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Gears 5: Hivebusters |OT| Shifting Gears to next-gen.

horkrux

horkrux

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,744
Didn't even last 3h for me. I think I could have done without honestly.

But it hammered home one point in shocking detail: Gears is better without those useless open sections. This was all just a linear string of set pieces, and if it didn't have the baggage of being "more of the same", I would've probably liked it a lot more than I have.
 
Fezan

Fezan

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,274
I really liked this DLC. Felt like it was back to golden days of Gears. Everything felt really good. Campaign was just missing some setpieces and a little variety of scripted sections.

Overall i really liked it. Just wish it was part of regular gamepass. 20 was really steep price for such short campaign
 
nekkid

nekkid

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,823
Finished it again, and man that last level really has so much inspiration from Ori and the Blind Forest.

So crazy looking at how the art style has evolved through the series.
 
ArjanN

ArjanN

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,122
horkrux said:
Didn't even last 3h for me. I think I could have done without honestly.

But it hammered home one point in shocking detail: Gears is better without those useless open sections. This was all just a linear string of set pieces, and if it didn't have the baggage of being "more of the same", I would've probably liked it a lot more than I have.
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I thought it was great. I disagree on the linearity though. It makes sense for a 3-4 hour DLC, but in a longer campaign the open world stuff helped it from getting too one-note, and you could just beeline to the next main waypoint anyway if you wanted to skip most of it.
 
Falus

Falus

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,656
I've played only 2h of the main campaign and decided to wait for the new gen to play more. Then I played many other game. I need some incentive to come back to gears. Do I need to finish the campaign before hive buster or I can start it straight and maybe after I'll restart the campaign ?
 
Greigor the FellHand

Greigor the FellHand

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,125
horkrux said:
Didn't even last 3h for me. I think I could have done without honestly.

But it hammered home one point in shocking detail: Gears is better without those useless open sections. This was all just a linear string of set pieces, and if it didn't have the baggage of being "more of the same", I would've probably liked it a lot more than I have.
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False. :P


Gears universe makes me want to explore it, ala skyrim
 
CloudsFromSpace

CloudsFromSpace

Member
Mar 8, 2018
1,161
Falus said:
I've played only 2h of the main campaign and decided to wait for the new gen to play more. Then I played many other game. I need some incentive to come back to gears. Do I need to finish the campaign before hive buster or I can start it straight and maybe after I'll restart the campaign ?
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Hivebusters is totally separate in the menu and uses a separate save file. You're good to go.
 
Psittacus

Psittacus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,945
Ricker said:
Snatcher fight in Chapter 5 is awful though,so messy you dont know whats going,gave up after 10 fails...you can one hit die right at the start if you are unlucky and you bounce off the cover or it doesnt stick or something...I'll give it another go later before I fling the controller somewhere lol...
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The AI had more problems than usual during this fight for me. That's saying something considering how brain-dead the AI tends to be in Gears 5.

Overall I really enjoyed it though. Turning invincible and hacking up drones with an electrified knife never gets old.
 
VeePs

VeePs

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,379
Gears 5 lets me "shrink" it, can someone clarify this & what it does besides save space lol?
 
Stooge

Stooge

Member
Oct 29, 2017
11,290
I really enjoyed it for exactly what it was. I like the smaller scale of the story and thought it worked really well. I wish it was about an hour longer and had more shooty bits.

The best section was the 2nd and 3rd missions and it kind of fell off a lot after that with lots of walking and talking and less shooty.
 
ArjanN

ArjanN

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,122
Stooge said:
I really enjoyed it for exactly what it was. I like the smaller scale of the story and thought it worked really well. I wish it was about an hour longer and had more shooty bits.

