With the Gears of War 4 beta wrapped up, there’s a lot of “Gears of War 4 is repetitive” chatter online. The features that made the original (which came out 10 years ago) so fresh have hung around largely unchanged – the roadie run, the overpowered shotgun, the chainsaw gun, ‘stop and pop’, the list goes on. So why is the franchise sticking so close to its roots? Rod Fergusson – head of Gear of War 4 developer The Coalition – sat down to talk to Entertainment Weekly about the game.
Let’s go through some of his comments piece by piece, along with some commentary from me.
After deciding not to do a prequel (based on how terrible the Star Wars prequels were), The Coalition considered other options.
“We talked about a new origin story. Do we tell or retell the Marcus story and put our own spin on it? Then we felt like that wasn’t really what we’re here to do. We’re not here to reimagine the past or recreate this thing.”
I can understand not wanting to retread the same ground so soon – it’s hardly been enough time to reboot the story. I’m on board with this direction.
“Then we talked about an alternate planet and let’s go somewhere else. We thought, wow, it would be rough on Sera to get attacked by yet another monster, so maybe we should give them a break and go somewhere else.”
Yes! A fresh start sounds great. The series was already long in the tooth by the time Judgment rolled around. Who could say Gears of War 4 is repetitive when the game takes place in a totally foreign environment? New systems, gameplay, weapons, characters, the possibilities are endless with such a departure.
“But then we realized by doing that that we couldn’t harken back to the past. We couldn’t go to places that were familiar, we couldn’t use things, like weapons, that were familiar. Everything would be new.”
And the problem there is what? I’ve personally chainsawed enough locust henchmen to last several lifetimes. Why not let your creativity go wild and try some new stuff? Gamers love new stuff! The Hammer of Dawn is still awesome, but what if there was something awesomer?
“We just felt like the idea of a new cast and a new enemy and a new setting, all of it together was going to be almost too much new. We didn’t have that grounding to what made Gears,Gears.”
Oof. Too much new isn’t a phrase I ever want to hear in gaming. The market is iterating at warp speed, and if you lag behind you’re destined to look like a dinosaur. There’s no better way to make sure Gears of War 4 is repetitive than by rehashing all the same stuff we’ve seen before.
“At the end of the day, we decided … to create a new cast through creating the next generation of hero by having JD Fenix (be) Marcus’ son.”
If Gears 4 was a speeding vehicle, I’d be tucking and rolling right now, because the bridge is out and so are the brakes. I’ve had enough of the Fenix family. This is like having the protagonist in Mass Effect: Andromeda be Shepard’s child (please don’t let that happen), or Noctis be Cloud’s son in Final Fantasy XV. It’s a squandered opportunity to try something new in my book, and especially sad when the last ‘more of the same’ sequel in the franchise underperformed hugely.
So maybe Gears of War 4 is repetitive, or maybe the title is a victim of corporate eggshell walking? We don’t really know. Still, let’s avoid burying the game before it actually hits – maybe there are a whole bunch of hot new mechanics we haven’t seen. In any case, my eyes will be peeled as we approach Gear of War 4’s October release date.
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