Short and bloody cute, Gears 5: Hivebusters stirs the flurry with the urgency of a rattling lancer who rarely slows down when it hits the bull’s eye with its cover-based firefights. The restless exploration of the open world introduced in Gears 5 is nowhere to be found, as is Kait Diaz or the Fenix family. Instead, we see Gears do what it does best: mulch the meat of the Locus Horde. Players experience this familiar action through the immense chaos of Scorpio Squad, a group of misfits gathered on a suicide mission.
Scorpion Squad is the team introduced in Gears 5’s Escape mode, and Hivebusters tells their story of how they came up. You must sacrifice yourself to dispose of a massive hive – a selfless act that could save all of Sera. This narrative moves on quickly but has no short term. Leslie Macallister, Lahni Kaliso and Jeremiah Keegan, who traveled to the lava-rich and beautifully realized Galangi Islands, are having great fun and exaggerated jokes. They move through jungles and caves while tracking down the beehive, as well as something else that is large and unexpected that spews out a poison. The story and the narrative truck go well together and make up the three hours it takes to fly by.
The squad is armed with a familiar arsenal, but they are without Jack – a flying robotic helper who previously provided support functions. To make up for Jack’s absence, each character has a different Ultimate that runs on a cooldown and can be improved through upgrades. Mac uses a useful energy shield, Keegan creates ammunition, and Lahni has fun with an electrified knife, the best of the three. The ultimatums change the game, how often they can be used, and how much they help the team.
Most firefights throw caution to the wind and bombard the player with all kinds of enemies attacking from any vector. Locust foot soldiers take cover behind barriers, howling jujies jump from the trees and swarms dance overhead. The intensity that some of these firefights reach is fantastic, and developer The Coalition does a great job changing them from moment to moment. You will have to crouch for a minute and hold the line when enemies approach. For the next minute, you can use the environment as a weapon to melt or annihilate enemies. Many of the fights are decently long and result in a satisfactory mess. The coalition’s fingerprint pushes the player so far they feel overwhelmed, and then elevates it by initiating a boss-like encounter at the end.
Given the speed at which environments can be explored, the annoying transitions to other areas where the team must cut grapevines, climb a cliff, or break a door are very common and slow the ardent pace, but there are only minor mistakes an otherwise outstanding Gears of War experience.
Hivebusters doesn’t have the variety or structure of the world of Gears core games and doesn’t take any chances that way, but is a fun alternative that I’d love to see more of. It’s nice to learn more about the characters in this universe, one of whom twists a double middle finger in the face of danger, which is maybe the Gears of War thing I’ve ever seen.
