The original Gears of War was one of the games that helped launch Microsoft's XBox 360 way back when. It is only fitting that Gears of War 4 is one of the bigger games in the early stages of the next generation XBox One. However, it doesn't have nearly the kick that the original game did.
One of the problems with any game series that goes on longer than three or four games is that it will almost always struggle to feel fresh. Gears of War 4 suffers from this regularly throughout the game. While the combat of the series is still fun, it does feel a bit dated at this point. The first two games set the tone of run through a linear level, hide behind waist-high objects, pop up and shoot. Gears of War 3 did a good job changing up the gameplay a bit, including enemies that can hit you behind cover which forced players to keep moving rather than hunkering down as in earlier games. Gears 4 attempts to replicate that, with various degrees of success.
Several new enemy types do encourage players to move from cover to cover, including carriers, snatchers, and pouncers. Some of them, however, actually overcompensate. You won't spend much time in cover at all when fighting a snatcher or carrier, and there's actually an advantage to staying exposed against pouncers. Instead of hunkering down, you can find yourself struggling to stay out of cover - something not always easy given how frequently you will run in areas loaded with cover. Early game robot enemies function similarly to the new Locust creatures, with sniper equivalents, scion equivalents, and juvie equivalents. (Think of juvies/trackers as tickers/lambent wretches.) There's a lot of "masking" for new things here; meaning, they redesign a bunch of stuff to make it look new, but actually functions almost identically to enemies in past games.
The weapons are sort of the same way. While there are a few new additions, a number of them are just re-tooled weapons of the past. The dropshot, for example, is functionally the same as digger launcher of Gears 3. Even more, the story is pretty much more of the same as well. It's essentially an amalgamation of Gears 1 (isolation on a mission) and Gears 2 (the mission turns into finding a loved one). The only thing really new about the game is that it is a bit more colorful, openly humorous, and has a neat soundtrack. Much of the game feels a bit like they were playing Naughty Dog games for a while before pitching concepts. Marcus's son JD, who is the character you play as, is basically Nathan Drake, and the environments appear a bit influenced by The Last of Us.
It also suffers from the same mediocre boss design problem that has long plagued the series. Bosses have never been especially challenging to begin with. It doesn't help that they constantly hold your hand the entire way through. Maybe next game, we can skip the characters yelling directions on how you should fight the monster? It's slightly condescending.
The character design is top notch, and can easily be one of the things Gears of War as a franchise doesn't get enough credit for. The characters here are genuinely likable as well. However, that is not enough to make up for its narrative shortcomings. In Gears 1 sees the parameters of your mission constantly changing, the time jumps and new objectives acquired by Anya further enhance the isolation of their mission. Here, the entire thing just feels like one giant fetch quest. Sure, it is functionally the same, but because the entire game has a singular focus, everything just feels dragged out. The act in which you have to chase down a snatcher that nabbed Marcus goes on for far too long.
Interestingly, the best parts of the story were in the early stages. We get to see a post-Locust world, and it is one that deserved more attention. The COG have become tools in a dystopian sci-fi environment with an authoritarian government. There is division growing among the human population. Unfortunately, this intriguing story element is brief, and overloaded with robotic enemies that aren't particularly fun to fight. Eventually, the story changes to be about the return of the Locust. Locust make better enemies, but a less interesting story. Throughout the game, it seems like the main story should be about Marcus and JD reconnecting as family. While it's there in a very, very subtle manner, that too does not get the attention it should.
Additionally, it embraces the Force Awakens thing wherein to capitalize in fan nostalgia, they undermine their previous work. Gears 3 had a great ending, concluding a subtle, but poignant character arc for lead Marcus Fenix. With all he had been through - with all the people of Sera had been through - peace was earned. Marcus concludes the series by tossing away his weapon and looking forward to a future of planting tomatoes and starting a family. The ultimate irony of the franchise is that the lead protagonist was a "gear of war" who did not, turns out, actually like fighting.
While Gears 4 does continue with the concept that he will fight if he has to, it just felt like it took away from Gears 3's conclusion. It didn't help either that when Cole says that he kind of missed the Locust, Marcus says something to indicate a similar position. This betrays the central, most compelling aspect of the character. Plus, all the horrible things that he's endured - the loss of his wife, estrangement from his son, disconnection from the world, and then the loss of his home - it all just changed the sense of satisfactory ending of the last game. Playing as JD was fine (even if he was a bit too "quippy"). For my money, I'd rather they have just left him out of it and allowed him to actually have the peace he earned in the original trilogy.
Still a fun game, Gears of War 4 doesn't exactly provide anything discernibly new. Yet it delivers on what you would expect from the franchise. Many design elements feel dated, but the combat is as enjoyable as it was before.
REDUCTIVE RATING: It's Fine
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