Plenty of information about Gears of War 4 from Game Informer april issue

[LordBaztion]

Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2016/03/08/april-cover-revealed-gears-of-war-4.aspx

- Two player split screen coop confirmed
- JD Fenix is Marcus' son.
- Ambientation is inspired in northern Italy (forest, forts, etc)
- Implementation of dinamic cover, for example, shooting things at the ceiling to create cover
- Big emphasis on multiplayer
- Tries to satisfy casual and profesional players
- Horde mode confirmed
- The new enemy is called "The Swarm"
- Gameplay will be based on Gears 3 instead of Judgement
- Campaign will run at 1080p/30fps and multiplayer at 60fps
- It may come to PC

Details on the story and setting (may contain minor spoilers)
- Set 25 years after Gears 3
- The event at the end of Gears 3 burned all the fossil fuel in Sera
- The massive corpses of the Loctus are burried on mass graves causing environmental devastation on Sera.
- Humanity in on the verge of extinction and must survive The Swarm and Windflares
- Windflares are a schorch storm that razes over Sera and varies on intensity, in ocasions affecting gameplay (for example, extreme conditions may return your bullets).
- Besides COGs settlements there are independent Outsider's camps.
- Your squadmates are called Kait and Del.
- The story begins with an attach on an outsider camp that gets your squad purchasing the attackers.

Pics

 

[CritialGaming]

JD Fenix is Marcus's son? Where and when did Marcus have time to reproduce during all that alien invasion fighting and killing?

Oh in the 25 years afterwards?

Way to follow in your daddy's shoes kid.

So far here's what I think.

1. The Swarmp is a stupid name for a bad guy race. Sounds like someone missing a bunch of teeth trying to say Swamp, or Swarm. Either way.
2. Windflares sound cool but chances our their effect on gameplay will only happen at scripted times and never anywhere else. (Would be neat if they happen at random, but I doubt it.)
3. Finally! Split screen Co-Op! Now I wish I hand friends, but at least the game already has a leg up on Halo 5.
4. If humanity is on the verge on extinction, how has Marcus found time to reproduce?
5. Squadmates seem as token as token gets. My money is on the girl being the obviously more badass one.

Meh, I'll wait for a price drop...or rent it.

 

[LordBaztion]

1. The Swarmp is a stupid name for a bad guy race. Sounds like someone missing a bunch of teeth trying to say Swamp, or Swarm. Either way.
2. Windflares sound cool but chances our their effect on gameplay will only happen at scripted times and never anywhere else. (Would be neat if they happen at random, but I doubt it.)
3. Finally! Split screen Co-Op! Now I wish I hand friends, but at least the game already has a leg up on Halo 5.
4. If humanity is on the verge on extinction, how has Marcus found time to reproduce?
5. Squadmates seem as token as token gets. My money is on the girl being the obviously more badass one.

1. Wait, I f** that part. Fixed. Lazy name, though
2. Yes, more likely are scripted but I'm confident evel design is going to be make it interesting.
3. I guess that is the 30fps trade-off
4. I guess reproduction is what you want if the species' survival is endangered
5. ... and Del the comic relief

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

looking at info it basically sum up that its going to be just a rehash and update of boring cover based shooter. waste of time

Bring on Quantum break

 

[Hawki]

So, random thoughts:

-So, the enemy is called the Swarm. Wait, the zerg are known as the Swarm, Myrrah has more than a few pieces of resemblance to Kerrigan...my god the zerg are invading Sera!

-But while we're bringing God into the picture, that the gameplay is based on GoW 3 rather than Judgement is another perk.

-Why would the imulsion device knock out fossil fuels? I mean, the imulsion itself, sure, that's to be expected, but fossil fuels? Are you sure that's not an error on the writers' part?

-Why would mass burning of corpses cause environmental devastation? I mean, yeah, there's a lot of Locust, but enough bodies to actually affect the climate? This isn't the Hammer of Dawn strikes we're talking about.

-Humanity being on the verge of extinction is the perfect time to reproduce. Considering that the COG employed 'baby farms' during the war against the Locust, and considering that in the context of the game the COG is getting a bit tyranical (how, I don't know, given how weakened it was by the end of the series), I guess babies popping out is to be expected. 25 years is easily enough time for a new generation to pop into being.

