Gears of War 4 Review - IGN

Gears of War 4 plays it fairly safe but brilliantly executes on a variety-packed campaign, meaty Versus multiplayer, and gripping Horde mode.

[christocolus]

Amazing. Great job Coalition. MS must be proud of these guys. Their first game is a hit with critics and gamers alike. Can't wait to see what they do next. Hopefully we'll get a sneak peek of their next project at the Scorpio reveal.

youtube link to IGNs video review https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[4Sh0w]

Just started last night on the campaign, it isn't Shakespeare as far as the story goes so far but it's definitely engaging. What I'm really enjoying is the gameplay, whew..gotta get back into the swing of things with my reload timing but it's fun playing Gears again. Also the game looks incredible, Ive been a huge fan since the first Gears and so far I'm really impressed with the game. At work right now but can't wait to go at it again tonight.

[game4funz]

No kidding, started playing it splitscreen and it still looks really good in splitscreen... Considering they're running two instances at once.

[WildArmed]

@above

It's great to see games still supporting split screen. Lately so many games have been missing this awesome feature. Im glad they didn't forget how many played split screen on Gears, Kodus to them. I played all three Gears1-3 with split screen, really glad I will be able to continue to do the same.

[4Sh0w]

@texag2011

So I take it you would have thrown your controller if Gears4 opened with a Col Hoffman motivational speech that said "To be, or not to be"....pffft wheres my gun. -lol

[bacrec1]

The ending is awesome.

[Maxor]

The game has flaws. The lack of fill in match making in Horde mode is a big one. They also need competitive crossplay so the PC version won't feel so dead without it.

But that graphics and frame rate though. Over 100 FPS in 2K ultra with Windows Store game? Nobody saw this coming.

[Deadpooled]

@texag

"Thank God. I've never wanted a bullet in my brain so badly as when I was forced to read that iambic pentameter bullshit in school."

Haha so true, I was forced to read up on Pride and Prejudice in secondary school, so shit. Teacher forced the class to watch that carp movie as well, the only good part I remember is when that guy was caught banging whores in the backroom closet (I was also subjected to read Romeo and Juliet and watch the movies (both the old one and the one made in the 90s), quite obvious to those who also saw the movie of what part I remember most judging from my assessment of the Pride and Prejudice movie ;) ).

[nix]

I always thought this game is above 9 in average until i checked Metacritic. Still a good review for a new devs. I've always envied Gears series.

[ABizzel1]

Congrats are due for any good game, but this is not their first game at all.

They've been with MS for years, and were simply renamed when they took over the Gears IP.

Zipline
MS Vancouver
Black Tusk (where they were working on a new shooter IP anyway)
The Coalition (after MS bought Gears).

On top of that many of the "new" team members are the same people who've been working on Gears since the original trilogy. They had Rod Ferrguson (the same executive producer of the first 3 Gears), they had the experience they needed by remastering Gears of War Ultimate Edition, and so they had all the tools they needed to make a great Gears of War game.

That being said it's a great game, and they've done a good job with the franchise.

[christocolus]

"Black Tusk (where they were working on a new shooter IP anyway) "

So what game did they make under the MS Vancouver or Black Tusk Label? All they have done since the studio was formed is the Gears One Remake. Gears 4 is their first true AAA title built ground up for Xbox One and PC and they delivered big time.

"On top of that many of the "new" team members are the same people who've been working on Gears since the original trilogy. They had Rod Ferguson (the same executive producer of the first 3 Gears)"

Gears 4 is the studio's first true AAA outing no matter how you try to downplay it. Rod may have worked on previous Gears games but at the Coalition he was working with a brand new team ,he had to work with devs not familiar with the franchise. If you read the Eurogamer article about the development of the game Rod talked about the difficulties involved with working with a brand new team..
The Coalition had a huge task ahead of them and a lot of pressure to deliver on a brand new Gears game and they did, so Congratulations is well in order here. They achieved so much in their first outing and it runs great, plays great and looks great on PC and Xbox One. Rod only brought a couple of devs from Epic. Chuck Oseja and the other guys have been at Black Tusk . Having devs form different studios all together to form a brand new studio doesn't guarantee a superb first outing..but the Coalition delivered big time.

[gangsta_red]

@Abizzel

I never knew that....So what was their game before Gears 4?

[ABizzel1]

@Christocolus

No one is downplaying anything, the fact is they've worked on other games, including Gears Ultimate Edition, and are comprised of a lot of original Gears developers, therefore, there should be no surprise that Gears 4 turned out to be a good game. You're making it seems as if this is an entirely new team of fresh out of college developers, that got Gears for the first time and nailed it, when that's not the case.

@gangsta_red

Gears Ultimate Edition, on top of assisting with the development of the Gears ports.

