The Gears 5 story campaign has been shrouded in mystery since the announcement: in the debut trailer from E3 2018, developers hinted at a number of innovations, including elements of the open world, but until today they were only teasers.
A week before the release, Microsoft gathered a number of media to show them the action movie for the first time, allowing them to play five hours of the second and third acts. Journalists were impressed with what they saw, as Gears 5 really takes several important steps for the evolution of the series.
Franchise producer Rod Ferguson already said that Gears of War 4 did with an eye to show that the new developers from The Coalition understand the principles of the series, so there were no special innovations in the fourth part.
With the “five” the situation is the opposite - at some points the team had to “break the bones” of Gears of War. For example, in the game there really will appear open locations in the manner of Metro: Exodus with additional tasks and areas of interest, which are marked with question marks on the map.
However, as in the case of Metro, points of interest do not appear just like that: you need to learn about them in one way or another - to scan something, to hear negotiations, just to see some remarkable object from afar.
The main way to move around large areas will be the new transport, which was shown in both trailers of the story campaign. According to The Coalition, all elements of the open world can be safely ignored, passing Gears 5 like any previous part of the series: then it will take about 12 hours to complete it. More than Gears of War 2!
However, those who want to explore the world, including including various collectible items, will be able to stretch the passage for more than 20 hours.
Among the collection items are the so-called "Relics" - a unique weapon with special properties. The author of Windows Central was able to get the Boltok pistol, which must be shot from the hip in the style of cowboys from the Wild West.
In addition, the game will have a boost focused on Drone Jack, who used to mostly open doors, and now can prevent waves of enemies, pick up cartridges on the battlefield, turn on shields on allies and even activate a special hidden field for the entire squad.
Some of Jack's skills are unlocked in the story, while others will be discovered by exploring the open world in search of special technologies. In addition, as previously reported, in the co-op, the third player controls the drone.
Among other features of the open world, it is reported that there will be the ability to perform some important tasks in free order - at certain points in history several goals will appear that do not have to be completed in a certain way.
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