Gears 5was a decidedly ambitious foray for theGears of Warfranchise, with the defining Microsoft-led IP opting for a more open and diverse narrative experience. Releasing in 2019, the game offered lots in the way of featuring intertwining storylines that culminated in a seriously important player-led decision.
WithGears 5now approaching four years since its initial release, it is no wonder that rumors are beginning to form around The Coalition supposedly pooling resources into a potentialGears 6. While this would be a fascinating prospect for long-term fans of the franchise, it remains that the aforementioned optional decisions that the player had to make inGears 5may have created a tough environment for the story ofGears 6to carry on from.
Warning: This article contains spoilers forGears 5.
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The Branching Narrative Choices of Gears 5
When thinking back onGears 5and its campaign, one of the boldest decisions that the game made arguably lied within the huge level of narrative control that the player is afforded during the game’s closing events. This decision leads to multiple possible endings for the title, concerning some extremely influential figures within the wider franchise.
Thefinal boss ofGears 5’scampaign is the Queen of the Swarm, who is the corrupted mother of Kait, the primary protagonist ofGears 5. At the end of this particular fight, the Queen has both JD and Del at her mercy, and offers the player an ultimatum to choose which one should be spared.
Crucially, JD is the son of longtimefranchise protagonist Marcus Fenix, while Del is a close friend of JD and tri-tagonist of bothGears 4andGears 5. One of these two characters is then killed depending on the choice made by the player, making for an extreme narrative twist involving two massively important figures from the more contemporary storylines of theGears of Warfranchise.
How Gears 5 Could Impact Gears 6
Discourse surroundingGears 6has recently skyrocketed thanks torumors that The Coaltion has cancelled two gamesto make way for the long-anticipated sequel, with The Coaliton being in charge of the franchise since 2014. With this in mind, it is more than likely thatGears 6would narratively build off the foundations set by the likes ofGears 4andGears 5, with many of the core characters of these games and even the older franchise installments still having many unfinished character arcs and plot points.
The characters of JD and Delwere both massively important to the franchise’s overall story, which is why the decision to save one of them over the other inGears 5held so much weight. While this was a fascinating narrative decision in the short-term, The Coalition now finds itself facing the difficult task of potentially having to weave the story ofGears 6around these two branching storylines. Because of this,Gears 6may have to have two different campaigns that follow the same general framework, with one having JD in a pivotal supporting role and the other having Del.
Not only would this lead to conflicting player experiences, it would also place a lot more strain on The Coalition to produce two forms of the same campaign to a consistently high standard. Adversely, The Coalition could choose to move away from the characters of the recentGearsgames, of course then running the risk of making the narrative build-up of the past few titles essentially redundant. While the prospect of aGears 6would of course be welcomed by the franchise’s fan base, it remains that the events ofGears 5are very hard to follow-up on.
Gears 5is available now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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