Gears of War for the Xbox 360 was released in 2006, and it was followed by an enhanced port of the game on the PC a year later. The game was not the first one to employ cover-based shooting as its main mechanic, but it did so with the type of visceral bombast that immediately commanded your attention. It also had the gameplay to back it up, as the shooting and use of cover felt satisfying and came at a steady clip with enough tweaks to keep the formula from becoming stale. The game was a success both critically and with fans, and the series remains active to this day. The game was remastered nine years later in the form of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, which sought to bring the exclusive missions of the first game's PC version to the Xbox One and fuse the whole thing with a sizable graphical upgrade. Ten years after that, we're getting an upgraded port of that remaster with Gears of War: Reloaded. What makes this release significant is that it marks the debut of the series on the PlayStation 5.

As the story goes, the people of the planet Sera have enjoyed a relatively long period of peace. That peace was shattered the day the Locusts invaded from underground. The humans fought back, but after many desperate attempts to eradicate the Locusts, including the use of highly destructive weapons from space, the people of Sera are on the losing side of the fight. As a last-ditch effort, the army has concocted a mission to get a device planted to start mapping the Locust tunnels, so they can set off a weapon to wipe them all out. The skies are occupied and the army has thinned out, so it falls on a small group to execute the mission, and that includes having a war criminal named Marcus Fenix lead them all.

Compared to many other shooters, the story aims for something small instead of grandiose. Your actions may eventually lead to ending the war, but the focus is squarely on getting the mission done with a group that's mostly been forced to be together. The dialogue is sort of a throwback to an era when everyone was gruff and occasionally cracked a joke or two at someone's expense. It's also a story that is focused on the heroes, so don't expect introspective villains or understanding how past trauma may be motivating them. It's a straightforward affair that won't stick with you when the credits roll, but it flows smoothly so you'll enjoy the tale while playing the game.

Even if you've never played Gears of War before, if you're a fan of shooters, there's a good chance that you've played a game that was heavily influenced by it. This is a cover-based shooter, so staying hidden is just as important as being accurate with your shots. Levels have loads of walls and waist-high barricades, so taking cover means pressing yourself against said wall or barricade and then hitting a button to briefly pop out of cover to aim and fire while enemies do the same. While you can blindly fire, that's more in hopes of getting enemies to break their routine to take cover again. Inching forward from cover to cover while trying to clear out a room is what you'll do most of the time, but the game tries to mix things up by having you drive a vehicle or escort another character by keeping a light shining on them to drive away light-averse creatures.

Even though the game is almost two decades old, it only takes a few moments to realize why the game received the praise that it did on its original release. Part of that is because of the game's handling of movement. You've got big, bulking characters, and their walking speed is decent. However, the camera's low angle and shaking camera when characters run and duck make them seem speedy, and it intensifies the situation. The thud when slamming against a wall also helps in this respect, while the quick dashes between cover and snappiness of the SWAT turn on nearby pillars makes the movements feel more fluid. Other games have tried to emulate it, but the execution isn't as impactful due to the sound design being better in Gears.

Part of the appeal also comes from the sheer toughness of the enemies you're facing. Even the weakest foes don't go down with one shot unless you find something with lots of explosive power. Getting close to emptying clips on one enemy might feel cheap in other games, but it fits in Gears, considering the tough hides of the Locust you're facing. Few enemies will stand out in the open waiting to be shot. You can still hit their exposed parts from cover, mind you, but the "spray and pray" nature of most firearms ensures that you can't rely on the tactic. This isn't a smart shooter, but the enemy movements and health mean that you need to think more and use tactics for just about every fight.

There's also the fact that your arsenal feels both purposeful and brutal. Compared to other games, you don't have a wide selection of guns, but each firearm you have feels impactful and capable of something gory. The fact that all of your throwable weapons need a wind-up and use chains makes them feel medieval. Your basic pistol is a fine backup, but it can't beat the hand cannon that is capable of taking off chunks from foes. The same goes for the enemy's machine gun, as your own Lancer is more gruesome by virtue of having a chainsaw. Granted, getting in a chainsaw kill requires you to be able to get to an enemy without getting shot, but the blood spray and terrifying buzzing sound makes it worthwhile. The grenade launcher is powerful but still can't beat the Gnasher shotgun when it comes to overall satisfaction in landing a hit. While the game doesn't quite the screen with giblets, the experience is visceral and feels good from beginning to end. It's only amplified once you nail down the reload timing to ensure you're getting bullets that are more powerful.

