Gears 5 left us off with one hell of a cliffhanger, and fans are anticipating a sequel that will wrap up the second trilogy with an epic finale. While we don’t know many specifics, we have a few ideas about where the story is going. The biggest question is which ending is The Coalition going to stick with? Before we dive in, this title still has time to launch, so keep in mind our frequently updated lists of best PC games and best PC Game Pass games as well as our best Xbox Series X games and best PS5 games. If you haven’t purchased the latest-gen of consoles, we highly recommend checking out our Xbox Series X|PS5 reviews. And if you’re more into the imaginative play, see our best virtual tabletop software and DND tips pages. Now, here’s everything we know so far about Gears 6 as well as some things we’d love to see in the next entry to this beloved franchise.
Gears 6 release date
Surprise! We have no clue when Gears 6 is going to launch, but we do have some insight on the timeline thanks to the previous titles. There was a three year wait between Gears of War 4 and Gears 5, so logic says Gears 6 should release sometime in 2022. However, the developers say something different. On May 10, 2021, The Coalition wrote in a blog post that it would be switching over to Unreal Engine 5, and “Shifting to a new engine is a big undertaking, so we want to be clear that we will not be announcing any new projects or titles for some time.” That likely means we won’t see Gears 6 until 2023 to 2025 depending how long it takes to build things from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5. And considering how long that’ll take, it’ll likely only be available for Xbox Series X | S and PC, leaving out last-gen consoles. In a supposed leak via cache files in Nvidia GeForce Now, Gears of War 6 was found as a listing of over 18,000. Other unreleased titles in this list were Final Fantasy 9 Remake, Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster, and Half-Life 2 Remastered. It’s probably best to take this with a bit of skepticism. On the Microsoft website, a recent job listing (opens in new tab) reveals that The Coalition are aiming to hire a motion capture technician to work with the Gears franchise. Aaron Greenberg, Vice President of Xbox Games Marketing, recently claimed that players “will not have to wait too long for what’s next from us.” Considering that Xbox’s presence was quite light at 2022’s The Game Awards, we’re hoping we can see more of what the company is brewing up early in 2023.
Gears 6 story
We all know where the story is heading after that super traumatic ending. No matter which decision is canon to the overarching story, Kait Diaz and Marcus Fenix are going to be out for blood. The finale will likely entail a battle between Kait Diaz and her mother, Reyna Diaz a.k.a. Queen of the Swarm. But how is The Coalition going to handle that important choice at the end of Gears 5? Will the writing team definitively decide a canonical ending, or will Gears 6 feature two completely different instances of storytelling. This has been done before, in games like Wolfenstein, and even in bigger games like The Witcher 3. Considering Kait Diaz’s origins, there’s also a chance that the ever-evolving Swarm could survive past Gears 6 depending on the direction the writers decide to go. Either way, Kait Diaz will have to face her past and come to terms with her connection to Locusts and the Swarm.
Gears 6 gameplay
We don’t know anything about what Gears 6 gameplay will be like, but hopefully it changes. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Gears 5, but the gameplay wasn’t as impressive as it could have been. It felt like a traditional Gears game, and not in a good way. With the transition to Unreal Engine 5, I hope The Coalition goes radical with Gears 6 and spices up the gameplay by nailing down the movement to make it smoother. Getting more creative with the cover-based mechanics and stealth mechanics would also drive the series forward in a big way. The studio should look to games like Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain for inspiration. MGS V is a super-smooth cover-based shooter disguised as a stealth game. The game can’t just look next-gen, but it needs to feel like it’s next-gen. As far as the main campaign goes, I hope that Gears 6 utilizes the same open-world, RPG-esque mechanics that Gears 5 did. It was one of the best radical changes that the series has ever seen, and The Coalition needs to keep those changes to bring the Gears franchise back to the top.
Gears 6 PC minimum and recommended requirements
Since Gears 6 is going to be on Unreal Engine 5, it’s going to look gorgeous, and more than likely will need more power to run than usual. And since it’s going to take a while to launch, we can only guess what the spec requirements will be like. For reference, the minimum requirements for Gears 5 are an AMD FX-6000 series or Intel i3 Skylake CPU, 8GB of RAM and an AMD Radeon R9 280 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 GPU. Meanwhile, the recommended specs include an AMD Ryzen 3 or Intel i5 Skylake CPU, 8GB of RAM and a GTX 1060 6GB / GTX 1660 Super or Radeon RX 590 GPU. My guess is that we’ll see Nvidia’s RTX 20-series on the recommended specs if The Coalition plans on cutting out Xbox One.
Outlook
I love the Gears of War franchise, and while I started to lose interest when Gears of War 4 launched, Gears 5 resparked my joy in the series. Gears 5 was such a step forward for the franchise that I am giddy thinking about what Gears 6 will be like. It’s going to be a few years since The Coalition is officially moving to a new engine, but the wait will be worth it when we see one of the biggest titles launch on the upgraded Unreal Engine 5. We really want to see some major changes to the gameplay formula, tweaks that could keep this cover-based shooter feeling fresh in the 2020s.
