I was all in for JD I wished so bad he stayed the main character. Playing as the son of my favorite video game character of all time in my favorite series of all time had me so excited. His overconfidence and attitude had me thinking "oh he hasn't seen the absolute worst it can get yet, so we'll see his confidence get broken down and grow back up like his dad" but no, instead even he gets tossed aside and the main role is given to the god damn locust queens granddaughter. In Gears 5 when Kait says to JD "this isn't about you, this is about me!" Thats when I knew it was officially over.

I still think that the coalition should have made a game about the pendulum wars

I'm gonna make a prediction; In Gears 6 they're gonna make JD's death cannon, then they'll kill off Marcus and give him the 'Joel' treatment to boost up Kait.

I don't mind jokes every now and then but when they need a quirky comment after every fight it feels like the cast don't take their situation seriously or don't care, like they know they're going to be ok because they know they're the main characters

one thing i hated about gears 4 is the lack of locus, just a bunch of robots

My problem is that I just can't get behind Kait as the protagonist of the games

I wished The Coalition followed the gears judgment route and stuck more to prequels. Maybe we could have gotten a game from The Queen/Locust perspective so we could have more back story.

Never disliked JD or Del. Just don’t like how in gears5 they try to make JD the bad guy and like he has to apologize for protecting his men.

This video sat at like 200 views for almost an entire year and it felt pretty shitty to try something like this for the first time ever only for it to basically get lost in the void. Then i check and magically overnight this video has almost 8k views and climbing a year later. I guess the key to this kind of stuff really is just patience and confidence lmao. Something you made a long time ago could absolutely just blow up out of nowhere. Edit: almost 50,000 views on this is crazy. This was like my first ever attempt at one of these.

I could forgive characters written the way Kait is if someone humbled them at one point. Like she comes into a cog settlement and starts shit talking when a guard or something checks her on it, the issue is both the character and how other characters react to them. I think it's in judgment when paduk jabs at loomis saying he wants to fight and a guard smacks him for it.

the reason why I was genuinely pissed at the introduction of gears 4 was the fact that the ending to gears 3 was retroactively undone. just completely negated it was completely trashed for these new characters. but it was mildly enjoyable but the main part that fucking kills me is the perverse pleasure the plot takes in hurting marcus.

Here's one way I like to look at this game: it's proof how incompetent leaders make things worse when they are driven by their emotions rather than use logic. Like you said, every decision JD made, even the bad ones, saved some lives But every bad call Kate made made things worse; Keeping secret about her connection to the Swarm Awakening Queen Reina and pretty much making the Swarm stronger

When they put Kate front and center.....That just wasnt it. They new ganes were good, they just should not have put Marcus in the passenger seat and then set up JD as the successor protagonist, only to cast him asside like trash.

The Marcus-Designed Lancer is actually available in 5 as a skin in multiplayer. Gotta earn it though.

Chairman Prescott abandoned the cog and everyone. As soon as he came back he was still top dog and even though Marcus hated his guts he knew that he was the superior officer on the boat

1:33:55 there’s even another moment like this in gears 2 when Cole gets pissed off and starts shooting the rift room out of anger when carmine dies

"You have these cool guns with fucking chainsaws, and its worthless because PVP is bouncing off the wall and shotgunning everyone" THANK YOU!, honestly, is frucking annoying to main the Lancer, and not have a single bastard on the enemy team duel me with the chainsaw, come on man, we have the Frakking Lancer, wich does a lot of damage at medium to long range, and a freaking cool chainsaw bayonet, and you tell me, that the only way people know how to play this game is, cover to cover jump just to one shot kill with the gnasher?. come on, give me an epic chainsaw duel!

