Mikayla and Reyna... unrealistic and unlikable.. And Therons are very bugged

Gears Tactics
#1

Mikayla, and to a lesser degree, Reyna, are hard to believe as characters. No normal healthy human being can possibly be as miserable and unlikable as Mikayla is. I do not think it is possible. I have a hard time believing that this was intentional, but the way Gabe acts around her, he seems like he wants to bow to her unreasonable and excessive hate for everything. Every line from her is dripping with disdain.

I 'm 32 now, and I have not seen such an unlikable character in any game or movie. That’s not a small feat. Reyna seems to take and run with her unlikeable character. Cold. Illogical, Unrelatable, Angry at everything no matter logic or reality… and she runs with it. With an amazing lack of self-awareness, Mikayla responds to Reyna, after she reacts identically to Mikayla, with, “Relax, we’re on the same side here”. The only way this would happen in the real world is if Mikayla is a sociopath. And that makes it really hard to empathize with her.

To be honest, Sid seems like the same character too. It’s like Sid, Reyna, and Mikayla are just the same personality; constant pouting, dismissive insults, getting upset if someone asks them a question. Like Mikayla freaking out when Gabe asks if she can make a grenade. She get’s huffy and puffy, and says, “I HAVE TWO ENGINEERING MASTER DEGREES”… I hate to break it to people, but having an engineering degree doesn’t mean that you know how to make a grenade. Also, how was Gabe supposed to know? This type of personality is the people in line where you just don’t talk to them at all, because you’d be walking on egg shells, afraid that they will freak out and yell at you for mundane things.

I realize she thinks the COG are evil, but no sane or rational human being could react like her given the circumstances. At least from where I stand. And Mikayla constantly reacts to Gabe like he is slapping her face and shooting spit balls at at her in a 5th grade classroom for at least half the game. No normal human would react like this given the circumstances, but she does anyway. Is the reason that people on Sera are not humans? Maybe that’s my mistake?

Granted, I think that no Gears game has had this poor a story and character development, Cole, Baird, and Fenix are three of the best characters in any Scifi ever. And Mikayla is… one of the worst ever. I hope they turn this around if they do a Gears Tactics 2.

As for the Theron bug in my title… If you capture a Theron and down yourself in your turn (self down with proximity bow, in my tries so far), you cannot do anything outside of skipping your turn… very bugged. And half the time, even if you are not downed or killed after controlling a Theron. the game crashes. Please fix that.

3 Likes
#3

I’ve run into two bugs, and so far, it’s 100% on the latter, 50% on the former.

  1. If I control a Theron Guard and it has any amount of HP left at the end of the turn, the very next turn, the game crashes approximately half the time. It seems to depend on the map though. Some maps, it works every time, and other maps it crashes every time. So in aggregate, it seems to result in crashes half the time.
  2. If I have control of a Theron Guard, and use the bow in a way that also downs the controlled Theron guard, I instantly lose the ability to interact with ANY other character. I have the UI for a Theron, where it offers to let me shoot a Torque Bow with a direct or indirect fire, but selecting the UI for either option does nothing. I am forced to restart the match.

I have not consistently successfully interacted with a Theron Guard in ANY way except killing it, Doing anything else results in a hang or a crash.

My PC:
Ryzen 3900x
RTX 2080t ti
GB Auros Master x570
Samsung EVO 970 Pro 2 TB

Hopefully that’s all that matters. But there is clearly something very buggy about Theron Guards for me. I have zero issues with anything outside Theron’s in this game.

#5

I don’t know what you mean for Mikayla acting like a sociopath. I don see it buddy.

2 Likes
#6

Maybe saying sociopath is hyperbolic. She really acts like the type of person that people walk on egg shells around, because literally anything is likely to result in an angry response. A good example is when Gabe asks her if she can create a grenade, but she freaks out saying that she has two engineering degrees. No human on Earth can possibly guess that you have two engineering degrees just by looking at you. And having a 100 engineering degrees does not necessarily mean that you can create a grenade… so even if he knew about her degrees, it’s still a really reasonable question.

A normal human would have calmly said, “Yeah, I can make a grenade.”, instead of acting like someone said the most insulting thing to them. And this is how she acts with everything. Had Gabe asked her how her day was, I would not be surprised if she said, “HOW IS MY DAY GOING??? What, you think I don’t have control over myself and whether I am having a good day? Why would you not assume that I am having a good day? I’m a strong person. How dare you assume otherwise”.

Basically, she has a word salad sort of response to everything that feels like it is on the narcissistic spectrum. Which is fine if you want people to hate a character; if you want them to be the bad guy, or the annoying extra in a group that you are meant to hate, until they maybe redeem themselves somehow, vaguely/tangentially like Hudson in the Aliens movie. But Mikayla is meant to be one of the heroes of this story, and clearly is not meant to be hated by the player, given the context of everything happening.

