Game Reviews
Gears of War 4: Must-Haves
Top 10 Necessary Tweaks List...
Gears of War 4 has been released for open-beta testing this year. The full release of the game is expected before the end of the year. This is an exciting time for Gears fans, because many of us have been stuck on Gears of War 2 since 2008. Gears 3 and Gears Judgment made some critical design errors that led to a situation where thousands of players simply kept playing Gears 2 and rejected the sequels. It was an embarrassment for the developer, Epic Games.
The critics' ratings of Xbox 360 Gears games progressively got lower, and with good reason. Gears of War 4 has promise because it is on the new generation of consoles which means that there will be dedicated servers (the bane of Gears games has been the lack of network support). I have done a lot of research on the Gears of War franchise which you can find in different sections of this website (Critical Writing, Game Theory, Game Reviews, Gears Docs, Gameplay Review).
This is a list that outlines the ten critical tweaks or features that I believe are necessary for Gears of War 4 to restore faith in the true fans. It remains to be seen whether Epic understands this or even cares, but here is the list all the same.
The critics' ratings of Xbox 360 Gears games progressively got lower, and with good reason. Gears of War 4 has promise because it is on the new generation of consoles which means that there will be dedicated servers (the bane of Gears games has been the lack of network support). I have done a lot of research on the Gears of War franchise which you can find in different sections of this website (Critical Writing, Game Theory, Game Reviews, Gears Docs, Gameplay Review).
This is a list that outlines the ten critical tweaks or features that I believe are necessary for Gears of War 4 to restore faith in the true fans. It remains to be seen whether Epic understands this or even cares, but here is the list all the same.
10. Fewer Versus Game Modes
Gears of War had too few game modes, but Gears 2 added Guardian and a few others which pretty much made the multiplayer options perfect. It is still very easy to find a guardian match and the game is almost ten years old. The only reason numbers have gone down recently is that gamers are focusing on new gen games now that they have bought an Xbox One. Gears of War 3 had far too many game modes and it smacked of disorganization on the part of Epic. Epic should understand better what their users want and focus on those game modes making them the best they can be. Game developers acting as dilettantes seems odd to say the least. Gears of War 4 should have ten or fewer versus game modes. (Editor note: this didn't happen)
9. No Pandering to Pinkos and Pervs
Gears of War had basically no women represented (a little bit of Anya Stroud) while Gears 2 gave Anya a more important narrative role and presence in cut-scenes. Then in Gears 3, Epic decided to throw in a ton of female characters willy-nilly. They weren't just the playable characters (Anya, Sam, Bernie, Alicia, Myrrah), but almost every random stranded leader in cut-scenes was made a woman. Whether it was done for sex appeal or political correctness, the whole thing was executed in a ham-fisted manner that reeked of pandering and tryhardism. The over-representation of females was a total misrepresentation of a dystopic world. I made a short documentary movie to address the issue. Gears of War 4 should focus on the "brothers-in-arms" theme that was so powerful in the first game and minimize female representation unless it is truly relevant. (Editor note: Gears 4 improved a bit by fleshing out Kait Diaz as an interesting three-dimensional character)
8. No Redundant Cut-Scenes
From Gears of War to Gears Judgment, the four games have progressively had less sophisticated cut-scenes. The technical impressiveness of animation and high-poly models has steadily increased but the strength of the narratives have diminished from sequel to sequel. For campaign mode, Gears of War 4 will need to have cut-scenes that progress an engaging narrative. Gears Judgment was pathetic with the use of their cut-scenes. Most of the cut-scenes were simple environmental transitions. I made another documentary video to address this issue. Gears of War 4 should have a sophisticated narrative for its campaign that maximizes the impact of cut-scenes for a truly cinematic experience.
