According to Fergusson, Gears 5 will showcase the studio’s passion and desire to push the Gears series forward in a whole new direction while staying true to the legacy of the series. So far Gears of War games have stuck to the traditional corridor shooter style of gameplay; however, Gears 5 will bring the action into bigger battlegrounds. Some levels are so big that developers had to add a map to help players navigate them. Gears 5 will have a huge file size to match its large levels.
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“What players will see in Act 2 and Act 3 of the campaign is that you’ll be able to use the Skiff to traverse the largest levels we’ve ever built,” says Rod Fergusson. “You know, in some cases, the levels are 50-times bigger than any previous Gears level.” The important detail here is that Fergusson said “levels,” which means there may be more than one level that is huge compared to previous iterations of the game.
Fergusson also detailed a ton of new features coming to Gears 5 which include Jack, a companion bot who floats around and sticks to the player providing a bunch of benefits that players will unlock over the entire campaign. Talking about Jack, Fergusson said that Jack can heal players, cloak them, and aid players during combat. Overall, Jack adds RPG elements to the game and provides players the choice to initiate combat instead of being forced into it.
Gears 5 is coming out on September 10 while Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can play four days early. Last of Us 2’s Director Neil Druckmann already tweeted that Gears 5 is gorgeous, so it has his endorsement, but it remains to be seen how all these new changes and modes actually sit with fans.
Gears 5 launches on PC and Xbox One on September 10, 2019.
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