Once Cliff Blezhinsky said that he would release new GEARS of War, until the series is finally bored with the public. Yes, about the same as Disney recently spoke about Star Wars: as often as it turns out, and until completely exhausted.
Fortunately, the conveyor method of the GEARS of War series passed. The classical trilogy ended with a grand final that did not imply the continuation of the same storyline. Judgment From the Poles from People Can Fly, it remained a branch, but the fourth part will put the beginning of a completely new story.
Technical stagnation
► A new reception in the arsenal of “combat gears” – a blow from the leg when jumping through obstacles.
► New graphics – new special effects! Already blinds the eyes.
From the "locust" – the main enemy in all previous parts – and really got rid of once and for all. For the entire twenty -five years, peacetime has come, during which military technologies did not really develop. There is no one to fight with, there is no need, and indeed everyone is tired.
That is how the developers from The Coalition explain that the arsenal almost did not change in the fourth part. All the same "Lancers" with chainsaws, all the same shotgun "Gnasher", spiked grenades and sniper rifles. A total of progress – along with the "locust", organic types of weapons disappeared, and they had to invent a replacement. In particular, instead of a digging explosive Digger, a mechanical drill will appear in the game. He moves to the target not underground, but through the air, and with activation falls from above and explodes.
“Nothing new!" – you say and will be right. But the developers first of all faced the task of saving what was what was. Again, an analogy with “star wars” is appropriate: fans work on the continuation, who want to please other fans at all costs. And then, if the matter goes, dare and start promoting your ideas.
► for close combat, it is not necessary to combine a chainsaw – there is a regular knife. But he can be repulsed by a successful counterattack.
The Coalition team is all for the new series; Of those who worked on previous units, only four people remained in it. Nevertheless, they have already accumulated experience on working on GEARS of WAR when creating the Ultimate Edition – a completely redrawn first part adapted to Xbox One. So they had enough opportunities to study the mechanics, now it is only about to invent new game situations.
The main character of the campaign will now be the son of Marcus Phoenix, named Jay Di, and his two comrades-Delmont Walker and Kate Diaz. These three will be the first to encounter a new threat to humanity, a certain swarm. These creatures did not take from the ceiling, they appeared in the documentation of Epic Games, and now it was their turn to replace the “locusts” as the main villains.
For twenty -five years on the planet, the political situation, the alignment of forces, and even the climate managed to change on the planet. The use of superweapies in the final of the third part led to an epidemic, from the consequences of which people did not get old and a quarter of a century after. Against this background, three main characters are not only to fight new enemies, but also to find out his own – I must say, very difficult – relationships.
The plot promises to be a strong side of a single campaign. He became more complicated from unit to part, and if in the first everything was reduced to “killing them all”, then skeletons fell further from the cabinets. The universe expanded, the characters gained depth. The coalition intends to keep up and tell a lot of interesting things.
The debugged mechanism
► Detailing increased by an order of magnitude even relative to the remasted Ultimate Edition. What can we say about completely early parts.
As for the multiplayer, the principle here profess the same: do not repair what has not broken. In GEARS of War: Judgment, the developers allowed themselves to experiment with management, made it more traditional for console militants, moving it, for example, the choice of weapons from the cross -fucked Y, so that it was more convenient to switch on the run.
The result is predictably an abundance of complaints and the requirements to return “as it was”. Convenience convenience, but there are traditions of the series, and they should be observed. So the basis in the multiplayer GEARS of WAR 4 The classic trilogy has been taken.
You can see what it is, at least now in the Ultimate Edition. Mechanics, physics, return in the fingers – everything remains exactly the same, only the battles are no longer 4 by 4, but 5 by 5.
From other noticeable changes – the developers came up with a way out of a stupid situation, when two enemy hide behind the same obstacle, but from different sides and close to each other. It is unrealistic to aim in such a situation, and leaning out the first almost guaranteed to get a charge of buckshot in the face.
► To put it mildly, an unpleasant type. It is clear why the conflict could not be resolved by diplomacy.
In GEARS OF WAR 4 in such cases, you can choose from two ways. First: jump over an obstacle and call the enemy in the face of a boot. This will overturn it on his back and will quickly finish it off, but at the time of the jump you will be vulnerable.