-Playing the Outsiders rather than the COG could be interesting. And a 24 hour period...well, the original game takes place over a 48 hour period, so hey, go figure.

-So, mixed. Part of me is excited about this, but the game has yet to 'justify' itself to me. As in, from a story sense, there was little need to go beyond GoW 3, and from a gameplay sense, there doesn't seem to be that many new elements. Time will tell I guess.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Am I going to get answers to my questions that were left over from Gears 3? Like, why DOES the Locust Queen look human? What was Adam Fenix doing down there, in their computers? Where did the Locust come from? Why were the Locust suddenly taking prisoners? And what was the deal with those Sires in Gears 2 and that whole secret research base? The story in Gears was building to something, combined in the books and the games, and then Gears 3 came out and it just dropped the ball. Characters should not be asking very important questions five minutes before your game ends. So good on you, Baird, for calling out the writing B.S.

Otherwise, I'm on board. I like the Gears series. It's not winning any awards for characters or storytelling, but it's still fun to play, especially with a friend. So when this comes out, it may be time to finally pick up a Xbox One.

 

[Hawki]

Am I going to get answers to my questions that were left over from Gears 3? Like, why DOES the Locust Queen look human? What was Adam Fenix doing down there, in their computers? Where did the Locust come from? Why were the Locust suddenly taking prisoners? And what was the deal with those Sires in Gears 2 and that whole secret research base? The story in Gears was building to something, combined in the books and the games, and then Gears 3 came out and it just dropped the ball. Characters should not be asking very important questions five minutes before your game ends. So good on you, Baird, for calling out the writing B.S.

Otherwise, I'm on board. I like the Gears series. It's not winning any awards for characters or storytelling, but it's still fun to play, especially with a friend. So when this comes out, it may be time to finally pick up a Xbox One.

-Myrrah looks human because of all the children that were infected with rustlung, she was the only one who remained human.

-Adam was in contact with Myrrah years before E-Day, so I suspect that him being in the computer was an old file that she somehow got hold of.

-The Sires are the predecessors to the Locust, created from children born to parents infected with immulsion (the same children that Myrrah were part of). The children were taken to Mt Kadar after New Hope closed and either created the Locust through reproduction, or evolved into them.

-The Locust were taking prisoners for slaves. The whole processing aspect is part of breaking them down to make them obedient workers.

I agree that GoW 3 dropped the ball in storytelling, given that a lot of the above info would have ideally been in the game itself, but the answers were given in various blog posts (looked the info up on the wiki to remind myself). In light of that, my "does the story need continuing?" point stands. The Locust are dead, the Lambent are dead, the Hollow is flooded, the COG found a new home on Azura which is pretty dandy all things considered. I'll give them credit for turning the COG into an antagonistic force and for giving us non-affiliated characters to play with, but a lot of this seems like Gears Version 2 (e.g. the Swarm instead of the Locust, Outsiders instead of the Stranded, etc.).

 

[Sniper Team 4]

-Myrrah looks human because of all the children that were infected with rustlung, she was the only one who remained human.

-Adam was in contact with Myrrah years before E-Day, so I suspect that him being in the computer was an old file that she somehow got hold of.

-The Sires are the predecessors to the Locust, created from children born to parents infected with immulsion (the same children that Myrrah were part of). The children were taken to Mt Kadar after New Hope closed and either created the Locust through reproduction, or evolved into them.

-The Locust were taking prisoners for slaves. The whole processing aspect is part of breaking them down to make them obedient workers.

I agree that GoW 3 dropped the ball in storytelling, given that a lot of the above info would have ideally been in the game itself, but the answers were given in various blog posts (looked the info up on the wiki to remind myself). In light of that, my "does the story need continuing?" stands. The Locust are dead, the Lambent are dead, the Hollow is flooded, the COG found a new home on Azura which is pretty dandy all things considered. I'll give them credit for turning the COG into an antagonistic force and for giving us non-affiliated characters to play with, but a lot of this seems like Gears Version 2 (e.g. the Swarm instead of the Locust, Outsiders instead of the Stranded, etc.).[/quote]

Ah! I see. I had no idea about any of this. I suspected that the Sires were the original Locust, as I'm sure everyone did, but the games never came out and confirmed it. Finding out that all of this stuff is apparently found only online and in blog posts pisses me off. As you said, this is all information that should have been the games themselves! These are huge lore points and answer some very important questions. So, thank you for pointing them out to me.
I don't mind being done with the Locust, I just felt cheated that I didn't get my answers regarding them in game.

