Gears of War returns. And it is a sentence that serves to understand that the saga is again topical thanks to the new release for Xbox One and Windows 10, but we can also use it to understand the will of this fifth iteration: a look at the origins of the franchise a decade after
Epic Games marked how third-person shooters of the future should be understood. The Coalition has managed to leave behind the doubts caused by its
generic demonstration at E3 2015 and offers us a great taste that fans of the saga will appreciate. A brilliant starting point that focuses on the best that the franchise has given us: gameplay above all else.
Marcus Fénix became together with his team of the CGO in an absolute reference for Xbox 360 and users of the Microsoft platform. T
he first Gears of War marked a way to understand the TPS that was copied in a thousand ways. He did not invent the formula for the hedging system, but he did popularize it and put it as standard. That a saga as successful as GTA will adopt it for the fourth
numbered delivery says it all. It was also that great game that made us feel that we were in “a new generation”. Local and online cooperative, full multiplayer, a technical portent and the gore and violent touch did the rest.
The formula was polished, improved and brought variety with the arrival of Gears of War 2 and the final closure of the 360 trilogy with
Gears of War 3 and the end, in theory, of the Locust threat and all that was supposed for the humanity. Three titles of unblemished solidity – with its pros and cons – and a formula of action always in the space of the excellent (with nuances).
Changes in the multiplayer, the novelties of the horde mode -which so many other games have also adopted as a cooperative modality- and the bases
established in 2006 they made up the subsequent installments of the Epic Games franchise. Then Judgment, more unnoticed, and a break of more than three years (Ultimate to one side) plus a change of company that has sat well to rethink mechanics and not feel exhausted.
A different world from the other Gears
One of the surprises that leaves the fourth installment of the saga is the change of location and context in which we find ourselves. After a first playable compasses that remind us all about the Day of Emergency (a stretch that fans of the saga will thank and much),
we take a leap forward several years while controlling JD Fénix , the son of Marcus. He is the protagonist with his friends ‘Del’ Walker and Kait Díaz.
Other characters are added to the trio according to the requirements of the script, such as Kait’s uncle, who in a certain way recalls the mythical Dizzy, or Marcus himself.
JD and his father have not seen each other for a long time, and that is something that will be explained later. What we do know is that the protagonists are a kind of fugitive from the CGO-which the little Phoenix enlisted without Marcus’s permission-who are working to
find resources for a population outside of what is known as the system: walls that enclose the cities and that pretend to assure the people of the climatic
problems and other instabilities that Sura suffers after the events of Gears of War 3. The persecution of the CGO to the trio protagonist occupies the first part of the plot, that it ends up leading to other, more important and personal tasks.
Without going into destripes about the plot and its development, to regret in part that the argument leaves many questions open, does not explain many things or motivations that end in a secondary section in an inexplicable way.
The objective and the path is clear, but we will have the feeling, at the end of the adventure, that important elements have been left in the inkwell. For next deliveries surely, but that generates certain bittersweet feeling.