Their previous can was put on the back burner when MS obtained the Gears of War IP so they could focus on that. And it was likely cancelled, since it was being compared to Splinter Cell (which MS has consistently received on their console anyway), and Quantum Break.
Here's the link
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

They also developed a first person flight game for Kinect, and were making a FPS for Kinect, so they have experience with coding first person and third person, it's just Gears 4 is their first "original" project.

[4Sh0w]

Nah, Chris is right because this is definitely the first time they actually released a brand new game together as a complete team. He never even implied the dev's were all straight out of college....of course they have experience but there's a big difference between them working on a remaster, or other UNRELEASED game content vs actually developing & delivering a high quality game...especially one in a well known franchise like Gears with high expectations.

[ABizzel1]

@4show

I'll just speak to you from this point on since, the fanboy in people can't seem to be put aside, and just be real for a single moment in their lives.

If you want to completely exclude Gears Ultimate Edition, in which the Coalition themselves say they completely re-worked the game from the ground up by creating entirely new textures, assets, lighting models, changes to the campaign, and more as not being their "first game", or the fact they helped port over the other Gears as not getting any experience at all, then yes I agree that Gears 4 is "technically speaking" their first game "as a studio".

That being said my point was that the vast majority of these people are the same team from Epic that built the Gears of War franchise to begin with. I didn't want to get this deep into it, but since Christ is spreading miss information, and refuse to research, and more importantly doesn't know anything about these studios I'm going to end this foolery once and for all.

Many Epic's developers left the company to work at The Coalition. Epic was already developing Gears 4, but they were bought out by Tencent (a Chinese Internet and multimedia company). Tencent owned too much stock in Epic during the buyout and replaced the board with their own members, and forced Epic to make F2P games.

This is why so many people in leadership positions left Epic Games for other things. You don't leave the company you've worked for 10+ years when you're in the top leadership making 6 - 7 figures just because. They were fundamentally changing the company from the vision of the developers, and so they quit and made their own teams. Epic was already making Gears 4, but when the buyout was the entire reason they sold the Gears franchises to MS. This is also why Epic has over 100 jobs still available, because their people left. All in the 2012 - 2013 time frame. And who else better to hear it from then the multiple horses mounths:
http://www.polygon.com/a/ep...

[ABizzel1]

Now on the flip side, Black Tusk studios went from just 55 employees up to 200 employees in a single year when the Gears deal went through.... Epic lost hundreds of employees, and MS gained the Gears IP and gave it to Black Tusk who also magically gained around 150 in the same time frame..... 100% legit.
http://www.mtv.com/news/246...

But to dig even more into Black Tusk, MS moved a large portion of the Vancouver studio (Black Tusk previous name) to their Kinect teams, and rebuilt Black Tusk from developers who had worked on some of the best shooting and 3rd person franchises in gaming. So those original 55 members consist of developers who once again worked on games like Splinter Cell, Uncharted, Crysis, God of War, Warhammer, and EA Dice and Visceral (Battlefield and Dead Space) and more for 12 or more years. Developers from the likes of Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, Rockstar, EA Dice, EA Visceral, CryTek, and more.....but these are "new" guys.
http://www.ign.com/articles...

They pulled developers from other Vancouver studios, and filled the rest of their ranks with the developers jumping ship from Epic games, and that's how the Coalition was formed. From a group of 55 season developers, under the leadership
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

"Over the last year 2 years since I've been here, the culture of the studio changed a lot. We brought a lot of great people on."

Translation: All those Epic developers jumping ship. The Coalition is Epic Games 2.0

And none of this is a bad thing, and nothing I said was negative against the studio. It's just that ignorance condones some of these people to cherry pick anything they can consider "remotely nearing non-praise" to be an attack against their beloved fictional console preference, and the fact is the developers working for The Coalition have been making AAA games for over a decade, and many of them have been making Gears of War games for YEARS. I would have been shocked if it wasn't a great game, which as I said in my original comment it is a great game.

And how do I know all this, because unlike @chirs and his fellow butthurt friends, I actually speak to some of these developers, I personally know some of these developers, I know Black Tusk was founded mostly on EA developers because they pulled them from the Redwood City studios, which is literally a couple of miles from the Sony Computer Entertainment Foster City studio, who I also talk to. The links are just there so the uninformed can fact check themselves, you don't need them when you know the real story.

But that's my point 4show. Nothing I ever said was against them, it just that this based on the people working there The Coalition should really be one of the best studios in the industry. This is MS's Naughty Dog, and while they did a great job with Gears, I'm waiting for their original IP, which unfortunately got shelved because of Gears.

[Gaming4Life1981]

Im enjoying it alot and i havent played all the modes yet, just campaign and horde mode so far.

[TheHorseTamer]

Can't wait to play it tonight!

[monkey602]

Same. I was major disappointed last night when it took about 3 hours or so in total to install and update the game so I never got to try it. but I can't wait to finish work this evening and lash at it.

