Gears 5, the sixth installment of the Gears of War franchise is finally here as all the hype and eyes on this title for the month of September. Big games such as NBA 2K20 and Borderlands 3 are among some heavy hitter for the start of the Fall, so you might as well say peace-out to your outside social life this month. The main question is will Gears 5 stay in the conversation of a game to tackle and keep us entertained.
The hype and festivities surrounded around Gears 5 went beyond just the newsroom. Microsoft flagship location here in NYC hosted a launch event For Gears 5 where all Gears of War fans came to unite for the release on September 5th. Microsoft hosted a 5v5 tournament, had free play of the newest game, and also held raffles to give away some awesome Xbox swag, Xbox one accessories, and a grand prize of an Xbox One S. Some fans came decked out in Gears shirts and their version of the Lancer or RetroLancer from the games. This event was awesome due to meeting some great people, entering my first ever gaming tournament and making it to the third round, and good vibes all around.
A week later and this game is a totally different experience. The campaign feels like it’s not quite finished being developed. There are some AI issues where the team you are with sometimes isn’t helpful. It’s like they don’t realize that they are supposed to be killing enemies while you are busy getting merked twerked and worked. A key example of that is in chapter 2 where your helicopter gets shot down and your team gets separated.
If you are playing co-op (which my team and I did), you will have no idea what to do for a solid 15 minutes. And let’s not forget the fact that one of your team members is forced to be a floating robot that is pretty much “the help” the entire time. In addition, if the character you choose has a special cutscene that is specific to that character, the other players in the game aren’t able to see that cutscene leaving them with missing pieces to the storyline. Now in this mission, all you know is that your character keeps dying and you are sitting there looking at the screen confused as all hell.
After discovering the issue, now comes the fun part, taking care of the suicide bombers that are trying to kill your teammate. But the AI is supposed to be leading you to your route. NOPE! Fahz isn’t even doing his DAMN job and he is hiding in a far corner probably checking his Twitter feed. I thought it was a one-time thing but after retrying the mission over 20 times, he is glitched to sit there and do absolutely nothing while we are yelling at each other in a party chat due to utter frustration. I must confess, we had to lower the difficulty to beginner to get passed this part but still had a difficult time! After this section, the game feels a little bit smoother. Killing enemies were easier, finding the next area was quicker, defeating the boss was seamless until we got to the hotel. All I can think of is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 under the floor glitch. I don’t know how else to say it but there were no walls, no ceiling, no floor, NOTHING! It was hilarious at first because you can see all of the enemies floating in midair. What the hell is this?
It took us 20 minutes to maneuver around the room because one of my team members got stuck in an invisible ditch and the other one fell asleep just wandering around. Without the debris and lamps on the supposed floor and desks, we would have never been able to find our way to the next checkpoint. I would have given up. It’s easy to get annoyed with a game with this many issues so early on in the campaign but I would be dishonest if I said that this wasn’t the most I’ve laughed while playing a game. That stream was LIT.
If you are still on the fence about trying Gears 5, think about this. If you already have Game Pass Ultimate, the game is free so you don’t have much to lose. Just make sure you get some friends to play with because it will definitely be a memorable experience. Maybe not the best but memorable. I am definitely going to finish this campaign and keep you all updated on this current disaster. Who knows? The other game modes, Horde and Race, might change my mind completely and make me love Gears again!
Initial Review: 6/10
