People have waited for the return of the game that made everyone's day, Gears of War. The game's return has be said to be fantastic and I would like to say I was one of those who said it. The game itself was thought to be dead after Judgement Day's awful gameplay, but after a few developers back in the game and an alliance with another great develop company, it seemed like it never did die. Hello and welcome to this polite review on Gears of War 4!
Before I talk and spoil some things about the campaign, I have to talk about the Horde and Versus mode. There is a lot ot talk about and lots of changes that deserve to be mentioned. The horde mode has many changes to it. From the beginning it was just face the wave with the bullets you have and the fists to finish them off. From Gears of War 3, you built machines in specific spots to defend against the ever growing horde. In this edition of Gears of War, you take a mechanical box called the fabricator to a specific spot to build different defences anywhere you please to fight the growing horde of the Swarm and DMB's.
What I like is how you can move a mechanized builder to a safe area. It's a cool idea in my opinion. Instead of planting posts to build in areas that might not work for you. You build a turret anywhere and put spikes in any entryway. It's a creative idea and can make the player think where a certain item can be or can't be in areas.
Because of the Fabricator, it makes ammo retrieval less of a hassle. You can buy ammo from guns or buy different and more helpful weapons to fight with your friends. And on top of that, if a certain weapon is good, but isn't the moment at hand, you can build a weapons rack to store weapons and save them for later. It really has you think of the team if you find a food weapon. You find 3 Boomshots, but not good for a horde of grubs and minor enemies So grab one or more of them and put them on the rack for the rest of the team to rely on.
Other than that, there are some enemies that make you rely on your teammates. The Grinders and Overkill DMBots can force you in a corner and kill you at any moment. On top of that, the large DMBots can go Kamikaze on you and pack a big punch.
The boss rounds can put a player in a corner, but with a well fitted team and well armed players, they can be taken down. And if you think it's too easy, you can raise the difficulty to either Easy, Normal or Hardcore. Hardcore is recommended in my opinion. Sometimes enemies in multiple rounds can be too easy.
And if that gets you killed in-game, then know you can revived when dead. Any brave players left can pick up you tags and return it to the fabricator to bring you back in the fight. A risky mechanic, but it makes your teammates try their best to get you back sometimes.
Versus is very immersive, if you ask me. The gameplay seems changed, but not to a drastic height. The shotgun is still a first resort, but have been a debuffed a little. It takes one shot up close, but only if the barrel is 4 inches from the player. If not, it takes about two shots to kill another player in semi-close range. The game has made the player go for some other weapons out there in the map like Crossbows, Boomshots or even Overkill Shotguns (Which is the right replacement for the Double-Barrel).
I still see players use Gnashers in the match, but not many use it as a defensive close range weapon. Besides that, chainsaw kills are hard to come by since a single shot can stop you revving up that chainsaw. It makes the player sneak to get a chainsaw kill, which can hardly happen. Sneaking is not am easily masterful skill in GoW.
Other than the gameplay, the maps and modes are great. I've only played the originals like Deathmatch and King of the Hill. All are the same and still very fun and competitive, but the new ones, like Dodgeball and Arm Race all sound fun. From what I read about them, Dodgeball has the player kill each other with dodgeball rules. You have one life and if you die, a teammate can revive you by killing an enemy teammate. You win by (obviously) killing the entire enemy team.
Arm Race is more of a Kill-to-Up-Your-Arsenal type of game. You and a teammate start with weak weapons, but as you get more kills, you get better weapons. As you up your arsenal, you win by getting kills with every weapon. I would love to play this now. It sounds exciting and fun!
Besides all that, there is the card decks. Like most multiplayer games, there is a loot box style item that has you get weapon skins and player skins. You can also get bounties, challenges for the player to get extra ExP, some of which can be challenging.
What I don't like is that they are a random skin and bounty selection when opening a crate. From my experience, you will mostly get greens and blues and maybe a purple here and there. Although, the gamble can be somewhat fun, but getting duplicates can be annoying. I'm talking to you TF2/Overwatch Players.
If you get the right items (or you just got the game on pre-order and bought the Season Pass, which gave you free boxes, then your fine), it can be fun to customize your avatar. Zombie Dom and Zombie Dom and other Zombies are a cool addition to the Gears games. A little bit of a foreshadowing, but cool!
Not to move on, On to the Campaign! Prepare for spoilers!
(Gameplay judges and awesome factor will be shown beyond this "***" quotations)
There is some great inspirational storytelling in the Prologue. You play as a Carmine COG soldier before E-Day and during the Great Emergence. Of course your character dies in every scene, but one. You fight with the Sarge as you feel like there is no hope for you and the human race. Of course, the entire team lives since the EMP blast covers the entire world, killing every locust out there. A new head of the COG military, Jinn, gives speech supporting the lost COGs during the war. The screen pans out as the player is shown a man watching the news. I ask myself who this was and came to theories. He kind of looked like Marcus' father.
As you continue the campaign, out of the prologue, you take the place as James Dominic Fenix, the son of Marcus Fenix. you find out that Jinn on the news has accused you of taking her people. Of course this is wrong and throws everything at you with new robotic soldiers. You go to your father for help and get him in all this mess.
That moment he is revealed, it was very strange. Not in a bad way, but in an emotional way. It's like looking in a mirror, seeing how much you aged since the first game. I mean, this game came out in 2006. I was 7 at the time. Seeing him was like seeing King Graham in bed, old and frail from the last King's Quest. Seeing him was suppose to make you feel an awesome tingle on your back, but in my opinion, it was very emotional, and seeing him get captured was very suspenseful.
***
Enough was said about the story. The gameplay is great. The shift of weather is amazing and how it made your grenades fly the other way is amazing. The weather is both greatly design and a massive change of game. What I don't like is the Lightning strikes. It's pattern was hard to point and getting away from them is a hassle. Besides that, it's fun.
The cover system has changed, but not badly. If you hold B while running into cover, you can automatically jump over it. The cover physics have made most covers breakable, the AI is more advanced and is different depending on the enemy, and the new weapons fit very well in the game's lore and gameplay. The cover execution is useful in the game. I always hated attacking a guy that covered in front of me.
The game is fun and challenging, but like Horde, I suggest the game in Hardcore difficulty. It's challenging and it forces you to be more tactical. The enemies are smarter than they should be and ammo is more scarce and needed in the game. It's all exciting and fun at the same time as suspenseful it was.
So far, I love this game. It's a great game and it's very memorable. I will be playing this game for a long time and I can't wait to finish the campaign. And the Horde mode is more than it use to be! Versus mode is great, but not something I'll be playing often, but still very fun. Overall this game is great. If you want to play this game, go ahead and get it! Its got a high price of $60, but to me it's a great game. Plus it comes with the whole collection of the games, even Judgement Day! A good deal if you ask me.
Anyways, I hope you guys somewhat liked this blog. It was fun to write this and all. I hope I got you hooked in the game! It's fun and deserves the praise it gets. Again, I hope you liked this and 'til next time...
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