Spoilers! avoid if you haven’t beaten game

Gears 5
#20

It sounds like a rather strange decision on the writers part, especially in a series that has as linear a story experience as this one does.

I’m not sure I understand the reasoning for having it as I struggle to see what it adds to the experience. Especially since it doesn’t sound like it has any real affect the rest of the story while casually implying that JD and Del are interchangeable and whatever they had to offer to the narrative didn’t really matter.

If the rationale was to give the player some sense of agency, then that makes even less sense because the games layout pretty clearly that these characters - whether it be Kait, JD, or Marcus - have their own personalities, thoughts & goals and we’re just going along for the ride. But it would be a great disservice to take that away from them simply because the developers wanted to do…whatever it is they set out to do.

#21

I didn’t like the choice at the end. It felt forced for shock value and didn’t have nearly the buildup like Dom’s or his wife’s.

Still, whatever TC chooses to do with Gears 6, I hope there’s an option to see JD again with Del’s death on his conscience along with all the other crazy deaths (both the ones he accidentally caused and didn’t) throughout his story. There’s huge potential there to make him a very interesting, burdened character paralleling war and the hard decisions needed to win it. Same thing with Kait, to a lesser extent–she never panicked and ordered a firing squad on a riot. Having to live with that in a character with JD’s personality is great for internal conflict.

His redemption arc was WAY too rushed, much like them suddenly making him someone who fired on a riot and like him suddenly becoming a prototypical “COG” following orders. I liked Del but had to save JD. By the end of the game, he’s the most interesting and complex character in it besides maybe Marcus, yet it hardly ever comes out in his dialogue. Wasted potential IMO.

P.S. I hate how quick he “returned” to old JD when they could have done SO much more with his character after Act 1, given what he has done/caused/gone through.

Tl;DR I really hope JD shows up in Gears 6. His character potential is the best of anyone in the cast right now.

1 Like
#22

I don’t know, in the last game it seemed like JD and Kait was going to be more then friends and then they found Marcus and JD switched to be focused on being Marcus Fenix replacement instead of developing JD into his own character. It also felt like Kait actually became the focus character, which left JD in the dark. Del just felt like the Dom’s replacement that they didn’t want to waste time getting us invested before wiping him off the map.

I would have to say that I didn’t feel that neither JD or Del got to develop and I was at more of a loss for Dave, then I was with the idea of JD or Del. I think making the story more of and investment then just , hey go here , you go there, this character dies for whatever reason.

Maybe by Gears6 , they will remember how they did that in Gow1 through GoW3 and Judgement. GoW4 and Gears5, just seem to lack that feeling in teh story.

1 Like
#23

I hope JD surviving is the cannon option, I do like Del, but it makes more sense for JD to go through the pain his father has before him. All Del did was bring some comedy in to the game, where JD brought deep story.

3 Likes
#24

1: Clay lives, but they forgot to show him in the cutscene for… some reason. Aggravates me.

2: Knives don’t instakill with eye-shots. And that broken machete wouldn’t fit in Reyna’s eye socket. Not to mention Reyna’s head was half covered in crystals.

3: So weird. It’s like… Okay. Whatwhyhow.

4: They’ll either pick a canon, or they’ll count each player’s “votes” to see who got saved the most. Not sure I’m happy with either option.

#25

Both endings are equally heavy. Like… heart-wrenchingly heavy, for anybody who spent the time to find all the optional dialogue and environment interactions. My guess is that TC couldn’t choose between either ending because they’re both so strong.*

But man…

Del’s supposed to be a PhD science teacher, but he’s serving in a military he doesn’t agree with. Because he can’t sit by and let bad things happen.

JD’s stepped up to the effort of war and leadership, and he’s become truly heroic. But it’s at the cost of his own body, and he still doesn’t feel redeemed.

It’s a lose/lose multiple choice question.

2 Likes
#26

I understand where you’re coming from, but no one seems to mention the del is extremely smart and could inherit bairds work. His skills offer more than a guy who who is always trying to prove his leadership. I like jd, but del can save us all too

2 Likes
#27

I’m still not so sure. I can’t give a definitive impression, just that my knee-jerk reaction is that I’m not generally a fan of story options like this in a predominantly linear experience. Maybe my mind will change if I experience it for myself.

#28

I hope that choice doesn’t mean either character gets marginalized in the next game. I’d rather have both of them magically survive in canon than that happen.

1 Like
#29

Clayton Carmine is alive and hopefully stays alive together with some other carmine fam. members in gears 6. I hope they ain’t putting that in the hands of the community again through a vote (dumb decision that was).

Yup first time encountering that, I did nothing but try and throw it into her head. Wanted to save both. Kinda disappointing that that ending in a game over. But yeah, JD is the logical choice really, which will most likely be canon in Gears 6 or…they will pull some kind of magic trick and bring him back alive through a locust pod or something in gear 6. (snapped neck or not)

Gears 6 will prolly start off with who you killed based on your save game or allows you to pick I guess if they don’t make anything set in stone canon.

