The Gears 5 ending manages to set up the story for Gears of War 6, which should resolve loose ends from the latest installment. The Coalition has pulled out all the stops with Gears 5, making some bold choices when it comes to gameplay. In the campaign, this meant the introduction of open world elements via hub maps to explore and some light RPG mechanics.
Beyond the gameplay, Gears 5 also pushes the series forward when it comes to its story. The Gears of War narrative gets some more twists and turns, as major plot points and character history alike receive some surprising reveals. All in all, there’s a reason why Gears 5 is the Xbox’s most played game.
That said, Gears 5 asks plenty more questions, beyond what character to choose in Horde. With Gears of War 6 likely to resolve at least some of these loose ends, here’s a look at exactly what fans should expect to see from the Gears of War 6 story campaign.
Gears Of War 6’s Story Will Be About Payback
The death of important characters is nothing new to Gears of War. As such, players have discovered over the years that it’s best not to grow too attached to any particular member of the Delta squad at any given moment. Nonetheless, Gears 5 (which is not called Gears of War 5) managed to pull off a pretty shocking moment close to the finale of the campaign.
When facing down the Swarm queen, who has taken the form of the previously-thought-deceased Reyna, both JD and Del are grabbed. Kait only has time to save one or the other, with the unpopular party then having their neck broken. This adds an extra level of grudge for Gears of War 6, with Kait and the surviving member clearly wanting to get payback for the death of a close friend.
How Gears of War 6 addresses this will certainly be interesting to see. With different players choosing their own favorite to save, The Coalition may need to either choose a canonical ending, or introduce the carrying over of saved data from Gears 5 to its sequel, akin to games like The Walking Dead. Whatever the outcome, ideally there will be a cathartic moment ahead.
A Twist Is Guaranteed In Gears Of War 6
That said, this wouldn’t be the first time that Gears pulled the rug out from under the player. Whether it’s Dom’s wife or any of the other sucker punch moments that have been part of Gears lore, it’s a series that loves to toy with player emotions. As such, could there be a surprise in store?
Gears fans would be forgiven for being a little suspicious of the clean death of Del/JD. After all, their neck is broken and their body is then sucked underground as Kait and the survivor escapes the scene. There’s no corpse that remains to be reclaimed, meaning that there’s surely some capacity for a return for the deceased party.
Of course, this is unlikely to be an easy or happy reunion. More likely, there’s the possibility for a Swarmed-up version of JD or Del to make an emotional comeback as a boss battle, teasing Kait et al with a difficult fight against an old friend. It would certainly be in-keeping with some of the more tragic moments that Gears of War has thrown at us.
An Unpleasant Family Reunion
There’s undoubtedly going to be one difficult reunion in Gears of War 6. Gears 5 delved into Kait’s family lineage, revealing that her grandmother was Queen Myrrah of the Locusts. This family tie means that Kait and her mother Reyna also have this attachment which can be exploited by the Swarm.
In Gears 5, Reyna was revealed to be the new avatar for the Swarm queen, but there’s nothing left of her original mind. This new queen kills one of Kait’s closest allies, before once again descending into the depths. It’s the reveal of a new, dangerous threat, and one that Kait promises to destroy, blood bond or not.
This call for vengeance definitely means that there will be another face-to-face meeting between the two. Gears of War is intrinsically tied to families - mainly those of Kait and the Fenix family - and so there’s undoubtedly going to be a showdown with more than just the fate of Sera on the line.
The COG’s Secrets Revealed
Even though the Coalition of Ordered Governments has been a focus of stability and structure within the human forces of Gears of War, that’s not to say that the game series hasn’t cast a critical eye over the COG at times. Gears 5 took this to the next level, investigating both why communities have refused to join the COG overall and also the secrets that the government has tried to hide.
The biggest of these that was uncovered was the COG’s role in the creation of the Locust threat in the first place. Scientist Niles Samson was spearheading research into Rustlung in the New Hope research facility, as visited previously in Gears of War, but Kait discovered that this research twisted into experimentation on children, resulting in the creation of the first members of the Locust horde. Without the COG’s experimentation, the devastation of the Locust, Lambent, and Swarm would never have happened.
By the end of Gears 5, this revelation was kept away from public eyes, with the facility itself apparently destroyed in its entirety. However, a point could be made about this information being revealed to a much wider audience during Gears 6. With such an emphasis on the Outsiders in the most recent run of games, does this point towards such untold tales finally coming to light?
That’s just a sample of what players might expect from Gears of War 6. However, given all the surprises that Gears 5 had over the course of its campaign, fans of the series should perhaps expect the unexpected whenever Gears 6 is set to launch. Hopefully it will prove a fitting follow-up to such a fantastic game.
More: Gears 5: Locations For ALL 90 Collectibles In The Campaign
