A well-oiled machine
By the time Gears of War 4 rolls onto Xbox One in late 2016, the Gears of War series will be over ten years old. A decade of chainsaw rifles, curbstomping, and monster thrashing is behind it now, and like all of us it's gathered a fair share of knick-knacks along the way. But while a person might find they've collected a few too many snow globes or commemorative t-shirts over the years, the Gears series has collected new story features and gameplay mechanics.
Keep two-player co-op ONLY
Four-player co-op messes up Gears of Wars core gameplay. Actual fact. Yes, it adds an explosive, rangey, anarchic vibe missing from the first two games, and brings in a ton of new enemies and hardware to fill out the space, but you know what? All of that stuff, from gameplay focus to mechanical elements, is absent from its predecessors for a reason. When Gears loses its focus, when it becomes bloated, mad, and spectacular rather than tight, tactical, and exhilarating, it stops being Gears.
No Lambent or drill-gun
Gears of War is a cover-shooter. Gears of War perfected the cover shooter. Its weighty, its tightly strategic, it feels dangerous, and it operates by sharp, simple, clearly defined rules. Thats why it works. Thats why its so endlessly entertaining, in either campaign or multiplayer. And thats how it needs to stay.
Bring back the Hammer of Dawn, but keep it tactical
There's little arguing that the Hammer of Dawn - Gears' trademark satellite-based death laser defense system - qualifies as one sick piece of equipment. Once you've honed on a target with one of the Hammer's gun-shaped remote controls, a few seconds of calibrating gets you ready to vaporize everything foolish enough to still be standing in its way when it hits the dirt. It's hard to deny how sweet it looks when it's wiping all of your enemies off the map.
Keep battle areas tight and controlled
Don't get me wrong, huge open battlefields with bullets zipping through the air and explosions echoing in the distance are great spectacle. They look great in trailers and screenshots and when you're showing off your new purchase to friends. But they're just not that much fun to play. That's because you don't really conquer a huge battlefield so much as you survive it. Too often you'll be cutting down your fifth or sixth grunt only to get blasted by a freaking Ticker who waddled in from off screen. It's a grind that can end in an instant because your attention can't be in 12 places at once.
Strip back the size of the cast
Gears of War 3s expanded cast takes over the fighting at every opportunity, but the problem (another caused by four-player co-op) doesnt stop there. Theres also the narrative vibe to consider. The first Gears of War is brilliant partly because its so stripped back, so stark. Its so compelling because its the story of a small bunch of survivors, cut off from their home base, with only each other to rely on through the course of an increasingly dark nightmare. Its an uneasy, horror-tinged war story with a heavy sense of isolation. Its Predator, basically, with the jungle swapped for blasted cities. A pressure cooker of tension, that plays directly into the combat.
Don't let friendly AI beat everything for you
It never hurts to have some help, especially when your allies are smart enough to act as actual teammates rather than glorified escort-mission objectives. But while you definitely want those allies to be smart enough to function alongside you in battle (rather than the alternative), Gears of War 3 has a habit of swinging the other way. Suddenly the player is the expendable one, and even on normal difficulty the AI will beat the game without you. And I don't mean figuratively.