I only had del saved, because I was in co op with my brother. We stopped caring about the story pretty quick. I told him to just save me as a joke. There was no moral quandary in saving either.

i honestly forgot they put healthbars in Gears 5...I was happier having forgotten

The locusts back story, was already in Gears 2 they just added more to it

While I was more Geared towards multiplayer, It is is crazy how the story went

man the entire thing with kait in gears 5 just bugs me, if that was any other character doing what she did they would have been arrested, put on trial, and sent to prison. the entire connection to the swarm was the only shot she had and they butchered it, we could have gotten some cool sections using the swarm. I also find it just odd how theres only 4 acts, every other gears game had 5 and while gears one had the shortest act with like 2 major fight sections and a boss the pc release and ultimate edition expanded the act. makes gears 5 feel like its missing something with its story that they either were forced into rushing 4 acts or they simply didn't wanna bother. the best part of these games is the customization with all the skins

I still am baffled that they gave us a choice to save JD or Del. Kait should have been the one that died instead of JD or Del. Besides, I have unfavorably compared this to saving either Kaidan or Ashley from the original Mass Effect(spoiler, I saved Ashley). I mean wtf, a choice like this is reserved for rpg games and not shooters

Gears 5 story was so bad, the whole time I felt like I was getting gaslit. Like are we really saying JD was wrong?

Damn. For how in depth this video is, you deserve way more views. It also tells how little interest there is in Gears nowadays 😢

Nah... its dead. Sadly. All the shit with kait being insifferable, marcus being sidelined, jd getting shafted and made to be the bad guy. Then we have the wacky hammer of dawn connection shit. Like why would losing connection cause the hammer to keep firing randomly? Like wouldnt it still be following jd. The thing used as the targeting beacon lmao? Then everybody hates jd. Then theres the memes. In the words of flashgits, "your black guy doesnt even go wooo" always comes to mind

My biggest fear if they make a gears of war movie / tv show is them making it about Kate and skipping the original trilogy. I used to love the campaign mode on gears till 4.. didn’t even bother with 5

My favorite part of 4 was actually the beginning prologue, and the end mech fight. With 5, I agree that the story was not good at all, but Vasgar and l Paduk in particular are still my favorite parts

I'm a huge GEARS OF WAR fan, and this is the BEST ANALYSIS of the series. You are 100% CORRECT.

Gears of War is back, baby, grab your Lancers, we’re going back to Emergence Day, WOO!

Gears of War E day is what the franchise needs right now a good return to form why'll they figure out 6

I havent played 5 yet because 4 killed all excitement I had for the series. 3 ended it perfectly. 4 was just killing robots with a new unlikable cast. I gave 4 a shot and was so underwhelmed. They just redid the Locust. I was expecting at least a new enemy. Like Gears 1 is mid, so I am not just some Gears boomer. I want Gears to do well.

I'm waiting for Gears of War: Marcus Fenix Collection.

Anything that starts with "Microsoft studios" you can pretty much skip.

I’m shocked they haven’t rereleased 2 and 3 in the Ultimate Editions engine….and put it on PC in the intermittent time between 5 and whatever they’re doing next.

Great video! I am a Gears OG, and you nailed it on this video. I loved your ideas for Gears 6. Hopefully, they'll have something to show for next months Xbox showcase

In regards to video game content in of itself, I can agree to a certain extent about the characterization of the original squad. However, the novels accompanying the games (not necessary reading for the plot, but still boundlessly insightful) written by Karen Traviss, the lady who also wrote Gears of War 3, substantially fleshed-out and made the characters feel tragically real. I like her approach where nobody REALLY knows what's going on through Marcus' head, as his perspective is the only direct perspective that we do not follow of the rather large roster of characters, but we as readers come to recognize his patterns and what they mean for his current mentality, alongside the rest of the characters within the pages. My personal favourite is Dizzy, followed by Baird. Dizzy was also a old friend of mine's favourite, too. Not necessary reading, but I do sincerely encourage and invite you to read the 5-part series!

That is a mega ultra hot take on gears of war 1 not having a good story focus. Bro. Gears of war 1 WAS the game that got people hooked to the story. You said we had the whole trilogy to get to know people, but dude we got hooked on the first game.

Bit late to the party on this, but the team being so different from the original trilogy squad is sort of akin to going from WW2 to Korea or Nam. Sons or new boys entering the fray after the worst of wars only to discover the new horrors themselves. Only thing that irked me with it's story was not much referring of Anya aside her armour, like who she was or how much she meant to Marcus. Also how do you not mention Dom regarding the Worm monument point of interest.

It’s says something since it’s been years since gears 5 they choose to go back to the original timeline with Eday rather than continue the sequel storyline

Those longer video essays suit you. I salute you brother. Keep it up.

