…we’re still dealing with basic technical issues with progression and simple playability. I don’t even bother with PvP anymore because, despite the rather smooth and responsive gameplay, there’s no gauruntee any statistical progress will be processed correctly or at all. At the very least, I was hoping to play through the campaign to gain some insight into the story.
I played for about an hour through Act II: Chapter 4 and when I finished and the cinematic begins to conclude the chapter, my screen goes black and I’m limited to audio. I hear the characters talking and the reintroduction of Garrick, but I see nothing but black. So, when the conversation ends and the cinematic has seemingly finished, I am forced to exit the game and restart. I check on my progress in the campaign and see that Chapter 4 is not completed. I received no credit for playing through the chapter.
What is going on at The Coalition? If there’s one game I’ve always supported through the good times and bad unconditionally, it is the Gears of War franchise. However, eventually something’s got to give and a development company has to be held accountable for their product’s flaws…especially when those flaws make it impossible to enjoy the game. After the great remastered effort that was UE, I had all the confidence in the world that TC was capable of carrying Gears of War into the future. Gears 4 was just a copy/paste of 3 on new hardware, and TC acknowledged was an effort to establish trust with the fans of the franchise. Now, we have Gears 5, a game so riddled with technical issues that that confidence I had is lost.
I truly do not understand what kind or roadblocks and barriers a development company has to overcome to polish a product because I’m not an IT expert, but The Coalition is clearly inept at overcoming theirs and it’s a great shame. I won’t go so far as to say that the franchise should be overtaken by a more competent company but I can say that, in my opinion, this installment has failed its fans, both diehard and casual.
I could live with the gameplay changes which most hardcore Gears players lamented over (slower movement, stronger lancer damage, arcade mode nonsense, etc.) but I can’t live with game shattering bugs that force me to turn the game off and do something else with my free time.
Best of luck to The Coalition going forward. Maybe they’ll turn a corner instead of succumbing to complacency and enjoying the profits of their sales despite releasing a broken game that has yet to be fixed.