Talking Point: Five Years Later, What Do You Think Of Gears 5 In 2024?

The semi open world parts where completely unnecessary for a Gears game. It ruined the game for me. Not every game need to be an open world. Its in my opinion the worst gears of all. But the hivebusters DLC was amazing. better than the main game,

Campaign was bad. Boring open world, Bullet sponge harder enemies, Lack of enemy variety, overly similar weapons we’ve been getting for years for too long, zombie enemies were really poor to engage with & robot enemies are even worse.
Lots of forced slow boredom inducing walk & talk sections, dumb AI….

Solid 8/10. I wasn't a fan of the superlative open-world, but the gameplay was as good as ever and when you got into one of the missions proper it was peak Gears. I also actually liked where the story was going and hope that The Coalition gets around to resolving the hanging plot threads one day.

Long time reader and I believe second time poster. I've only had my Series S for just over two years and it's my first Xbox, so I have a lot to play to bring myself up to date.
As far as Gears go, I've only played 1 and 2, but I hope to play at least 3 and Judgement before E-Day releases.
I've been fairing better with Halo (especially 'cause I thought it appropriate that the first game I played on my first Xbox be Halo 1. On the Halo front I'm "only" missing 4, 5, Infinite and both Wars games.

@acmiguens Do yourself a favor and get gamepass ultimate. It's why i switched from playstation. Such an amazing subscription for a casual gamer (about 0-12 hours a week) husband and father like myself. I wish there was something like that back in the 2000s-2015ish. Man i would tear it up LOL

Same as I felt about it when I played it a few years ago. Good game but it hopped on the open world bandwagon and lost some of its identity along the way. The decision towards the end was also bizarre, it comes out of nowhere and the story isn’t strong enough to make you feel any sort of emotional attachment imo, completely out of place in a gears game even if it was done well. Kait continued to be a bland, boring character I really don’t care about. It definitely had it problems and didn’t make me excited for what’s next.

Replayed it fairly recently with a friend. The game is full of bugs. The game is not properly balanced. Sometimes we had to restart the whole chapter because higher difficulties severely lack ammo refills between tough fights.

Storytelling was negatively impacted by the open world, the pacing is simply broken. Story-wise, the game should be just act 2, but better paced.

Half of the game (and Hivebusters especially) is just a walking simulator. The game is so much exposition (no one asked for). Not to mention Hivebusters are just a prequel to a multiplayer mode and you don't get to play the most fun part in the DLC bit.

The late game decision was forced, unimpactful, wasted.

The core gameplay is still good. Inclusion of stealth was interesting. Certail Jack abilities made the sandbox more fun. But it is the worst Gears game out there. 4 was much more fun, much better.

Campaign was dull and I don’t care for these new characters for the most part, as well as unnecessarily following open world trends as others said. It’s better than the absolute pig swill that is Gears 4’s campaign but that’s not saying much.

Escape is alright but nothing on beast from Gears 3, although Horde is the best in the series. Quite a few bugs are still prevalent such as invisible guns and getting stuck on walls. I play it rarely still but it’s really difficult to find full horde lobbies anymore.

5/10 from a huge gears fan the campaign was very bad hated the open world it's the only gears campaign I never replayed the multiplayer was ok but better in gears 4. Gears was the reason I bought and stayed with Xbox through Xbox one era and the coalition did a bad job and let me down for me only two gears games really since the 360 is a disgrace itself!

Played all the gears games.
Gears 5 was ok but Hivebusters was far better.

They are taking way too long to bring out gears 6.
6 years in 2025.
I’m expecting an absolute master piece like 10/10 up there with Sonys and Nintendos best.
Anything less like a good average 8 to 8.5 what is the point and not worth the wait.

I have faith in the coalition, but with the brand Xbox the way it is you never know nowadays.

It was alright. Not my favorite but also not the worst. I actually liked the open world segments.
I think the biggest problem was the story.

Outside the sandboxy bits that just wasn't interesting I really enjoyed it.

Put it this way, it's been so long since it came out, I forgot that the game exists. But I did like it when I played it.

It's my second favorite after 3 in terms of gameplay.

In three words, Kait ruined 5, but the DLC and multiplayer are awesome. She basically killed all the good vibes and energy from previous titles. Also, pointless open areas and that ending... I like 4 more than most people, but my favourites are 1, 2 and 3. Judgement (by another developer) didn't get it right, either. I'm very excited about E-Day and, overall, I like Gears of War more than Halo, but I love some Halo titles, including Infinite. Halo 5 is a mess, though. It's nice that both series received some kind of reboot after 5, because I disliked both 5s.