In my opinion Marcus should be in delta squad but not in combat instead commanding them over radio

Is it just me, or dose Beard look like Bill Goldberg.

i swear had Gears 5 had a split narrative with different POV characters with different storylines it would have been so much better, case in point JD and Faz had you played as those two on their own journey alongside Kait's it would have been so much more enjoyable.

You didn't mention that sires COULD NOT BE EXECUTED for atleast the first 8months of the game , campaign mode or horde mode

I genuinely believe gears 6 is taking so long to even be revealed because they don’t even know what to do about the choice

I thought the main cast was so bland in gears 4 but gears 5 made me love jd in act 1 and 3. Its a shame they decided to make you kill del in act 4 cause i honestly wouldve wanted more of the group dynamic in gears 6

You know what was really unnecessary? renaming the locust to the swarm. They're still the locust their biology as physiologically are still the same thing, They just have crystals on their bodies now.

Loved horde mode in gears 3. I can appreciate the fabricator and free form defense placement but honestly the class system was entirely detrimental. I liked how hopeless an endless mode seemed. Like soldiers just pinned down and holding out as long as they can when opposition throws everything they am at them.

Man you ain't gotta do my boy Joe Sudano dirty like that 😭 Fantastic video, I honestly fell off the Gears franchise around Judgment and never got a chance to pick up 4, which honestly seemed like a good next step for the series. I heard bad things about 5, but never knew the extent of it. I think honestly Kait's gotta go the antagonist route in 6 at this point, turn her bullheaded attempts at defying her fate into something tragic. I think the seeds are there at this point, maybe make it so that she hatches a bullheaded plan to control the Swarm with her deep-rooted connections to the Locust as a means of forcing the war to end, only for her to slowly sympathize with the Swarm while in their hivemind and eventually turns on humanity. It'd be at least an interesting way to end her arc, especially if they try to pass off her mannerisms as something very akin to Myrrah. Hell, they could even pass off everyone just going with Kait's ideas as something due to her subconscious queen-like command, again akin to Myrrah's uncompromising command over the Locust.

For a first attempt at this style of video this was an extremely well made video would love to see you do a retrospective on 1-judgement

"thought provoking skill testing ball busting challenge" that line got me good😂😂

Even though this is an older video is only recently came up for me and I wanted to comment. A few of the content creators I follow have been doing some Gears content. Great first attempt at an essay with both objective and subjective viewpoints. I don't want this to be taken negatively, I follow others who do this form of content more often and have a more polished edge. But this was very enjoyable with a high degree of relatability to you and not just the subject. I hope you see this comment.

I actually didn’t hate the story of 4 and 5 yes it’s not good as the trilogy but it was good I enjoyed it ,but I felt that they didn’t need to continue the story the ending of the 3rd one perfect for the franchise.

Imagine being in a war and you go up to one of your fellow soldiers and was like "it's not about you it's about me" 😂

I remember when The Coalition were named Black Tusk Studios, and tasked with creating a new franchise to rival Halo, following a teaser at E3. I was disappointed when Microsoft later gave them Gears of War to work on. I get that Gears was their #2 in the 360 era, but I would've preferred a new IP if one was in the works. Especially since Gears' story ended just fine in 3.

Hey man love the video just one thing. Im sure the whole plot of the locust being made from infected minors has been around since way before 5. Im pretty sure it was spoken about during the books. But brought into the game because not a lot of people read the books. I could be wrong i just remember knoeing sbiut it before 5 came along

It always freaking bothered me that del and kait acted so heartbroken if you kill jd when they hated him and treated him like shit for the settlement 2 massacre and the hod strike on the convoy which he was trying to save by using it. they just butchered jd character and it bothers me

This is the kind of impartial/open minded video I like, where you want to give the benefit of the doubt to the new studio instead of just blindly hating or supporting them. Don't get too much of them here on YT, so thanks a lot for your approach. I too enjoyed what GoW4 tried, specially horde, since it's my favorite game mode, but I still think the swarm isn't as fun to play against as the Locust, specially when taking into account the different beasts like the Reavers, serapids, baby corpsers, kantus, beast riders, tickers or the lambent mutators in Gears 3, I just found the swarm to be uninspired. I did like the new class system and I maxed out every single one of them, and I liked the fabricator as well since it gives more freedom to the kind of base the player(s) would want to set up. Having said that, I too, don't know why the hell did they thought limiting players to a hero system would be a good idea. At least I didn't get as f*cked over by the hero system like others because the classes/eroes I was into weren't all that powerful (Kat/Architect and Gear/Medic), but I still got tired of playing characters I didn't want to play in order to try different gameplay routes and dropped Gears 5 after operation 2 or 3.