Option Second: pull the enemy on yourself and stab with a knife. True, if he counts on time in close combat, you yourself call on the knife yourself.
Trifle, but this is closed by the only, in fact, a weak place for years reinforced by the gameplay. It was in the GEARS of War series that team interaction was always important anywhere. So that one distracts the enemy, and the other went to the side or with the rear to smoke it out of the shelter. Time shooting always meant much less than a successful bypass maneuver, and the fourth part of this idea has not gone anywhere.
In the traditional Deathmatch, the battle is still not waged on fragments, but on "life". Each of the teams has a limited number of revival, common on all. They killed someone alone-after a few seconds he will resurrect, but the counter will decrease by a unit. When he reaches zero, the fight will go to the elimination until they get over the whole team.
New modes will also appear. One of them is called Dodgerball, in our opinion-"hacking". Here, every death of the enemy will allow one of his own, and vice versa. You knocked out, say, two out of five from the enemy, you were five against the three. And they suddenly once – and killed yours, having received the right to revival, and then the battle is four by four.
This regime sometimes provides very acute situations: when, for example, five fall on the last surviving enemy, and he manages to knock someone out, and now there are already two of them. They kill someone else, and the three of them are fighting against three. Sometimes the pendulum manages to swing back and forth several times per round, and at such moments the intensity of emotions in the demonstration hall was almost stadium.
Another new mode is Escalation. Invented for e -sports competitions. It has a very complex structure, implying twelve rounds, and to win, you need to win in seven of them subject to additional conditions, but they will tell you more about all this in late April, at the Pax 2016 exhibition 2016.
There will be another game mode, but so far they are still mysteriously silent about it. But it is already noticeable that GEARS of WAR takes a clear course for e -sports. For example, in addition to ten players, two observers can join the match. Fly on the map, change angles, comment on what is happening-at least on the stage of some event, at least just strive from home.
Gather them all
► already in appearance it is clear that this opponent is extremely seriously browned. I wonder if they will take its usual bullets or it will be necessary to invent something?
Already at the start in the game, ten cards are planned. Nine new ones, and one more – Gridlock – traditional, wandering from playing the game throughout the series with minimal modifications. In the future, there will be more and more cards. And so that there are not too many of them at some point, the developers plan to introduce rotation. Every week or there every day a set of available cards will change.
At the same time, if there is a desire to play just on your beloved, it can be bought as a character in a Moba game, and invite players there. Only one person, host is enough to have a card, everyone else will be able to run around it for free.
The holding of players will be facilitated by the new ranking system. The new one for the series, of course, is so to the abundance of leagues, from bronze to the highest, and to the boxes with awards for earned in-game currency, we have long been accustomed. In the GEARS OF WAR 4 of the purchased suitcases, Amigo Wins Casino new skins, accelerators of money earnings, other collectible objects will fall, but, of course, nothing that could give an advantage in the multiplayer match itself. Outting objects are going to divide into four degrees of rarity and will probably allow you to exchange excesses with each other.
Boxes can not only earn in battles, but also buy for money. As the creative director of the project Chuck Osidge noticed: “I am forty -eight, and my son is sixteen. I have a lot of money, but there is absolutely no time, it has a lot of time, but no money. And under our system, we find ourselves in equal terms ".
► You also noticed that in each next part, the heroes are becoming thinner and thinner? Underwarmed Marcus of his son, oh undired.
At the same time, for money, it will still be impossible to buy any strengthening or what cannot be obtained in the game itself. But there will be legendary skins available only in a limited period of time: for example, a set of "rusty" weapons, which can only be earned during the period of beta testing. It will begin on April 18 and last until May 1, have time.
Well, the exit of the game itself is scheduled for October 11. According to the developers, you can play it and for those who have never come across the Universe – a new story awaits us with new characters. For old fans, a certain amount of fan service is in store: they will probably be pleased to meet old acquaintances, however, even without the accumulated knowledge base, everyone will be able to figure out what's what is happening.
As for game mechanics – so she already strives for the ideal. The main thing is that the developers provide proper variety of game situations. Epic Games did it great. We dare to hope that the coalition will not yield to them in anything.