7. No Pandering to Halo Gamers
It seems fairly obvious that Gears of War Judgment was about pandering to Halo players and trying to suck them into a third-person shooter experience. The rifles were made overpowered in Gears 3 which was the beginning of the overture that Epic made to Halo gamers. Then with Gears Judgment, Epic removed the Locusts and made the whole faction aesthetic into a red vs blue scheme. Gears of War 4 has to have locusts as one of the teams in any and every versus game mode. Trying to turn Gears into a Halo alternative has been the bane of the Gears franchise. (Editor note: they did go back to COG vs Locust and even added in robot enemies for novelty)
6. No Survival Mode
Horde mode in Gears 2 was a lot of fun and when the community was active on the game, you could find randoms for a horde pretty quick or corral your buddies to start one. Fifty levels wasn't that onerous, so going for completion was achievable although very challenging. Gears of War 3 made huge improvements to Horde mode by incorporating an economy for the players. Funds could be spent in a variety of ways and special features for defense were unlocked and mastered through logging more hours and having greater success in horde rounds. Horde mode had a randomly assigned boss at the end of each ten levels making it enjoyable to jump in and just play through to Wave 11.
Gears 3 also introduced "Beast Mode" which was an interesting alternative to Horde with inverted roles from Horde, whereby a team of players were sent in as Locusts against the COG. The novelty wore off pretty fast though. Then Gears Judgment laid an egg through slashing the proven horde modes and introducing a new version (Survival mode) that provided little in the way of satisfaction. The reason for this was because it was extremely hard to pass survival mode and there was seldom any sense of progression during the truncated ten waves. The final major issue was that the goal of survival mode in Gears Judgment involved defending a single location thus restricting the movement of players and forcing them to always clump together. One of the fun elements of horde mode was that the team could split up, cover the entire map and hunker down anywhere on the map at any time. Gears of War 4 needs to have horde modes and not survival modes. (Editor note: Gears 4 does have a great Horde mode once more, and added the Fabricator to improve on the Gears 3 horde mode.)
Gears 3 also introduced "Beast Mode" which was an interesting alternative to Horde with inverted roles from Horde, whereby a team of players were sent in as Locusts against the COG. The novelty wore off pretty fast though. Then Gears Judgment laid an egg through slashing the proven horde modes and introducing a new version (Survival mode) that provided little in the way of satisfaction. The reason for this was because it was extremely hard to pass survival mode and there was seldom any sense of progression during the truncated ten waves. The final major issue was that the goal of survival mode in Gears Judgment involved defending a single location thus restricting the movement of players and forcing them to always clump together. One of the fun elements of horde mode was that the team could split up, cover the entire map and hunker down anywhere on the map at any time. Gears of War 4 needs to have horde modes and not survival modes. (Editor note: Gears 4 does have a great Horde mode once more, and added the Fabricator to improve on the Gears 3 horde mode.)
5. No OP Rifles
Gears of War 3 chased many players back to Gears 2 because of the introduction of new weapons that were not balanced during gameplay. The Retro Lancer rifle was extremely overpowered and with active rounds fired to the upper chest and head, it took only about three or four bullets to down an opponent. Cowardly players would hang back and just rifle down a player that wanted to duel. The result was that the game became more defensive and therefore less enjoyable to play for everyone. The only players that enjoyed the OP retro lancer were tryhards that got overly concerned about their k/d ratio. Gears of War 4 needs to remove over-powered rifles. (Editor note: the rifles are a little more balanced, enough so that dueling is bigger in Gears 4 than Gears 3. However they did add the Markza rifle which encourages cowardly play.)
4. No Sawed-off Shotgun
The sawed-off shotgun was introduced to Gears 3 and immediately became the gun of choice for noobs. The "sawdy" had the power of the boom shot (rocket) without the splash damage - in effect the epitome of OP (over-powered). Elite players had to go ultra-defensive when realizing that a noob was on the map wielding the sawed-off. It wasn't a difficult gun to counter when noobs wielded it, but it slowed down the tempo of the match when you realized that caution was necessary. In the hands of elites, the sawed-off was a menace and removed the possibility of dueling. The reload on the sawed-off was made very slow to balance the weapon but this actually made things a hundred times worse because players using the sawdy would run away as soon as they missed their shot and had to reload. The game of cat-and-mouse was antithetical to the intended and expected multiplayer gameplay experience that had been established in Gears and Gears 2. This noob-tube weapon also helped contribute to Guardian mode (the best part of Gears multiplayer) being ruined. Noobs in Guardian often played a suicidal style, rushing leader relentlessly. The leader facing wave upon wave of noobs could rack up kills, but with the sawed-off, a lucky noob shot was a lot more likely making Guardian mode a lot less enjoyable. Gears of War 4 needs to remove the sawed-off shotgun. (Editor note: they did get rid of the sawed off and replaced it with the Overkill which is less bullshit.)
