Gears 5 roadie-runs out
No war in the name, still plenty in the game
The Gears Of War gang are back once again to scurry around behind waist-high cover and take pot-shots at... wait hang on, is that some kind of desert surfsled up ↑ there? Tell me more, Gears (Of War) 5. Following an early launch of its fancy Ultimate Edition last week, Microsoft's latest grand spectacle launched properly overnight. I haven't played Gears since 2, the one where you run around inside a miles-long worm chainsawing its hearts, though what I've heard about this one's story campaign does have my interest.
Our Matthew said in his Gears 5 review that the campaign's ever-renewing with fresh ideas and it "left my belly nice and fat, and keen for the next course." My interest has also been piqued by Doc Burford (who worked on the excellent Paratopic) praising Gears 5 after ragging on soulless "prestige" games like The Last Of Us and Red Dead Redemption. HMM. Matthew done a video and all:
Gears 5 is out now on Steam and the Microsoft Store for £50/€70/$60. It's also included with Microsoft's subscription service, Xbox Game Pass for PC.
While Epic Games created Gears, for years it's been made by a studio of Microsoft's own, The Coalition. Epic have Fortnite these days so they can erect cover wherever they jolly well please.
A fair few negatives in the initial blast of player reviews on Steam, with some complaining about technical problems ruining things or a tedious grind to unlock skins. The Coalition have given running updates on their progress fixing stability problems.