Gears |OT| All around me are familiar faces

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I know this has been something of a hot topic after seeing how Gears 5 performed and especially after Hivebusters where so many of the most basic achievements unlocked have been classed as “rare” likely indicating not many have given it a go.

We all know how popular Gears was in its prime, arguably Microsoft’s 2nd top franchise in the 360 era. I got the sense off the back of Gears 3 and Judgement is where the Gears hype and popularity slower started to dip. Obviously only a select few games can remain incredibly popular non stop but we’ve seen examples of series that have blown up again. One example being God of War (which ironically also found itself in a similar position to Gears).

Should the Coalition be bothered about getting Gears back to that upper tier again or should they keep on doing what they’re doing? Many will argue with Gamepass it isn’t always about big sales now and initially it seemed Gears 5 had a decent launch but retention was perhaps a bit of an issue.

Personally speaking, in terms of mainline games, I’m not a big fan of the cast of characters. I’ve just never clicked with Kait, JD or Del (I enjoyed the Hivebusters cast more tbh), it won’t happen but I actually wouldn’t mind playing as old man Fenix again. Graphically the games are gorgeous and the games have far more colour to them than back in the day, so I would be surprised if it was art style that was putting people off the series (could maybe argue folks don’t like the chunky look the characters have)

The big one is obviously gameplay. The sentiment you hear is people are bored of the gameplay and it plays like it did in 2006. What can Coalition realistically do to evolve the moment to moment gameplay? God of War still has Kratos involved in 3rd person melee combat but somehow they managed to make the game appear like a radical departure from previous entries. Can the Coalition do the same for Gears while keeping the core Gears gameplay or is now the time for them to rip that up and really freshen it up?

Should they really go all in with the open world? Change the tone and really lean into the survival horror direction (which I know a lot of people clamour for) - where instead of a killing machine we’re made to feel vulnerable? I actually wouldn’t mind a mix of Mass Effect and Gears where we’re able to choose our squad to fight with, freedom to location hop to tackle missions and far more fleshed out side quests.

What do folks here think the Coalition can do to get Gears back to the upper tier of not just Microsoft franchises, but gaming in general? (Sorry for such a long op, Gears is a franchise I’ve loved since it was first unveiled! :rofl: I really would love to get back to being excited for the series again)

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I think, first, we would need to assess whether it’s indeed declining. The game is still very popular in a much more competitive environment than 360 gears were. And it got more support than any of the Gears games from that era. As we learned from truly underperforming games from MS they don’t give that support for that long.

I do agree about the DLC but for me that’s clearly a marketing problem. You just don’t announce something 1 week from release, just days before one of the biggest events of the year that was being watched by millions. And Gears 5 marketing overall has been… Strange to say the least with again not showing the campaign at all until weeks from launch with a single YouTube trailer.

So, if there’s anything they can do I’d start with the marketing first they need to learn to create hype trailers like they did so well in the past and actually use them in the events.

I do think gears has a problem of too much content for it’s own good mp wise. They should drop most of the modes and stick with the ones that show what the franchise and gameplay is all about.

Imo they should keep Arcade for the new comers, but with some changes. Bring back warzone with a single life. And horde.

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Gears unless it has a reboot of sort it is what it is as a franchise. May get some more players here and there from gamepass but its not the massive popular pillar want to make it seem. Its been about 8 games and its not gonna suddenly reach Forza levels of big much less Halo.

Its quality? Absolutely but anybody outside xbox hardly cares.

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I honestly dont know, maybe the franchise interested faded out? Personally, I think Gears 5 is great game, it plays better than any other Gears game out there and has a ton of content, but somehow it seems that it did not catch much mindshare, sure I think it suffered a bit with the Xb1 “rejection” issue last gen, but it tanked on pc so I don’t know. Although the new characters are not that great, I liked the story arc more than what they did with Halo 5.

Maybe a reboot could help, some refining on gameplay/controls as well is welcome. It is a bit clunk, especially in close combat, so I could see they improving that. Multiplayer wise (competitive mode), I think Gears is not very enjoyable for newcomers, so it is something they could improve more as well. I love horde mode, but it is sad the is so dificult to find a game on matchmaking. Thankfully the private lobbies helps with that a bit. I think it is a great franchise and wouldn’t like to see it going to the fridge. Gear 6 will be the make or brake for the franchise I think.

