BIG SHOES TO FILL

We leap into this campaign with the promise of meeting our old iconic friend Marcus Fenix and his squad of friends, the urge to split locusts into two with a chainsaw has been deeply rooted in us since Gears of War first launched.

This time we are once again on the planet surface of Sera when Gears of War 4 begins. Peace has triumphed. The war with the underground monster race called the Locust had almost exterminated humanity but 25 years ago the humans, with Marcus Fenix in the front-lines managed to end the violence-bent beasts once and for all. Peace does not always mean calm though. Lethal storms ravage the survivors of Sera and to guard themselves the government has shielded the giant cities with large walls and built safety robots called "Deebees" to manage the most dangerous aspects of the construction work required to rebuild society as the humans concentrate on repopulating the world in peace.

The new squad has large iconic shoes to fill.

There is though a large group of people who thinks that life inside of the walls is not a life worth living. These people has gone out on a quest to build smaller colonies in nature, where freedom is the key point. These people are called "The Outsiders" by the military force called "Coalition of Ordered Governments" - the military war-giant that Marcus Fenix once served in. His son, James Dominic (or JD) and his friend Del also fought for them until the day they choose to join The Outsiders, where they meet Kait - the daughter of Reyna Diaz, the leader of the colony they are searching a home in.

After the two young tough-guys and Kait's uncle Oscar have come home after a successful heist against a COG-financed construction site their colony is attacked by the same army and their legion of armed robots. Their leader Jinn accuses Reyna of taking members of his army and instead of investigating the accusation verbally a large fire-battle bursts out, which JD and his friends comes out victorious in. That same night it becomes clear though what it is that has been taking people from the military, because mystical monsters come and take everybody from their home while JD, Del and Kait - who happens to be locked-in in safety, can only watch as their friends get taken. What follows is a cat-and-mouse-game in which our heroes tries to understand what these monsters are and why they currently are springing up like weeds all over the place and what they are doing with all the people they are abducting, by the same time feeling the need to save Kait's family. But first they need expert help, and they head towards the mansion in which JD grew up in hopes of finding and convincing the old, grumpy Marcus Fenix to help.

Seeing Marcus as an old, grumpy and angry war-veteran is actually very entertaining and awesome.

A TALE OF SURVIVAL

I love the Gears of War-series. It's important to me and that's why it's so hard to say this; the campaign in Gears of War 4 is one of the years largest disappointment for me. The framing and premise of the game bears no fault. The introduction made me very excited about the take the series would take me on, with Rod Fergusson and he's The Coalition-team at the steering wheel. a more intimate, a bit more scary and darker story of three friends discovering something horrible in the woods during night and must try to survive what they are facing, against all odds. A story not about saving the world or becoming a hero, but rather a story of survival. The execution leaves something to be desired though.

While the original team in some cases where archetypes they at least had heart and identity, with their distinct personalities and a sarcastic back-and-forth which worked really well. The new trio is almost impossible to describe in any other way than "The white protagonist, the black friend and the chick". I desperately try to find any depth or distinct characteristics in the story's figures but to no avail. All heroes are in terms of appearance and personality so generic that it's hard to find a match.

Kait and her family belongs to the group called "The Outsiders" who have chosen to live without government

Worse is with the old dirty-man Oscar, who talks and behaves like he should be in a South park-episode (but not funny enough to fit) and the COG-villain Jinn is so close to a children-shows interpretation of a bad guy that it can possibly come. It's better when it comes to Marcus Fenix, who fits really well as a super irritated and angry retiree like John McClane on steroids who once again gets dragged into a shit situation that he rather had avoided.

Even more annoying is that the story never leaves enough space for the characters to actually just freeze and reflect upon how crushing it should be for the nightmare to just restart again, thinking as it almost exterminated humanity last time. Never do i get any reason to sympathize with their situation as the game's tone constantly is pretty light and especially as JD and Del quick-fires jokes as frequent as they release some shotgun-rounds against slimy, newly-hatched Swarms.

Fighting Swarms can be intense as they invade from every angle.

