The presentation during the conference had left some people confused, including us, because we assumed that The Coalition and Microsoft would finally show the news related to the single player campaign of Gears 5. Instead, the focus was all on this. new mode called Escape, which allowed us to have an appetizer of what will be the gameplay of the fifth chapter of Gears of War.
The concept behind Gears 5 Escape is very simple: a group of 3 members of the COG will have to enter the lair of the "Swarm", place a bomb and escape trying to survive on the run. Exactly as it happens in horde mode, it is a playable mode on different difficulty levels, which will impact on the damage suffered and received, on the presence and positioning of certain enemies and on the number of resources scattered along the various game maps.
In the demo we tested we had available three characters, each characterized by skills and distinctive characters that define the classes, useful for creating teams with specific synergies and, above all, to meet the preferences of the players. Each class will have two skills, one active and one passive, which can evolve or change as you level up as you play.
So let's get to know Keegan, the role of Support, with the ability to regenerate the bullets of the allies who are nearby. Lahni, the role of Scout, with the ability to activate the electroblade, a blade that stuns enemies. And finally, the role of Tank, capable of creating a barrier in front of him and all those behind him. Each character in Gears 5 - Escape can also equip themselves with cards, obtainable at the end of each game, which give different advantages: we have Nimble, which increases the slide, Brawler, which increases melee damage by 60%, and Shock Chain , capable of extending stun and shock to all enemies in the area. Each of these cards can also be enhanced by investing the virtual currency that is obtained by playing.
Being a cooperative mode (local or online), collaboration and team play are the essential elements to overcome missions, especially at high difficulty levels. In fact, the ammunition is counted and the monsters are increasingly tough and resistant as you advance on the map. One of these, for example, is a huge humanoid locust whose only weakness is the face, requiring precision and diversion to get the better of it. There are also particularly interesting enemies that have never appeared before, like a huge mass of worms that move almost like a single entity.
The areas are quite large, and it takes 10 to 15 minutes to reach the final location to escape and finish the game victorious. In these areas, the decision to explore could be productive, in order to find weapons and ammunition necessary for survival, but it could even lead to dead ends and surprise attacks. In terms of gameplay, Gears 5 - Escape seemed decidedly more fluid and fast, the characters are decidedly leaner to move, unlike the previous chapters where they seemed rather heavy and slow. We have not found any news on the weapons front, if not the possibility of using a giant hammer, but on the other hand the feeling of the shooting has improved significantly and now shooting at enemies is really a pleasure.
Technically flawless, we played the game on Xbox One X in 4K resolution, HDR and 60 FPS, a real treat for the eyes.
While it wasn't the main campaign, Escape mode turned out to be incredibly interesting and fun to play. It promises that rejuvenation that the series needed and puts on the plate an interesting offer in terms of contents that will enrich this fifth chapter. The release is now near, we are talking about 10 September 2019 and we really hope to be able to see something related to the main plot sooner or later.
► Gears 5 is a Shooter type game developed by The Coalition and published by Microsoft Studios for PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X, the video game was released on 10/09/2019
Gears 5 is a beautiful game that cannot be missing from your collection: we have decided to evaluate it with a 90%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Gears 5 review
