Hivebusters is the shit. If this is the direction they’ll take 6 to that would be great. During the expansion I felt that it was almost non stop action with the slow walk bits in between. Maybe I just misremember 5’s campaign but Hivebusters felt way more spectacular to me, more set pieces, awesome set pieces.
We know TC wants to bring back the open hub areas that we had in 5 for 6 and it would be nice if they could make them interesting this time around. I didn’t feel these added much to the experience at all, not in the snow bit and not in the desert area. But maybe if they were to add enemies on vehicles here, something to fight, that could make it worthwhile. Maybe like Borderlands where you have all kinds of enemies roaming the big open areas.
A balance of that and stuff from Hivebusters would make it a great game in my opinion. It’s in these more closed off sections where Gears just shines best. And I say let them take the time for it, because 5 was too short , and definitely missed a full act. In a way it felt unfinished.
Video games are still considered in “early development” if they’re in pre-production. The more generous resources provided at the pre-production stage, the fewer issues devs (should) run into during production and testing prior to launch.
Ninja Theory and Initiative are petty much in the same spot.
Both have had 3+ years on pre-production, and according to Grubb, both are slated for 2023. I believe we’ll see at least one in late 2023.
The big question for me is how they’re gonna fit Avowed and Fable.
I think all the little ideas they’ve added have the potential to come together to move the series forward.
You had the Jack upgrades, and in Hivebusters the special skill progression trees – but the issue is that in a linear game you’re not really going to have to search much for the upgrades along the way, so it doesn’t really feel like you’ve achieved anything.
While in Gears 5 they also toyed with open hub areas, but they were way too sparse with not enough to explore. It was really just giving the player an option to take on tasks in different orders, with some minimal optional areas, and long boring sledding sections in between with nothing to shoot.
Bring that all together, and you’ve got a good direction for the series:
Game is a series of open hubs with perhaps a linear intro and conclusion
Hubs have tonnes of fun side content that fills out backstory and is where they will find upgrades.
Players have enemy encounters spawned every time they hop on the sled, things to shoot, perils to evade etc.
As with Hive Busters, each team member has a unique skill tree, but with more depth, and maybe even slightly different speed/health stats to build like in MP to make character choice meaningful.
There is plenty of potential for Gears, and I think Coalition has already started touching on it.
Gears games aren’t getting more popular but they sure are getting more expensive to make.
Let it end as all good things must.
There are relatively veeeeery few IPs out there that are evergreen (Mario), or can be rebooted again and again (Tomb Raider), and some won’t even need it at all (Final Fantasy).
That should tell you the value of IP that never seem to lose their lustre, and why they so rarely change ownerships. If you’ve got an asset that doesn’t seem to depreciate too much, you’re not going to want to part with it without charging a premium.
Gears 6 should be the last of the mainline AAA titles for a looooong while, if not forever.
Coalition have earned the right to do whatever. New IP, another reboot, Star Wars, Marvel, DC - whatever tickles their fancy. The sooner they move on, the better.
(And let them rebrand while they’re at it, I’ve always resented Rod’s reasoning for changing the name from Black Tusk to begin with)
When they rebranded to The Coalition, I remember rolling my eyes and sighing. It foreshadowed another studio stuck with a singular franchise and a lack of innovation. I liked Black Tusk name and the teaser they had at E3 2013 excited me at the time unlike anything Xbox had done since early 360 times.
The Coalition is just a cooler name than Black Tusk.
It may be a Gears reference, but it doesn’t mean they have to make only Gears games forever, any more than Naughty Dog needs to make games about naughty dogs. It’s just a name.
Nobody wants it dead. We just think Coalition needs to be freed from the chains of a franchise that isnt getting anymore popular, isnt CLEARLY mainstream enough (Would reckon its middle of the tier at xbox right now since Zenimax purchase) and after 2 games in I dont see ANYONE ever talking about the story, characters and online mode. Its all technical aspects which are impressive in their own right but should tell you how eh this trilogy has been in that regard.
I like Kait, JD and Dell but the shadow of the OG Cast still lingers strong lol.
I personally think it has the potential to grow, but it does need to evolve.
I don’t want to see the Coalition forced to make nothing but Gears, but they are reportedly working on a second smaller IP now, and I expect will continue to grow to become a full two AAA game studio.
That’s what MS should have done with Bungie. They want to do something new, grow them and let the veterans who want to move on to a new project do it, while continuing to oversee the franchise.
It was an awesome expansion from start to finish with a great cast, balls to the wall action with great combat scenarios and pretty much perfect pacing. It also had some of the most beautiful environments we’ve seen in the series IMO.
With Gears 6 they can do a lot more with the hardware of the Series consoles that’s for sure. For starters with the new CPU they can toy with more robust enemy AI behaviors, some degree of destructible environments, moveable cover (like some of the cool things they did on Gears 2 with this idea) they can expand on the very cool weather effects of Gears 4 and maybe add a bit of verticality into it. All those things with an even more expanded Jack can bring the already top-notch gameplay of Gears into new heights while also bring a breath of fresh air into the series (and let’s be honest the whole 3rd person shooter genre). Also Xbox not being the black sheep of gaming this gen will help a lot too IMO, the hype and excitement will be much higher than the One generation for the series.
Gears 6 doesn’t need to change genres to keep things interesting and fresh, they have the best of the best as far as 3rd person shooting basics go, they just have to built upon and improve on the strengths of the series without losing it’s identity. I truly believe that The Coalition will deliver an amazing game with Gears 6, considering the immense talent that these guys have they are probably the most underrated team of Xbox at the moment.
It would be literally about the gear and gears then
Well, Xbox One wasn’t mainstream either and that affected everything. Xbox 360 had mass appeal so its games. But franchise doesn’t grow anymore that’s true.