Despite this being a scaled improvement of a previously remastered game, the one thing that never got fixed is your companion AI. Play for long enough, and there's a good chance that a member of your squad — usually Dom — will run into your line of fire. You can't hurt them, but they end up blocking your shots. You'll sometimes find your teammates running into danger and getting knocked down, but their bleedout time is generous enough that you can leave them alone for a short time while you fight the enemy and clear a room so everyone can recover. It really would've been nice to address this issue, which dates back to the original game.

The fix for bad AI is to play the game in co-op, and the campaign experience is better since the game was designed with co-op in mind. The enemies and scenarios expect you to flank to get the drop on some foes, and the mandatory branching paths emphasize working together even when separated. The game gives you a good deal of options for co-op play, including online and local split-screen, and the game now has it in drop-in/drop-out mode, so you don't have to restart a section when going from solo to co-op and vice versa.

For a number of fans, multiplayer is a big part of the game's appeal, and Reloaded features all of the modes from the original game with the original maps in tow. From Execution to Assassination to regular Team Deathmatch, it's all available, and there's the option for 120fps performance to make the brutal gunplay feel responsive. The gunplay remains just as taut as in single-player mode, so expect lots of heated firefights across decently sized maps. Gnasher shotguns remain the most valuable weapon to find on the field due to their almost guaranteed one-shot kills when close to an opponent. Intimate map knowledge is also key, since all of the modes are team-based, so being able to flank is a common thing. There's no sign of lag; matches played smoothly even with cross-play on. Your mileage may vary, since we were only on with other journalists, so the player pool wasn't expansive yet. The only thing that may disappoint a small number of players is that split-screen multiplayer is missing, at least if you aren't a PlayStation Plus subscriber. Granted, the desire for a split-screen 1v1 versus match in a shooter is rare, but it would've been nice to have that feature, since both the original and the Ultimate Edition of the game had it.

Funny enough, there are a few exclusive features available for the PS5 version of the game, but nothing is considered game-changing. Adaptive triggers are present when firing your gun and aiming, but it makes less sense for L2 to have this unless you equip the Torque Bow. There's also specific LED lighting for your health; again, few people would notice this on their controllers. The controller speaker also gets used quite often, and it works fine as a complement to the main sounds from the speakers, unless you're playing the game while trying to keep quiet. Progression across platforms is present if you sign in to a Microsoft account, and it has the added benefit of giving you Achievements alongside your Trophies to accompany the saving of your campaign progress and multiplayer stats. Again, there's no big thing that PS5 players can use to lord over their Xbox and PC brethren with this game, but it remains nice to see that some of the console's features aren't afterthoughts.

There are absolutely no complaints with the game's sound, and that doesn't change with this iteration, even if none of the audio was touched up. The sound effects are just as punchy as the gameplay, and that applies to everything from the buzzing of the chainsaws to the slams against the concrete when hugging a wall. The music is a nice blend of heroic action tunes with horror undertones, and it works perfectly for every situation. The voicework is top-notch all around.

Graphically, the changes made between this version and the Ultimate Edition are small but noticeable. The resolution gets a bump up from 1080p to an upscaled 4K, while the frame rate jumps to 60fps in the Campaign mode and an optional 120fps in Multiplayer mode. Beyond this, you're seeing a game that already sports some great-looking models and animations, and while the environments are dull due to the prevalent brown and gray color scheme, they feature some cleaned-up textures. The lighting has also gotten touched up further to be better suited for the presence of HDR.

Gears of War: Reloaded is a very solid game, even if the base is nearly 20 years old. The concept of a cover-based, stop-and-pop shooter may feel out of date, since so many other games have done this since the original title's release. The feeling of fast but weighted movement and meaty gunplay is still unmatched after all this time, though. It is a game that's easy to pick up and play without any compromises, and the title still has a great presentation despite the minor touch-ups from the original remake. For PS5 owners in particular, Reloaded is a perfect way to experience a very influential modern classic.

Score: 8.5/10