JD's voice actor, Liam McIntyre has recently stated that he hasn't been contacted by anyone from The Coalition. Meaning that Gears 6's development is still in the early stages, (which given how long it's been, seems incredible) or JD's death is the canon death. Or maybe he's lying to throw us off. Personally, I'm thinking JD's gonna stay dead in 6. I could be wrong, of course. But that's what my gut is telling me. And that would suck if they went there.

i remember that exact moment too, "im not going to cry over some stupid robot" they ruined the scene

I’m hoping they completely remake gears 4 and 5. Change the swarm backstory etc

This was really thorough, thank you for talking about and criticising the game itself rather rather than using it as an excuse to attack political movements like other KZfaqrs.

I found enjoyment in gears 5 but I won’t dispute its flaws

Video was very well done, glad gears got a little more love. Some of the logic behind the critiques are off but still shows that there is thought behind it.

I really like that you have your own opinion man, I really hate how people treat bad newer games unfairly just because they’re new, or they plain think that an older game is better overall just for being “OG.” Worst of it all is they would try to gaslight the masses into thinking that the “popular opinion” is to believe that the new games are better, when from my experience, the popular opinion is the opposite.

Would you make a small vid on the Hivebusters campaign?

Dude, you made this a year ago. There is nothing to spoil my guy

After seeing a couple of videos diving into the disturbing lore of the COG Coalition. It's sad that none of that is ever implemented into the games. Or the locust politics. Gears 3 was possibly the first game we can play as the locust in a campaign and reminding OG players of Raam again. Halo 2 was highly praised for allowing Halo fans to see the covenant side and not as generic evil aliens. For a war that has gone on long enough, Gears of could've done the same. The fact that we're still seeing the war from Delta side after this long shows little imagination in a world full of interesting lore.

Aight, i was with you on people not giving gears 4 and 5 a fair shot, but c'mon, my guy. You can't say that and then basically call people sh-tlords for being mad that they changed the atmosphere from something like gears 1-3 to the MCU. Thats a wild change

Kait pants comment was funny, Critics on the characters were true as hell, mass effect was true and funny. Yeah man all in all I knew I didn’t like this game’s story, it’s the only gears campaign I didn’t feel compelled to play more than once since the story didn’t pull me back nor the “open world” gameplay which had no business being in gears of war, but man all this hindsight made me realize it’s worse than experiencing for the first time/worse than I remember. The shift to Kait’s being the lead when JD was set up pretty well in 4 was definitely uncalled for and the huge time skip felt like I missed out on a lot of events we should’ve been witness to. Also what made gears of war 4 enjoyable for me was the chemistry between the three characters. They had a good dynamic between each other and they kind of balanced each other out with personality traits strong in one but weak in the other two. To just do a time skip and put that much tension between the 3 main characters took away from the appeal of the new cast. Gears of War 4 felt like a great new set up just for Gears 5 to take a shit, step on it, and walk towards the worst direction possible. Also Gears 5 is just titled “Gears” no “Gears of War”. It’s a small thing that just really irked me. We’re the Coalition just too lazy to add “of war” to the title? Anyway great video, loved it.

the markza in judgement is different to 4 and 5 and in lore they are different judgement is the mark 2 markza 4 and 5 are the mark 1 markza

I remember years after hearing about 4 and being so excited that they continuing the gears story and gears 4 dropped being a pretty solid game the new then gears 5 ruined anything that the new gears game could've been

