There has been some controversy surrounding the development of “Gears of War 4”, and some fans of the franchise were initially very skeptical of the sequel, claiming that it could fail. It doesn’t look like this is the case though, judging by recently released materials and opinions from some gamers. More specifically, the newly introduced “Horde 3.0” mode has been enjoying a lot of positive attention.
The mode is apparently so good that it’s managed to change the opinions of some of the initial skeptics, judging by online discussions, and we’d be curious how it affects the long-term popularity of the game once it’s released.
The cross-play functionality of the game has been enjoying a lot of attention as well, and many players were seemingly impressed with how the studio handled that aspect of its development. It was initially a controversial addition, with some claiming that such experiments are doomed to fail, but this definitely doesn’t seem to be the case with the specific implementation in “Gears of War 4”.
When the game was originally shown, the main issue most players seemed to have with it was with the innovation – or rather, the apparent lack of any. It seemed at first like the developers were trying to play it safe, avoiding any potentially risky moves, and while the game seemed properly made and on a good technical level, it still didn’t have any unique charm about it, according to some.
These worries seem to have practically disappeared now that we’ve seen its gameplay in more detail, and in fact the majority of discussions about the game are now dominated by a tone of positivity. Of course, there are still some features that are largely unknown to players, but we don’t expect the developers to preview every single aspect of the title before it’s been released.
According to some, this release is a very important one not just for the “Gears of War” franchise itself, but for the Xbox One as a platform. The series has always been an important weapon in Microsoft’s arsenal, and now that the company is trying to promote the console’s cross-play features, they have a perfect opportunity to showcase the fruits of their hard work.
But if it turns out that “Gears of War 4” is an underwhelming experience and fails to live up to the hype of the previous installments in the series, this could deal a significant blow to Microsoft’s position in the industry as a whole.
Hopefully we aren’t going to see that, and will actually get a sequel worth playing and talking about for a long time. And if the cross-play of the new title works well, we expect it will inspire many other developers to follow the footsteps of the game’s developers and implement it in their own titles.
Over time, this could really strengthen Microsoft’s position on the market, and help them gain the upper hand in an industry that keeps constantly evolving in all sorts of interesting new directions.
Some are claiming that the aesthetics of “Gears of War” are becoming a bit outdated for modern standards. While the large bloody chainsaws used to be an impressive and unique part of the game some time ago, gamers have seen some even more interesting art styles developed over the last few years, so the art directors of “Gears of War 4” have a very challenging task ahead of them.