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[Mr.Fletcher]

After a somewhat flaccid showing at E3 (though I enjoyed what I saw) Gears of War 4 has been missing in action for six months.

Rod Fergusson has teased a return to a darker tone and says the team want to create a sense of fear in the player again after the Locust became little more than "army men" by the end of Gears of War 3.

The E3 demo showed familiar weapons but different characters and monsters.

So, my question to you is - what are your hopes, fears and expectations for Gears of War 4 and what direction do you want to see it go in?

Personally, as an enormous fan of the original trilogy, I am glad we've got what looks to be a fresh cast of enemies and heroes.

Epic delivered the perfect end for Delta Squad with Gears of War 3 and it's great to see them leave familiar faces behind to reinvent the brand.

You can already see that the characters are more realistically proportioned rather than the walking tanks we've had in the past.

Hopefully it paves the way for a more nuanced story rather than the simple bombast of the original games (which I enjoyed).

Fergusson has already said people want more grey in their games, rather than simple black and white, so hopefully this is a sign of a tonal shift in storytelling and characterisation.

New monsters are also a big plus for me. 343 can't shake off the stigma that Halo isn't there game because much of what Bungie established is still being used - I hope The Coalition go out of their way to mix things up.

In terms of gameplay, I'd like to see better AI and improved encounter design above all else. Interesting new enemies to fight and new weapons is also a must.

Maybe an evolution of the cover mechanic could be a big win but I adored Gears of War 3 so it's not something I'm actively looking for.

I don't really have any fears. I'll always treasure the original trilogy but it's time to move on. As long as they don't totally strip the franchise of its identity I'm more than happy to get on board with big changes.

I suppose my biggest fear is that it's just the same game again, but we've already seen enough to suggest we'll be fighting different enemies which should give the combat a new flavour (you'd hope).

Unlike 343, The Coalition has already worked on a Gears of War game and Ultimate Edition is an excellent remake.

In their short time at the helm of the franchise they've already proven more receptive to community feedback than Epic did and introduced a host of improvements to the game.

They also showed great restraint when remastering the original game by introducing just the right amount of improvements from Gears of War 3.

I could ramble all day.

What do you all think?

 

[Raide]

Horde Mode Deluxe.

 

[EVA UNIT 01]

No stopping power.

No retro or sawed off (not happening)

A refocus on elimination gametypes

The speed of gears 3.

No planted frags.

No active snipe down.

Horde 3.0 for coop

This is all i want

Oh and no judgement BS cog vs cog
cog vs locust or fuck off

 

[Mr.Fletcher]

Horde Mode Deluxe.

No stopping power.

No retro or sawed off (not happening)

A refocus on elimination gametypes

The speed of gears 3.

No planted frags.

No active snipe down.

This is all i want.

Horde 3.0

I didn't really touch on multiplayer but, for me at least, Gears of War 3 with the improvements suggested above would be a dream come true.

Horde also has to come back in a big way - but how could they improve it from 2.0?

 

[Kordelle]

Well at least in Versus, Locust should be a safe bet.
I hope that Marcus is in the game, in a role more than a cameo, maybe a lieutnant or something.

I just hope that the my FINALLY fix the netcode and give us proper dedicated servers, UE hit detection is just ridiculous at times.

For Horde, a level editor like Forge would be sweet.

 

[EVA UNIT 01]

A theatre mode goddammit.

 

[v1ncelis]

The only thing I'm afraid is the team behind this game. I know nothing about them.
Is this their first game?

 

[Akiyama_AE]

a good horde mode / don't be judgement that game sucks

 

[jfoul]

The only thing I'm afraid is the team behind this game. I know nothing about them.
Is this their first game?

Gears of War: UE

 

[Night Hunter]

EDIT: I am a stupid, stupid person

 

[CelticVegas]

Gears of War 4 was the game that will sold me on an Xbox One. But... The reveal was terrible imo. It removed every hype i had for the game. And i am sad of it. Hope i'm wrong and that Gears 4 will be similiar to the first one.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Gears of War: UE

Except that was a remaster and they didn't even do the actual legwork on it?

 

[Mr.Fletcher]

Except that was a remaster and they didn't even do the actual legwork on it?

I think a variety of studios, including Splash Damage, helped build the assets but in terms of decision-making I think The Coalition was in-charge.

