Gears of War 4 Multiplayer Beta Impressions

Gears of War has always been a staple of Xbox exclusives, standing right beside Halo as one of the best reasons to own Microsoft’s consoles. I’ve had a long history with the games as it was the reason why I bought the Xbox 360 in the first place, and Gears of War is why I’ve kept my console for so long. Even after I eventually got rid of my 360, I marked my return with the Xbox One because of the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition.

Now we’ve reached the pinnacle of next generation gaming, we are ever closer to seeing the arrival of a fully fledged Gears of War title on Xbox One. This time it’s under the helm of new studio, The Coalition, who also created the excellent Ultimate Edition. We’ve seen footage of the campaign, showing a new squad lead by Marcus Fenix’s son and a new threat set within a desolate world of Sera. However, since that reveal many have had eyes upon seeing the next generation of the established and popular gnasher blasting, third person, cover based multiplayer. Finally the time has come and Xbox One gamers can have their chance to try out an open beta of Gears of War 4 multiplayer.

Before delving in, I must first explain some details about the beta. Firstly, it is not visual presentation of the final game. Gears of War 4 is built on Epic’s Unreal Engine 4 and straight from the get go, the visuals are certainly lacking and it’s clear that this is closer to an alpha than an actual beta. The performance is rough and doesn’t hit its target: 60 FPS, so a lot of work is clearly still needed. With that being said, my impressions are going to be focused on the gameplay.

The Gears of War 4 multiplayer beta offers three playable maps across two different modes. In the first of them, Team Deathmatch, the teams fight out with 15 respawns available, once depleted you’ll be down for good, the team that wins both of the two rounds, wins the match. It's no different from what we’ve seen in Gears 3 and Ultimate Edition, so nothing new here. Dodgeball, is the new gamemode to Gears 4 and adds vast amounts of competition and out of the two modes, was the most enjoyable, playing similarly to Warzone but with a twist. Players get a single life: once eliminated, the only way to respawn is by having a teammate score a kill. If all your teammates are eliminated before there is a chance to respawn the round is over, winning all three rounds wins you the match. There was another mode, co-op Team Deathmatch, which served as an introduction, where players are teamed up against hardcore AI.

The maps Dam, Foundation and Harbor stay true to Gears of War design. They are symmetrical with each side having a respawn point. Each map was well sized, with Foundation feeling the largest, with areas above and below. After sometime with each map, the clear player favourite was Dam, as it was the smallest and most voted for at the end of each match. The maps look and feel aesthetically Gears and still contain the same scale found in previous entries, meaning you’re better off with gnasher than you are trying to kill with the lancer from a distance. This was not an issue, but here's hoping upon final release we’ll get to see some maps with game changing mechanics as found in Gears of War 2 and 3’s maps. Before starting a match, you get your choice of Bounties. This is new to the series and gives players the option to place a bounty for the next match to gain an XP bonus, these vary and can range from winning a match to scoring the highest number of kills.

Now for the gameplay, something that I’ve been excitedly anticipating to find out about. Before playing, I was interested to know what route the next Gears of War will go down. Will it be like previous Gears or something entirely different? Well, to put simply: Gears of War 4 plays no differently to its predecessors, and if anything it plays like Gears of War 3. This isn’t an issue, as the gameplay is very well refined and changing this could be detrimental, so what Gears of War 4 really does is play it safe.

While the overall gameplay stays true to what we’ve seen before, this doesn’t mean they haven’t introduced anything new to the table. In fact, they’ve added in a number of new mechanics to keep things fresh. One of which may not sit very well with fans, especially myself. First is the change in active reloading, previously players would be able to reload at any point and if timed correctly will get a slight boost in weapon damage. This still exists but now has an added cool down, which now means you’ll have to wait till you can perform an active reload. It’s a nuisance and just feels entirely unnecessary, and in my opinion, ruins the flow. Gears of War has always been about precision and timing. Winning can come down to: who can get fastest gnasher blast in, time that perfect wall bounce for a kill or get that active down before being gnashed yourself. Cool-downed active reloads doesn’t add a new tactical way to play, it’s a hindrance.

As for the other mechanics, they’re a great addition. Now you can vault kick over cover and kick your enemy off balance; in addition to this, when on opposite sides of cover you can drag the enemy over and perform a takedown and shiv them with your blade, but caution is advised as it is an ability that can be countered. The takedowns from Gears of War 2 and 3 make a return, as does crawling when downed and with that, there is no better satisfaction than brutally finishing off your enemy with a number of unique weapon finishers.

Speaking of weapons, the classics all make a return. It wouldn’t be Gears of War without the trusted pump action Gnasher shotgun and chainsaw equipped Lancer, or if that’s not to your liking you can also use the semi-automatic Hammerburst rifle. From my time with the multiplayer, I found weapons handled no differently from before and drew no complaints from me. The additional weapon pick ups through the maps are still present and include the new Dropshot, an explosive drill that launches into the air and drilling itself into the ground causing a wide explosion - a weapon tricky to master, but can be used to great effect. You can also get an explosive Torque Bow and Longshot sniper rifle as well, again handling no differently from before. Grenades remain the same as a pick up, but now allow tagging on walls and flooring to boobytrap just like 2 and 3.

Altogether the experience is Gears of War and fans of either Gears of War 2 or 3 will feel right at home and will eventually get accustomed to the new mechanics. For any fans expecting it to be like Gears of War 1, with its slower paced movement and 4 v 4 teams will be out of luck and are better off sticking with the Ultimate Edition. After all, this is Gears of War for a new generation. I feel optimistic that The Coalition will have more up their sleeves, as mentioned before, this “beta” is more of an alpha, and there is plenty of work to be done.

For now, until we see its final release in October, if someone asks me how does Gears of War 4 play? I’ll simply say, it plays like Gears.