Guardian Mode!
The last three items on this list are specific to Guardian mode in multiplayer online play. Guardian is like doctor dodgeball but without the need for the leader to help up their fallen allies. There are infinite respawns for the team provided that the leader is alive. When the leader dies, the team members are put on their last life. Guardian was the most successful game mode in Gears 2 and the reason why thousands of players still play the game a decade after its release.
3. No Random Leader in Guardian
Gears 2 Guardian mode assigned the first round leader role to the player on the team of five that had the most Guardian points (ie. experience) or the highest rank. Later rounds would either award the leadership role to those who killed the enemy leader in the previous round or to the player with the most points in the match if the enemy leader hadn’t been killed in the previous round. In Gears 3 Guardian mode randomized leader assignment. The reason behind this was likely to pander to “tanks” (really just a word for players who generate a tremendous amount of lag and thus take less damage from enemy shots). Tanks could now freely charge in and kill without ever having to assume a defensive role in the following round when they were forced to become leader. The upshot was that the weakest player on the team would often be given the most important role for at least one round in the match – effectively marking that round as a write-off. This was a situation that almost never happened in Gears 2 where typically it was a strong player who would kill leader. In addition, a full squad could often down an enemy leader in Gears 2 and then allow a player who wanted to be leader next round to assume the role by killing the leader. This encouraged strategy and expertise. Gears 2 was also arranged where a weak team would almost always be guaranteed the strongest and most experienced player as leader for at least a round of the match because the weak team wouldn't get leader kills in previous rounds. This effectively maximized the balancing of an inherently lopsided match. Gears of War 4 needs to eliminate random assignment of leaders for Guardian mode. (Editor note: they didn't fix the problem, and Guardian randomizes leader and more than that has the leader identified in a tacky shiny gold skin. As a result hardly anyone plays Guardian on Gears 4).
2. No Tac-Comm Geo-Location for Leader
Gears 2 Guardian mode did not allow the leader to know where enemies were on the map. The player in the role of leader had to be defensive, safe, intuitive and most importantly, had to listen carefully. Often one of the four squadmates would hang back and play a more defensive role, either protecting leader or simply checking up on them. In Gears 3 Guardian, they introduced a tactical-communications button allowing the leader to see in a kind of x-ray vision where all enemies could easily be located across the map. The upshot was that you could no longer sneak up on leader forcing him into a dramatic impromptu duel. The result was that four squadmates would gangbang-rush the enemy leader and vice versa, leading to extremely unexciting quick rounds. The mode should have been renamed "Hunt". Stealth, evasion and awareness was removed from the game mode and this made matches less interesting and less exciting. Gears of War 4 Guardian mode needs to remove the tac-comm feature for leaders.
1. No Huge Maps and No Sniper Map Layouts
Gears 2 maps were small encouraging close quarters duelling and allowing for leaders in Guardian mode to be easily located and then approached. Gears 2 leaders could also get involved in the action while staying in a safe place allowing for some useful crossfire. Gears 3 maps were made vast and sometimes labyrinthine, likely in order to appease gamers that Epic had yet to recruit (Halo and COD players who often fall back on sniper camping and who are accustomed to massive maps). In Gears 3, the leader had more ability to evade endlessly through a massive map, or alternatively, was simply taken out at long range by snipers in undramatic fashion. Gears of War 4 should focus on encouraging shotgun duelling and one of the ways that this can be achieved is through smaller maps. (Editor note: Gears 4 maps that aren't revamped from previous gears games are pretty terrible. They all have virtually the same design and I can't think of any that encourage close-quarters dueling.)
