I never felt that Gears 2 and 3 quite got their multiplayer spot on. Gears 4 however is now easily my favourite of the franchise. The maps are great and for the most part very symmetrical, so neither team really has an advantage on spawn. Guns have been tuned and balanced and all seem to be equally brutal and deadly now. Gone is the hated sawn of shotgun, praise the lord. And the whole experience feels very tight and well put together. There are a few niggles. The Gnasher needs looking at regarding it's hits registering and there is a problem with players dropping out. Players can't join in mid match, which has it's pros and cons, but also the fact that bots no longer fill in the space left by a player that leaves means that often times you find that you are in a completely uneven match. It's quite common to find yourself in a game of 5v4 or even 5v3 with no hope of another player joining. This happens way too often, in my experience about 50% of the time, and needs looking at as these matches are completely uneven and aren't fun for anyone. However overall multiplayer is very solid and in my opinion the best it has been in Gears.Horde on the other hand is a complete dumpster fire, and unfortunately it all boils down to greed. Gears 4 like many other games now has "packs" that you can open to receive items. These items vary, some are purely cosmetic, i.e. character and weapon skins which don't effect the performance of your character at all and thankfully these are the only items that can be used in multiplayer. Horde however is a different kettle of fish. Horde mode for people that don't know is a wave based game where a team of 5 human players fight against ever more difficult waves of computer controlled enemies. It's a great game mode and a lot of fun. This time round though, The Coalition have implemented a class based system where different classes have different perks and jobs. These classes can be supplemented with booster cards that make their characters even stronger. Horde mode is difficult, and booster system basically turns the whole mode into a pay to win system. The fact the packs are so ludicrously overpriced (£80.00 for 100 packs which is apparently "best value") and that it's ridiculously hard to get packs by being rewarded them in game is just not on. A player can complete horde mode by surviving all 50 waves (very hard to do) and still not have enough points to get even one of the most basic packs. Add in the fact that you can't even choose what boosters or cosmetic skins you get in these packs (it's all random and luck based) you can spend ludicrous amounts of money and still not get the item you want (also the rare items reportedly have a disgracefully low chance of dropping, some people reckon as low 0.008%.)So basically, the story is good if a little underwhelming. Multiplayer is great, and Horde mode is daylight robbery. Overall i'd give it 7.5/10

13.10.2016

Gears 4 is the first Gears of War game since 2013's Judgment and the first from new developer The Coalition (disregarding the remastered original). I'd been looking forward to seeing how it measures up against previous entries in the series, but had to sit tight while the hefty 55GB install was done. Unlike other games that allow you to start playing after a certain amount of the game has installed, I wasn't able to get going until it was completely finished. Frustrating! Eventually, I was ready to go and fired-up the single-player campaign.Gameplay follows the series' template of large-scale cover-based shootouts punctuated by boss battles and, as such, feels very familiar.

13.3.2017

Let me start off by saying I love Gears Of War... I remember way back in 2006 seeing the commercials for GoW1 pre release and was blown away. I've played all the GoW (not Judgment though!) and I wouldn't like to count the amount of hours I've put in on multiplayer over the past ten years!GoW4's campaign game is solid... pretty standard and generic in a few ways but entertaining enough. New characters are introduced, JD Fenix (Marcus's son), Del, Kait & Reyna (a little twist with these two...), Oscar. Basically the game follows a camp & shoot type formula for the player with a few Boss battles. There are more than a few cheesy lines and predictable scenes but the production and graphics are top notch.

17.10.2016

Gears 1-3 are fantastic (judgement however isn't) and gears 4 matches up to its predecessors fantastically, it's just a really well made game, runs at 60fps with no frame drops at all. The campaign is very good, it has a good story and the way the appearance of the swarm is written into the lore is well thought out (I won't spoil how) and feels believable, only criticism of the campaign is its a tad short could do with 2 or 3 more hours at least on it, but overall it's a good 8/10The multiplayer is also great, nothing too different from previous games (why fix what's not broken) but a few new game types and a new variety of weapons to keep it feeling fresh,

15.10.2016

I've been playing this series since the first Gears launched 10 years ago. Back then the series won be over with its stunning visuals and with the new cover mechanic which made for a very fresh experience (I think that game was a huge part of why the 360 took off).This new offering had big shoes to fill. The Gears trilogy (ignoring judgment which came from a different studio and was a bit different in style) had told the original story but also expanded the gameplay options into a comprehensive package with the various modes including horde mode.This first XB1 and pc offering (though I didn't buy digitally so can't try it out on my 1060 card to see how it looks on my PC)

28.5.2017

I lost my dad not long ago.... and playing this has been not only an amazing experience, but having Marcus, who we all love because of just one word...."Nice!" When picking up grenades, back in the game after playing with new characters, but older, has been a pleasure. And it's kind of like hanging around with your dad who knows better, coming along with you on the single player campaign. It's like a mix of alien, and all sci fi movies involving humans being used as hosts, and gears of War in a continuation of the entire saga. The gameplay is I would say, the same as Ultimate Edition number 1 re-release but better...

