Speaking with Gamespot about his upcoming arena shooter, Lawbreakers, Cliff Bleszinski, better known as Cliffy B., dropped some helpful advice for The Coalition: Gears of War 4 was too safe.

According to Cliffy B., the former lead designer of the Gears of War games, he state…

“What [Gears of War developer The Coalition boss Rod Fergusson] did was give the people what they want. He did the J.J. Abrams Episode VII. I’ve watched Episode VII five times. I still get misty-eyed and get all excited but when I think objectively about it, I’m like, ‘There wasn’t a lot of risk there.’ So I’m hoping they take a little bit more risk in the future.”

He’s 110% right.

Gears of War 4, simply put, was boring.

J.D. Fenix was no where near as interesting as his father (hence why they had to shoehorn his father back into the story), and his two super friends weren’t much better. Although, at least Kait seemed to have more backstory and personality than Del and J.D., combined.

The thrills and horror from the first game were almost entirely absent, save for one harrowing bit in a village when the three main characters get locked in a barn. Otherwise, the game was like a PG-13 adventure with a bit of orange gooey splooge doused about every now and then.

The gore was a step back from what we were accustomed to in the very gritty first two Gears of War games, and there was nothing close to being as innovative as the personal mechs and four-player co-op from Gears of War 3.

The original trilogy was headed up by Cliffy B., and regardless of the criticisms leveled at him during the height of the series’ popularity, the man knew how to lead the team toward making very fun and entertaining games.

For Gears of War 4, it felt like a Saturday morning cartoon with a splash of Swarm viscera. None of the enemy threats were anywhere near as imposing as the Locust, and there was no central antagonist driving the action like the Queen or General Raam from the previous games.

Ultimately, Gears of War 4 was a toned down, safe-space, third-person shooter imitation of Gears of War. A lot of people have noted that the multiplayer is better than Gears of War: Judgment, but the campaign mode is no less mundane.

Sales, Metacritic scores and general enthusiasm for the series has waned greatly from the height of the Gears franchise during the Xbox 360 era. This latest entry was so tame that it barely made dents on the sales charts and certainly wasn’t a system seller.

Anyway, hopefully The Coalition can get back to the game’s roots. They really should have introduced a new protagonist, someone maybe silent and badass… even tribal. Heck, if Ty didn’t die in Gears of War 2, he would have made for a great character to play. We’ll just have to see what The Coalition does for the next game. A few new weapons and fewer options than what was present in Gears of War 3 certainly wasn’t enough to convince gamers (and consumers) to put a lot of faith into Gears of War 4. So they’ll need to dig deep for the next game or risk being laughed at like the PG era of WWE.