Every Gears of War Game, Ranked

This was an attempt to make a Funko Pop-themed Gears Of War mobile game that was pretty much a reskinned Clash Royale. It's not too surprising that critics didn't like this RTS game much–they said it was actually fun, but not as good as Clash Royale, and it was loaded with obnoxious free-to-play micro transactions that rubbed folks the wrong way. As is the case with so many mobile titles, the downsides were much greater than the upsides with Gears Pop!, and the game was discontinued in 2021.

"Gears POP! is a mixed bag. We appreciate the attempt to change up the Clash Royale formula, but we won't personally make the transition. Gears POP! is a busier, less balanced, and uglier game with an unsatisfying cover system that doesn't do enough to change up the formula." —Glen Fox, Gamezebo

Two years after Gears of War 3 wrapped up the trilogy's epic, personal, lore-filled story, the series shifted to this prequel, set early in the war against the Locust. Judgment follows Damon Baird and Augustus Cole, squadmates from the previous games, as they're being court-martialed. The conceit here is that their trial is the framing story, accompanied by flashbacks where players play through the trouble Baird and Cole got into that led to their present predicament.

While the score is low compared with the original games, critics didn't have a lot of specific beefs with Judgment aside from its relatively short length, and they even seemed to like the creativity of the storytelling. The issue mostly seemed to be that a largely irrelevant-to-the-big-picture side story like this felt underwhelming after Gears of War 3.

""As a side-experiment with class-based multiplayer and more aggressively arcade-influenced shooting, Gears of War: Judgment doesn't feel essential in the same way its predecessors did. If three games in five years left you with your fill of Gears of War, Judgment may not be enough to change your mind. But as a well-executed supplement to its parent series, Gears of War: Judgment is easy to recommend." —Arthur Gies, Polygon

The second remaster of the original Gears of War is most notable not for what it adds, but simply that it was released on PS5. This is the only title in the entire Gears franchise that is available on a Sony console. Reloaded also added support for higher framerates and other technical upgrades, added a new visual filter that wasn't too popular with anyone who had played Gears of War before, and included all previously released DLC. Critics thought this one was the best version of the game, but that it otherwise felt like little more than a remaster of the previous remaster—making it hard to justify its existence.

"Gears of War: Reloaded is a blast of 2000s-era sci-fi, appearing here in better shape than ever before. It's not particularly smart or clever through a modern lens, but it remains a hell of a lot of good old-fashioned fun." —Dom Leighton, TheSixthAxis

This strategy game takes the Gears of War cover-shooter system and translates it to an XCOM -style turn-based tactics game. It's a pairing that makes surprising sense, and Gears Tactics is essentially your typical Gears of War story campaign but with different gameplay. Critics were all about that particular aspect of the game, lauding its story and tactical gameplay. But they also felt that it didn't have enough going on, because it lacked any of the base-building and long-term strategy components included with an XCOM game. So even though reviewers didn't have many problems with Gears Tactics' content, it suffered by comparison to other, similar games.

"If you're looking for the full depth of tactics, decisions, and consequences in XCOM or the full spectacle, gritty beauty, and intensity of traditional Gears shooters, you're likely better off playing those, but if you would like an acceptable marriage of the two, Gears Tactics may be well worth your time." —TJ Denzer, ShackNews

The original remaster for the first Gears game was this Ultimate Edition, a thorough remaster which amped up the visuals, incorporated some gameplay features that had been added in the sequels, and included several campaign levels that had previously been exclusive to the PC version of the game. Critics agreed that the Ultimate Edition was the best way to play Gears of War at the time, but many also said the cover-shooter gameplay was starting to feel dated. Since this version arrived early in the Xbox One generation, as that particular subgenre of shooter was falling out of style, and before any new-gen Gears title had begun to modernize the franchise, that sentiment isn't too surprising.

"Gears of War: Ultimate Edition has a lot going for it, but there are certainly parts of it that have not aged too well." —Ned Jordan, Gamers' Temple

The first game in the series developed by then-new studio The Coalition, Gears of War 4 is set 25 years after the events of the trilogy and focuses on the son of a now-elderly Marcus Fenix as he and his pals Del and Kate work to uncover a new threat that may or may not be related to the long-vanquished Locust. There wasn't anything about this one that reviewers specifically cited as being terrible, but many of them took issue with the fact that it really didn't shake up the series formula as much as it should have. Gears of War 4 walked like a Gears of War game, and it talked like a Gears of War game, but in this case that wasn't exactly what critics were looking for.