[akurtz]

tell me about it, the install, day one patch and console update. only took me an hour though 😅😂

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

Well Done Coalition! I had my doubts for being a new Studio, but you definitely delivered in the end. 84 on meta is a great score to start off your career. Congratulations!

[ClickbaitAF]

I never understood why people care so much about the metacritic score.... Just play the game. It's up to you to decide if you like the game or not.

[freshslicepizza]

great to see the pc version running smoothly.

[FullmetalRoyale]

I'm glad to see that this game is doing well, and I hope the fans are happy with it.

[spicelicka]

Man this game has one of the most epic prologues I've played!

I'm only a few chapters in but I'm amazed at the campaign. Some of the reviews had me thinking it wouldn't be on par.

[jmetalhead77812]

Yeah, take reviews with a block of salt. It's nice to see good scores, but there's some scores out there that are very questionable.

This is a great game that has met all my expectations... Now that they have got the PC porting down and the foundation of a great series down, I'm really anxious to see what they can do on the Scorpio in 2018-19!

[2cents]

Boom... Headshot.

[ClickbaitAF]

Splatta
-Cole Train

[Relientk77]

Review in progress score 9.2 please wait for final review and score

Just kidding it's still 9.2. :-p

Aww IGN you got me

[kevnb]

the only thing holding me back is the game length since Ive never really enjoyed gears multiplayer all that much, Im sure ill pick it up eventually though.

[mark_parch]

ive never been into the multiplayer much but give horde mode a try its fucking epic

[sammarshall102]

It's longer than I thought it would be and it's filled with so much a action it's crazy

My GOTY

[BigBosss]

Tonight I was playing Horde with my brother. Me being on the Xbox One S whereas he was on the PC and we were having a blast! Fantastic game and Coalition did an extraordinary job!

[SquidBuck]

there is no crossplay

[akurtz]

for versus i believe

[christocolus]

Horde mode 3.0 supports crossplay btw both platforms infact a couple other mp modes do too
http://www.universityherald...

[Immorals]

I was playing with someone on PC last night. They weren't very good, but they definitely were on PC, a little icon came up by their name. (Horde)

[spicelicka]

There is crossplay for all co-op modes, for versus you just have to set it up privately.

[SquidBuck]

oh ok thanks for letting me know!

[BigBosss]

No Cross play for Versus yes, but there was for Campaign and Horde which is still pretty good enough.

[iistuii]

We've done that too. Also I bought the game on PC & as my gamertag is on my sons Xbox in family share, we can play together or he can even play it whilst I'm on it with the same copy..even better.

[XanderZane]

That's awesome.

[DragonDDark]

I lost interest in the review once I saw who's reviewing it.

[coolbeans]

Do you mean McCaffrey, IGN, or both? :P

[DragonDDark]

McCaffrey. It's like greg miller reviewing a ps exclusive.

[vishant101]

Ryan might be an xbox fan but he does accurately review games relative to the other games he's reviewed.

[DragonDDark]

Alien Isolation

[alb1899]

The MP feels Supreme!
A lot of moths of play ahead!
Jump in!!

[JeffGUNZ]

Yeah man, the gnasher is probably the best it has ever been. Game is great

[StifflerK]

I'm about half way through the campaign, it's been great so far.
I'd say the series is in good hands with The Coalition.

[bangoskank]

Great game. Played until about 5:30 am. Work is going to suck.

[Immorals]

Damn, horde 3.0 is alot harder than horde 2.0

[Maxor]

Now it's impossible to complete thanks to the lack of fill in match making.

[Immorals]

I've not struggled to get a full team, whether they are any good or not is another matter!

[Bolts]

That's not what he's talking about. Fill in match making is when someone leaves the matching making will find another player to fill out the group. Right now it's impossible get pass wave 40 because by then two people would leave and you'll be left fighting a tough boss with 3 players.

[lastking95]

You guys are getting me too hyped.

[XanderZane]

One of the best XB1 games this generation. Must own for all Gears of War fans.

[NextGenCeo]

Not worth more than 8.5 point. Game single campaing epic fail!

[spicelicka]

wut

[Maxor]

110 FPS at 2K Ultra. I haven't seen a game that is so well optimized since Doom 3.

[2pacalypsenow]

Picking this up when I finish Mafia 3

[Andofaus]

Spot on review, the Coalition has done an incredible job on gears 4, amazing considering it's their first game. Everything they added from new weapons mechanics and improved M.P and great rollercoaster campaign only adds to an already killer franchises. Any concerns I had with Epic not developing the game have been put to rest roll on Gears 5!

[georgenancy]

84 on metacritic,not bad

[tigertron]

I'm enjoying it but there are a few things I don't like:

- Microtransactions. I want to be able to just unlock characters as I rank up like in the previous games.
- Really long matchmaking times.

[Lethaltare]

Easily the best title on the Xbox One, such a great gears of war title also. The coalition have done a fantastic job with this.