20.10.2016

Basically if you were a fan of the previous gears then this is essential, you need to buy it. To those new to the franchise you may feel a little dissapointed. The story is rather underwhelming to be quite honest with you, the previous campaigns have been far more of a thrilling ride than whats on offer here and the social interaction between the last group of protagonists was brilliant. Here the two new main characters are just not likeable, they are walking cliches and the banter between them is awful. Marcus and his Son are the opposite thank god and they carry the story throughout. If your a fan of the franchise then the underwhelming story can be forgiveable just because its great to get stuck back in and find out what life is like after the finale in Gears 3.

26.10.2016

After being a big fan of the previous Gears of War games, I found myself being over excited at this new experience. The campaign gets off to a slow start but after a few years not playing it was a nice way to start. It's also slow to introduce the wide range of "bad guys" which makes previous gears so fun. Just got to ACT 4 however and now its really starting to show the full arsenal of what it has to offer enemy and also weapon wise. The new addition of weapons are okay, they are quite unquic and I welcome them to go along with all the retro classics. The online is very good and have found it more tactical than other online game, although close quarter battles are normal won with a fastest finger wins with the shotgun.

30.12.2016

I have played all the Gears franchise but I wouldn't say I was a "super fan". I can pick flaws in all of them, even this game.The loading time is ridiculous and some little touches like being able to kick certain gamers with majority votes etc, would be a huge improvement. The campaign is a real battle on insane. If you're an achievement hunter like myself, you may know GOW achievements are not easy, this game is no different. I was very sceptical about the added robotics but I can now see how they have changed it up for the better.Horde is great fun though, they have added classes to choose from so now instead of an "every man for themselves" type of horde, its much more team based.

3.11.2016

I haven't played any of the previous Gears games but thought I'd give this a go anyway. The single player campaign is just the right length (8 hours ish) and helps to get your skills up to scratch before taking on multiplayer. It is also tempting to replay whether it be to find the collectibles, increase the difficulty or try it in co-op mode. However the main hook of this game has to be the horde mode. Working with 4 other players and facing wave after wave of enemies is awesome, without being repetitive. The skill upgrades, different classes and fortifications keep you going back for more.The only issues I have is that quite often players will drop out of horde mode and not be replaced,

24.12.2016

The last Gears game was awful, the Beta for this latest release was even worse. I remember Gears being at the top of its game when it first came out, and after the Beta vowed never to touch it.So, I got a new Xbox One and this came with it. The game is a continuation of the last story told from Fenix's sons perspective, and no point ruining the story as the most important aspect is this game is amazing. For 1/3rd person action there is simply no game outside of the PC/XB1 that even comes close, its not a typical FPS run, shoot, respawn...its focused around teamwork and graphically its amazing, gameplay is amazing and the campaign and every other aspect is unbeatable. Gears used to be top of its game,

18.10.2016

From someone who has played gears in the past however never managed to get through more than an hour, I can honestly say this game was the one that had me hooked. I have sunk some serious time into it from purchase.I found the story compelling despite not having full through the old games. I never felt that I was left in the dark. The characters are a bit linear however it hasn't deduced from the experience.Graphically this game is beautiful. The colours are extremely vibrant despite being a dark title, however nothing takes away from the atmosphere.Game play is like the old gears of war games, however smooth and fluid compared to what I remember.Online mode is good, with no lag or any other issues.

16.10.2016

Gears of war is finally back and its better than ever! A fantastic campaign story set years after the 3rd game, the story builds in a very cool way explaining the return of a familiar enemy, we meet old faces along the way while setting up the future for our new cogs too, the graphics are totally superb, the best yet on Xbox one, so many cool new effects and environments and awesome weapons, the campaign is as long as previous games around 8-9 hours on an easy setting but much longer on the harder ones! Then there is the endless multiplayer options, Horde mode alone will give endless hours of enjoyment, as well as multiple other multiplayer games, all can be done on co-op or bigger teams local or matchmaking!

2.7.2017

Great game. Sadly every game you play online with have at least 2-3 people who hack the game and cheat. You'll knw them straight away. It takes all the enjoyment out of the game for other genuine players. The only consolation is that they'll never be any good at the game without the hacks. Be prepared to be frustrated especially when people fire and kill you when they dont have to even be facing you. Enemies know where you are at all times, rapid reloads of they're guns and some dont even have to reload at all. A wierd timelag when you come close to an enemy and then theyre behind you. Some strange reason when you get close to some players your gun wont fire which gives them enough time to kill you.

21.10.2016

once again the new series of gears of war was my top amazing experience I ever had in gaming last year 2016 but as the single player and multiplayer with tons of Cool intense fighting experience all together so well done but in online Greed has poison the soul of it is well respected developers . I am sad that developers of this game have alllowed so many microtransaction that any player that is true gamer realise how messed up online rewards are thx to microtransaction in this game joke you not that it freaking took me one year to get my favourite horde character skills to max level when infact by real money I could have had it in 10 seconds and that is what drives me mad as gamer this awful

Gears of War 4 - Reviews

Info

Analysis

Detail