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Quite simple that the cast (and story) doesnt hit like the original did and they chickened out with some of the stuff that Gears 4 setup story wise.

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I enjoyed Gears 5 a lot, but they need to decide which direction to take it going forward. I wouldn’t mind a Mass Effect-direction at all but that is going very far from the old Gears. But I think it would have a wider appeal, much more focus on the campaigns than before. The PvP is not attractive at all, and is mostly an affair for the couple of hundred old Gears-fans still playing since the 360. Not really a selling point. The PvE MP however is great fun.

If they want to be big again, it’s in the campaign and solo-content they have to focus.

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They chickened out indeed, tho I found interesting tho that they dig on the queen heritage and why she ended up being a locust queen, something that I always asked myself.

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Nothing. The reason it lost mindshare was not many had an X1, so it and all the other tentpole games weren’t being talked about. Even when they told many millions anyhow. As XSX gains popularity in the coming yrs, that will all change radically.

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I wish they would split their product offerings eSports PvP and everything else. One strictly for the eSports crowd they’re catering to for the PvP MP. The other strictly for the Campaign, Horde, and Escape.

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IMO it’s because the shoot, cover, shoot cover, rigid gameplay is fine for the gears diehards but everyone else has spent hundreds of hours playing 3rd person games with a huge range of movement and flexibility to them that you start playing Gears and it just feels very old hat and clunky.

It’s a hard one because you’re either going to have to accept gears is what it is and appeals to the usual crowd or make very substantial changes to make the game appeal to a broader base used to a faster pace and more freedom style of game,…

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This played a big role on Gears 5’s (and pretty much on all of Xbox One exclusives) reception for sure, if The Coalition releases a high quality game with top-tier presentation and spice things up gameplay/mechanics wise with the new capabilities of the CPU of the Series consoles (improving enemy AI, more advanced physics and or expanding on the extreme weather conditions of Gears 4) AND have a decent marketing campaign for a change it will do more than just fine…the Series X/S will not have the stain of Xbox One and the community (and I am including also the reviewers on this one) will be much more positive about it.

I actually believe that Gears 6 has the potential to be the biggest Gears game in terms of hype since Gears 2.

@Zappy5

Gears is old hat and clunky if you don’t want to learn the mechanics (which is something very common nowadays sadly), I don’t want to see Kait jumping left and right with braindead “press A to awesome” platforming like Uncharted. Gears is on the top-tier of the 3rd person shooters genre because it actually focuses on being good on one thing and not be a jack of all trades that does everything mediocre. There are much more meaningful ways to freshen up and improve on the formula than to dumb it down with adding shallow all show no substance mechanics or arbitrary RPG elements to cater to the lowest common denominator.

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If they’re going to keep the third person shooter franchise of it, then pivot to full blown, super linear survival horror.

Much like the Mad World trailer alluded to

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Probably won’t, but that’s ok. They got lot of A-level franchises (Halo, Forza, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Minecraft)… it’s ok for Gears to be B-level. Just don’t kill it, like so many want to.

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Dont know why you keep saying many people want to kill Gears when thats obviously not the case.

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I mean, not making any more of it is killing it. I don’t know know why you think “I didn’t say it, so NOBODY did.” But ok dude.

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Thats not what people want here or anywhere. I think Gears needs to be alternated with another IP or style of game to create certain demand and interest for it.

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That’s you. And that’s fine. But that’s not every statement that’s been made.

Besides, that rotation of IPs has never been Xbox’s style. When The Coalition stops working on Gears, it ain’t coming back.

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A reboot in the likes of God of War. The PS2 God of Wars were truly great and some of the best games of that generation – just like Gears of War on the 360. But the gameplay was already dated and the formula was getting old. The reboot changed everything, even the camera angle.

I feel the same thing is happening with Gears. It doesn’t matter how great the game looks, it will always baffle me how I have to go to cover before jumping over an obstacle, or those strange control schemes. Gears was great when it launched and basically invented the cover system, but other games have perfected the formula and it is now falling behind.

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Full on horror is the way I would take it.

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Nothing whatsoever. Gears 6 will be far bigger release due to launching on gamepass in 2023/2024. 5 had 3 million players before the official release. 20-30 million players at launch is in line with expectations for Gears 6…or Most people on gamepass (75%), whichevers the greater.