The Gears of War franchise is still going strong after all these years. We’re now on the sixth installment, which according to recent figures, has done pretty well commercially. This is a testament to The Coalition’s continued efforts to bring novelty to the franchise. The combat in this latest installment is unsurprisingly great, featuring a good progression system that you’ll fall in love with almost immediately.
Gears of War 5 has even sold better than the previous installment, which is a pretty impressive feat considering that it launched on the Xbox Game Pass premium subscription platform. Microsoft wanted to give as many players as they could access to this game. For just a monthly fee, subscribers can play it for as long as they want.
And yet, gamers still sought the title for the Xbox One. It just goes to show that fans of the series like having an exclusive copy of the game. That’s not surprising. There are a lot of people who don’t like having to pay a monthly fee. They can certainly add up if you have a lot of subscriptions, be it to Netflix or Hulu.
So why has Gears of War 5 done better commercially than Gears of War 4? Well, it’s a combination of things. For starters, the campaign has never been better. Sure, the plot has a few weaknesses — but for the most part, the developers have done a great job at fleshing out their characters.
There is an amazing cast to fall in love with. The Coalition also raised the stakes by making your decisions actually matter. They’ll have an affect on the overall outcome, so from start to finish, you’re tuned in to see what happens next.
The multiplayer portion is where this game really shines, though. It offers a lot of different modes that keep gameplay fresh and moving towards the right direction. Some modes the community has raved about include Horde, Escape, Versus, and Versus Arcade. Each one offers something fresh for players to have fun with for hours.
Lastly, The Coalition took some liberties with the areas your character gets to explore. A couple of areas are now open-ended, which give this game a fresh coat of paint that shows a lot of promise for future games in this beloved franchise.
The Coalition seem like a competent studio that can keep this series moving in the right direction. The community certainly wants it to continue.
