With its four highly anticipated game modes, Gears 5 is the best in the series

Gears 5 shouldn’t just be played for the campaign, but also for its many game different game modes. Gears 5 features the new mode escape that was recently introduced into the series.

Gears 5 isn’t your typical third-person shooter game where you fight against Nazis or hunt down people. This game has a unique variation of different attack styles like staying back and safely picking off each enemy, or you could run head first into the fight with your shotgun. If you are feeling like you can’t aim, you could also get another person to play as Jack, your hovering robot companion. He goes undetected and can take everything out for you. It’s extremely fun to play with its alien/human-based campaign where you are fighting a war to save the planet from what is called The Swarm. You also get a taste of what it’s like to be the Swarm–an infectious alien race that are trying to overwhelm the planet–or the Coalition Ordered Governments (COG) defending it.

In campaign mode you get straight into the action where you’re fighting creatures with mortars attached to their heads and frag grenades strapped to their backs. Your best chance of completing most levels is with a lot of patience and quick fingers. Since your health regenerates over time you can try to stay behind cover and pick off each opponent one-by-one until you can move forward and take out the rest. Like most campaigns, you can do it with friends. Different missions require different amounts of players to help you complete that mission, and that decides how many friends you are allowed to play with. The campaign has 15 chapters of high-intensity alien warfare. 

The swarm come in all shapes and sizes, charging at you trying to blow you up or even abduct you. The levels start easy, and just when you think they’re over, a giant Kraken-like monster emerges from the ground and tries to swallow you whole. Most levels will have a few mini-bosses. If you spot a pile of leeches and metal you will have stumbled upon something called the Stump, a robot programmed by the COG that wields either The Tri-shot or the Salvo rocket launcher. These can be extremely tough to kill if paired with a drone which will give the Stump a shield until it is destroyed.

One of the more unique game modes is called “Escape.” This is a high-intensity mode where you and other players place a bomb inside a hive and then attempt to fight your way out of it and get to safety. To make the game even harder, you only start off with a pistol and limited ammo. You can pick up weapons from the swarm that you kill, but will only have one clip of ammo. In co-op play, you and your friends are probably going to be fighting for weapons and ammo. This game mode is timed so you can keep playing to try for a personal best. 

Another game mode is called “Horde”–a 50-wave multiplayer survival game where your goal is to defend an objective point until all the waves have been completed. You will have different weapon load-outs depending on which character you pick. You start with a decent amount of ammo, but when you start fighting off the horde, your ammo starts to deplete rapidly. The only way to get more is by taking it off of the bodies of the swarm that you killed, or when you defeat a wave of enemies. Each wave that you complete continuously gets harder, so you will want to play with other skilled players to attempt to complete all 50 waves. This game mode is extremely fun to play if you have a lot of free time on your hands, considering that it usually takes over an hour to complete.

The shooting aspect of the game depends on which of the 20+ guns you pick up while playing. The Lancer Mark 2 is essentially an assault rifle with a chainsaw bayonet that you can use when you are in a close encounter with your enemies. This gun uses quite the amount of ammo, but when you run out you can always rely on the chainsaw since it does not break. You could also get your hovering robot companion to fetch you ammo that is far away if you can mark it for him. The overkill is one of the two shotguns that you can find while on your mission. It is strong enough to take out a Stump with one clip to the head. The only problem with this gun is how quickly it uses ammo. Since it fires four rounds at a time you only get three shots until you need to scout for more. On the other side of ranged weapons, we have the longshot sniper rifle. This weapon is a real treat to use since you can only get them from swarm snipers. Unfortunately, this sniper is not powerful enough to kill the swarm in one shot to the body, so you will need to have some good aim and go for the head. There are times where no matter how badly I want to use the sniper I will need to leave it behind for an assault rifle.

Finally, we have “Versus,” which is like regular multiplayer. Like most good games, Gears 5 has a good selection of different multiplayer modes such as Arcade, Ranked and Arcade Double Trouble. Ranked is a selection of highly-competitive game modes where you and other players compete to reach the top of the leaderboards. The cool thing about ranked is that it has modes that Arcade does not, such as King of the Hill, Execution, and Guardian. So if you want to get a taste of these unique modes, then you will have to be prepared to play against others that are willing to stop at nothing to win. Arcade is essentially just your regular modes like Team Deathmatch, Classic Quickplay and Co-Op vs AI. In this mode you can just play casually, as you won’t have to worry about running into people who try too hard, so you can just play with people who are at your skill level. For the last mode we have Arcade Double Trouble. This mode is a mix where you can play as any character on the team that you are assigned to and still get access to every weapon on both teams. You will also get double the currency you get in regular matches when you get a kill.

Overall, Gears 5 is an extremely fun game to play, not only because you get to slice aliens in half with your chainsaw, but also because of the amazing variety of game modes. I would highly recommend this game if you want to put some action into your night.

Cover Image:  The Coalition