The best section was the 2nd and 3rd missions and it kind of fell off a lot after that with lots of walking and talking and less shooty.
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I thought it was pretty action-packed, there's some walk and talk stuff/world-building stuff but it felt fairly minimal, IMO if there was even more shooting you might as well just play Escape mode.
 
gothi

gothi

Prophet of Truth
Member
Jun 23, 2020
4,433
Played chapters 1 to 5 with 2 friends the other day and really enjoyed it. Chapter 1 felt a little stale at the beginning but from chapter 2 onwards it was a great ride, everything I could have wanted from a campaign DLC (and no arguments about who has to be the robot!). Looking forward to completing the final chapter soon, would be more than happy if we got additional DLC with these characters in the future
 
PJsprojects

PJsprojects

Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,067
England
It's nice looking but after playing it on One X and then playing again on Series X I couldn't really see an improvement. Now WD Legion is a massive improvement so I sort of was hoping a first party game would be as good visually.
 
Aostia82

Aostia82

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,366
So, I got a Series S and Gamepass
Downloaded forza Horizon 4 and Gears of war 5
Am I too much invested in my new purchase or is Gears 5 already great, visually?
Is Hivebusters even better?
 
leng jai

leng jai

Member
Nov 2, 2017
15,125
PJsprojects said:
It's nice looking but after playing it on One X and then playing again on Series X I couldn't really see an improvement. Now WD Legion is a massive improvement so I sort of was hoping a first party game would be as good visually.
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Legion looks very mediocre outside of the reflections. I haven't seen Hivebusters on One X but the base game on it compared the Series X is solid improvement. Locked 60fps vs it running in the 50s half the time. Higher volumetric lighting and shadow quality. Much better reflections. Much higher average resolution. SSD vs mechanical drive.

Aostia82 said:
So, I got a Series S and Gamepass
Downloaded forza Horizon 4 and Gears of war 5
Am I too much invested in my new purchase or is Gears 5 already great, visually?
Is Hivebusters even better?
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Gears 5 was already a very good looking game, Hivebusters is another 5-10% better looking and has an extra layer of polish.
 
Aostia82

Aostia82

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,366
leng jai said:
Legion looks very mediocre outside of the reflections. I haven't seen Hivebusters on One X but the base game on it compared the Series X is solid improvement. Locked 60fps vs it running in the 50s half the time. Higher volumetric lighting and shadow quality. Much better reflections. Much higher average resolution. SSD vs mechanical drive.



Gears 5 was already a very good looking game, Hivebusters is another 5-10% better looking and has an extra layer of polish.
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Cant wait to see it!
 
HiLife

HiLife

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
39,728
MP feels so good. I mean...I feel like the mechanics have always been fine tuned each iteration, with 5 being the smoothest a Gears can possibly feel, but I took a year break from this game and there is still nothing that plays quite like it. I just wish I'd stopped getting throw in 100+ ping lobbies when I'm usually pulling 30.
 
Scottoest

Scottoest

Member
Feb 4, 2020
11,369
I enjoyed it for what it was. Visually looks a bit better than Gears 5, and has a more striking aesthetic as well, but I wouldn't quite characterize it as "next gen" - whatever that means. Of course, it's also running at 60fps - twice the framerate of a lot of "next gen" modes in games - so that's certainly worth taking into account.

Agreed with a review I read that said Scorpio suddenly became a "family" very abruptly, and not terribly organically. They spend 2.5 hours yelling at each other, encounter the village, one character opens up about their past, and then suddenly Keegan is calling Mac his "brother"? lol. Felt like they were trying to do a game's worth of character development in a three hour runtime. I like the characters themselves though.

It also got a little comical how many times they push over a wall and then slide down something. They must've done that animation like a dozen times. This DLC is heaven if you like sections where you slide down stuff. Long sections, short sections - Hivebusters has your sliding needs covered.

I'd probably give it an 8/10. Worth your time if you're getting it via Game Pass anyway. Not sure that I'd say it's worth $20 on it's own though. Looks great and fun while it lasts. Plus it gives you their armor as skins for multiplayer, if you care about that.
 
Adryuu

Adryuu

Master of the Wind
Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,609
Has anyone played this on Xbox one X?
Mine is doing weird things with this dlc and I don't know if it's been acknowledged before or it's my console somehow.