But the problem really seems to be that the writer of the story and dialogue in this game wanted Mikayla and Reyna to seem strong and bad***. But it seems like their way of doing that was making them pissed off at everything because they didn’t know another way to do that. I guess that is effective in making them look strong, but it sacrifices their likability as protagonists.

Anyway, enough soapboxing for me. Normally I would’t care, and would just think, “wow these characters are really poorly developed. What a missed opportunity”, and then I’d move on and not think twice about it. But Gears is my favorite franchise by far. When you have a game with so few opportunities to develop characters and story, this felt like they missed out. And I hope they take a different approach next time.

1 Like
#7

There is no rule saying all characters have to be likable. For one thing, different people like different traits. The traits that make Baird likable for some people are the same traits that make others hate him. Cole is loved by some and seen as a disgusting stereotype by others (even though he’s based on his voice actor, who acts like that in real life). Dom’s empathy and strong emotions led to some calling him a “crybaby” or “overly dramatic.” Marcus’ constantly gruff, angry attitude led critics to see him as one-dimensional and boring, while others see those traits as great worldbuilding and writing (because it shows what Marcus has been through, and allows his moments of empathy and humor to shine brighter).

As far as unlikable heroes go, Mikayla is far from the worst. Frank “The Punisher” Castle is much worse. Both The Punisher and Mikayla lost their families. Frank Castle is a hateful, miserable monster who routinely tells cops “don’t be like me.” His only solution to problems is violence. He’s popular because he represents a simplified power fantasy, and because some writers have done excellent work with him, but he’s still a hateful, miserable monster who was broken by tragedy.

Meanwhile, Mikayla is prickly and sometimes obnoxious. But she doesn’t have a superiority complex like some engineers… She focuses on rallying survivors together and keeping them safe, and actions are much more important than words.

And as you realized, her hatred of the COG is well-founded. More people died in the Hammer of Dawn strikes than were killed by the Locust.

Gabe has dealt with people worse than Mikayla. His former commanding officer was a near-incompetent officer who valued her own career over the lives of her soldiers. Gabe also had to deal with Prescott, a man who honestly believed he has humanity’s best interests at heart, but who still made evil, deplorable decisions that led even Hoffman to hate him. And Hoffman’s a war criminal who faked a surrender!

Mikayla soon respects and follows Gabe, even when her prickly nature pokes out. By the end of the story, she’s undergone a character arc that sees her act more maturely.

When Mikayla approaches Reyna like Gabe approached Mikayla, that’s character development. Mikayla changes. Even Sid changes, considering he gives up his desire for public vindication, and decides to be OK with someone else killing Ukkon.

There is no rule that characters have to be likable. They just have to act like people. And both Mikayla and Sid act like people I’ve known and seen in the real world. Honestly… Mikayla and Sid act more reasonably and maturely than most of the people in the real world. They’re able to change their minds, unlike most humans.

8 Likes
#9

Subjective experiences vary.

1 Like
#11

A normal human, maybe not a shaken young woman who was taken prisoner by the literally bloodthirsty Locust and had her only family killed after running away from the COG, Mikayla’s reason for hating the COG is pretty airtight but Reyna even more so. She might not be acting like a “normal” human… but acts very much like a distressed civilian in a more than brutal warzone around soldiers she perceives as hostile.

#12

I believe you’re being too harsh.
I noticed too that both Mikayla and Reyna act ragefully and with a lot of spite , but hey!
That’s not different from any other stranded we met during the OG trilogy.
Remember Franklin? Or the Stranded in Lethia Imulsion Facility?
They all hated the COG and the Gears and showed off pretty evidently.
The ladies you mentioned act exatly the same way.
Also …
I believe that it actually makes sense from someone that lives -at war- and lost her whole family to be pretty damn pissed.
When you rescue Reyna from her pod she just saw her father die.
That’s understandable from her to be that angry. And Realistic.

This is actually Kait :rofl:

1 Like
#13

Sure, because she didn’t just totally see her uncle die right in front of her eyes while Myrrah tried taking her body over…

#14

Never really cared for Mikayla or Reyna tbh, both boring as hell.

2 Likes
#15

Poor excuse.
In 4 she openly stated that she deeply hated Oscar.
At the end of 4 she also believed that Oscar was already dead.
Heck , at the end of 4 WE couldn’t know that Oscar was alive it it wasn’t for the extra cutscene.
Which makes the whole Outsider Camp section of 5 an HUGE JOKE.
Hell , she didn’t even share affection with him despite being her only family member , and her mother’s brother , while he was still alive.
If she actually loved him as blood-bond as she supposed to do , she would have found a way to stop that Warden from smashing him , as she was controlling him.
She didn’t. She let the curse flow , she didn’t fight that.
This makes her weak not only phisically but also mentally.

