Gears of War: Reloaded

Gears of War: Reloaded was provided by Xbox for review. Thank you!

Xbox is one of the biggest publishers in the video game industry, but when it comes to their own IP, there are two that always come to mind: Halo and Gears of War. Gears of War has especially been interesting to me, with a story that intrigued me and action-packed third-person shooting. I remember first playing it on the Xbox 360, and that hooked me in for the rest of the series. Now, almost 20 years after the initial release, we are getting the definitive version of the game, Gears of War: Reloaded, and while it still feels as great as it did before, I also found myself hoping for more.

Compared to the original release, Gears of War: Reloaded boasts a ton of improvements and is an updated remaster of the first remaster for the original game: Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. Ultimate Edition boasted better textures with higher resolution support, extra campaign chapters, gameplay improvements, and more. Reloaded takes this a step further with more improvements, all post-launch content from Ultimate Edition, split-screen campaign co-op, even higher resolution support, optimization, graphical features like HDR and VRR support, and cross-play/cross-progression.

Playing through Gears of War again felt like I was transported back in time to when iconic third-person shooters were helping define the genre. Army of Two, Max Payne, Crackdown, and Uncharted all come to my mind, along with Gears. For the most part, I consider this great. I enjoy the more complex games with unique styles of progression, but it's nice to take a step back and just play an action-packed game that doesn't have these overarching mechanics to encourage replay or grinding.

The story follows Marcus Fenix, who was thrust back into the Locust war to help fight back against the invaders from below. Winding up in charge of Delta Squad, Fenix will lead his team on a mission to deliver a huge blow to enemy forces, hoping to turn the tide of the war and make sure humanity can have a future.

It's a similar story to a lot of other war games, but it was still enjoyable to see unfold. I wouldn't say it's the main attraction for the game, but it's cool to see how the world faces this threat. Fenix and his squad are all hardened soldiers, so there's a lot of grunting and cursing involved, but there's a certain nostalgic charm to it. Without spoiling too much for those who haven't played the game yet, I would say it's definitely enjoyable, but don't expect anything too deep and emotional.

The new additions to the game do look gorgeous, but it still has that Xbox 360 feel to it. Textures and models look better, lighting is improved, shadows and reflections are more prominent, and overall, it looks as beautiful as I could imagine a remaster of a remaster for an Xbox 360 game could look. The changes from the Ultimate Edition are not as prominent, but compared to the original version, it's a night-and-day difference. It still has a monotone, gritty look that I remember, but with much higher fidelity, and I can't complain about that.

Gears of War's third-person combat is simple, but that doesn't make it a bad experience. You will control Fenix and go through linear levels, shooting enemies with an assortment of weapons. There is some light squad control, and you can tell your allies whether to attack or regroup, but the bulk of gameplay will be going from cover to cover, shooting foes as they appear. It's a lot of fun, and I enjoy all of the action. The enemies are bullet sponges, which is something I am usually not a fan of, but it wasn't aggravating to the point of annoyance.

There are almost always enemies to fight, with them coming out of doors and hallways, with a solid variety to plow through. From the usual grunts to the larger enemies with more explosive firepower and smaller, faster melee ones, there will be enough to change strategy and keep us on our toes. There is a nice variety of weapons, including some specialty ones that will help with bosses, and that keeps the fun flowing.

The controls did take a little getting used to, especially when it comes to reloading. On the controller, we have to use the RB button, and it feels a little weird after using X so frequently, but it wasn't hard to get used to. I also enjoy the perfect reload mechanic, which, if RB is pressed at the right time, will make the gun reload faster.

The campaign is a nice touch, and there are some collectibles to find with some concept art and comics, but the main attraction is going to be the competitive multiplayer. I wasn't able to play it much during the review period, but I had tried it in the previous beta. I had such a great time playing with others, and the multiple different game modes kept it feeling fresh. Along with a co-op campaign and crossplay, there's a lot to enjoy with others. While it's great to be able to play the campaign, the real reason to get this is going to be multiplayer, and I am hoping that crossplay is going to keep it well and alive.

Gears of War: Reloaded - Steam Deck Performance

Gears of War: Reloaded does already have the Steam Deck Verified badge, and while it does work, I feel the experience can be further improved. The game starts off on a mix of Medium settings with FSR 3.1 upscaling on Balanced. It looks great, but there are some sacrifices to make in framerate. At 45 FPS, we can play without changing a thing, but some areas will drop slightly, and there are some big battery drain spikes in these areas. But the game is very well optimized overall, and while we can make it better, it's still wonderful to play as is.

Since I haven't been able to test competitive multiplayer, these settings are based on the campaign. We will be testing settings in multiplayer soon, but from our impressions of the beta, the multiplayer should be fantastic on the Deck.

推奨設定

I felt the best way to play the game was a mix of high settings with FSR 3.1 on Quality mode. It is a little more taxing this way over the default settings, but with a 40 FPS lock, it stays very stable and relatively similar battery drain (ranging around 13W - 18W). It looks better, still feels stable, and this is the way I feel is best to enjoy the game on the go.

品質設定

Next, I went ahead and tested the highest possible settings in the game, and it is playable. However, there are some areas that may drop the performance a little. While it could be played like this at 30 FPS, I do recommend changing Screen Space Reflections to High instead of Epic.

I also recommend keeping FSR 3.1 on Native instead of disabling it completely. When it's off, or even when using FXAA, it can look too sharp, but native FSR 3.1 looks great. It is more demanding on the Deck this way, but if we are looking at the best-looking visuals, this will be the way to play.

60 FPS Settings

Finally, I wanted to see if I could push 60 FPS out of the game. It is possible, but it requires a lot of compromise to make those smaller areas more stable. Ultimately, it does require using Ultra Performance for the most stable experience, but it looks terrible. With a combination of Low and Medium settings with FSR 3.1 on Performance, I found a mostly stable 60 FPS that looks decent. There are still some minor drops here and there in those areas, but it stays stable where it counts.

アクセシビリティ

Within the settings, we can toggle graphic content, fading HUD, tooltip icons, camera shake, button tap challenge type, and alternate switch colors. We can also customize different colors of the HUD, with presets for Tritanopia, Deuteranopia, and Protanopia. We can also change some camera sensitivity and inverted settings, as well as customize the controller inputs.

There is 16:10 resolution support, as well as cloud saves and good controller support. There are HDR settings and it recognizes the OLED screen.

結論

Gears of War: Reloaded may not change as much from the Ultimate Edition, but that doesn't change how enjoyable it is to go back and fight the Locust again. The game has retained its core, action-packed third-person combat and interesting story, while improving visual effects. It's nice that the game adds in a bunch of post-release content from the Ultimate Edition, but it doesn't change as much as I had hoped. Still, the game finally releasing on Steam is great, and with crossplay and the minor improvements, I can see this being a great investment for third-person shooter fans.

The game is also very playable on the Steam Deck, and it's a joy to play on the go. We definitely have some options to play, but regardless, it will be playable and enjoyable for portable play.

このレビューはPC版に基づいています。

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