"The series is certainly in safe hands, but we wish new developer The Coalition was a little bolder." —Games Master UK

Kait Diaz is the main character this time in a story campaign that features larger and more open areas than we'd seen from this series before– Gears of War levels had always been pretty linear up to this point, and the new shift made the levels in Gears 5 more chaotic. Aside from the usual slate of multiplayer modes, like Versus and Horde Mode, Gears 5 also introduced Escape, an objective-based co-op mode in which three players have to fight their way out from behind enemy lines. The bigger campaign levels and the Escape mode drew a lot of raves from critics, but they were simultaneously frustrated that Gears 5 didn't otherwise try to innovate on the franchise formula too much.

"On the whole, Gears 5 is one of the most content-packed titles around. If you're somebody, you're probably going to find something up your alley here. Revolutionary? No. The structure is very familiar, and there are bugs here and there, but this is an ambitious package that's polished in almost every way. No matter what your experience level is with these familiar faces, Gears 5 is the most accessible title in the line, and is ultimately successful in trying to be something for everyone." —Paul Sullivan, COGconnected

E-Day takes us further back in the Gears of War timeline than we've ever been, to the day that the Locust emerged from their caves and invaded the surface for the first time. The game also explores how Marcus Fenix and his hetero life-mate Dom Santiago survived those tumultuous events. Since that's years before Marcus learns any of the deep lore about the Locust, the story gets to focus almost entirely on the characters and their struggle. On the multiplayer side of things, E-Day reworks the control scheme to make it feel a bit less antiquated, and includes a new jumbo-sized Horde Siege mode, which allows 12 people to play together in Gears of War's trademark mode.

Early reviews of the story campaign hail it as the best refinement to the franchise formula yet, with better large-scale level design than Gears 5 had, though some still noted that the cover-shooter genre is seriously starting to feel long in the tooth after 20 years. Yes, that's essentially the same take they have with every new Gears title. Critics haven't yet weighed in on the online modes in E-Day, however.

"Gears of War: E-Day feels like the first true Coalition Gears of War game. It's a shift away from Gears 4 and Gears 5, and it feels like the game the studio genuinely wanted to make, capturing what made the original trilogy special while finally pushing the series forward in its own way. They've taken the horror, brutality, brotherhood, and incredible gunplay that defined those games and used them as the foundation for something more modern. ... Despite a handful of frustrations keeping it from perfection, it's one of the best games I've played this year." —Console Creatures

Two years after the catastrophic conclusion to Gears of War 2, humanity is on its last legs, and Marcus Fenix and pals have to figure out some way to end the apocalyptic war with the Locust and the Lambent before they lose everything. Reviewers were a bit divided on how much they enjoyed the story–some felt it tied up everything nicely, while others felt the plot was pretty thin–but they were nearly in lockstep on the gameplay side of things, which they claimed had been polished to perfection this time around. A few reviewers, though, bemoaned the fact that it just united the best versions of the same gameplay concepts from the previous games without really trying anything new.

"Few games offer up as much as Gears of War 3, and even fewer manage to do it this successfully. This is quite easily the best Gears of War yet, weaving excellent core mechanics together with the renewed perception of an ever-maturing developer. Once again, Epic has successfully iterated on a series that most other developers are still desperately trying to imitate." —VideoGamer

Gears of War 2 continues the story of humanity's battle against the Locust, with Marcus and his squad once more having to spend a dozen hours or so blasting bad guys in the story campaign. But what really made an impact in this one is the addition of Horde Mode, which has become one of the franchise's hallmarks.

Critics loved playing this one, especially Horde Mode, noting that the developers handled a lot of the minor annoyances from the first game and delivered a better version of Gears of War. But they weren't as complimentary toward the plot, which reviewers felt was inconsistent at best.

"Gears of War 2 isn't quite the landmark title that first game was, but it's still one of the best third-person shooters ever made." —Kombo

Coming off its strong marketing campaign, featuring the famous "Mad World" teaser, Gears of War made a heck of a splash when it was released in 2006 and first introduced us to Marcus Fenix and his war against the invading, subterranean Locust. It was one of the first cover shooters that folks actually liked playing both in the campaign and online multiplayer, it looked shockingly gorgeous for its day, and it wasn't filled with bugs on release. These three things led critics to fall head over heels in love with Gears of War, even while many criticized its storytelling for being rather empty and free of context. It was just so fun and novel that it didn't matter that the story wasn't all that.

"A wicked game of hide-and-seek with high-powered future guns, which delivers one of the most heart-pounding and graphically thrilling experiences of the year. If its exciting campaign doesn't rope you in, chances are the team-based multiplayer will--either way, Gears of War is downright amazing." —GameSpot