Set on the fictional planet of Sera, the “Gears of War” series charts the story of humanity’s struggle against fearsome and brutal adversaries through a captivating tale of hope, comradery and survival.

After narrowly escaping an attack on their village, JD Fenix and his friends, Kait and Del, must rescue the ones they love and discover the source of a monstrous new enemy. “Gears of War 4” returns the franchise to the dark tone and intensity of the original and includes split-screen and online co-op, the next generation of five-player favorite, Horde Mode, 60 frames-per-second Versus multiplayer, and stunning visuals powered by Unreal Engine 4.

Prepare for the biggest ever update in the history of Gears of War 4 – and all for free – with the Rise of the Horde arriving on June 6th!  And, if you haven’t dived into the next chapter in the epic saga of Gears of War 4, you can try it for free later this month with our Game Trial!

Horde Update

Horde is getting a massive shakeup with the arrival of Rise of the Horde, with 15 brand new Horde Skills (three per Class) to collect, Level 6 skills, Loot Drops, tuning changes and new difficulty levels!

The new 15 skills arriving in Rise of the Horde focus on providing new ways to specialize the way you play your Class. The Scout has new abilities like Cloak to turn invisible in their quest to pick up Power, while Heavies can take the Berserker and Last Stand skills to deal more and take more damage with Heavy Weapons as they get lower on health.

Snipers can take Magic Bullet to get increasing headshot damage bonus rewards, Soldiers can use Siphon to earn more Power for Grenade plant kills, and Engineers can resupply their comrades with ammo when their Fortifications kill enemies with the new Salvage skill.

This is just a taste of some of the new Skills to collect this June. In addition, all your existing Skills can now be taken to Level 6, making them even stronger than ever before! A full list and breakdown of all 15 new skills are available on GearsofWar.com.

In addition, defeating Bosses now comes with rewards – each Boss Wave you defeat at Wave 30, 40 and 50 will drop a singular random Horde Skill. Harder difficulties increase the likelihood of a rare drop, so challenge yourself for the best chance at a high-quality Skill drop.

As with our last major update, we’ve also got more in store for Season Pass Holders. When the update lands on June 6th, Season Pass Holders will have an exclusive Gear Pack containing 5 of the new Horde Skills waiting in their inventory along with a bonus free Horde Expert Pack!

Free Trial of Gears of War 4

We also have some exciting news to share for Xbox One and Windows 10 gamers who haven’t jumped in to the Gears of War 4 experience yet. From June 9th – 15th, we’re offering a Trial version of Gears of War 4 to download for free!

This full game trial will offer 10 hours of free play in Gears of War 4, including the entire first Act of the Campaign plus full  – yes, full! – access to the Horde and Versus experiences. That means you can try out Rise of the Horde on top of all the great content that exists in Gears of War 4 today!

For new players, we’ll be offering special bonuses to earn as you level up including guaranteed characters, weapon skins and new Horde Skills to try. So you can put those Horde Skills to good use, we’ll also be turning on Double Class XP throughout June – the more you level your Class, the more Skills you can use on the battlefield!

Everything you earn in the Trial is yours forever including achievements, Cards and Campaign progression.

New Difficulty Levels: Inconceivable and Ironman

With new and improved skills also comes tougher challenges. Prepare to take on the toughest fight in Gears of War history with the new Inconceivable difficulty level, coming to both Campaign and Horde.

In Horde, Inconceivable is a direct step up from Insane – you’ll be even weaker, and your enemies will be even stronger. Level up your skills to their new Level 6 peak and maximize the bonuses of your classes if you want to get through all 50 Waves of Inconceivable.

In Campaign, Inconceivable takes a more Survival based twist, giving you less health than Insane difficulty but also less health to your enemies. That’s because surviving on Inconceivable is all about effectiveness – weapons and crates drop significantly less ammunition, so you’ll have to make every shot count with whatever pickups you can find on the battlefield.

In addition, Ironman Mode comes to both Horde and Campaign with Rise of the Horde. Ironman means one simple thing – don’t die. In Campaign, one death will restart your game back to square one. In Horde, no COG tags will be dropped when you die and one failed wave spells the end of your run to Wave 50. You can toggle Ironman on any difficulty that suits you, and there’s some achievements out there to chase for fans willing to take on the ultimate high-risk challenge!

