Source: The Coalition / Xbox Game Studios / Gears of War: Reloaded
on a PlayStation console? You would have never thought you would live to see the day, right? Well, in what is a sure sign that console wars are a thing of the past,
Xbox has ported one of its most successful game franchises, not named
Halo, to the PS5 with a pretty damn good remaster.
It’s been almost 20 years (2006) since I booted up my Xbox 360 (hoping I didn’t have the red rings of death) to play The Coalition’s masterpiece
Gears of War, and suit up as Marcus Fenix, grab a Lancer or Longshot (a personal fave) to take out some grubs and embark on what is seamingly a impossible mission to save what’s left of humanity from the Locust invasion.
Here I am in 2025, this time picking up PS Portal to once embark on that faithful mission that would spark an obsession with the
Gears of War franchise that spans five games, and some DLC, in what is a beautiful remaster of the first game in the series that brings the game into modern times without sacrificing what made fans fall in love with
GoW so many years ago.
It Definitetly Felt Weird At First, But I Quickly Got Used To Playing Gears of War on PlayStation
Source: The Coalition / Xbox Game Studios / Gears of War: Reloaded
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Let’s address the elephant in the room: Did it feel weird picking up the DualSense controller or my PS Portal to play
Gears of War: Reloaded? At first, yes!
But thankfully, I quickly got used to it, and even hitting active reloads felt more satisfying than ever. I’m no frame rate snob, but
Gears of War: Reloaded running at a buttery smooth 60fps during the campaign (120fps in multiplayer) delivers an entirely new feel to the game. The cover system is snappier than ever, looking down the scope of my Longshot to pop the top off a grub, still confirming that this game is still in a league by itself when it comes to games with cover mechanics.
The Division is not too far behind, but
Gears of War remains the bar.
Other notable features include the use of the DualSense Controller’s haptics and sound effects, such as the sensation of hitting an active reload or comms chatter now coming through the controller’s speaker.
The Campaign Still Holds Up
Source: The Coalition / Xbox Game Studios / Gears of War: Reloaded
Before we got to
Gears of War 4 and
5, which featured forgettable campaigns
, the first campaign in the original game was what really captured gamers, as it was an absolute video game cinema experience (insert the Hideo Kojima meme).
I was happy to experience this story from the beginning again and learn why Marcus Fenix was imprisoned for 40 years in a military facility, while exploring his connection to E-Day (Emergence Day) and how his relationship with his father, Adam Fenix, is tied to the events unfolding.
Spending the roughly 9 hours reliving those moments I first experienced, like the introduction of the menacing General RAAM, avoiding the Berserker, staying in the light to prevent the Krill from tearing you to shreds, are the pulse pounding boss fights all felt like I was experiencing them for the first time all over again, but just with a fresh coat of paint, and a different controller in my hands.
Source: The Coalition / Xbox Game Studios / Gears of War: Reloaded
Visually, the game looks better, incorporating the graphical enhancements from
Gears of War’s first remaster, the 2015 Ultimate Edition, and adding some extra seasoning to them.
Source: The Coalition / Xbox Game Studios / Gears of War: Reloaded
The first game’s dreary look is wholly gone, bringing the world of Sera to life with better lighting, livelier colors, and a post-apocalyptic aesthetic, while adding more details like making the chainsaw kill pop even more, as well as increasing the number of dead bodies and objects in certain areas.
Final Verdict
Source: The Coalition / Xbox Game Studios / Gears of War: Reloaded
takes the title of definitive experience from 2015’s
Ultimate Edition, delivering another remaster of the iconic first entry into the
GoW franchise.
While
Ultimate Edition was just an experience for Xbox owners to experience,
Reloaded is the game to finally give PlayStation fans a taste of the greatness The Coalition has been cooking with
Gears of War for so many years.
PlayStation 5 owners not only get a great game to experience, especially with friends, but also receive a variety of nice bonus features, such as comic books that unlock page by page by collecting the COG tags hidden throughout the maps.
This is a fitting love letter to a game that, at one time, was only accessible to a single group of console owners. How fitting it will be for the game that unites Team Blue and Team Green together.
*PS5 review key provided for use by the game’s developer.*