The dialogue is pretty boring, the actors have a bad chemistry and for a GoW fan like myself there where far to many questions the game asked but never answered - almost like the script writer just forgot about them. That the story falls flat is disappointing, especially since the developers constantly mentioned The Last of Us as an inspiration and that from start indicated that they wanted a more intimate gaming experience and tell a new, interesting story.

SLICING LIMBS AND CRUSHING BOLTS

Gears of War 4 is a surprisingly cowardly game, that only changes small, shallow things to keep the concept moving forward but completely refuses to take a step or two in another direction. Here we have two new enemy types, Swarms and Deebees, but both work almost exactly like the Locust-enemies did in the original - with smaller variation found in this game than GoW 3 is also a little ironic.

Robots can be fun to shoot, but still we miss the gory violence that made GoW so iconic.

Deebees almost feel like they are just put in to give the player something to shoot at until Coalition dares to show Swarms in the spotlight. Robots in the meaty Gears of War feels like a horrible solution for the problem and i would rather that Coalition would have gone with the same path as Naughty Dog did - who actually believes that the players interest can be kept hooked in without constantly throwing enemies at them. in the first hour of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End we had seen more of the protagonist inner core than the whole playtrough of Gears of War 4 will give you - and then Gow 4 even gave us a completely new set of characters. We really need to had to get to know the trio much better then we got to.

But sure... Gears of War 4 is still Gears of War. If your one of those who still don't give a damn about storytelling, characterization and a meaningful world built around it all and mostly just want an excuse to shoot some cool monsters (alone or in co-op with a friend) this will work for you all the days of the week. To play Gow 4 actually feels a bit like coming home. My old "elite" skills from the GoW 3-era still sits firmly in the muscle-memory and it's not long until i without hesitation slice trough robots and dirty, mean monster alike with my chainsaw, like a knife trough butter.

It's certainly nothing wrong with the new monster-design. Just as bad-ass as ever.

All of the new weapons are fun to use where Dropshot and Overkill are among the favorites. The first one, anyone who played the beta-version knows as the projectile weapon that fires massive grenades trough the air, to then come down to the ground as an meteor from space once you release the trigger. Overkill is one giant, square monster-shotgun that fires a round when using the trigger, and one more once released. This can be done 4 times without reloading, so most things within range will turn into poultry quite fast - especially in multiplayer mode.

The Coalition makes their best effort to keep the gameplay varied with different sequences in which one is the new storms that haunt the planet. These are called "Windflares" and at the mildest they make it incredible hard to move around. To throw grenades when the wind is blowing towards you is also not recommended, but the wind can also be used to, for example, get the chainsaw blades from the new weapon Buzzkill to move in an angle and hit enemies behind cover. At it's strongest these storms will come with massive lighting strikes that fry anything it comes in contact with. It does happen very often and it's not that hard to avoid.

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The weapon Buzzkill can be a real blast using against those slimy, pesky Swarms.

You'll also get a few vehicle segments, just like in previous GoW-titles. These have been pretty bad in previous games - nobody remembers the Junker-level from the first or the Centaur-ride in the second as something particularly fun. Fortunately the one we get to play towards the end in Gow 4 is the series best, and does feel like a natural extension of what GoW actually fundamentally is to us fans. There is also a chasing-sequence on a motorbike and might be the worst vehicle experience i had in a game ever. You can only lean left or right and shoot, the movement feels jaggy and stiff and overall just not enjoyable.

I like the environments, some times they are very visually pleasing. And among the new enemies who offer something new to the table are Pouncers, the four-legged jumpers that we saw in the trailer during E3 2015. They demand some finesse to be taken down effectively and adapt pretty good to how you react. The AI is really sharp in Gears of War 4 - it's hard to kill enemies with grenades as they are efficient in moving away from the blast-area.

The new Pouncer monster has one of the best designs in the game.

It's worth to repeat - this is still Gears of War, that has always been well-designed in it's mechanics which still holds true today. The game is fun. But for me who value story telling, memorable characters and dramatic scenes, GoW 4 proved to be an disappointment - and it hurts to say.

RISE OF THE HORDE

Horde 3.0 is where the multiplayer in Gears of War really shine.

