Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Campaign Review

Developed By: The Coalition

Published By: Microsoft Studios

Release Date: August 25th, 2015

System: Xbox One

Please note: While multiplayer was made available to press, this review will be for the single player/multiplayer campaign. I simply did not think that the multiplayer could be properly reviewed with press/media only as we all know the true test will be in seeing if the servers can handle the large playerbase upon release and to see what glitches pop up (if any). A multiplayer review will go up later this week.

I by all means consider myself a Gears of War fan. I got into the series with the first game and was almost instantly drawn in by the outstanding co-op, the frantic online gameplay, and the bliss of chainsawing monsters in half. And as the series progressed I saw myself becoming a bigger and bigger fan to the point that I own a life size replica of the retro lancer. Because I absolutely needed it!

So how does the re-release stack up in the wake of a console generation home to re-release after re-release and some re-re-releases?

Well, I’ve never felt more at home in my life nearly 9 years after the series’ initial release.

If you’ve never played a Gears of War title then don’t even bother reading the rest of this review. Go out and buy this game ASAP as its one of the best co-op and multiplayer experiences around. Gears has a large fanbase for a reason and it contains pretty much everything you could ever want. Fun multiplayer? Check. A campaign that can be completed with another player over the internet? Check. A campaign that can be played with someone at home via split-screen? CHECK. However you want to play, its there.

For fans who have probably played this game way too many times to count? It’s a more than welcome addition to the Xbox One’s library.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is an absolutely gorgeous remake of the first game of the series that manages to recreate the magic of the original (for both good and the bad reasons). I honestly didn’t anticipate that I’d have so much fun replaying a game that I played a million times on every difficulty imaginable, but I somehow found myself craving just “one more chapter” over and over again.

Replaying the first game hits on a ton of emotions and I was amazed at how well the game itself actually stands up to the test of time. The gameplay is still fun, the characters are still goofy as hell, and the BIG moments are still big. In fact, dare I say it, I actually found myself absolutely loving the campaign this time around as it seems to perfectly nail a sort of campiness that’s missing from the other games. With almost a decade between the two games it’s less groan-worthy for all the wrong reasons and more like one big triumphant bro-fest that never wanted to be anything more than a gory action shooter, with a plot that basically boils down to “monster things are destroying the world so you better kick their asses.” Because you know what? That’s all I want. I just want to shoot stuff and chainsaw things in half and laugh while I do it.

Of course, certain key cutscenes still manage to bring a depth of despair and sadness and they look stunning on the Xbox One. The whole game actually looks remarkably overhauled and the graphics upgrade is worth the price of admission alone. The first time you rip into an enemy with your chainsaw or see a Corpser up close (which is a giant spider) you’ll probably be left in awe because it looks so good.

The multiplayer aspect of the campaign also desperately fills the void of couch co-op games and I can’t say enough about how great it was to get to experience that again. My boyfriend happily joined in for quite a few chapters and we quickly lost hours to defeating the evil Locust horde. I do wish that the game had made it easier to let players join however. I had to continuously quit back to the main menu so that he could sign in and join my lobby as player 2. Maybe I was spoiled because I played it mostly online back in the day. But it was somewhat of a bummer to have to jump out, wait for him, and then jump back in. However, the game’s quick load times make this a lot less annoying than it could be, so it was easy to jump right back into the action and the inclusion of allowing a second player to sign in meant he was able to start earning the numerous achievements as well.

And yes, fans will be happy to hear that they’ve pretty much kept all their original names which means “I can’t quit you Dom” can once again be a beacon of achievement for your profile.

Sadly, having a human partner points out some glaring problems within the game. Notably due to AI.

To put it bluntly, teammate AI is about as useful as a hole in the head and may as well be giving you just that. This is due to how often they cause your death. Teammates have absolutely NO problem running right in front of shots, rushing into a battlefield so they can instantly die, and basically just doing everything they possibly can to make everything 10 times harder for you.

On top of that, the game was almost designed for co-op play as there are a few occasions and puzzles that require extreme teamwork and/or splitting up. So if your AI partner decides to run across the map and die, you’ll get an instant game over and have to reload the checkpoint. And if you can’t get through an area until your partner triggers an action, then you’re stuck waiting until he runs alllllll the way over and interacts with the item.

It’s a mess and in 2015 I expected more. On occasion it can be humorous but more than once I found myself having to replay portions over and over again because my AI teammate decided to do something stupid.

There were also portions that were remarkably glitchy, which also detracted from gameplay. At one point, my boyfriend and I were fighting an enemy called a Berserker, that blindly rushes areas. It crashed through a wall and separated us. My boyfriend lured it outside so I could follow only to have my running outside trigger a small scene in which the Berseker was transported back inside the building. It then bumrushed through a wall.

There were also multiple occasions of enemies getting stuck on walls or debris, who just sat there lifelessly until you killed them. This was a lot less annoying (and deadly) but it made it frustrating during portions when you had to clear an area to trigger the next objective.

I do, however, applaud the fact that most of the enemy AI is actually pretty good and seems to get harder as the game progresses. All this without relying on just more guys or heavier weapons. Enemies who were once fodder start to rush players and enemies with specialty weapons like the sniper rifle seemed to stay way back to pick you off. I can’t remember at all if this was present in the original but it still makes for a welcome play through considering your last chapter doesn’t end with just plowing down hundreds of the same enemy over and over and over again as a substitution for difficulty.

Basically, Gears of Ware: Ultimate Edition still managed to be an excellent game that reminded me why I fell in love with the series to begin with, but it still seems to suffer from some of the hangups that kept the original from being a perfect game. Is it good? Oh hell yeah. I’m definitely going to be playing the campaign at least 2 more times on the harder difficulties, to both complete the whole campaign with a human partner and to collect any tags I missed. And I know for certain that I’ll be dedicating some serious hours to multiplayer soon.

There’s also some extra content such as an additional 90 minutes that were only present in the PC version of the game. Players who get the game and play it before December 31st will also be able to download and play the rest of the series for free on their Xbox One once backwards compatibility launches. With this much stuff at a cost of only $40, there’s really no reason why you wouldn’t want to pick it up.

Much like the story within Gears of War itself, it’s not perfect but it’s a damn good time. And it’s one I’ll be replaying time and time again.