They made some smart additions from Gears of War 3 as well as tweaking the shotgun to work better than it ever has done.

I am optimistic that they can do a good job, but you're right in the sense this is their first solo game. Fingers crossed they can deliver.

They are facing the 343 problem of not only having to deliver a stellar single-player but also an excellent multiplayer.

Anything less is a failure.

 

[jfoul]

Except that was a remaster and they didn't even do the actual legwork on it?

Fair enough. However, they did touch every asset of the game, redo cut scenes, and the 60FPS/Dedicated server MP has been flawless. I also have a lot of faith in Rod Ferguson.

 

[LewieP]

I hope Phil Spencer is able to realise his dream of it being a Gritty Reboot.

 

[Bits N Pieces]

I want a dark, gritty, scary campaign and I want Horde 4.0 to be the best horde mode ever.

 

[blakep267]

after playing halo 5 war zone, I think a similar type mode could work in gears. they have the weapon variety and enemy variety. Have like8v8, add in boomers grinders etc, you're req cards etc. I just like war zone and think it could work well here

 

[krang]

I'm torn.

I'm one of the few people who liked the serious side of the Gears universe. Really enjoyed the books and the dark, gritty, desperate, not-so-whiter-than-white-CoG part of the story. I'm looking forward to a more intimate Gears story for that reason.

On the other hand, I absolutely loved the large scale, over-the-top, bombastic set pieces of Gears 2 and to a lesser extent 3.

So, err, yeah. Good luck fulfilling all my desires, Rod!

 

[Mr.Fletcher]

I hope Phil Spencer is able to realise his dream of it being a Gritty Reboot.

I want a dark, gritty, scary campaign and I want Horde 4.0 to be the best horde mode ever.

Agree with this. Phil said the series eventually became a parody of itself so hopefully they have big plans for its future and how to keep the franchise relevant.

I could almost see a Star Wars-esque situation where we see the old cast but they are very much handing things over to a new generation.

I hope old Marcus is in because he's been my main in MP since the beginning.



@krang - I think Gears of War 2 struck a really nice balance in my opinion but I'm very much with you - it's going to be tough to please everyone.

 

[Kordelle]

after playing halo 5 war zone, I think a similar type mode could work in gears. they have the weapon variety and enemy variety. Have like8v8, add in boomers grinders etc, you're req cards etc. I just like war zone and think it could work well here

Please no, never again COG vs COG in versus.

 

[blakep267]

Please no, never again COG vs COG in versus.

what if Cogs aren't even a thing in this new gears, and its just other people. Also I didn't play judgement so I don't know why there would be an issue

 

[Mr.Fletcher]

what if Cogs aren't even a thing in this new gears, and its just other people. Also I didn't play judgement so I don't know why there would be an issue

The decision was widely condemned by the fanbase and left most fans cold. For many, Gears of War is man v monster.

However, it makes you wonder - the Locust had humanoid forms, the new enemies we've seen look very alien so maybe we will see human v human battles?

Perhaps the campaign will see various groups struggling to survive against these monsters and force the humans to battle each other at times?

 

[Madness]

I wouldn't call Gears of War 3's ending even anything close to perfect. It was a literal deus ex machina and didn't explain much at all.

That being said, I'd like to see refinement and expansion of Gears 3 multiplayer, coupled with Horde 3.0, and other things. Story wise I don't know how much they can do. Going to be tough caring about these new people and their storyline. Multiplayer, Gears is going to have it tough in an era where multiplatforms are dominant. As good as Gears 3 was, it's population plummeted right after first month.

 

[Laws00]

Please don't go the e sports route with your multiplayer.

Don't make campaign like judgement

Horde mode 3.0 please.

Don't try to reinvent the wheel too much.

I'd like to know what happened to Marcus, Baird, and Cole at the end of the game. They don't need to be in the game to play as maybe a passing of the torch to the new guy

Another Carmen brother

CliffyBs blessing of the game.

I can't think of too much I want

I'm just scared they're going to fuck this up.

In a way I don't want the locust to return but I'm scared if they introduce something else (not the lambet) it might ruin the story. Maybe the locust are trying to find/make another queen or something would make a decent plot.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

My fear is they do a Judgment and make the campaign a bunch of Horde skirmishes linked together with cutscenes. Just a horrible misunderstanding of how popular Horde mode was that they thought making the campaign based on the mechanics was the best thing to do.