I mean , I really can’t blame her , Oscar proved himself to be the high chief of uselessness and Gears 4 lobbies ruiner , how can somebody love him.

Let us be honest , we all know that Kait is so pissed because of HER HEADACHES.

And this , this exatly , makes her one of the poorest and weakest characters I ever seen.

3 Likes
#16

Well, I know you haven’t been able to read the books, but in Ascendance she finds out Oscar is alive and feels guilty for not even having thought about going looking for him, but after that, they go their own ways again as Kait believes joining the COG is the better option.

And she doesn’t “hate” Oscar, she just says he wasn’t the greatest uncle to have, with more details on that provided in Bloodlines. But she still cares(d) about him.

But I don’t expect to convince someone with negative views such as yours. I can just give you the facts, not change bias.

Also…

The dialogue in that scene makes it clear that Kait was not able to regain control of the Warden, I’m guessing either cause it decided to do its own thing and throw her off or Myrrah decided to ‘help’ things along.

1 Like
#17

Aaaand I decided to get rid of the whole comment because that was getting too political , and I’ve first-personally experienced how TC HATES having people even slightly debating stuff like human rights and historical views in their forums.
Jesus Christ , such hypocrisy.
Not you , TC.

See? I can also politely disagree.

— I’m planning on reading the books anyway , despite how reluctant I am on giving even the smallest cent to Coalition. I’m trying to improve my english to mother language level , perhaps I’ ll give them a try. Point is , when I read something , I want a full comprehension of what I’m reading , and I’m afraid I might miss something , not reading my mother tongue. Trust me , I read the OGs from Karen Traviss 3 times each. I have eye contact with ‘the Slab’ in this very moment. What a book.—

#19

TC’s characters are all weak. JD has something going on though. He could be on his path to be a b4st4rd of a COG officer. As nasty as Loomis or Prescott.

Oh I and Lizzie seemed cool. But she died so damn fast that we just forget about her. I just remembered her because I play multiplayer.

Also I agree with OP, Mikayla sucks. Like you don’t want to her to talk at some point !

#20

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, I am probably being way too harsh.

Although that doesn’t mean I can fully understand it. I am pretty sure that I’d react to loss like this with shock, aloofness, and sadness - not with anger and insulting people who just saved my life. I can’t imagine acting like Reyna to that unless I was already predisposed to being a jerk. But, I guess I can’t guarantee that unless something awful happened to a love one in front of me, and I got kidnapped. God forbid… But to be fair, the person who made this character didn’t have that happen, almost certainly. They made this up.

As for Mikayla. Idk, I might hate “fascists” like the COG, but if they just saved me and my people from death, I think I wouldn’t be doing everything I could to get them to shoot me in the face. Which is something an actual fascist would do. (Not trying to get political, just using the story building and dialogue from Gears). Maybe it’s just me that wouldn’t do that? But I have a hard time imagining someone else would.

But, I appreciate the different opinions. Obviously my view on this is far from a consensus :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#21

Too be fair. Mikayla and the other stranded had to go through the entire planet being hammered by the military only for it to barely even scratch the locust numbers and kill the majority of the human population. Not to mention the 80 year UIR COG war that ended right before E day.

#22

Oh wow, I didn’t realize they destroyed all of Sera, and killed millions or billions of humans to get a pyrrhic victory. I thought the locust had already destroy most everything, and they tried to take some of them out with the Hammer of Dawn. So I’m obviously a little out of the loop then. Any suggested reading for me? I played the first three games, and actually used to be a highly ranked player on Gears 2. One of the top 250 players , interestingly. But I became frustrated with the way games were hosted, constant lag switching and bugs, and barely played Gears 3 after the singleplayer. I haven’t even played Gears 4. So I need to catch up some. Obviously some of these happened before the first game, so it seems like I didn’t read a novel somewhere.

#24

You see , this is what I found deeply inaccurate about Tactics.
The books openly stated that the HOD countermeasure did work and a ton of Locust got killed not only by the blast but also by the chemicals flowing underground with the water.
The Locust Horde did suffer an hard blow and Humanity (Ephyra , at least) had a couple years of respite before the killing began anew.

And that makes Total sense.
From 1 A.E. (Tactics) and 10 A.E. (fall of Ephyra and Marcus jailing) that’s 9 years of war.
Without the HOD countermeasure , humanity would have been wiped away.

2 Likes
#25

Btw are the people of Hanover in Gears 3 stranded ? I was about to say that every single non-COG person you meet in Gears wish you death as soon as they lay eyes on you.

1 Like
#26

Maybe it was a great thing not to continue playing with this game, then!?
But at least I got Gabe but his face and armor got ruined in Gears 5 so I may not use him in there.