Gears 5 is legit amazing.
If it had server based matchmaking instead of host based it would be one of the best MP games of the past 10 years.
Banjo, I wouldn't say "legit amazing" but...it was a good and solid game for sure.
Graphics are still good, gameplay wise, well, it's more Gears so your mileage may vary but it's still solid and the horde mode is still good, mindless fun.
The problem with gears IMO is that it lost its edge, everything feels sterile, the robotic enemies introduced in Gow4 were just bad and the new locust-like enemies in 5 are like squish rabbits compared to the original Locust, things don't quite feel "right" for a lack of a better explanation.
The real problem though with Gears has been the lack of innovation in-between the titles, even 5 pretty much feels like the original one since the gameplay has always been super simple - the new mechanic in almost 20 years has been, what ? the enemy grab behind cover ? I mean...
The on rails motorcycle section in 4 was cool but never to be seen again and the free roaming aspect of 5 was probably due as to introduce a new aspect to the game which, always IMO, it was the weakest part of the whole game.Gears doesn't need to be open-world, same thing with Halo.
What I'm trying to say is that for better or worse, it still feels like a franchise that belongs to the X360 era with everything that entails, the mechanics have been feeling stale for more than a decade+ now and the low online MP numbers show that - it's a game only for the most hardcore of fans due to the super-high TTK, nauseating wall-hugging ballet® where visually it still looks like people are glitching/cheating and the 1-shot shotgun kills still reign supreme...
It's...weird, it's a super-simple franchise when it comes to the gameplay and yet, trying to rehaul/rebalance/introduce new things seems almost impossible - keeping things the same will lead to even more franchise exhaustion and changing things too much would result in not feeling like a proper Gears game.
Besides, as much as I hate the American redneck, kitsch, dude bro and frat-house Cliffy B aesthetics/art-direction of the first 3 games, the last 2 ones feel tame and Disney-fied compared to the more gritty nature one of the original trilogy, that too is hard to replicate.
Basically, It's a tough act to follow up as franchises go.
Cheers
