[Review]Gears 5 review – just another COG

[King_of_lion]

Act two is when the game goes big, drastically expanding the series’ scope with an environment reportedly 50 times larger than any stage in Gears history. And then there’s another sprawling playing space in the very next act, completely different in tone and topography.

But despite the bracing views across open plains, these hubs are merely means to get from one set of waist-high walls to another. That is, unless you’re particularly invested in hoovering up every last bit of lore hidden away in rotted huts and abandoned camps. Gears 5 isn’t afraid to experiment at times, sure, but gated rooms and granite jaws still reign supreme.

Kait Diaz is your new protagonist, and promisingly, she’s the first time a Gears campaign gives you someone other than a member of the Fenix clan to control (unless you count prequel Gears of War: Judgment). Kait’s on a quest to uncover the truth behind her unusual connection to enemy force The Swarm, one that has her questioning both her identity and her allegiances. That basically means she has a lot of weird visions.

Gears 5 is playable in up to three-person co-op throughout, so you’ve always got companions. The constant chatter keeps the action from feeling overly intense, even when you’re up against numerous teeth-gnashing nasties. And numerous they are. Developer The Coalition has combat down to a science, mixing and matching enemy types, level layouts, and environmental hazards with aplomb. Gears veterans will, for better or worse, recognise all the tricks.
There’s the bit where the weather goes bad and wants to kill you, which in Gears 5 takes the form of a deadly blizzard that redirects projectiles and drops massive ice shards on your head. There’s the bit where you fend off waves of charging wretches, who swarm in number and demand either close-up shotgun blasts or desperate melee attacks. There’s a writhing cloud of smaller critters that tries to engulf you like piranha. And there is, of course, the bit where you have to dodge-roll out the way of a massive spiky bloke before shooting his exposed back.
The majority of Gears 5 feels like a ‘greatest hits’ of gameplay beats compiled from 2006’s first installment onwards. 13 years is a long time to sing the same tune, and it’s in these moments that Gears 5 feels truly routine. Sure, the series’ now-vast back catalogue of enemy and weapon types does its part to keep the pace snappy, coming at you thick and fast and ensuring you never spend more than a minute without enjoying some new tool that fires buzzsaws or freezing rounds or mini mortars, but it’s also not doing much you haven’t seen before.