 

[krang]

My fear is they do a Judgment and make the campaign a bunch of Horde skirmishes linked together with cutscenes. Just a horrible misunderstanding of how popular Horde mode was that they thought making the campaign based on the mechanics was the best thing to do.

I'd say Judgment was purposefully an experiment in that regard. Playing Aftermath made me realise that the idea of a traditional Gears campaign wasn't lost on Epic or PCF, so hopefully not on The Coalition either.

 

[Vitacat]

I'm confident it will be good, if not great. Playing through UE now and loving everything about it.

Confession: I only ever played a little bit of Gears 3 in the past, and missed out on the franchise for the most part in the 360 era. Sad, I know. But thanks to UE (and getting the entire 360 collection free with it) I've quickly become a fan. What a fun game!

 

[nOoblet16]

I think a variety of studios, including Splash Damage, helped build the assets but in terms of decision-making I think The Coalition was in-charge.

They made some smart additions from Gears of War 3 as well as tweaking the shotgun to work better than it ever has done.

I am optimistic that they can do a good job, but you're right in the sense this is their first solo game. Fingers crossed they can deliver.

They are facing the 343 problem of not only having to deliver a stellar single-player but also an excellent multiplayer.

Anything less is a failure.

I'm sorry but what?
Just the fact that the shotgun has centre aim but switches to barrel aim in close proximity makes it the worst out of any game because of lack of consistency.

Even though centre aim in Gears 1 was stupid it was consistent in that it won't switch to barrel aim once you pass an imaginary line and back.

 

[Ol No Bones]

The showing looked excellent at E3. The graphics were incredible, the tone was eerie and mysterious and I do want to get to know what these characters doing there and what those dog thingies are.

Really I just want MP to be amazing like Gears 1 and 3 though.

 

[Coalition-PezRadar]

Well, I personally can't wait for it!

(but I'm a tad biased)

 

[BananasWithGuns]

Probably my biggest fear is that TC is going to try to cater the competitive crowd too much. They've sort of put renewed focus on the esports part of Gears, at least more so than Epic ever did, but I'm hoping they don't start designing the game completely around it.

Other than that, I'm confident they'll make a great game.

 

[Angel_DvA]

I want a quicker GOW3 without retro and Sawed of with a little amount of stopping power, everything else will be a disappointement, Gears is my favorite multiplayer game so I'm waiting it like the messie, I home they can fix the sponge problem too.

 

[Johndoey]

I hope we get a few decent books out of the new cast.

 

[Genio88]

Besides Judgement I liked them all a lot, so i'm confident it'll be a great game, even if the demo shown by Rod wasn't wasn't that exciting, perhaps they chose a bad part of the game to show, like Square did last year revealing ROTTR with the snow mountain climbing sequence.
My hopes are for a game similar to the first one, with dark atmosphere and enemies who really make you feel in danger and underpowered some times

 

[BananasWithGuns]

I never understood why people want the Retro and Sawed-Off to be ripped out of the game.

Was Retro a broken mess in Gears 3? Absolutely, but it was perfectly fine in Judgment which, to me, is enough evidence that it can fit in with the rest of the weapons in Gears.

As far as the Sawed-Off, it's always been a piece of crap. It was the worst starting weapon in Gears 3 by a large margin and in Judgment it was just a worse Gnasher. I could never understand why people complained about it post nerf in Gears 3 considering just how bad it was. If you wanted to get the most kills you were going to use the Gnasher, there's just no way around that. The thing that the Sawed-Off brought to the table was that it was just a different way to play and I always appreciated that. Everyone always complained about people hugging corners with it but that's not how you use it most effectively. The Sawed-Off is ridiculously fun to use if you just rush in on people and cause chaos with it and I loved that about the gun. It was fun as hell to use as a change of pace after 20+ games using the Gnasher. It would really suck if it got completely pulled out of Gears just because people couldn't stop taking corners too tight.

 

[NippleViking]

Hope we get a decent, and lengthy campaign.

Splitscreen.

60FPS multi.

 

[Tatsumi Oga]

Definitely looking forward to the game, but not exactly too hyped just yet. The reveal during E3 was kind of underwhelming. It didn't look as amazing as i had expected from a new Gears game on the UE4 and since Gears have always managed to look amazing, i was definitely expecting to be blown away. However, this was only the first reveal and it clearly wasn't finished by a long shot. Plus now when i watch it again after having played the older Gears games again and Gears UE, i definitely see it looks nice.

