Gears 5 needs a New Game + mode. Like, urgently

Gears 5
1

Ok, first off let me thank and congratulate The Coalition for some of the radical additions to the Gears of War game mechanics introduced in Gears 5. It was a total - and very welcome - surprise that I really enjoyed. Truth be told, I’m one of those that would have been happy with the standard core Gears gameplay experience for all Gears of War games until the day I die, but I really liked some of the Jack abilities, really brought something different and fresh to the Gears gameplay that I didn’t even know I wanted. (It’s nice to be able to say something positive about TC for a change)

On top of this these abilities have an upgrade system. A Gears of War game has a campaign upgrade system - never thought that’d happen! But again, most welcome, I like upgrade systems and I like Gears of War and now I can have both at once. I do think, however, the upgrade system could have been implemented a little better - I think you should have gone for a standard XP “level up by killing enemies” system rather than having to locate and collect points in the environment, and that gets me to the crux of this post…

You need to put a New Game + mode in. To be more precise, you need to make the upgrade points apply retroactively to previous chapters and across saves - just like the Collectibles. When I find COG tags, for instance, I only need to find them once, I don’t need to find them again every time I replay that chapter. For some insane reason I have to find the upgrade points again and again and again every time I replay a chapter - if I found 20 points by Act II, Chapter 1 and 30 points by Act II, Chapter 4, if I then go back to replay Act II, Chapter 1 again I’ll only have 20 points, and those points will be back in their respective locations.

This is kind of dumb. One of the problems with having to locate the points rather than gain them via XP is I’m constantly looking for them in the Campaign, I’m not playing the game properly or at a normal pace or indeed taking in some of the stunning environments and visuals - I’m just running to every nook and cranny as though I’m hunting for collectibles. This essentially turns every campaign run into a collectible hunt - fun once or twice but not something I want to have to do every time I play a Gears game.

It needn’t be an actual “New Game +” mode - Quantum Break had a similar upgrade system but all upgrades were permanent and would apply retroactively - after completing the game and maxing out all skills in Quantum Break I can go back to Chapter 1 and still have all my maxed out skills. I understand locking out certain skills temporarily if they have an impact on plot, obviously.

I also understand requiring us to start from scratch whenever attempting a higher difficulty. In fact, you could even make this a kind of “reward” for completing Inconceivable (which I certainly shall at some point): all unlocked skills/points earned become universal and cross-chapter, cross-difficulty, with no need to re-earn or re-learn them.

That’s probably my biggest criticism and problem with this game (sans the glitches). Considering you put an actual whole difficulty into Gears 4 like a year after release I don’t think it’s beyond you to add something like this into Gears 5. There will be some who insist this is unnecessary or that it would “break the gameplay!!!” but to them I say :fu:, it’s 2019 and video games with upgrade skill systems and no NG+ shouldn’t exist in 2019. They shouldn’t have existed in 2013 but amazingly some devs still don’t grasp this.

Anyway, hope someone at TC reads this and takes note.

Thanks.

12 Likes
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Agreed. It seems crazy that there are hundreds of components for upgrades, and we need to re-find them all with every playthrough.

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I’m guessing you cant just select that certain Chapter and find them that way?

4

I was wondering about this. I’m only about 50 or so components away from maxing out Jack for the achievements. I was hoping it would carry over like collectibles do.

Anyone know if doing a full Respec will unlock the achievements? From my understanding there are two separate ones for abilities and passives. There isn’t one that states “upgrade Jack 100%” or something. Or maybe I missed that?

5

Seriously, PLEASE God do this, NOBODY wants to upgrade these over and over again, with every playthrough, this is the only problem I have with this game, Otherwise it’s AMAZING, but this is just annoying, Lock the abilities out that you don’t want us to have. But don’t make us reacquire them every time again, like he said at LEAST on the same difficulty… And seriously, without Jack’s abilities, this game is basically 2 player coop, because with 2 abilities it’s boring as hell… I will only do it for the achievement

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I agree, I restarted the campaign thinking I would have a new experience with a leveled up Jack, it was a real bummer realizing I was starting from scratch again.

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Why make collectibles unlocked upon a replay, but make us go and recollect EVERY COMPONENT? Where’s the fun in that? What’s the point in having this system for jack if we can’t fully enjoy it upon insane (and I assume later inconceivable and higher difficulty levels) replays? You know you guys are gonna make us replay the campaign like 5+ more times like gears 4, so who thought this was a good idea? Certainly not anyone with campaign collectible experience or any experience with FUN for that matter!

Fix this feature ASAP! I don’t want to redo this stuff every time with your padded out side mission filled campaign. This is NOT fun and isn’t appreciated AT ALL!!