So I saw 5 being at a discount for 10 bucks on Steam and decided it’s finally time to upgrade from 4. I wasn’t ready for this, though. That decision scene got me shaking my head in disbelief. So first I failed it because I was trying to figure out how do I throw the knife at the queen instead of my guys. Didn’t work obviously. Then I tried to play it smart and thought there’s no way in hell the writers would kill off JD…so if I decide to save Del, it has to be something like the deathwish option in GTA V, that they’ll both survive, right? RIGHT? Turns out it’s really that simple - it’s either one or the other, choose one. Then Marcus hears the terrible news and he just goes something like “god dammit, James” and “we’re not done here” and then proceeds to never talk about it again. Just…wow. The multiplayer is kinda fun…when it actually works, though. Often you can’t even join a game because of some server error and sometimes you get stuck and gotta restart the game. Tried to play obj PVP, didn’t find a single game in 10 minutes so I gave up. Coop loads matches super fast but it keeps connecting me to distant servers so I’m always at 150+ ping. Also the bots just straight up cheat with their laser precision lock on and shooting through walls. Sometimes they shoot you with a Gnasher…while holding a Lancer in their hands. I mean it’s just a mess. What have they done to Gears, man?

Great vid man,keep it up

Great vid, I'm a total Gearsnut (day 1) and love original trilogy with 3 being one of the best games and packages ever. I did get some fun out of 4 and 5, even J but you make a lot of great points, well done 👍

I don't understand what changed accept for the characters its still the same games

"Del the doormat" 😂😂😂😂

This is the first retrospective that ive watched on anything that i didnt think was really gay and unwatchable. You should keep making these homie because everyone else just wets their pants about "the liberals"

Still true today. Hope we get a trilogy remaster and a judgment remake.

41:12 Fahz with no gun? lol, did you play this on PC or something? 😅

I got an achievement for keeping one of Marcus’s customized Lancers

I dont agree with the change in name to merely "Gears", what is this? a car mechanic game? and neither to the new color palette. Gears of War needs to be dark because of the alien horror aspect. These new Gears looks ridiculous with all these colors, as Gotham Knights looks ridiculous to the Batman Arkham trilogy

Kait is possibly the most annoying character in the franchise. In the part where you are walking through the village, I kept walking her into the back of the horse. Nothing happened, I guess the Coalition didn’t prepare for assholes like me.

Bros so right about the jd and kait switching acts that SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED

Great video man, only one part of it I couldnt agree with, the part where you mention Cole wouldnt raise his weapon against the COG because he had done so before and knew the consequences, I think its completely on character that he does, since hes known for always having his friends backs, and as you mentioned it, disobeyed direct orders twice before to help Barid do what he believed was right, Dom did the same for Marcus when he left his post to help his dad. What pisses me off is that the game even gets to a point where Cole would have to disobey the COG AGAIN, honestly the story went downhill for me right after JD fires the hammer on the first act, the whole game after that feels like it just doesnt give a fuck about all the worldbuilding that was done before it, with a lot of characters doing stupid shit just because, sorry for the long rant if you even got this far, cool video, you got a new subscriber mate.

I want to play as old man Marcus fenix in the campaign ! Even if only for a chapter ! I just recently replayed all the old gears of war games and their dlc and cut content , back to back ! Which I’ve never done ! I’ve only beaten them as they were released each time ! I have yet to play 5 but I will be ! Just waiting for a bit of a price drop ! But I really hope that at some point . We get to play as Marcus again ! Like I said I would be happy just getting a short segment with him ! I love gears of war ! I am enjoying your perspective into this game ! Great vid !

Does anyone feel like this is gonna be the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy all over again? Edit: I just rewatched and only now i saw the same comparison they made XD sorry.

You can take Marcus's custom lancer in the very beginning of the campaign. Think that's it tho.

This video is what I've been thinking about G5 great video I would like to see more

Greatings Gears fans! Im a Halo refugee and wanted to see how the other shooter franchises have held up since the 360 golden era. It appears to me not good lol

Hey man, just found this. It's great btw, should have way more views. I've been replaying Gears 2 on my old Xbox and found that the rustlung cure was already a thing in the facility we visit in this game. They also mentioned how "the children" were relocated to Mount Kadar, with no further elaboration. I just hope they can make a good 6th game, while also getting rid of the microtransactions. Fucking kills me having to pay to play as classic Marcus when it was given at all the other games.

