Even some of my favorite games of the last generation may occasionally fall prey to the web of adding unnecessary elements to bat out while running, but Gears 5: Hivebusters works the opposite way. This DLC extension stimulates fat and provides a laser-focused, linear experience that I would rather prefer than increase its reception. While the characters (and their relationships with each other) can feel inconsistent, the great new environments and cool new bird creature add a new flavor to the Gears universe.
It is thought to be an original story, but the Hivebusters opens with a group of its crack troops, who infiltrate and destroy the swarm force disease, already assembled. The Scorpio Squad by Keegan, Lahni and Mack are three characters you and two co-stars can live with; This is the same panel that was first introduced in Gears 5’s Best Escape multiplayer mode. Actors Dave Fennoy, Sumali Montano, Trevor Devol and a good (and sometimes surprising) supporting cast on the best vocal shows.
Still, this is irrelevant: sometimes the Scorpio Squad feels like an integrated unit, it understands each other from one of the other tasks, and sometimes they feel like they met the day before, especially not liking each other. Keegan’s “book” military approach and Mack’s “devil-care” approach feel self-evident, and Lahni’s history and culture come to the center and provide an interesting background to one part of the story, but those individual parts do not always come together effectively. As a result, it takes a lot of time to take the team “from reluctant partners” to “we are a family” because the team does not naturally grow closer during the three-hour expansion.
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Keegan, Mac and Lahni Gears are welcome additions to the world, even with the occasional “team-building” hiccups. They all feel like they own characters here, and their humor works well. I would love to see him appear with Kite, Marcus and others in another story expansion or even in the next major game that focuses on their additional exploits.
Hive Bustin makes me feel good
The Hivebusters are action-packed and tense in its six-episode campaign, and a Rocktock team is working together to find a way to turn the tide against the crowd. Basic gameplay and gears 4 return weapons and enemies, but the addition of an interesting new bird creature that plays a key role in the Scorpio team’s story is a highlight because its story is different from the visually succulent swarm, which we fought for a long time.
Battle is always tight and responsive with the same “gold standard” cover-based shooting I expected from every Gears game, and the battles range from chaotic firefights in wide-open spaces to almost claustrophobic, tense struggles for survival. In the narrow halls, and the views feel naturally refreshing. Gears 5’s campaign had a mix of linear and open-world divisions, but returns with a more focused approach to the roots of the Hivebusters series, and it applies more to linear analysis. Each approximately 30-minute episode lasted a long time and had different combat encounters, so almost nothing was old.
More than any other gear game I can remember, I felt like I wasn’t going to win. The Alliance did a great job, I was able to constantly feel like I was on my back, failed, only to pull off a heroic victory against the odds. This intense sense of struggle in forests, beaches, volcanoes, ruins, swarms and more is one of my favorite elements of hivebusters. While playing on the Xbox Series X, each of these vibrant systems is felt in fantastic detail. Beyond the simply incredible look, it runs beautifully without a hitch at 60 frames.
Bringing a knife to a gun fight (and winning)
The biggest change in dynamics is that Jack, Gears 5’s robot mate, does not appear in the hivebusters, meaning he is gone without his broad range of support skills. They are transformed by simple and highly effective Ultimate abilities, one for each member of the Scorpio team: Keegan can recreate weapons for anyone near him, Mac can hoist an armor, he can circle in front of him as he moves, and Lahni can use a knife charged with electricity to tear through the swarm – especially amazing After receiving the chain lightning update.
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Each Ultimate capability has a relatively short cooldown, and they are so powerful and so effective that I have found myself using them whenever available. I’m always excited when I see the little gold light on the upgrade pickup, because they are often game changers: for example, Keegan’s ammunition regeneration capability is already incredibly effective, allowing you to keep your favorite weapons as long as you want, and can improve this to minimize damage taken while standing in the Ammo Region area. It can also be used as a second defensive cooldown (saving lives later in some tough fights).
If Keegan is the default running character if you play alone, you can choose to play any one of the three, which means you can lean on any end capability you want and command your AI partners to use their abilities in command.
The Hivebusters’ campaign only took three hours to win, it felt longer, in a better way, and the results made me want to go straight into more Escape multiplayer matches. I’m already looking forward to running this again with a few friends in the co.