@Banjo- I can side with this. I didn't really care for the campaign in either 4 or 5, but 5 was actively bad story wise after Act 1. The multiplayer in both was pretty decent though.

@OldGamer999 Remember when doing the math that The Coalition has been helping other Xbox Game Studios, same as Rare and Id.

@Elbow @jikflet Right. Hivebusters was unexpected fun after the awful campaign.

@Banjo-
Yes I know but 6 years next October 2025 which is very reasonable for a studio that size.

It is cool six years but it needs to be very special that 10/10 as good as the best that Sony and Nintendo produce at their best.

A gears game after all that time from the coalition can’t for me be say an average Starfield game.
This is the chance to show what Xbox studios can produce at the level of Nintendo and Sony with probably their best studio.

If they don’t, then god knows what they are trying to achieve.

I still don’t know how will they continue from that split ending

As for the rest of the game, I like how they emphasized heavily on the lore, explaining many events from the other games. As some others here said, the open arras were unnecessary

@OldGamer999 But that's quite subjective, isn't it? I don't see that incredible level of quality in Nintendo and Sony's current-gen games that you always talk about 😅.

@Banjo-
Perhaps you don’t but you are missing out in my opinion, but each to their own.

I don’t miss out on any incredible quality games as I have all three consoles and when those special games come along I get to play them.

Don’t get me wrong I want gears 6 to be the best ever I then get to play an amazing game that is up their with Sonys and Nintendos best or any other developers best.

It’s ok, I was an xboxer had every Xbox console day one. But they left me, they wore me done and dumped me.
Now I have a series x and GPU until March 2025 then that is probably it.
To me there is no Xbox now, they are Microsoft games and I hope their next game Indy is a massive top up their with the best Sony and Nintendo and any developers produce, then I get to play another amazing game.

If it isn’t then I don’t play it.
It doesn’t matter who produces them, they are games by developers and I play only the best of all whoever makes them as simple as that.

The industry has changed there are no consoles just games and hopefully incredible games for me, you and everyone to play.

@OldGamer999 "It doesn’t matter who produces them."

That's my point, that I don't think that Nintendo and Sony are ahead of Xbox this generation in terms of quality games. Nintendo was first in the past in my opinion, but not anymore and Sony has some cinematic games that are impressive, but most of them are remasters and linear sequels, lately. Xbox has a lot of variety now, even though not all games are excellent nor appeal to everybody. My point is that I don't see that incredible level of quality you always attach to Nintendo and Sony, even less this generation. In the past, maybe, but mostly Nintendo.

@Banjo-
Well I’m not alone Sony have been very quiet this year but just released Astro Bot it’s a blast and an amazing platformer a 94 on meta.

Nintendo have been quiet, but we know Zelda echos will probably be a 90 plus game.
So I will play them.

If Indy is up there with those two games I will be playing Indy, so let’s see and I really hope so.

If the new assassins creed is up there with the best then I will be playing that game.

The same with Avowed.

But if any of them are average to a bit above average with faults then they don’t get played no matter who makes them.

You are an xboxer and maybe about in the xbox360 days, you know the type of games I mean. Gears 1,2 and 3. Halo and 2 and 3 the Forza Horizon series. Those are Xbox studio games up there with the very best, absolutely amazing.
That is what I want Xbox studios to produce that’s what I want Indy to be and Avowed etc.

@OldGamer999 Yet lots of games are overrated and underrated, depending on who's publishing them. That doesn't mean much these days.

Beat Gears 1-5 for the first time recently and its the weakest of the lot.

I enjoyed 1-3 the most and those characters. The new ones are bland. Nothing particularly interesting.

i can’t get into it, couldn’t get into 4 either . gears of war 2 is peak gears of war , and we ain’t never getting something like that back again

Should’ve kept the new cast / Generation for judgment series and keep the original gang / Marcus for the main series .. Xbox hasn’t even had a franchise that long to already kill off the main character it’s like the triedwith master chief with halo 5 a little when they forgot they had odst

Disclaimer: anything Gears of War, Red Dead and Diablo i am maybe a touch bias. Those are my go to franchise's. That out of the way.