There seems to be a new enemy, so no more Locust perhaps, which kinda makes sense if we look at Gears 3. What i am especially curious about is, is what happened. Gears 3's ending was quite clear, so what is this new threat. I also hope conversations between the characters will be great, because that is definitely one of the cool things about the Gears games, the conversations during gameplay. With Rod at the helm i have faith that this will be a worthy Gears game, unlike Judgment.

Also...

Make the campaign 30fps so we can expect some real eye candy, a new Gears should make us go 'OH SHIT' and make MP 60fps.

My fears would be that the game doesn't amaze graphically i guess, that the characters aren't too interesting and that the Gears magic is gone. I hope not.

 

[Strootman]

For the love of god, symmetrical maps, SYMMETRICAL

 

[Ushay]

Back to gritty feel, with real challenging enemies. Hopefully the campaign is nice and long.

 

[smik]

Get it to Gears 3 quality especially the multiplayer

No ledge falling! whatsoever in Multiplayer
(most over looked reason why GOW:J MP was terrible)
Keep gears grounded and not dominated but vertical combat in multiplayer

Judgement MP was... just, yuck.

 

[Kurt Angle]

now that Gears1 ultimate edition removed the nostalgia goggles from everyone
-exposed how out dated broken ass mechanics like center screen aiming, sticky cover, inconsistent shotgun spreads from 2006 are
-highlighted all the improvements that 10 years of gameplay and movement adjustments can make
- showed how everyone will stop playing that barebones shit after 3 months


make it more like gears 3 aka GOAT gears pls.

thank you cliffy for that masterpiece .....bar the retro/sawedoff. still love you

 

[EZMickey]

Horde also has to come back in a big way - but how could they improve it from 2.0?

Horde 3 could be more dynamic. With the first Horde a very defensive gameplay strategies similar in some ways to tower defense emerged from the community. Horde 2 expanded on that but in a very set and static way with designated places for building defenses. While this captured the strategies from the first Horde, it abandoned the emergent gameplay and lost some of the strategy that came with it.

I would like to see a return to that approach. Where players choose where to defend from, where to set turrets up, how to build defenses that can manipulate the enemies' movement, etc.

 

[EZMickey]

For the love of god, symmetrical maps, SYMMETRICAL

Noooooooooooo

 

[Alcoholikaust]

Horde Mode Deluxe.

That's all I want

 

[Nocturno999]

Hope the campaign has some survival horror segments like the first.

 

[W.S.]

I just want it back to telling a new mainline story and having the shooting mechanics as fun and sound as Gears 3/Judgement. Have extended lore but keep it manageable and not to the overwhelming degree Halo has taken it to.

While I know Judgement isn't considered a good Gears game by popular opinion and yes it was strung together horde mode, it had good ideas as well such as a better control scheme (IMO), added lore with Paduk and Sofia, and had a good epilogue to Gears 3 most of which I want to see continued in Gears 4.

Graphically it should look amazing considering the trailer but they shouldn't force the campaign to be 60fps if it too heavily compromises the visuals so the remake handled it well. With Halo 5 that didn't bother me as much though since I thought they made a decent case for it in the campaign and multiplayer.

I don't play a ton of Gears multiplayer but it's usually pretty fun when I do so as long as it's enjoyable and has lots of modes that's all I care about.

 

[Courage]

I'd really like if they made it more similar to the first game with some refinements. Keep the gnasher as your utility weapon and remove the sawed off and retro lancer or at least find a way to balance them.

 

[king grimlock]

I honestly don't know, I loved the atmosphere of GoW 1, the "of war" tone captured in Gears 2, and the mechanics of Gears 3. Probably a mix of of the original trilogy with whatever The coalition can bring to the table, as for expectations, in Rod I trust.

 

[Ushay]

Oh and get rid of that Seriously 3.0 achievement .. fuck that achievement.

 

[Apdiddy]

Since Horde Mode is a big selling point with Gears of War now, I think they should do what Treyarch does with their zombies and give it its own story separate from the campaign.

I also hope it's more like RE4 and it's more of a survival horror game than a third-person shooter.