 

[Paragon Fury]

So, random thoughts:

-So, the enemy is called the Swarm. Wait, the zerg are known as the Swarm, Myrrah has more than a few pieces of resemblance to Kerrigan...my god the zerg are invading Sera!

-But while we're bringing God into the picture, that the gameplay is based on GoW 3 rather than Judgement is another perk.

-Why would the imulsion device knock out fossil fuels? I mean, the imulsion itself, sure, that's to be expected, but fossil fuels? Are you sure that's not an error on the writers' part?

-Why would mass burning of corpses cause environmental devastation? I mean, yeah, there's a lot of Locust, but enough bodies to actually affect the climate? This isn't the Hammer of Dawn strikes we're talking about.

-Humanity being on the verge of extinction is the perfect time to reproduce. Considering that the COG employed 'baby farms' during the war against the Locust, and considering that in the context of the game the COG is getting a bit tyranical (how, I don't know, given how weakened it was by the end of the series), I guess babies popping out is to be expected. 25 years is easily enough time for a new generation to pop into being.

-Playing the Outsiders rather than the COG could be interesting. And a 24 hour period...well, the original game takes place over a 48 hour period, so hey, go figure.

-So, mixed. Part of me is excited about this, but the game has yet to 'justify' itself to me. As in, from a story sense, there was little need to go beyond GoW 3, and from a gameplay sense, there doesn't seem to be that many new elements. Time will tell I guess.

Sera was almost devoid of fossil fuels before and the various countries were at war over the remaining bits. Then they found Imulsion and continued the war over that to try and stop one government/region from having complete control over the one viable source of fuel left on the planet.

When we destroyed the Imulsion at the end of of GoW 3, it basically set us all the way back to before Imulsion was even found.

 

[Hawki]

So, random thoughts:

-So, the enemy is called the Swarm. Wait, the zerg are known as the Swarm, Myrrah has more than a few pieces of resemblance to Kerrigan...my god the zerg are invading Sera!

-But while we're bringing God into the picture, that the gameplay is based on GoW 3 rather than Judgement is another perk.

-Why would the imulsion device knock out fossil fuels? I mean, the imulsion itself, sure, that's to be expected, but fossil fuels? Are you sure that's not an error on the writers' part?

-Why would mass burning of corpses cause environmental devastation? I mean, yeah, there's a lot of Locust, but enough bodies to actually affect the climate? This isn't the Hammer of Dawn strikes we're talking about.

-Humanity being on the verge of extinction is the perfect time to reproduce. Considering that the COG employed 'baby farms' during the war against the Locust, and considering that in the context of the game the COG is getting a bit tyranical (how, I don't know, given how weakened it was by the end of the series), I guess babies popping out is to be expected. 25 years is easily enough time for a new generation to pop into being.

-Playing the Outsiders rather than the COG could be interesting. And a 24 hour period...well, the original game takes place over a 48 hour period, so hey, go figure.

-So, mixed. Part of me is excited about this, but the game has yet to 'justify' itself to me. As in, from a story sense, there was little need to go beyond GoW 3, and from a gameplay sense, there doesn't seem to be that many new elements. Time will tell I guess.

Sera was almost devoid of fossil fuels before and the various countries were at war over the remaining bits. Then they found Imulsion and continued the war over that to try and stop one government/region from having complete control over the one viable source of fuel left on the planet.

When we destroyed the Imulsion at the end of of GoW 3, it basically set us all the way back to before Imulsion was even found.

I'm aware of the low fossil fuels scenario prior to the Pendulum Wars, but the OP (or Gameinformer) claimed that the device DESTROYED all fossil fuels. Which makes me wonder if it's a misprint for immulsion.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Man, I went through all the trouble in four games to save humanity, and the entire planet, only to have both still be in a lot of trouble. Talk about demoralizing. The end of Gears 3 felt so...happy. Both the Locust and the Lambent died off in one day, everything seemed so nice.