#30

I don’t know how they’ve managed it, but damn, the story really made me care for the characters a lot more than I was ever expecting it to. I found JD to be really boring and Del kind of was just there for me, but at the end of 5, I found it really bad(and that’s an understatement - I don’t really know how to describe the feelings about this scene) that we had to make this choice because of how I suddenly cared for characters who I previously felt nothing for. I chose to save Del, but I found the choice extremely tough to make. Even though I didn’t find all of the hidden things or dialogues around the world. Either I chose Del who had accompanied Kait on the journey, or JD who had been trying to redeem himself with Kait for his behavior. But in the end, no matter what I would have chose, the death would have hit hard. The way Kait and Del reacted and how the way their voices sounded(especially Kait’s) really just drove in how much this impacted them. It was also just… I don’t know, but the way Marcus reacted to when he saw Del and Kait react to his question where JD was, that was just… I didn’t think I’d ever be lead to care about the characters this much. Even Fahz who’s kind of a (insert word of choice here).

1 Like
#31

Very true it felt good killing JD :joy:

1 Like
#32

That sounds pretty legit :joy:

I’m just trying to piece the whole locust thing together, so originally Locusts were created as experiments by Niles and in the process Myrrah was created/born he then continued to mass produce them until they were able to breed themselves. Myrrah became there queen because of maybe the way she was genetically developed? and they then went to live underground blah blah blah. Then the locusts discovered emulsion some kind of living fuel that was harming the locusts, so Myrrah spoke to Adam Fenix to help them sort out the emulsion problem otherwise they will have to come to the surface. The emulsion then got too much for the locust and so emergence day happened because the locust wanted to escape the emulsion because it was making them lambert and turn against each other and needed a plan to escape it.

Then a war happened and events from gears 1, 2 and 3 happened, when the war ended in gears 3 the locusts bodies were gathered and put in burial grounds.

So from gears 4 the locusts had actually never died, there bodies began to crystallise and mutate/transform in the burial grounds to became now what we know as the swarm.

They needed to look for a new leader similar to what the locusts had and naturally that would be Reyner (which we found out in gears 4) Myrrah’s daughter. We then cut Reyna loose form the hive and she dies??? Or the swarm detect she has died and then she becomes to crystallise and comes back to life to seek revenge as she is now full on Swarm. But during this process Kait is being effected and is connected to her mother through the swarm hence the visions and stuff.

Now they have there new leader they continue the war… and we see the next events in gears 6

Is that basically it in a nut shell? Any amendments are welcome

1 Like
#33

Hopefully JD surviving is canon. Del isn’t interesting at all.He’s 100% expendable imo. The Fenix family needs to carry on!

1 Like
#34

I think Fahz having more detailed dialogue when Del dies is the canon way, other wise he basically says nothing

2 Likes
#35

Nah, it’s just that Fahz is more disappointed when JD dies. He’s only just started to like Del, whereas JD has been his captain for months.

That’s like saying JD’s death is canon because Marcus has more dialogue in that ending.

Man, I don’t understand why there are two endings. TC better be brave and make the most of this.

#36

Story was a marathon of cringe. Character motivations/behaviors are wildly inconsistent from 4. Fahz (as much as I like him) is literally a token minority character for the sake of it, Rod Ferguson stated this in an interview prior to release. Kait gets thrusted into leadership only after TC disgraces JD in the most absurd way (Settlement 2 reasoning is full of plot holes). Watching Kait tell Oscar to pack up and leave, only to yell at JD for saying the exact same thing moments later is hilarious in all the wrong ways. I could write pages about the garbage tier writing in Gears 5. Its worse than Halo 5. (Would have rather followed Liz Carmine around for 12 hrs than Kait but oh well).

Rod Fergusson is an SJW who’s more concerned with pandering than making a good product. Knowing this, I can predict exactly what he’ll do in Gears 6:

JD’s death will be cannon. Rod Fergusson will not be able to pass up an opportunity to virtue signal, so he will likely remove the “who died” portion that the next game should have and make sure the white male is the one who is canonically dead. I can almost guarantee this based solely on interviews he’s done in the past. Remeber, its not about fandom, its not about choice and its not about story. It’s about social engineering .

Kait, who is a dull 2019 archetype of “strong female character” (as opposed to a badass one like Anya, Sam or Liz), will likely take the spotlight again. Or maybe Del? Hell, he’s worse but its about virtue signaling, not story.

If Fergussion does what I think he’s going to do, this Gears fan from 2006 is done.

JD: “Hey Kait, you’re pretty good at this whole military leadership thing” :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: The cringe.

1 Like
Thoughts on Hivebusters DLC?
#37

Always good to see how kneejerk reactionaries view the world. It’s a sobering reminder of hubris and the Dunning Kruger effect.

1 Like
#38

Quickly looks up Kruger Effect

Ye…yeah!

#39

I completed the campaign today.

Probably one of the worse I’ve ever played in a game.

Absolutely nothing new. It was just another bland Gears campaign.

The open sections was ■■■■■■■ boring, especially when having to look for tiny collectables (act 2 & 3).

I killed Del off, just because I found him more annoying. That whole scene was cheesy as ■■■■.

When the game did end, it ends quite abruptly. Like that arc was unfinished or something.

There were also some other strange narrative choices, which just don’t make any sense either.

This game fills rushed and like some kind of cheap filler, till the new consoles arrive (not that I would expect anything better next time out).