As the first game in the series since Microsoft acquired it from Epic Studios and handed it to Canadian developer The Coalition, Gears of War 4 was bound to receive a fair amount of scrutiny from series fans. After the gameplay demo shown at E3, I’m not so sure the scrutiny will subside.
Gears of War 4 is set 25 years after the events of Gears of War 3. The main protagonist is JD Fenix, son of Marcus Fenix, the hero of the first trilogy. The gameplay demo shows JD, Gears veteran Kate, and one other Gear soldier heading out to rescue Kate’s mother, who has been taken by a new enemy, the Swarm. The demo’s duration is then spent with the heroes carving their way through Swarm aggressors the way to their objective.
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Graphically, the game is pretty gritty, often in the most literal sense. The terrain outside is sandy and there are vicious dust storms sweeping over everything. When the action moves indoors, things don’t get much brighter. Everything has a dark, dismal look and feel to it. I know that the Gears of War series is known for its dismal atmosphere, but this game’s visuals seem to crank it up to 11, at least in this demo.
That is not to say that the game looks bad. Everything looks great. There is a great amount of detail on display in the gameplay demo. The weather effects, from the dust storms to the overhead lightning and lightning strikes on the ground, are very impressive. It’s just that I wish they’d show us a daytime scene already; the sun must feel neglected.
The game’s traditional cover mechanics are on full display in this gameplay demo, as well as its gore. But even here, something seems off. There are plenty of instances when unfortunate Swarm grunts are eviscerated with glee, either with the iconic chainsaw gun’s motorized parts or its bayonet. But the gore is a little…muted. The blood is there, but there aren’t the usual close-ups of enemies being sliced like so much raw meat. The Gears of War trilogy was very liberal with its spilling of blood and guts. Here, it doesn’t have the same impact. It’s almost as if they tried to play it safe with the game.
In the end, I may just be overreacting to what is essentially a small slice of gameplay. Gears of War 4 does not look bad at all, and for the most part it follows the series’ blueprint pretty faithfully. It will be available for Xbox One and Windows 10 on October 11th.
