Almost two decades ago, Marcus Fenix and the Delta Squad entered the Xbox gaming space, kicking off a franchise that has spawned multiple sequels, spin-offs, remasters, and more. Now, with a prequel on the horizon aiming to shake up the series, Microsoft has brought in the Gears of War: Reloaded remaster to reintroduce the classic action heroes and the villains from below to audiences both new and old.
If you remember the original already receiving a remaster, you’d be correct. The 2015-released Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was made to match the Xbox One era of gaming, and 10 years later, we have another remaster that builds upon that version. Aside from visual upgrades and higher frame rates, this release is also touting things like full crossplay and cross-progression across any platform, applying Microsoft’s latest design philosophies.
The Reloaded release marks a special occasion for the franchise. This will be the first time that Gears of War is hopping over to the Sony camp and unleashing PlayStation fans on the Locust Horde. Even after all these years, the series has a platform problem. Let me break it down. With this remaster, the first entry in the series is out on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, but the rest of the trilogy is still stuck on the Xbox 360 version, alongside the Judgment spin-off. Meanwhile, Gears 4 and 5 are on Xbox and PC. So far, the E-Day prequel is coming to PC and Xbox, though a PlayStation version is likely. Where are my complete trilogy remasters, Microsoft?
For this review, I was unfortunately unable to get into any multiplayer matches due to my matchmaking region and the number of players available during the pre-release stage. I have gone through the entirety of the campaign solo, enduring more than a few hiccups in the stability and NPC AI side of things. It was still a good nostalgia trip through the ruined streets of Sera.
With all that out of the way, here are the thoughts I gathered on the experience as I played Gears of War: Reloaded on PC.
Gears of War: Reloaded
Gears of War served as a tremendous introduction to the fictional world of Sera and its horrors. Heavy on the gore and light on retrospectives, the campaign simply dumps you into the shoes of Marcus Fenix and expects you to go along with the ride, and somehow, it just works. The world is ending, let’s go save it.
For those who’ve yet to experience it, the story begins over a decade after a horde of monsters (simply dubbed the Locust Horde) comes out of the deepest caverns to attack the human civilization on the surface, and our newly pardoned protagonist walks out of prison to join the war once again. There’s not much explaining going on other than the directive to kill everything that looks like a monster, and for an action game, that’s all I need.
From the start, it"s a non-stop push to the finish line with no breaks, showcasing a final push by humanity to stop the threat. There are little hints and dialog lines here and there about what these characters have gone through or what exactly is at stake, but we never linger on those moments to break the constant march forward. I have missed this kind of tight pacing in games, and I think it’s something that’s missing in the post-trilogy games in the series.
Fenix is joined by a few memorable characters throughout the entire campaign, with the remaining members of the Delta squad being the most iconic. Dom with his no-nonsense but good-hearted attitude, Cole and his over-the-top personality, and Baird’s non-stop sarcasm, mesh together for an entertaining stream of dialogue that never comes off as awkward.
Being a remaster, the story, gameplay, gunplay, and the innovative (for the time) cover shooter systems are all the same in Reloaded. I had a blast ripping apart Locusts with my Chainsaw Bayonets, caving in newly created ground breaches using trusty grenades before enemies poured out of them, avoiding Berserker charges, and picking off heads with my trusty sniper rifle.
The visuals are crisp thanks to the updated 4K assets and textures, as well as the overhauled lighting and visual effects. While in my mind the original game already looked this good when I played it all those years ago, just one look at some comparisons makes me realize just how far we have come. Somehow, the remaster has managed to make things look even moodier, but there are actual colors I could see instead of everything being drowned in a blurry brown filter. Always a plus in my book.
Gears of War was the first Xbox Live-enabled PC game I played well over a decade ago. Games for Windows Live being a pain is still a core memory for me, but also things like the Shrieker fight, General Raam, Delta Squad antics, and the literal chainsaw attached to a machine gun made me an instant fan of the series. Unfortunately, the rest of the trilogy escaped me due to console exclusivity. I’m definitely on some strong nostalgia as I’m praising the classic campaign, but I have no reason not to commend good gameplay and pacing.
Returning annoyances and fresh crashes
While the visuals are rich, and the systems that made the original such a beloved classic have been kept intact, the remaster has also kept the annoyances alive. NPC AI is one of the worst offenders here.
