The Best Gears Yet?
How much Gears is too much Gears?
That was the question that popped into my head as I sat down with Gears of War: Reloaded.
You see, I have loved the Gears of War series of games since I got Gears 2 with my very first Xbox 360 way back in the day, and since then there have been two versions of the first game, Gears of War, with it being re-released in Ultimate Edition form.
Now there is a third version in the shape of Gears of War: Reloaded, from The Coalition and Xbox Game Studios. And no, there is currently no sign of a remake of the best game in the series (and I’ll hear no argument on this point, thank you) Gears 2, sadly. So, can I stomach going through the campaign yet again, earning all those achievements for the third time? You bet your bottom dollar I can!
A Next-Gen Glow-Up
With this being a remake, the basic look of the game is still the same as the other two versions. The world is still a sea of brown and gray, and while it has had a good tickle with the HD stick, the core of the game remains the same as always.
What has changed is the way Gears of War: Reloaded runs: it is now 60FPS all the way through the campaign, and the loading screens have now pretty much gone as well. Everything is crisper (although not massively so, as it’s a touch up of the Xbox One version, which didn’t look bad) and, well, it’s Gears, innit? The design of the enemies, the massive man mountains that are Delta Squad and of course the Cole Train, are all just as I remembered them.
Sound is still the way you will remember it too, from the active reload sound all the way up to the guitar power chord that plays out when you kill all the enemies in the current wave. The voice acting is as good as ever too, Cole is still great, and all in all it’s pretty much 2006 all over again. It’s hard to complain too much, as Gears of War: Reloaded is pretty much business as usual.
Cross-Platform Carnage
What has been tweaked a little is the gameplay, and the big news here is the way that cross-platform has been introduced to the multiplayer section of Gears of War: Reloaded. When you load into a match (and there is absolutely no shortage of people wanting to shoot each other in the face with a Gnasher, believe me) you’ll see various symbols attached to the players in your lobby.
And yes, for the first time, Xbox, PC, Steam and PlayStation players can all meet up for a massive ruck, and it plays beautifully – the netcode is as good as it has ever been, and even the odd player who seems to have plugged their rig into a potato can’t spoil things.
In fact, there is a large variety of ways to play multiplayer, starting with the first choice: do you want to play a casual, social match, or do you want to get sweaty with the pros in Ranked mode? Once you’ve chosen you mode, things build out further, with a wide range of games on offer, from basic Team Deathmatch to 2V2 Gnasher duels, via King of the Hill and some good old Assasination. Be sure, there is plenty to have a go at in Gears of War: Reloaded!
Further, and in a nice touch, all the DLC that was released for the original game is included here, and that means all the various different multiplayer characters that are available to unlock as you rank up. Want to be Sam Byrne? Now you can be! All the extra multiplayer maps that were added post the original launch are also included, so again, a nice thing to see.
A New Chapter, a Familiar Fight
The big thing for me has always been the campaign in the Gears games, and particularly this one, which has a whole new act added to it, taking what was great back in the day as an extra piece of DLC and building onto it significantly. When I say new, I obviously mean old, as you would have been able to play this before, but it is newly added into this version and so that is a good things.
Anyway, playing through the campaign is again as brilliant as it always was, especially if you can rope a friend along to play the story in co-op mode. I managed to get a friend I hadn’t played with for a while to download Gears and play through with me, and it took about ten minutes before he said “I’ve missed playing Gears”. That pretty much summed up my own feelings for the game too.
A Brilliant Remake
And that is the beauty of this Gears of War: Reloaded remake. It’s Gears, but better, but still Gears. The netcode that runs so well for the multiplayer side also plays out beautifully in co-op, and with nary a hint of lag or slowdown, you can be sure that it will always be your own fault when you die. With a vast range of difficulty settings to pick from, from Casual to Insane, the challenge can be tweaked to meet your needs.
The campaign set pieces are still impressive too, from trying to get a Berserker to break doors down so you can fry her to running from a Brumak, it’s all very good indeed.
And so the question remains – is there such a thing as too much Gears? I don’t think so, and that is proven with the release of Gears of War: Reloaded; a game that is as good as ever, slightly better looking than before, and now absolutely chock full of content.
The thing is, after the success of Gears of War: Reloaded, Microsoft really does need to make the next release either Gears 6 or a remake of Gears 2. Nothing else will do!
Important Links
Gears of War: Reloaded is the Definitive Remaster, and It’s on Game Pass NOW! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/gears-of-war-reloaded-is-the-definitive-remaster-and-its-on-game-pass-now/
Download Gears of War: Reloaded on Xbox (and Game Pass) – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/gears-of-war-reloaded/9P8PS6993LSL/0010
