And the Swarm’s Pouncer flings deadly quills from its tail and hops on top of cover, pinning you to the ground like a Hobbes from Hell if you stay in one place for too long. For instance, the larger Heavy DeeBee jump-jets over cover and self-destructs when it takes enough damage, while the skybound, front-shielded Guardian is best flanked from multiple sides in order to expose its weak spots.

On the campaign side, the new DeeBee robot enemies and Seran Swarm foes attack differently than their Locust predecessors, thus requiring welcome new offensive and defensive strategies to combat them. That’s not to say Gears of War 4 doesn’t bring new elements to the series’ cover-based shooting formula. That full-on reboot day will likely arrive eventually, but everything about this entry in the series hews closest to the first Gears, which is probably the one I’d also choose to emulate: the mystery of a new, unknown enemy lends a survival-horror feel to the gritty shooter tone, the occasional fork in the road offers both gameplay variety and replayability, and the plot revolves around a search for family – here, it’s Kait’s missing mother Reyna Diaz in place of Dominic Santiago’s wife Maria. “Let’s get something out of the way up front: if you’re looking for Gears of War to be completely reinvented, Gears 4 isn’t that game. As the torch is passed to a new generation, I was left reassured that this is in many ways the same Gears I know and love. Gears of War 4 is set 25 years after the events of the original trilogy, with Marcus Fenix playing the Han Solo mentor role, while his son JD and JD’s longtime friends Kait and Del sub in for Rey, Finn, and Poe. No, I’m not talking about Star Wars Episode VII, though there are a number of interesting (if coincidental) similarities between it and the approach Microsoft’s taken to its first internally developed Gears of War game. The plot structure follows many of the same recognizable beats of the tale that started it all, and by the end you’ve been on a great ride that is both familiar and new at the same time. An iconic but now-aged hero plays a prominent role, comforting old fans and tugging on their nostalgic heartstrings for much of the story while passing the torch to a new generation of heroes. A new director picks up years later where the revered original creator left off.

Gears of war 4 campaign length