The Coalition and Microsoft released 20 whole minutes worth of gameplay for Gears of War 4 ahead of its October 11th release for the Xbox One and Windows 10 next month. The footage features unedited gameplay to give gamers a full look at what they can expect from the first Gears of War game for Microsoft’s eighth generation home console.
The video was posted up as a way to help get gamers intense and stoked for the upcoming third-person title. The 20 minute video is a prologue for Gears of War 4 designed to ease gamers into the lore of Gears of War as well as the lead-up to E-Day. Gamers take on the role of a faceless soldier in the fight , learning the controls along the way as a newb-friendly tutorial. You can check it out below.
One thing you’ll notice is that the game is a lot brighter than previous Gears of War games. Making use of the new shaders in Unreal Engine 4 hasn’t really made the game look as standout as it did when the franchise was introducing gritty visuals into seventh gen. In fact, the grit isn’t really there. The game has a much cleaner look compared to Gears of War and Gears of War 2.
Nevertheless, the prologue casually moves through. The dialogue is B-movie quality, and the language a lot cleaner and “safe space” worthy than previous games. The jockular banter between the characters that helped establish their relationships in the first three games is gone; well, it pops up sometimes only when Marcus seems to show up.
Anyway, these newer entries in franchises established a generation or two ago really do feel like games made by completely different people. The tone is waaaay different.
The prologue moves toward a battle during Emergence Day. You get to hear some familiar themes that Steve Jablonsky introduced in the original Gears.
The one thing I can’t get over is just how bright and happy the game looks, though.
It’s funny but for the segment to be based on Emergence Day it sure did look happy.
Anvil Gate, another segment that takes place as part of the prologue, finally gets to the dark, gritty aspects of Gears of War.
The more desperate and frantic aspects of Gears of War get a small showcase during the Anvil Gate segment. I can’t help but feel as if the presentation still takes a more cartoony approach to the lore compared to what we saw in the previous games, especially Gears of War 2, where despite the opening sequence on those rigs taking place during the day time, the desperation, the relentlessness of the Locusts and the seemingly hopeless fight for survival was showcased in a truly harrowing way.
Anyway, I haven’t been sold on the game so far. It seems like such a pared down version of what Cliffy B., and crew ushered in last gen, but maybe I’m just being nit-picky. On the upside at least the tutorial wasn’t some boring, crappy, lame training camp segment and was actually engaging, so there’s that.
You can look for the game to launch on October 11th on the Xbox One and Windows 10 with day-one cross-play compatibility enabled for co-op play.