Gears 5 single player shockingly only came in at a 7.5 for me. The open world and running around on a glider just didn’t hit that well with me. The cast of characters weren’t great and the story again right in that 7.5. Onto multi player

Online play was a 9.5 for me, easily the best in the series. It ran, looked and played so well on my One X. I put over a 1000 hours into the multiplayer. Every day i would play it and i am not bragging but proud to say i was in the top 25 in the USA for a while in leaderboard stuff. I loved it. Overall it’s a mixed bag for me. But i suspect Gears of War E Day is going to be outstanding. I mean the cast will be great, the story should be amazing. The locust are back, Sera getting attacked, graphics on UE5 will be some of the best of the generation in my opinion. Overall i can’t wait for it as it’s my most anticipated game of the generation and it will pull me away from grinding levels and gear on Diablo 4.

As much as I liked JD Fenix, the Gears 5 campaign sucks, I don't want Kait.

Hive Busters on the other hand was very enjoyable.

Then again, I think I enjoyed the multiplayer as well.

I wasn't keen on the characters or some story elements, which made it difficult to fully enjoy.
I also prefer the more linear levels of earlier titles and felt the open world bits dont suit the title as well. Gears 3 was the pinnicle of this series for me.
Im hopefull a new title will be more Gears 3 than Gears 5!

@Banjo- I always forget about Hivebusters. Hivebusters was great and felt more Gears in its short run time than 5 did for it’s entirety.

I really enjoyed the game. To be clear, I only play the Campaign and Horde. I do not touch PvP.

5s campaign was better than 4s. I enjoyed the skiff, which felt like a cool way to get about. I loved that there were a few side missions to do that were very much worthwhile because of the rewards you got from doing them. I have played the game through on Insane and Inconceivable solo, and with friends, and very much enjoyed the experience.

With regards to Horde, I tend to do two every weekend with a friend. We play as a duo, and have done all 37 maps on at least Insane, and 4 of them on Inconceivable. Currently, I am in the top 100 Worldwide as an Engineer, so I believe I am well placed to say that the Horde mode in Gears 5 is probably the best there is.

The only horde mode that I perhaps enjoyed more was Gears of War 3s, but that was when I was part of a team of 5, and we used to knock out an Insane run every day, and had one score that put us in the top 20 Worldwide for one of the maps. These days my friends all have children, and so simply don't have the time to play, and Gears 5 enables me to set up in such a way as to make playing as a duo doable.

Lastly, as much as I am looking forward to E-Day, I have to say that as someone that has been through the Gears 5 campaign probably 10 times, I still feel very disappointed that I am not going to see a resolution to the storyline for that particular trilogy. As a man in his 60s, I simply may not be around long enough to see it end, even if the Coalition do eventually return to the story. That is immensely saddening...

Horde mode became the best in the series after updates, you just have to forget the sorry state it launched in. It's my main draw to Gears these days, I rarely drop into PVP. Many, many hundreds of hours played with my crew.

I don't care for the "Gears: The Next Generation" cast so even though I usually don't like prequels... in this case I'm happy to be abandoning the Gears 4 and 5 campaigns.

@HeavyHoggJP I get GPU once I have enough points from the rewards program. Otherwise I play some other games I got on sale. I've already got a Switch and a PS4 as more modern consoles, not counting older ones I still play such as the DS, 3DS and the Wii.
So GPU is amazing, but I do my best to keep the variety going.
Right now I'm playing Quantum Break on my Series S. I could've played it via GPU, but if I finish it this weekend, it will have taken me 3 weeks to finish it. Which is great because I actually bought for about half the price of a month of GPU

Gears 5 has been on sale a lot, pretty cheap to.
Every time I think about it, I'll take speak at reviews....... They are not kind....

I enjoyed 4s campaign, was fun. Seems like 5 is extremely divisive, hmmmm

It was fine. Personally I think it's the worst of the gears games, the more open approach and lackluster characters brought it down for me.

I loved it. Played through the campaign both solo and with two mates. The DLC as well which is awesome and I spent a lot of time online, especially in horde mode.

@CallMeDuraSouka Most people complain about the semi open parts of the game and the story. Personally, I didn't mind it. The semi open parts to me compared to the open parts in TLOU 2 or Uncharted Lost Legacy. Nothing too crazy or time consuming. And the story, I don't know. I liked it. And the DLC is great as well. Totally worth it at a sale I'll say. There are more parts I found annoying in Gears 4 than in 5 (which I didn't find annoying at all).

Thought it was a fun game gears 5