Buckle up, Marine, we’re dropping back onto Locust-infested Sera in The Coalition’s brand new remaster of Gears of War. Jumping back into the boots of a young Marcus Fenix, developers The Coalition have brought players an updated remaster of the game that started it all, alongside visual improvements and gameplay touch-ups. Long gone are the choppy, 30fps performances of consoles-old, granting a buttery smooth 60fps campaign that even features an all-new act to play through and up to 120fps through multiplayer.
Remaster PT.2
All for One, One for All
Some might argue that this version of the game is basically a port of the Ultimate Edition that released for Xbox One, essentially a remaster of a remaster. Many of these points are correct, but Gears of War: Reloaded gives players from other platforms, like PlayStation and PC, a chance to finally engage in battle with the Locust Horde. Also, even more visual enhancements have been added, up to Native 4K for players wanting to see the most out of the destruction that the war on Sera has produced through the power of Unreal Engine 5. Alongside a fresh new set of achievements, players from other platforms will be able to enjoy showcasing their own accomplishments through PlayStation Trophies and Steam achievements as well.
No Console Wars Here
As above, cross-play is finally included, so players from every platform can play together without having to worry about if each person has an Xbox or not. However, skepticism through the multiplayer base regarding PC players hacking or modding the game to win matches has now become vocalised, impacting the otherwise beloved multiplayer modes that have been revived for cross-play purposes.
Armor is for Pu*****
Movement was one of the main gripes for the Gears of War franchise, even after having popularised the idea of cover-shooting mechanics. For instance, in the old versions of Gears of War, moving around the game maps felt clunky and heavy, whereas when playing through the Reloaded edition, I noticed slight improvements to simple walking/jogging movements. The roadie run has not really changed and still remains to be the very tight, altered sprint mechanic that players will mostly use to find cover in firefights or advance ever so quickly to the next goal.
Take Cover!
With regards to difficulty modes, I went straight into the deep end and began my campaign on Insane, the hardest difficulty you can play in the game. I remember playing the old versions of the game where one mistake would lead to certain death, even a bullet to the big toe might completely disintegrate the player character. However, unless my skills have gotten better, or The Coalition is in favour of morbid accessibility, the Insane difficulty doesn’t seem too…insane. Of course, a couple shots will still take out anybody curious enough to smell the gunpowder of a Locust rifle, but it doesn’t seem too tough to really make a difference to what Hard mode would be. Either the enemy AI has decided to take up shooting lessons from a Stormtrooper, or Marcus Fenix can now roll out of harm’s way like Neo from The Matrix. In any case, I still enjoyed my time with the game, but I definitely noticed the differences between the old and new versions.
“I Just Love the Feeling of This Chainsaw!”
One more quality of life improvement boils down to the loading times. Each transition from one chapter to the next felt like waiting for a miracle in the old games; even the Ultimate Edition had a consistent 30-second loading time, which made dying feel like a chore. Now, the Reloaded edition’s lightning-fast loading speeds really amped up the power of my Xbox Series S, taking probably just 5 seconds after dying to load up throwing you back into the action. Going back to visual enhancements, the old games looked gritty and suitably ugly for a game about a world at war. Now, the Reloaded version offers greatly enhanced lighting effects, letting players see all the details of blood, dismemberment and mayhem caused by the Locust Horde.
Final Thoughts
There’s only so much you can say about the remaster of an already released game, especially considering the fact that this is now the second time the original Gears of War has been enhanced. Alas, everything about the Reloaded version has been ultimately (excuse the pun) improved upon from the Ultimate Edition and original version of the game. The Coalition has done a stellar job resurrecting the game that became one of frontrunner mascots of Xbox history, standing proudly next to other icons like the Master Chief of Halo. Onwards to Gears of War 2: Reloaded, if all goes well!
Developer: The Coalition
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Windows PC
Release Date: 26th August 2025
