The Coalition has been one of the developers for Xbox Game Studios that is really preparing their games for the launch of the new consoles. In addition to the console launch of Gears Tactics, which is optimized for the Series X and S, Gears 5 is getting a major update as well.
Gears 5 will add several additional features as part of the update including New Game Plus. As IGN has reported, New Game Plus will feature the following:
- Two new difficulty modes (Ironman and Inconceivable)
- Character Skins for Kait, Del, and JD
- Weapon Skins
- Jack upgrades carry over
- Mutators (Big head mode, etc)
- New achievements
Inconceivable is a difficulty boost over the current options, however Ironman is a new permadeath like mode. Zoe Curnoe, Lead Producer, commented on the mode:
“If you’re familiar with that in games like XCOM, [which] maybe is the best example where you don’t want to die ever — you’re trying to play through with one life [in Ironman mode]. That’s really challenging and that’s where bringing over your OP Jack is going to help you get through that. Or certainly playing through co-op if you’re both in Ironman, that would be a really fun thing to challenge as well. So we certainly loved the couch co-op challenges for Gears,” Curnoe said.
Batista, an avid Gears of War fan who has petitioned to play Marcus on many occasions, is also getting his time to shine. After being added to the game previously, players will now be able to play as Batista who will take the role of Marcus in the main game.
The Coalition hasn’t stopped with new modes an features though, as we’ve covered previously, Gears 5 is fully optimized for the new consoles. On the Series X, it will feature the full native 4K assets from the PC version as well as all of the Ultra settings, contact shadows, screen space global illumination, and increased particle effects. Additionally, the game’s cinematics will all render at 60fps now instead of the 30fps we saw previously on console.
And for the hardcore fans who tend to compete in multiplayer and want the best experience possible, the teams at Coalition haven’t even gone so far as to reduce latency and input lag.
Our Take
Gears 5 was already one of our favorite games of 2019 and with the Series console improvements, it will certainly be worth going back for another playthrough. The performance is incredibly impressive and The Coalition’s demonstrations of what is possible on the Series X should have fans incredibly excited as to what we’ll see in future titles.
