In a sea of incredibly interesting, surprising, and in some cases mind boggling announcements, I'm not surprised Gears 4 has been somewhat lost in the shuffle. To the untrained eye it basically looks like more Gears... and... well, even to those familiar with these games it looks awfully akin to what these games are known for. That's not to say what they've shown thus far is a carbon copy of Gears past. The atmosphere looks like it's trying to recapture the somewhat horror-orientated aesthetic of the original Gears, the enemies they encountered were much more animalistic than the gung-ho Locust (though I'm sure Gears 4 will still feature Locust surrogates, AKA bullet-sponges with guns), but what's perhaps most striking is that the cast of playable characters looks to have been reduced to two.

That may not be the case for the entire game, or perhaps there'll be a separate campaign that continues the same four player freedom, but they're at the least selling their game with the idea that we're back to square... two. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though! Whereas for games such as this it often falls to the rule that 'the more players the better', I can understand that for the sake of what may include some slower goings on, they'd want to brings things down a notch, or two, without sacrificing the cooperative element that is so key to these games. There's also the idea to consider that with us back to having two protagonists now, this'll allow them to bring back the intimacy of Gears 1 & 2. Even for all of their cheesy writing and hole-stricken plots, the relationship between Marcus & Dom was factored enough for it to slowly grow to mean something. They're not especially great characters in themselves, but their relationship and camaraderie felt believable enough for me to grow an attachment, not necessarily to the individual characters, but their relationship. Gears 3 with its constant switch-up of characters served its purpose for the sake of the story, and also from a gameplay standpoint as well most certainly, but it also lacked the first two's sense of companionship. Sure, you're travelling with other characters beyond Marcus & Dom in both of the first two Gears games, but there's plenty of time where it's just the two of 'em back-to-back, with nobody else to lean on but the other.

Even if nobody's going to hold up Gears 3 as one of gaming's greatest tales, it at least proved that they're improving, with each Gears game featuring higher quality writing and storytelling from the last. Well, er, that is except that other Gears game. So, the idea that they theoretically take what has been learnt from previous games and then administer that to the series' classic two-man show (or rather one man, one woman show!) gives me hope.

Though that the main dude currently looks to be the poster-boy for Generic 30s Something Action Mens everywhere is somewhat disheartening. But Laura Bailey, though! That's at least something, as she fits the tough-as-nails soldier lady rather well (as already proven in that RAAM DLC for Gears 3; also, unrelated, but funny to consider that she actually fell to the trope of 'tough latino soldier lady biting it'...), much more so than her anime/JRPG stuff, to which even she can't seem to escape from sounding like a squealing sack of cats and is generally just as annoying. If it's one thing the Gears games has always done well by weirdly enough it's the voice acting, with their all-star voice casts bringing the goods, and hopefully Gears 4 will stick to such a hallmark of quality.

I do hope that the duo won't inevitably lead to some sort of actual romance, however. Not only is it simply a tougher relationship to execute, but there's really just so few character dynamics out there in media in general between a man and a woman that doesn't inevitably end in each puppydog eyeing the other. That's not to say they shouldn't hint at a romantic relationship, as such a thing seems natural within the circumstances of withstanding such harrowing combat experiences, but hopefully it won't be at the forefront. The blossoming love between Marcus & Anya I actually rather liked because of how far back it was hidden in the shadows; and the resulting scene that shows Anya resting on a solum Marcus, looking like a very sad giant, was to me made all the more heartwarming. It reflected on the fact that the war was over, that they finally had the chance to (literally) peel off their armour and potentially consider a relationship. Yes Otacon, love can bloom on a battlefield, but you're also on (what may be a literal) bloody battlefield for christ sake! So, yanno, keep the lovey dovey stuff at home and focus on what's in front of you in the here and now, which in a Gears game's case is undoubtedly going to be stuff to shoot in the face.

Also, Horde mode will assuredly provide all of the cooperative small squadron gameplay happenings.

So... I didn't actually plan for this to go on so long, but there you have it. Hell, it might as well function as a blog, as I can also thattaway create a title more than 60 CHARACTERS FFS GIANT BOMB WHY HAST THIS NOT BEEN SEEN TO STILL GOD FAKKIN DAMNIT.

TL;DR; I AM IN FAVOUR OF IT BUT HOWS ABOUT YA'LL?????