It seems an easy question a first. Gears of War 4 is at its core a cover-based shooter. Well yes, but then it also has a substantial bit of fortress defense thrown in and some pseudo-platforming dodge bits too.
It’s also couch co-op… unless you have more than two people, but then there is online co-op for that… unless you want to split screen and play online. That’s a no can do, buddy.
It’s a sins-of-the-father tale with a new evil borne from the first, but then it’s also a slapstick comedy and a weakly hinted romance drizzled on top with a side of ‘stick it to the man’.
It’s a chainsaw massacre that only mostly ends up resetting you to the last checkpoint when you notice a little too late that you’re in a button mash QTE. And it’s full of new weapons to try and discard when you realize they are useless on the majority of enemies – who have annoyingly strafey movements.
All that being said. All told, it’s still really fun. It’s an hour of the familiar juxtaposed against 10 minutes of the foreign. Crouch-shooting followed by midair acrobatics. Chainsaw mayhem then an angry tirade at whomever just bought that decoy- TURRETS AND BARRIERS ONLY OMG! Regardless of its many peculiarities, it’s still a good time.
And isn’t that why we play games anyway? Listen to me talk more about this and much more on Episode 11 of the Retro Rebel Podcast!
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