Gear of War 4

It's been a long time since I turned on my Xbox one. It's been gathering shit dust on my desk and taking a whole lot of space while doing. So since GOW4 came out, I finally have a good reason to turn it on, install all the goddamn updates, buy the game, buy a gold subscription, download the game, start the game, wait for the game to be playable online, and finally play the fucking thing. I miss the SNES.

Have you ever remembered a game from a previous generation then went back to it? I did. And I was always astonished how in my memory it holds up, it's even freakin' HD. But when I do get back to it, I was always surprised of how outdated it became. Just try going back to Resident Evil 4. Holy shit is that some fucked up sharpness. 

Jumping back in after almost 5 years was fairly easy. The developers done a great job by making the overall feel of the game. I'm not sure honestly if this is a testament to how the original games were made, or how the new game was made, but either way you'll feel right at home. The fluid movement of Roadie-running, jumping over covers and sliding into them still feels as awesome as it was. 

As a new edition to moves that you could do, you can now grab an enemy from behind the cover, jump over cover and with a kick then knife execute him. Both are pretty well done and great editions, but they are not enough to give the sequel it's own distinct identity, unlike both 2 and 3. 

Almost all the weapons from previous games make a return, with some new here and there. All the previous weapons feel the same, which is fucking awesome. Unfortunately most of the new weapons feel either average or below that. You will not find another torque bow, a replacement for the shotgun, or any of the old guns. Some of them even feel a bit redundant.

Just like the guns, the new enemies lack character. Both the swarm and the robots just lace the diversity in design that was prominent in the old GOW games. I still remember how they come out together in waves in Horde mode, they looked like a cute family, each had his role, his look, his sound. Who would forget the echoing of the boomer from miles away 'BOOM.'

Again the lack of character comes up, but here it's a bigger issue since it's about the actual characters. The party of character the story follows are some of the worst I have ever seen. I know many people didn't like how the old GOW games the characters were all rough 'n tough in a military bromance. But at least you coulden't take tehm seriously in funny way, even if they were not meant to be written that way. That fact made them fun and interesting to follow throughout campaign. Now here in GOW4 the characters are best described as: The white guy, The girl and the black guy.

Girl is a pretty cool guy. She kills aleins and doesn't afraid of anything.

The real meat of the game, is in the multiplayer. First you have the pvp where most of the modes are what you'd expect: Execution, king of the hill, etc. Most notable new mode is dodge ball. Every time you kill a member of the opposing team he gets eliminated and can't re-spawn, unless the other team kills someone from your own team.

Horde mode returns with an even more robust mechanics and features. The game begins with a box which you can carry and place anywhere in the map. The box gives you access to fortifications and upgrades you use to defend against the Horde. After each wave you get points from killing the enemies, which you can use to purchase or upgrade your fortifications. Moreover, there are classes which you can select from the beginning of each game, and each class can be upgraded in a number of ways. Horde mode is one of the strongest, and most evolved, modes in the game.

Graphically the game is outstanding, it easily stands in the top tier of gorgeous designed games on consoles, and the developers knew how to capitalize on that by using weather effects as a game mechanic. I hope they expand on that mechanic and make it a more prominent part of the game.

In the end, I'm just happy GOW is relevant again, and as a start of a new trilogy the new development team definitely proved that they can hold the series to its standers. The difficult part now is how they will evolve the series.