Gears of War might have a multiplayer component not to be sniffed at, but I think the greatest strength of the series has always been in its intense, gritty, emotional single-player campaigns.
Good news then, as it sounds like the upcoming Gears 5 will not only deliver that familiar thrilling single-player experience, but expand on it in new and exciting ways. Developer The Coalition has recently teased that the newest game will feature the largest Gears of War campaign yet.
In a recent interview with Game Informer, Gears 5’s Multiplayer Design Director Ryan Cleven said that the new game will be the biggest Gears we’ve ever seen, with most substantial campaign and multiplayer offerings to date, including a cool new mode called Escape.
He explained:
Gears 5 is the largest Gears of War to date; it’s the largest campaign ever made, the largest PvE ever made, the largest versus ever made. The team at The Coalition is an extremely talented but focused team that believes in this game. They’re extremely passionate about bringing their mark, a high degree of quality, and a legacy that Gears fans will recognize. There is no magic bullet; it’s trusting the people around you. [Studio head Rod Fergusson] has this saying he repeats every time we start a new project: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ That’s something we really believe in at the studio. We believe in trusting each other so we can get efficiency out of that.
Details on the game’s campaign remain frustratingly thin on the ground right now, but I’d assume that’s because The Coalition is hoping players will be able to go in blind and experience the story with as many surprises as possible.
We do know that The Coalition feel they didn’t do enough with the story in Gears of War 4 (according to an interview wit Kotaku), and that the studio is looking to rectify that in the new game by taking more risks.
We also know that Gears 5 will position Kait Diaz, an Outsider of Locust descent, as the lead on a journey to uncover the origins of the Locust threat that kicked off the events of the very first game. She’ll be joined by the original game’s star Marcus Fenix, and his son JD.
Gears 5 is coming to Xbox One and PC on September 10, so we’ve not got long to wait till we can experience the story for ourselves. I’m putting good money on Marcus not making it out of this game alive.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.