But then we have the multiplayer mode. And this is far from a disappointment. I think personally that Horde 3.0 is the games best mode. Just as in the sequel you get to build a fortress with electrical barricades and cannon towers - automatically ones as well as manned ones. The difference here being, and this is what really makes 3.0 shine, is that these can be put anywhere instead of in predetermined places. You can now choose where to have your base and this extra gaming freedom give some depth to the mode.

The Horde mode is also class-based this time around, not as restrictive as one could think when first hearing it. There are 5 classes. Scouts make double the energy points required to build fortresses, so they are essential. Engineers are they who repair constructions, which makes the Scout and Engineer work very efficient together. The sniper class probably does not need a introduction and the same goes for the soldier class. The heavy is a tank with some cool heavy weaponry.

Killing monsters with chainsaw's or a well-placed knife to the head is as satisfying as ever.

I put several hundreds of hours into the multiplayer mode of GoW 3 and together with Halo, Left 4 Dead and Battlefield, Gears of War is one of my favorite multiplayer games. And Gears of War 4 feels better in that aspect than ever before, at least pure mechanically. It has tight and responsive controls and an abundant of player depth to keep the player invested into keeping gaming.

The new mechanic "Yank & Shank" is a good addition to the Gears-sandbox where you can yank opponents sitting across from the same cover as you to then quickly follow up with a knife execution that feels incredibly satisfying to execute against real human players. The same move can be done if you manage to kick an enemy in the face by doing a "Mantle Kick" which is not new, but works smoother this time around.

THE MULTIPLAYER SHINES THE MOST

Of the two vehicle sequences found in the game, one of these is really good. The motorcycle sequence is the other.

I really love the multiplayer in Gears of War and i can't keep myself from having a big stupid smile as i go to fight into the ether of the internet. The servers seem so be holding up well, even when large masses of players logged in at launch, it still was stable so props on the technical aspect.

Unfortunately i haven't found a Gears of War 4-level that i would count as a future classic as for example the levels Checkout and Thrashball was, but with that said i have not been in any level that i truly hate either and most of them actually holds a pretty stable quality. Bottle-neck locations are abundantly spread out trough the levels in multiplayer in a natural way, with plenty of logical cover objects as well (which you will need). The new weapon arsenal does also fit very well into the multiplayer setting and fills new purposes.

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Gears of War 4 is as violent as expected and some of the new execution animations are completely over-the-top.

There are three new multiplayer modes in GoW 4 and my favorite with a doubt of these is Dodgeball. It's an interesting twist on the classic death-game mode where i can save one of my dead team mates by killing one of my opponents. It gives some intense fights with games flipping all the time, and it always feels like you have a chance to win even if you are the only living guy left in your team. A new favorite has been found in this one.

Then we have Arms Race which is a "Gearsified" variation of Gun Game. This time though it's a team effort, basically you get assigned a team which then gets assigned one weapon which all in your team has to use. It can create some funny situations like when one team gets the uzi-like Enforcer weapon against a team filled with Embar-snipers - with other words, one side wants to get up and close while the others want to keep a distance.

Team-play is as crucial for victory in the campaign as in multiplayer, if not more.

The last of the new multiplayer modes is called Escalation and is built with Esports in mind. It's a development of the traditional Domination-mode with a new twist of giving the team that manages to hold all three control points on the level for 5 seconds wins the round immediately. The losing side than gets to place a Power Weapon (like the Torque Bow, Boomshot or a sniper) somewhere on the map. You have to win seven rounds to win the game, and it's not rare that these games go well beyond 25 minutes of playtime. If one team totally dominates the other than it might be over faster. I can certainly see this mode work well in the Esports arena.

Time will tell if Gears of War 4 offers the best multiplayer experience of the series, but it is currently looking very bright.

Some classical modes like King of the Hill, Execution and Guardian who are still a blast to play are present also in Gears of War 4. The multiplayer runs very smooth with 60 frames per second and i think this GoW version has a big possibility to become on of the best multiplayer games of the modern gaming era.

The fabulous Versus- and Horde-modes of GoW 4 impresses me much more than the mediocre disappointment of the campaign we got this time around. Even though the campaign did not live up the expectations, the multiplayer mode is above and beyond and is one of the few games i still boot up every night before bed and i really enjoy the experience every time.