Gears 5 dev took cues from God of War when designing the game's semi-open world
Gears 5 developer The Coalition was so impressed by certain elements in God of War's world design it deiced to borrow them.
Gears 5 and the God of War reboot are similar in that they both represent a major shift in the structure of their story campaigns, most notably with the reliance on semi-open areas over more focused, linear levels.
According to developer The Coalition, there was a lot the Gears 5 team could learn from God of War. "For me, God of War was a big one," art director Aryan Hanbeck told Telegraph.
"They're not exactly the same scenario we have, but they do such a good job of pointing you to specific places, giving you visual cues that are consistent throughout the whole game.
"And it was such a fun game to play that we really took a lot of a lot of little cues from that, but tweaked to make sure it fits our experience."
As Hanbeck points out, God of War did indeed funnel players into its more bespoke sections without losing the feel open areas brought to the game. Studio head Rod Fergusson added that while expectations can be their own burden, the team needs to be able to learn from the broader industry.
"What's interesting for us and why we talked about the variety of gameplay is because we look at what the industry is today," said Fergusson.
Gears 5 Ultimate Edition early access kicks off this Friday, with the official release being September 10. We've prepared a story with all the details you might need, such as pre-load and launch times, day one content and more.