I admit I really enjoy the Gears games, and I could see myself enjoying this, but I wish it was more than just the usual "next generation of heroes whose parents were the previous ones" story line. It makes me think of Golden Sun Dark Dawn. The parents save the world, only for the kids to have to deal with some new threat partly caused by the events of the earlier games.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Could they not have thought of something a bit more clever than yet another invasion by non-humans? I mean, it seems kinda cheap.

But then I have never played a Gears game, and I think it looks pretty boring.

 

[Saelune]

So, Gears of War has space travel, maybe we could address THAT for once!? Sera is not humanity's home planet. Maybe bail and find a different bad planet to settle down on and fight whatever is there.

 

[Blitsie]

On the one hand, the whole "Surprise! different non-humans invading now" feels slightly like an ass-pull on the writer's part, but on the other hand I guess it would be spoilers now fully explaining where they come from. Honestly though the crap those guys go through has gotten so ridiculous now you'd kinda have to wonder why they didn't just leave the planet for a new one.

Overall, it sounds like a Gears sequel playing it sorta safe so far. Guess its best to wait for some more info to arise.

 

[LordBaztion]

Could they not have thought of something a bit more clever than yet another invasion by non-humans? I mean, it seems kinda cheap.

But then I have never played a Gears game, and I think it looks pretty boring.

what were you expecting? robots? terrorists?

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

This is strange. I've never played a single second of a Gears game, and even to me this looks like some reheated remains of some bygone age. Perhaps it's a case of "sic transit gloria mundi", considering the franchise was once the monolith of its type of game, and seems to have kind of fallen by the wayside. But I feel like I've literally seen all of this before, despite there being only a few screenshots. I mean for fuck's sake, could the aliens for once be something else than burly humans with necks the size of oil barrels? Is there any scenario this studio knows to even frame a (skeletal frame of a) story in other than "IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE, THERE IS ONLY..." wait, wrong franchise. Still rocking the color pallet of "gunmetal grey, dirt brown, occasional orange sunset" I see.

 

[Hawki]

So, Gears of War has space travel, maybe we could address THAT for once!? Sera is not humanity's home planet. Maybe bail and find a different bad planet to settle down on and fight whatever is there.

The people of Sera only have space travel in as much that they have orbital satellites, and even prior to GoW 3 those were breaking down. Given the lore of the series and how far Seran history stretches back, the only way the old "Sera isn't humanity's homeworld" could be validated is if any survivors regressed to a Bronze Age state.

 

[Evonisia]

Sad that they're still acknowledging the ending of "Gears of War 3" - Hell anything from the story of "Gears of War 3". Plus it seems to be playing it safe. And what happened last time Microsoft brought a hugely successful shooter franchise and gave it to a company named after something in that series?

Otherwise I'm excited. There hasn't been a "Gears of War" game I thought was less than great. Even 3. The Coalition did a good job on "The Ultimate Edition" (especially if you compare it to "The Master Chief Collection") and though they're lazy, I'm interested in seeing what these new beasties are and how they operate.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Could they not have thought of something a bit more clever than yet another invasion by non-humans? I mean, it seems kinda cheap.

But then I have never played a Gears game, and I think it looks pretty boring.

what were you expecting? robots? terrorists?

Themselves, like some kind of civil war.

 

[Hawki]

Could they not have thought of something a bit more clever than yet another invasion by non-humans? I mean, it seems kinda cheap.

But then I have never played a Gears game, and I think it looks pretty boring.

what were you expecting? robots? terrorists?

Themselves, like some kind of civil war.

I wouldn't count on that. A human vs. human scenario immediately reduces enemy variety, which is something that Gears has always been good with. There's also the issue that humans vs. humans immediately runs the risk of not being a "true" Gears of War game. If you want an idea of the kind of reaction that would entail, just look at the backlash against Federation Force, on the basis of it not being a "true" Metroid game.

I think there's potential for a Pendulum Wars-era Gears game, but apart from that, I'm not so sure. Given the low tech the Outsiders and Stranded both have access to, it wouldn't be a conventional GoW game. Fine by me, I'm happy for different genres to exist in the same universe, but as history has shown, the same can't be said for a lot of people.