Xbox One Exclusive Gears of War 4: Weather, Story, Enemies, Gameplay Details And More Revealed

Game Informer has dedicated its April issue to giving us all the information we could ever possibly want to know about Gears of War 4. Among those pieces of information are a few spoilers, so if you haven’t yet played Gears of War 3, you might want to stop reading now. Gematsu has grabbed some of the information out of the feature article that tells us this new title is set up about 25 years after the events of the previous game.

The Emulsion weapon set off at the end of Gears of War 3 in order to fight off the alien enemy. That bomb mostly did it’s job but it also killed off all fossil fuels on the planet.  Those that are left are made to huddle in walled cities, bracing themselves against horrible sandstorms that are also the result of the weapon going off. The storms are called “windflares” and are basically a combination of hurricane and tornado.

In total, there are four categories of weather and the developers have said they want those weather happenings to play into decisions you make in the game. Sometimes it will just be a light breeze and other times you’ll need to take the windflares into account when dodging debris and planning your method of attack. Earlier in the week, we talked about the fact that the game is set to take place over a 24 hour period. It will be interesting to see just how much the weather changes in this relatively short period of time. While we still don’t know an official release date, Gears of War 4 is set to launch exclusively on the Xbox One later this year.

Further details were also revealed. You can check them out below, courtesy of Neogaf user shinobi602.

-2 player couch co-op (Online TBA)
-Set on Sera 25 years after Gears of War 3
-Imulsion weapon set off at the end of GOW3 killed off all fossil fuels
-Humanity has become an endangered species huddled in walled cities seeking shelter from devastating wind storms (as a result of the bomb & intense war aftermath)
-Called “windflares”, sort of a melting of a hurrican and volcano
-4 categories of weather in the game: Start out as heavy breeze (trees, leaves, dust kicking up) and grow into violent category 3 windstorms that can affect combat and weapon usage
-Category 4 windstorms have you just trying to survive, super violent, dodging lightning strikes, etc
-Think of the wind when fighting: Putting the wind behind could help projectile travel, but fighting directly against the wind could throw bullets back at you
-Enemies also affected by the weather (which you could exploit and use strategically)
-“Outsider” camps outside of COG
-Heavy inspiration on the setting from Northern Italy (forests, forts, etc)
-Want to get back to the “intimacy” and “boogeyman” feeling of the original Gears
-Team settled on story that features 3 protagonists and stretches across a 24 hour span in game
-JD Fenix (main character) is Marcus Fenix’s son
-JD: Joined the COG militia, classified incident forced him to AWOL
-Del: JD in the campaign, befriended him at boarding school (deep bond)
-Kait: Outsider, capable survivalist, shares Outsider perspective with JD/Del
-Story begins as their Outsider village is invaded by a mysterious new force; kidnapped
-The trio goes into the forest in search, wondering why only they were spared
-New enemy is called “The Swarm”
-After the war, too many Locust to bury so many were tossed into mass graves (our trio believe this new threat may be linked)
-First mission sets off with the trio in the forest, discovering giant cocoon-like pods, pale monstrous creatures erupt looking almost human
-These enemies are dubbed “Juvies” (harkening to their seemingly first evolutionary stage of a new enemy)
-Juvies can eventually evolve into “Drones” (homage to the trilogy), able to use weapons, seemingly the main enemy type
-Also experimenting with new enemies like the “Pouncer” (E3 demo)
-Pouncer switches tactics based on player (if you run out in the open, it shoots poisonous quills; stay in cover and it comes after you)
-New weapons like “construction based” tools repurposed for combat
-Wanted to revamp the cover system; can more easily mantle kick over any piece of cover & perform knife kills
-Can also perform a short distance shoulder charge, knocking enemies off balance
-Enemies can also pull players out of cover and perform their own takedowns
-Implementing dynamic cover (for example shooting enemy pods from ceilings in an otherwise open area)
-Big emphasis on multiplayer, saying original Gears development was 90% SP, 10% MP
-Want to meet needs of recreational players and esports players
-Acknowledges love for horde mode and promises fans won’t be disappointed