Gears 5 was an excellent campaign with a solid story, great set pieces and stunning visuals. The franchise is in very good, and clearly talented, hands, at the Coalition. The skiff was cool and felt good to drive. I played through on "experienced" difficulty, which ranged from a good challenge to extremely difficult in three spots: 1) Matriarch boss fight, 2) the battle when you reenter the Vasgarian missile silo and fight two snatchers followed by scions, 3) The final boss battle. Of the three, the Matriarch was hardest to complete.
My negatives:
- The open snow and desert hub regions were barren of activity and lifeless, until you parked and explored areas of interest. These small areas were usually marked by nearly identical large waving flags, which seemed very hand-holdy to me. Why was I never encountered by enemies as I rode around on the skiff, for example?
- The visual downgrade when entering the skiff hub areas was jarring.
- I still miss the old Locust Horde, their general monster design and their armor, etc. The old Brumak, for example, was far cooler to me than the new one covered in crystals. The Boomers were more intimidating than the Scions ("BEWWWM!"). Those old armored elite troops (their names escape me) with torque bows that whisper-talked ("hewww-mannn!") are so much cooler than Gears 5's equivalent in "Hunters" who wear leather wrapped around their heads. I think some of the Swarm designs are great as well, but let's have both. Locust could use leaders, captains and generals (like Raam) commanding the grubs on the battlefield. I know the story is moving in this direction.