Thanks for the video man, I’ve been a hardcore fan of the gears franchise since gears 2, recently got an Xbox and game pass so I’ve been going over all the games, and just got to gears 5, now I can spare myself the playtime, cause I would’ve been just like you in this review. Ps: what is my boy Emile doing in MP, I thought he died in reach :(

Great video ❤

If I could Rewrite Gears 5 I would do this: I would maintain act one and the parts that have JD on it, I feel like the start Is quite good and seeing old and famiar places is good. Having Said that: I would explore the relationship betwen marcus and JD and how they create bonds over the loss of friends and the fact that sometimes our desicions have really though outcomes. You could easily make Kait the villain and create a conflict of interest betwen Del and JD While changing most of the game towards an coming of age story for JD becoming what Marcus Fenix is

I’m on board for E-Day, but Gears 6 is doa for me. I’m pretty sure I can enjoy almost any prequal content they could do but they killed any future they make to the gears timeline.

Haven't played GoW after Judgment, because 3's ending was perfect, but seeing that Windsailing vehicle looks like the most impractical thing to travel around in. I know Imulsion has been destroyed but there's no protection from the elements or bullets in that thing.

Even Cliff agrees that choice was AWFUL: twitter.com/therealcliffyb/status/1577019907643801600?s=20&t=Mqv1L1nYeEWsTsYXkooYWg

I really do genuinely agree with a lot of what you say here, you're actually extremely on point, no seriously you are but I have one major issue with one of your takes. A big thing you hone in on is how 'Old fans' will dislike it cause it's different and something new, it's not the 'Exact same' which while 'true' in some cases isn't exactly the most honest take one can give towards those people and pretty dismissive of their critiques of the game just because they hate what's not the Original trilogy. 'Old Fans' for the most part from what I remember and even hear now generally like or 'don't mind' Gears 4 as a whole (They absolutely hate Gears 5 myself included.) Did I myself enjoy Gears 4? Yeah, at the time I did and even now looking back all I can say is 'It's better than Gears 1'. You've just seem to have an extremely negative opinion on those who prefer the classics of... well, any good video game series who dislike their continuation where they should've ended and I don't jive with how disingenuous this view of a fanbase is. People who stuck around from the beginning knows what makes the series good, why they enjoyed it and so on, not Jackasses who hopped on the gravy train after the fact like in the major case of Halo. The gameplay was more fluid no one can deny that but it came at the cost of the Original Gears feel people spent 8+ Years accustomed too, the weapons felt like they came straight from Judgement, even the new ones and Judgement is probably the worst in the franchise in the eyes of many people. The enemies while 'Varied' didn't offer anything really new aside from the snatchers and their smaller variants so things got stale quick. Gears 4 has many good Qualities I wouldn't even say it's bad and I'd even agree with you Old fans are too harsh on it nowadays but the sad truth is... it laid the groundwork for 5 and 5s existence, while unreasonable as it is will forever Marr 4s initially good reputation. As for the characters, your take on how it should take Multiple games for us to get invested in them is...No? People got invested in Marcus/Dom/Baird/Cole from the start because Gears never advertised itself as some deep story or character driven experience, it was always cheesy machismo goodness and the first game was nothing but that, every character had their charm some less than others but Gears 1 did its job, establish the world and characters. If it didn't 2 wouldn't exist but 2 then went on and gave the characters more 'depth'. The first game never acted like we were supposed to care for these characters. Gears 4 on the other hand, especially 5 essentially SHOVE them into our faces demanding we care and it's like "Why should we? Only reason we care for James is cause he's Marcus' son" (James himself was a good character overall though so he got a pass). Another example of where this point falters is Master Chief. He had just a 'Few lines' of Dialogue in the first Halo but people latched onto him very very quickly even if he was just supposed to be a Vessel for the player but the main point is that it doesn't and shouldn't take Multiple games to make us care or appreciate characters. Also... just their overall handling can do wonders like Lizzie Carmine seemed to be a fan favorite from the start and I remember for like 2 weeks post release of 5 the fanbase was in an UPROAR they just introduced her to kill her when she should've survived. Overall? This is definitely one of my favorite videos critiquing the new direction of a beloved franchise, you handled it amazingly and I'll be going on to watch other videos to see how you've improved over the past year.

I could certainly refill any weapon with the constructor thing