Gears of War 4

Gears of War 4 is developed by a different developer than the original trilogy.
 This time it is by the developer The Coalition. Immediately it shows as there is a massive tone shift. The characters are vastly different and more of a trope to appeal to as many people as possible, while not really appealing to anyone in particular. The characters feel like a forced instance of minority inclusion or something. Must have a woman, person of color, white guy, etc.. They are constantly doing wisecrack jokes and the writing in general is just atrocious. 

 The gameplay is almost identical to Gears of War 1 if I recall correctly, and its enjoyable to control and the combat is fluid and tight. The roll button is addicting and snapping to cover works well. All of the guns feel floaty and arcade-like which makes the mechanics have a unique feel.

 - The first issue is that out of the 5 acts, 3 of them are in an unappealing comicbook style over saturated cartoony visual style where you fight robots. The first 2 acts of the game is more like a wacky family friendly whimsical adventure story where you and your gang of friends find themselves engaging in wave after wave of robots which I never found particularly enjoyable.

Then the next 2 acts are in dingy and dark industrial, destroyed buildings, outdoor stormy sections fighting the monster species which is more fun as they have more interesting weapons and AI and feel more satisfying to engage.

The final act is the most disappointing. The minority of it has you fighting robots and monsters in the oversaturated foresty type environment, and then last hour or so of the game takes place inside of a giant mech which is completely different from the rest of the campaign which feels more like Transformers or something. Extremely limited mechanics and encounters with a piss easy last boss that all feels phoned in and like the company ran out of time.

 While the game retains all of the satisfying combat the series its known for, the main complaint is the lack of variety in the environments and situations you'll find yourself in. Because of this it feels repetitive and gets rather boring.  There are basically 2 environments in the game. Dark industrial complex / outdoor segments. And very colorful forest/rural area segments. Neither are particularly interesting or memorable. Half of the game is spent fighting unsatisfying robots as well. 

The game is aided much by playing it on Cooperative with at least 'Hardcore' difficulty. Though, at times the enemies seem incredibly bullet sponge and encounters start to get repetitive shooting gallery wack-a-mole tier.
There is a large weapon variety with many of them having unique characteristics and its fun swapping between them. Close quarters weapons such as the shotguns and chainsaw rifle are satisfying especially when the gore happens.

It could of been improved if the game kept the original more gritty and serious tone of the first, without all the whimsical juvenile style wisecrack jokes all the time, awful character design and dialogue that try to appeal to the lowest common demonstrator, and with more varied environments and combat scenarios.

  5/10