Have you ever had a falling out with a friend? I don't mean a temporary fallout, but one where things didn't recover and you ceased to be friends with a certain individual? It's hard when that happens, but more vexing than anything else. You're mad at this person for what they did, but you miss them and relish the memories you two made despite the circumstances. Regardless of how much you miss the old times, what doesn't change is the current state of things, that being they're just not good anymore. Those are my exact thoughts and feelings on Gears of War 4. A series I used to be in love with and had vivid memories of playing for hours on end, but those warm feelings don't overwrite my newer less flattering feelings for the Gears of War reboot no one seemed to be asking for, or at least I wasn't. Before I delve into my thoughts, please remember that these are just my opinions and if you enjoyed Gears of War 4, then there's nothing wrong with that.

The Story, the characters, and the writing. (Spoilers)

Without wasting time, the most glaring issue with Gears of War 4 as a whole is how lazy, uninspired, and above all, how much of a "reboot" vibe you get from its plot. In the opening cinematic, a very clumsy butterfly analogy is used to inform the audience how the Locust, now the Swarm, haven't died but rather evolved into a new enemy! As exciting as I'm sure it sounds, I can assure you it's not. Now, I'm not suggesting that reboots or sequels are unjustified. Sequels and reboots have the chance to amplify their gameplay, or introduce the series to a newer and less jaded audience, which is fine. Even if the excuse in the game's story for a sequel/reboot is poor, such as with Gears of War 4, all can be forgiven if they're changing things up by incorporating new enemies and unexplored narrative ideas. The hard truth is that Gears of War 4 does not do that, but instead uses the virtually identical enemies from its previous titles as well as more or less the same plots of the other games.The only difference being there are new characters. Speaking of which...

Not to put too fine of a point on it, but the new characters we're introduced to as well as forced to play are terrible. Most of the characters really boil down their respective trope with JD, our "main character" being the main character, Del being the black best friend who is occasionally sarcastic and 100% of the time an idiot, and Kait who is the girl. Now, I'm not going to act like Marcus, Dom or any of the other main/side characters from the other games were the most flushed out and dynamic characters in the world, but they got the job done. They had enough of a personality that you didn't want them to all die a horrible painful death, which can't be said for the new cast. The problem with the new characters, other than being bland, boil down to two different things; 1.) how they talk, and 2.) how they act. The writing for these characters is nothing but cringe-worthy material with it consisting mostly of terribly written sarcasm and "funny" jokes. They don't feel like people who are fighting for their lives, or even characters, but rather they feel like joke dispensers. I lost track of how many times basic dialogue in that game turned into some sort of joke or jape. The problem with this is that if the characters of the game never feel threatened enough by a situation to shut their mouthes, then we, the player, don't feel scared for them which is a disconnect from the game as whole.

This leads into the next problem of how absolutely no one acts appropriately for the situation. What do I mean by this? In a situation where someone would be panicking, or rushing towards an objective, these pricks are happy to trot along and make more "hilarious" jokes. Probably the most striking example is when Marcus Fenix, the father of JD whom I remind you is supposed to be our main character, is "sacked" by some unholy abomination and is taken somewhere far off. Now, JD does initially freak out and is in a hurry, there is a moment where our heroes have tracked the beasts lair and are about to enter, but instead of going in right away JD and Del find time to have a rock-paper-scissors game to see who takes point. One could argue this could be chalked up to JD trying to calm his nerves, but I couldn't disagree more. It couldn't be more out of character for him to stop everything he's doing and find time for this nonsensical game of chance.

The Gameplay

As harsh as I've been on the story and writing, the gameplay is fine. It does exactly what you want it to do, with minimal to no problems. That said, it's quite lacking in its single player. While the first few hours are entertaining, it quickly gets stale for the lack of variety there is to it all. Previous Gears of War games introduced just enough different mechanics to keep things interesting, with some being more successful than others. That is not the case here, so as far as the single player gameplay goes, it's functional but lacking.

The multiplayer is a different story, as it is very clear this is where most of the time was spent during development. There are quite a new variety of game modes and maps that it can get addictive. The satisfaction one gets from this utter blood bath is top notch and deserves praise. What does not deserve praise is the whorish loot box system that is of course present in this game and grotesquely executed. You only get one loot box for every five level ups, which is abysmal for any chance of obtaining them via gameplay. While you don't really need them, they contain not only different characters, and gun skins, but experience boosters as well which make you level up faster. In other words, a loot box is contained with everything the player wants and can barely get. They can, however, pay real money to get them but who wants to do that?

Conclusion

Gears of War 4 is one of the most frustrating kinds of sequels out there. While everything about the story, characters and writing is beyond terrible, the gameplay and graphics are fluid. I want to say everything about this game is bad, but I can't reasonably make that claim. I give Gears of War 4 a 1.5/4 for my final rating. Yes the gameplay is good and the multiplayer is fun(ish), but the story, writing and lazy excuse for a new trilogy simply cannot be glossed over.