Dom got stuck on random terrain or pieces of debris multiple times. While the AI teammates usually teleport near Marcus when he gets far enough away, in some instances, they actually need to walk into a location for the next stage of the mission or interactable element to start. This is where getting stuck ‘under the map’ or ‘random pieces of barrel’ had me at least doubling back to retrieve my stuck companion or restarting from a checkpoint a few times. The same also happens with enemies and bosses, though this technically helps with fights, my immersion gets killed off.
I get it, this is an amazing two-player cooperative game to jump into with a friend. However, I would have liked to see some overhauls to how my squad or the major bosses pathfind themselves through the terrain or stop getting stuck on random pieces of garbage.
Another issue I faced was some audio crackling in missions during heavy gunfights as the music blared in the background. This only happened in a few missions, so it wasn’t a massive issue, though it’s one that quickly took me out of the moment. Other annoyances included music completely going missing during a certain underground boss fight and not being able to sprint through doors, as the automatic kick animation did not do anything.
Now for the most extreme problem I faced: crashes. I managed to crash to the desktop while loading up the game, while running the built-in benchmark tool, while loading into a mission, while watching cutscenes, while playing missions, and at more random places. In the eight or so hours I have played Gears of War: Reloaded for this review, I have crashed at least 10 times. It didn’t seem to matter what graphics options I used or if I was in a specific area; the title would randomly crash without any error codes, but the next time I ran it, I could simply go through that area or menu with no issues. Since the game runs on a checkpoint system, having to redo entire sections of missions because of a crash near the end wasn’t a very fun or engaging experience.
An update already came through for the pre-release version as I was reviewing the game. While I don’t have a changelog to go through, I was told it had some bug fixes. It’s clear that the development team is still working on the title. I am hoping for more of these updates and quick rollouts, for at least resolving the crashes I experienced on PC.
Performance
While Gears of War: Reloaded can be unstable at points, performance seems to be spectacular. My machine has an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB paired with an eight-core Ryzen 7 3700X and 16GB of RAM, with the game running at 1440p resolution. The game is also installed on an NVMe SSD.
With everything maxed out and all upscaling disabled, my frame rates were easily staying well over a hundred at all stages. You can check out the benchmark results I received from the in-game tool below.
I have no trouble believing that this remaster will run great even on decade-old hardware. For those that require a bump in performance, upscaling options like AMD FSR and Nvidia DLSS are here as well. It’s even Steam Deck Verified if you’re going the handheld route.
Conclusion
Despite the original game shining through with a fresh coat of paint and sharper visuals, I had to suffer through numerous crashes while reviewing the PC version. Age-old issues like horrible NPC pathing and bosses getting stuck on debris, as well as new ones involving audio and music, weren’t great experiences.
I am expecting Gears of War: Reloaded to be much more stable on the console side, like it has always been with earlier releases. Having this release on PlayStation 5 also gives a brand-new audience a chance to see what exactly all this hype is about. If you’re looking to get a nice nostalgia hit, I don’t see why you should skip out on a fresh campaign run-through. Maybe call up an old friend or two.
If you’re here for nostalgia and don’t mind a few rough edges, Reloaded delivers. If you’re on PC and allergic to crashes, wait for a patch.
Like I said before, I couldn’t try out the multiplayer during the pre-release review period. Though from what I saw during the multiplayer beta weekends, the fast-paced action is back without many changes, which may be exactly what veterans are looking for. Benefits like crossplay for an aged title like this cannot be overlooked either.
If you’ve yet to jump into the franchise, the $40 price tag is a rather enticing one, especially with the Gears of War: E-Day prequel looming. Don’t forget that if you bought The Ultimate Edition prior to the Reloaded announcement, you’re also getting the new version for free, too. After going through this remaster, I’m just hoping that at least the complete original trilogy gets the same treatment after all these years, especially considering they are still regarded as the best in the series.
Gears of War: Reloaded launches on August 26, 2025, on PC via Steam and Microsoft Store, as well as Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, with a $39.99 price tag. It will also be available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (with cloud play) and PC Game Pass on the same day.
This review was conducted on a pre-release PC version of the game provided by Microsoft.