While our Gears of War 4 review is still in progress (I’m moving out to California!), there is one thing that is painfully obvious to us: Gears 4 is this year’s GOTY. Actually, it may be fair to say that Gears of War 4 is the game of this generation thus far. While the Gears 4 beta didn’t necessarily impress us, we recognized that it was a work in progress. When we received a behind-closed-doors demo of the Gears 4 campaign at E3 2016, we realized this was the game to own this year. Still, we weren’t prepared for how good this game would actually be.
In terms of Gears of War games, Gears 4 has one of the best campaigns of the bunch. There are so many subtle improvements to the gameplay that has been made and it makes for a much fuller experience, such as the ability to pull an enemy over cover and knife them. There are also a ton of new weapons to use, which is always fun. Gears 4 also makes more use of the environment than previous games, which really shows off the power of the Xbox One hardware and provides a lot of different strategic opportunities in combat, as environmental factors play a large role in gameplay. While Gears of War Judgment was a nice change of pace and an enjoyable experience, Gears 4 is a return to form for the series.
It’s painfully obvious from playing Gears 4 that Gears of War IS Xbox; they are synonymous with one another. The series has clearly taken Halo’s place as the face of Microsoft’s console. While Halo has grown stale over the years, Gears is better than ever. We haven’t even had a chance to delve into the multiplayer component of the game either. Horde mode makes a triumphant return and is an amazing evolution of Gears‘ staple co-operative multiplayer experience. Versus returns with both new and familiar game modes with some killer maps.
The Coalition nailed it with Gears of War 4. Gears 4 is this year’s GOTY, hands down, and the year isn’t even over yet. I feel confident in saying this though. It’s not only this year’s GOTY, it’s the game of this current generation. While there are other games that are finally showing off current generation hardware, no game has done this to date as well as Gears 4 with such a fulfilling experience from both a single player and multiplayer perspective. Gears 4 is this year’s GOTY and look for our full review, coming very soon!