It hard to deny the impact that 2018’s God of War had. People were amazed at just how much Santa Monica were able to achieve in a single game, inlcuding Gears 5 developer The Coalition. In talking with Telegraph, art director Aryan Hanbeck explained how God of War’s semi-open world design, similar to that of a Metroidvania game, was something that The Coalition really leaned into when creating Gears 5.
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. – Aryan Hanbeck, Gears 5 Art Director
While developers getting influence from other games isn’t a rare thing, what makes this so noteworthy is how different God of War and Gears 5 are from each other. The influence in question is in regards to how God of War expertly gives the player a world to explore while also pointing them in the direction they should go, a fine line which is easy to get wrong.
Gears 5 is the sixth entry into the Gears of War franchise on the Xbox ecosystem and early impressions seem very positive. It is releasing on September 10th for the Xbox One and PC platforms, with an early access period starting from September 6th for people with an Ultimate Edition preorder or Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
