Gears 5 – A Pleasantly Surprised Review

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Let’s talk Gears 5 shall we as it’s managed to pleasantly surprise me, both in terms of its gameplay and its story.  Honestly, I wasn’t overly excited when Gears 5 was announced but knew that I would end up playing it eventually to see what the story was about.

If you look at the overall series and the longevity this game has held it’s dang impressive.  We are now six games in on the Gears franchise and the story just keeps getting better in my opinion.  The developers really took their time it seems to give Gears 5 a well rounded and established character base.  I personally wasn’t a huge fan of Gears 4 but with the newest story picking up right where Gears 4 ended, it puts 4 in the almost worth playing category for me…..or you can just ***Spoiler*** watch the recap of the ending of 4 before you kick off the new journey in 5.

Gears 5 makes absolutely no attempt in trying to fix what isn’t broken and I love the fact that what has worked they are staying with!  We have a rock-solid story-based 3rd person shooting game loaded with mayhem that just looks good, plays good, and keeps you engaged. Combine all of that with an open world feel and a set of multiplayer modes that range from the old and classic to fresh and new on both the co-op and competitive gameplay, is to me what makes this one of the best action games of the year so far.

Gears 5 Campaign Review

Gears’ third-person action has evolved slightly over the years from game to game, but in Gears 5 they have added a new companion named Jack!  This little robot can now be controlled to help you pick up weapons, unlock doors, safes, and a host of other handy options throughout the game.  You will also be able to earn new abilities for this little guy that can be quite useful in combat, such as reviving you and your allies, stunning enemies, cloaking you and much more.  To get these abilities you will find upgrade components throughout the world which can help you customize what this little companion can do.

Overall the Gears’ combat still feels dang good and keeps you engaged along the way.  The weapons in this Gears’ felt good as well and the default weapon you start with….you know that good old Lancer was a constant goto for me.  We had a the Overkill shotgun return from Gears 4, and good old classics that have been refined just a bit it seems. The overall weapon balance feels great between the old and new toys we get to play with.

gears-5-xbox-one-pc-games-2019Also new in the open world feel of Gears 5 comes a new toy you will get to roam around with.  The wind-powered skiff, pictured here lets you tackle a huge open-world map and get to areas fairly quickly as well as going after those optional quests littered through the area. I found that these optional missions are worth the extra time as the rewards were usually upgrades for Jack.  Along with some fresh new weapons, the open world feel, a wind-powered land cruiser and some very interesting boss fights, Gears 5 has become one of my favorites to date of the franchise!

Gears 5 has done an amazing job balancing story, and a heavy 3rd person gameplay mechanic that is still exciting to play!  This series has never really had a bad launch on the games, even when changing from the original developer Epic to The Coalition. Gears 5 brings some very welcome additions to both its gameplay and flow of the story which is why it’s become a quick hit with fans.

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