Variety is a welcome pillar of its eight-hour trek, as, aside from one exception in Act IV, you’re never in one place doing the same thing for too long. Design-wise, the new Gears campaign succeeds thanks to stellar execution of a focused game plan.

Finally, the DeeBees’ EMBAR is a no-scope rifle that’s not nearly as cumbersome to wield as the traditional Longshot. The Overkill packs a wicked, if short-range, double-barrel shotgun-esque punch that’s especially gratifying when other human players feel its wrath. The Buzzkill fires lethal, high-velocity sawblades that spectacularly instagib foes when they connect. “On a similar note, Gears of War 4’s new weapons integrate nicely into the established universe alongside the familiar Lancer and Friends, both in campaign and multiplayer. All of these put a lot more pressure on you than ever before in a Gears game, and are especially inviting for challenge-seekers playing on higher difficulty levels. And the Swarm’s Pouncer flings deadly quills from its tail and hops on top of cover, pinning you to the ground like a Hobbes from Hell if you stay in one place for too long. For instance, the larger Heavy DeeBee jump-jets over cover and self-destructs when it takes enough damage, while the skybound, front-shielded Guardian is best flanked from multiple sides in order to expose its weak spots.

On the campaign side, the new DeeBee robot enemies and Seran Swarm foes attack differently than their Locust predecessors, thus requiring welcome new offensive and defensive strategies to combat them. That’s not to say Gears of War 4 doesn’t bring new elements to the series’ cover-based shooting formula. That full-on reboot day will likely arrive eventually, but everything about this entry in the series hews closest to the first Gears, which is probably the one I’d also choose to emulate: the mystery of a new, unknown enemy lends a survival-horror feel to the gritty shooter tone, the occasional fork in the road offers both gameplay variety and replayability, and the plot revolves around a search for family – here, it’s Kait’s missing mother Reyna Diaz in place of Dominic Santiago’s wife Maria. “Let’s get something out of the way up front: if you’re looking for Gears of War to be completely reinvented, Gears 4 isn’t that game.

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