I'm on chapter 5 I think (jungle with ruins, wakaatu) and if I use bald dude's power (ammo restock) the game freezes to a 2 frames per minute crawl, more or less, music still sounding but completely unusable. This happened twice and I had to close the game (interface worked ok though). Also in this chapter I've noticed screen tearing several times (not very bothersome but I don't remember having seen that before in the main campaign). I understand the graphics, especially in this chapter, are a bit better than in the base game, and it's not dropping frames (unless auto saving at checkpoints where it freezes for half a second like the base game did iirc), so the tearing could be justified (still nasty) but the freeze bug with the resupply power is weird and bad.

The dlc is awesome so far otherwise and I'm quite surprised by some of the environments, being 60 fps in the one x and all. Taking my time with it, will finish it today.
 

ryzz

Member
Oct 23, 2018
451
Expected more... 3 hours of the same gears formula. Also how many doors/vines did I have to wait for the AI to assist with opening. That got annoying after a while.
 
Scottoest

Scottoest

Member
Feb 4, 2020
11,369
ryzz said:
Expected more... 3 hours of the same gears formula. Also how many doors/vines did I have to wait for the AI to assist with opening. That got annoying after a while.
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It's.. a short campaign DLC for Gears 5, that actually does slightly shake things up by adding the characters' Horde/Escape mode Ultimates. I'm not sure why you'd expect a more substantial reinvention of the core of the gameplay formula from something like this.
 
Saito

Saito

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,812
I enjoyed this significantly more than the main Gears 5 campaign. Hopefully a sign they'll pivot back to a more focused campaign next time and move away from whatever the hell those skiff sections were.
 
ElBoxy

ElBoxy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,150
Saito said:
I enjoyed this significantly more than the main Gears 5 campaign. Hopefully a sign they'll pivot back to a more focused campaign next time and move away from whatever the hell those skiff sections were.
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They still want to experiment more with the open world setting. I just wanted more things to do and more NPCs to talk to. Let's explore populated COG cities and small towns instead of exploring more destroyed and abandoned ones.
 
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fanboy

fanboy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,452
Slovakia
Its better than the main campaign. I enjoyed it a lot. Gears is a linear tunnel, fuck that open world areas in 5 :/

It just feels so much better. Also, characters are great if you throw out that family bullshit after spending few days together. It feels forced.
 
Duxxy3

Duxxy3

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,788
USA
ElBoxy said:
They still want to experiment more with the open world setting. I just wanted more things to do and more NPCs to talk to. Let's explore populated COG cities and small towns instead of exploring more destroyed and abandoned ones.
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I hope none of that happens. I have zero interest in playing a Gears of War RPG. Even the open worlds of 5 were too much.
 
Another

Another

Banned
Oct 23, 2019
1,684
Portugal
I'm still playing through the actual main campaign itself rather than Hivebusters but this thread seems to be more alive than the regular OT so I'll ask here... what can I do about stowed Skiff weapons repeatedly disappearing? Playing on a Series X, if it matters.
 
Ahti

Ahti

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Nov 6, 2017
9,230
Finished the Add-On yesterday and really enjoyed it. The pacing was good, the setpieces looked stunning and that lava ride was one of the best action sequences in a Gears-game. And I hope to see more of Hana in the future. Such a cool character, she`d be a great addition to the main cast, imo.
 
Iichter

Iichter

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,347
Why is that so much better than Gears 5's main campaign, it baffles me how much better it understands the rhythm that made Gears truly epic, I got some Gears 2 vibes and that's very positive. Every novelty added to Gears 5 was noise, this DLC is much more concentrated and enjoyful, I'd recommend it to anyone, even those that dropped the series since Gears 4 (which I really wouldn't blame them for that). Erase that main storyline shit, make that side-team the main team.

The environments were very pleasant to look at, this DLC is a looker.

My only critics would be the lack of creativity about all the TLOU-esque "co-op interactions", giving a leg up and waiting, waiting for a character to open a door... Come on now I'm sure you have better solutions to fill those interactions without compromising the level-design.

And the enemies could've gotten a bit more diversified, but I guess it's only a DLC so they've only came up with the same ones as the main game (although there's a little suprise I quite appeciated). In the end they were still enjoyful to combat, but in the future (I don't care about the lore justifications nor the story), find some other biomes to combat.
 
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