3 Likes
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Oh i am soooo glad someone brought this up,been Googling this EXACT issue.

On previous Gears games there was no upgradable asset so once completed you merely went from Chapter to Chapter collecting Cog Tags etc.
I have not got alot to find to get him fully “Jacked up” but this is annoying as hell!

First post here so thankyou for having me and i will be an active member but yeah as a Day one Gears fan this is a dissapointing issue in what is an INCREDIBLE Campaign (easy though and did not feel as long as previous titles).

All that landscape is fine IF its filled with stuff to do?!) and great VS (But why did you change the whole Scrap/Cr economy of Gears of War 4,it was sooo simple?).
I like that they automatically scrap duplicates and auto add to players accumalated scrap but still confusing???!!!

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I simply don’t understand why they won’t add an Arcade score attack campaign, Gears 3 style. Even years after release there was 10,000+ people playing it.

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Achievement “Jacked Up” - Fully upgrade Jacks Passives and abilities,so yes mate,there is one.

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Agreed. If only for the open world segments. Compared to the rest of the franchise 5 is HUGE. Lots of random/odd missabled.

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Agreed loved the scoring for replay ability and also would love to atleast not have to recollect by connecting saves as permanent unlocks and understandably certain abilities can not be used across all stages.ofherwise a great campaign

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Wow, 12 replies and not a single “Nah, no one cares about NG+…”

Glad to see I’m not the only one irked by this.

I think we just need to keep pestering TC about this until they get the message. Keep posting threads demanding it.

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I also agree this is stupid. Should maybe edit title as this is an important point. Shouldn’t. Have to refind all components on every chapter

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You know, I thought this was already in the game but I just didn’t know how it worked. I already tried replaying the first missions last week assuming I might have jack abilities but nope, LOL.

So they actually do make you start over recollecting everything? That’s lame, I’m sure they can correct this though,

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Before I say anything else - this should be some sort of optional feature if anything. Horizon Zero Dawn has a New Game+ mode which pretty much lets you carry all your equipment, skills and level over to a new playthrough, but it is entirely optional to do so when you finished a playthrough on a difficulty.

As such, I would propose a similar system for Gears 5 where if you choose this “New Game+” option, it carries over the Jack skills and upgrades you already collected. But it will not automatically do this upon starting a new playthrough. This idea might seem strange to you but I don’t actually mind collecting components and ultimates again. It gives a different sense/feeling of progression alongside passing through the main story.

But I do see one potential flaw with this… certain ability unlocks or upgrades are tied to continuing certain parts of the main story or side missions, which is why I have a feeling we don’t have a “New Game+“ option to go and start with Jack already having upgrades and abilities otherwise only available later in the game right from the start. Whether this is a good explanation/idea or not, that’s entirely up to you.

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Countless other games with NG+ solve this very simple problem by simply locking out those story-affecting abilities until the appropriate part of the story. This isn’t exactly uncharted waters.

I take your point about NG+ being optional and not mandatory but I cannot get on board with any kind of “recollecting skill points over and over and over and over and OVER again adds to the experience” defence. Yes, it adds to the experience - a whole heap of boredom and frustration.

By the way, I realize this is an old thread but considering TC haven’t done jack (no pun intended) towards fixing this astonishingly stupid design flaw, I feel no guilt about necro-ing it.

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I didn’t say others have to enjoy this. But I don’t mind doing the side missions or component collecting out in the open world bits again as there’s extra dialogue to these actions. Or, you know, fighting enemies. And having all the skills/abilities for Jack and whatnot unlocked right off the bat doesn’t feel right when you’re technically only supposed to get them as the story progresses, and just makes the initial parts of the game too easy. Insane was already a lot less harder when you used these Jack abilities to their max(though I’d guess it’s intended that way).

And while I get requesting such a feature, I’m pretty sure that TC have had other priorities like getting the only MP experience sorted out. Judging by the fact that there has not been any mention of the Campaign bugs besides missing progression by TC. Maybe this should’ve been a launch feature but given the other things wrong with the game it’s clear it’s probably just another thing that was left put for rushing this out.

And you should know they don’t reply to every single thread on here, even if they are read by TC staff.

19

Agree 100% My favorite part of games is the single player experience. I would love to be able to choose earlier chapter with Jack’s new found abilities. I kniw the story has a structure but there has to be a way.

Love the game so far. Congrats Coalition for an amazing game. Can’t wait for upcoming story DLC.

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Yeah. I’m really bummed about this as well. I love the campaign. But I want to be able to play through it with all of Jacks abilities. I don’t wanna have to refind them all again. It makes it super boring and takes away from the experience of the campaign for me. I can’t get immersed when I have these upgrades that I have to collect All over again.

1 Like