Earn 500G of New Achievements

20 new achievements are set to arrive with Rise of the Horde, offering an extra 500G total Gamerscore to collect in Gears of War 4!

Prepare to take on Ironman and Inconceivable across both Horde and Campaign if you want to master this added list of achievements. For the bravest out there, grab a friend to take on the Legends of Sera achievement, which challenges you to beat the game in Co-Op with Ironman enabled on Hardcore or above.

New Maps

This month, another Gears of War 2 fan favorite returns with Avalanche alongside returning Gears 3 map Rust Lung!

Avalanche

The Gears of War 2 map you know and love is back. Set in a mountainside resort, this village sits below a mountain with an unstable build-up of snow at its peak. During the match, the snow avalanches onto the battlefield, killing anything in its path and changing the entire middle of the map. Prepare to fight for the Boomshot the moment the snow falls.

Rust Lung

This returning map from Gears of War 3 brings an intense close-quarters flavor to this month’s map drop. Cover in the middle of the map can be dropped or raised with the press of a button – sneak around your opponents flank to give them a nasty surprise as their cover disappears from right in front of them!

The Gear With The Golden Gun

There’s even more reason to play this June with the debut of a brand new Versus Special Event: Golden Gun. This custom-built mode arms you with one bullet and a hip-fire only Boltok – land your bullet to instantly return it to the gun, otherwise prepare for the longest reload of your life. It’s the ultimate game of Gears chicken, and we can’t wait to see fans get hands on this month.

There’s even more to talk about that we couldn’t cover in this article, including the full list of new achievements, details on all the new Skills, tuning updates, new ‘Wings’ Re-Up Levels and more, check more details here.

Key Features:

• New Story, Heroes and a Nightmare Reborn: The first chapter of an all-new “Gears” saga thrusts players into an epic and perilous journey through the wilds of Sera. Fight as JD Fenix – son of the legendary hero Marcus Fenix – as he embarks on a desperate mission with his friends Kait and Del to find their missing loved ones and confront a fearsome new threat.
• Never Fight Alone: Rev up your Lancer and fight your way through the Campaign with a friend over Xbox Live or via local split screen co-op, with the option to play as JD, Kait or Del. Cross Play lets Xbox One and Windows 10 gamers play together in cooperative modes like Campaign, Horde and Co-Op Versus.
• Shared Progression and Achievements with Xbox Play Anywhere across Xbox One and Windows 10: Cloud saves enable you to switch seamlessly between both versions of game, giving you the freedom to play where you choose. Both versions are included with a single purchase.
• Fight through a Dynamic and Deadly Environment: Brace yourself against ferocious windflares that blow away cover, bend your shots and drastically alter the battlefield, forcing you to employ new tactics. As the windflare intensity increases, each enemy confrontation evolves into a brutal fight for survival in this tale of Man vs. Monster.
• New Arsenal of Weapons and Combat Tactics: Pummel your enemies from cover with new close-cover combat moves like yank, vault kick and a bloody new combat-knife execution. Make use of dangerous new weapons, like the Buzzkill and Dropshot, to shoot around and over cover, raining destruction from all angles.
•  The Best “Gears” Multiplayer Experience Yet: Whether you enjoy powering through the co-op Campaign, fending for survival in Horde mode or testing your skills in frenetic Versus Multiplayer matches running in 60 FPS on dedicated servers, “Gears of War 4” is the ultimate game to play with friends.
  • Explosive Versus Multiplayer Action: Compete in intense multiplayer gametypes that reward social, competitive and professional players alike, including new modes like Dodgeball and the premier new competitive “Gears” multiplayer mode, Escalation. Track your progress with the new visible ranking system that drives online matchmaking and lets you stand out for your abilities.  
  • The Next Generation of Horde: Team up with up to four other players and weather the onslaught using class-based skills and dynamic fortifications. For the first time, you can build and deploy defensive weapons and fortifications anywhere on the map.
  • Play with Friends Against AI Foes: Fine-tune your skills in Co-Op Versus, where your match-made team of five squares off against increasingly punishing AI teams.
• The Complete “Gears of War” Collection: For a limited time, “Gears of War 4” (both digital and retail versions) will include the entire Xbox 360 “Gears of War” collection. Play through the original “Gears of War” trilogy and “Gears of War: Judgment” on Xbox One via backwards compatibility, amounting to over 50 hours of “Gears of War” gameplay.