Gears of War 4 beta impressions

April 20, 2016

The Gears of War 4 beta started this weekend for a few select Xbox One owners, and I spent a few hours getting acquainted with it.

The beta spanned across three maps and three game modes.

Classic Team Deathmatch, which is nothing new, a new mode called Dodgeball, which is much more fun than it sounds, and a bot versus game mode where you and a few friends can mess around, learn the maps and perfect your weapons.

Classic Team Deathmatch has not changed at all. 15 lives across your team, die and they are reduced by one. There is the usual pressure found when dying constantly and costing your team the game.

It is all about team work as your run from cover to cover, tagging enemies and planning your assault. When things start getting intense, it is pretty hard to get your team coordinated, as the enemy keeps breaking you up.

Looks like he is having fun.

A typical match is pretty gory as Gnashers blow you apart with two shots, and a Torque Bow will slit you down the middle pretty quickly.

Staying behind cover, which has always been a standard in GoW, will keep you alive as long as no one is behind you.

That is unless you get yanked from cover thanks to the game’s new melee system, which lets you grab someone out of the other side of the cover you are at and stab them in the throat. You can also run and vault kick someone on the other side of cover and deal a killing blow.

As much as these new mechanics are trying to change the way you approach combat, they can also be countered when you are on the other side of the kick, which will stop your opponent from taking you down for a quick kill.

Dodgeball is, in theory, the same as Team Deathmatch – however when you are dead, you are dead for the rest of the round.

You can bring a fallen team mate back to life by killing an opponent and staying alive for 5 seconds after that.

Someone have a headache tablet for him?

Dodgeball is pretty intense, and you are constantly fighting for more lives while trying to stay alive. You can feel the pressure as your dead teammates watch and judge your every move.

There were a few more new mechanics like Active Reload, which can now be done at any time to give you an active reload. You do not need to have an empty magazine to activate the reload.

There are also new power weapons added to the game. The drop shot is like a grenade launcher which shoots out an explosive which can be stuck onto enemies, or shot behind them to draw them out of cover.

The older power weapons like the Torque Bow and Long Shot are all back, and spawn at various times on the map. You can spot them by using a new tactical viewer which highlights your teammates and these power weapons on the map.

Still extremely over-powered.

There is a new bounty system which lets you use bounties in-between matches. These bounties have various requirements to reach in order to complete them, such as killing a certain amount of enemies or scoring a set number of points.

Once you have completed the bounty, it will then reward you with XP for you character progression, unlocking various items which were unfortunately unavailable in the beta.

Maps were nothing spectacular, and it was hard to really identify anything that set them apart from past titles. I was left longing for some diversity.

This was unfortunate, as it was not the only thing that felt rehashed. Although there are new elements to the multiplayer, I felt that after six titles in the series, Coalition would bring something new to series.

When put side to side with last year’s Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, this beta felt like a map pack.

Gears Shipping co.

Keeping in mind that this is still the beta, but I could not help but feel that it is time Gear of War receives a massive multiplayer overhaul.

Running around with a Gnasher spamming shots at players has been going on for 10 years now, and the same thing happened in this beta.

If you loved any multiplayer in the past titles, then you will love this, as it is literally the same thing. If you are like me and want something new from a new game, then I doubt you will find it here.

Who knows what will happen before the game releases on 11 October 2016.

Do you think the multiplayer needs a change? Let us know in the comments and forum.