Gears 5’s Open World Arenas Were Inspired by God of War

Gears 5 is looking to expand on the Gears of War formula in a way that many feel the series has needed for a while now. Of the many ways it’s looking to do that, its open world sections are the poster boy of the changes it’s looking to make. Rather than being a full-fledged open world though, it’s going for a more concise open hubs-style approach, similar to what we saw in last year’s God of War.

God of War, in fact, was a game that developers The Coalition directly took cues from, as per Gears 5 art director Aryan Hanbeck. Speaking with The Telegraph, the upcoming shooter takes cues from God of War in terms of how it directs players to areas of interest in the world- though of course, Gears 5 does it in a way that makes sense for the series it belongs to.

“For me, God of War was a big one,” said Hanbeck. “They’re not exactly the same scenario we have, but they do such a good job of pointing you to specific places, giving you visual cues that are consistent throughout the whole game. And it was such a fun game to play that we really took a lot of a lot of little cues from that, but tweaked to make sure it fits our experience.”

The game’s open world isn’t the only aspect that takes inspiration from other titles. Recently, we also learned that Gears 5’s combat was influenced by the elements of player choice in combat seen in BioShock Infinite. Read more on that through here.

Gears 5 is out on September 10 for the Xbox One and PC.