Gears of War: Reloaded Review: Iconic Shooter Finally on PS5

One of the primary video games I performed on Xbox 360 was the unique Gears of War. It’s taken practically 20 years, however now I can do the unthinkable and play a surprising model on PlayStation 5. Dubbed Gears of War: Reloaded, The Coalition’s remaster of the long-lasting cowl shooter feels concurrently trendy and a throwback.

Since I’m so used to taking part in Gears with an Xbox controller, it initially felt supremely awkward with a DualSense — a lot in order that I used to be mistiming my energetic reloads. Thankfully, this hang-up of mine went away after an hour, so I might absolutely take pleasure in how the sport makes use of the adaptive triggers and get into the groove of chainsawing any enemy that received too shut. There’s actually nothing else that fairly performs like Gears of War at the moment, as you run from cowl to cowl, and open floor is sort of assured loss of life. It’s a far cry from a decade in the past, once we had a nonstop provide of canopy shooters popping out, so it really felt contemporary to play within the present gaming local weather.

One of the largest the explanation why Gears of War: Reloaded has stood the take a look at of time is the development of its marketing campaign. There are a ton of iconic scenes early on, such because the introduction of General RAAM and the Berserker, and the sport solely will get extra fascinating because it goes on, and you finally go underground. The Locust stay fascinating villains, particularly with how unpredictable their spawn factors might be, and the camaraderie in Delta-One provides the sport a singular really feel as you actually belief and put inventory in your teammates.

That’s additionally why Gears of War stays among the best co-op shooters. From its branching paths to the pure teamwork that emerges throughout fight, it’s simply tailored to be performed with a buddy. Supporting each native split-screen and on-line co-op, I extremely suggest giving Reloaded a go along with a buddy if it’s your first time taking part in (particularly on larger difficulties) because it’s a really enjoyable and rewarding expertise.

While the gritty and often-rundown look of Gears isn’t going to be a relentless graphical delight, Gears of War: Reloaded has moments the place it seems fairly beautiful (particularly on PS5 Pro, which receives PSSR assist, plus a 25% improve in render decision and higher shadows). At 4K decision and 60 FPS (120 FPS for multiplayer), the sport runs and appears nice as The Coalition has accomplished a great job remastering lots of points of Gears, from the improved lighting and textures to HDR and VRR implementation. There’s additionally an optionally available trendy management scheme that new PS5 gamers may wish to try, though I opted for the basic management scheme because it’d be arduous to get out of that muscle reminiscence.

Finally, it wouldn’t be a Gears recreation and not using a strong multiplayer providing. I’ve at all times had a blast taking part in Gears on-line, even when 2’s Horde mode is my favourite, so it’s nice having the ability to soar again in and compete with Xbox gamers because of crossplay. There’s all kinds of modes, starting from mainstays akin to Team Deathmatch and Execution to King of the Hill and intense 2v2 matches. There’s a great selection right here, so that you’ll have loads of causes to maintain taking part in when you’ve wrapped up the marketing campaign.

Gears of War: Reloaded (PS5) Review: Final Verdict

Ultimately, Gears of War: Reloaded is an effective way for PlayStation house owners to get into the sequence or for returning gamers to scratch that nostalgia itch. With cowl shooters not practically as en vogue in 2025, it’s good to see that the sport that kick-started the development continues to be a delight. Grab a buddy and dive into the marketing campaign collectively; you’ll have a good time.

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Disclosure: The writer supplied a digital copy for our Gears of War: Reloaded PS5 overview. Reviewed on model 1.004.001.