3/5 ★ – MechaniChris's review of Gears of War 4.

It’s not bad. More of the same gameplay with some much more annoying monsters. But again, if you enjoy Gears gameplay, this certainly has it, and it looks pretty good coming off the previous games. That said, it doesn’t even come close to justifying its existence. At first it’s fun to play around in the post-war universe and see how society has changed. I even liked the robots as a new enemy type. It was finally a chance to dig into how the Cog have kinda been the villains all along. But then it mostly abandons that for the far less interesting rescue mission from the Swarm. I still don’t know what the hell the swarm is, or what their relationship is to the Locust. I know that they’re not the same thing, but also they kind of are? It’s very confusing. I imagine a lot of the plot details will get smoothed out in the next one, but at this point, the game feels like a soulless extension of a story that didn’t need to continue. Not to mention, taking a generic gruff protagonist and replacing him with an even more generic snarky protagonist was a huge miscalculation. I understand that it fits the less uber-dark aesthetic they’re trying to cultivate, but these new characters are SO forgettable. At least the ultra machismo of the original games gave us cartoonishly bombastic characters. This truly feels like when they cast Jai Courtney to play John McClane’s son. Like, sure, John doesn’t have much going as a character, but his appeal becomes VERY apparent when you put him up with a nobody. There are some good new additions to this game. Lots more weapon variety, including the buzzsaw shooter which whips ass. Seriously, it’s so much fun to use that, I almost kicked my score up. Plus there’s some fun scripted sequences like the motorbike chase, the windstorms, and the huge mech sequence at the end that are very different from anything that’s been in these games in the past, but none of it is enough to elevate this into the next-Gen experience it’s trying to be. Really hoping Gears 5 has more going for it, because as it stands, I’ve put a lot of time into a franchise that is just fine.