For those of us who played it at launch (or saw it teased to the tune of Gary Jules Mad World), Gears of War carved its first mark deep. How could it not? The whine of its absurd chainsaw bayonets, the snap of cover mechanics that changed third-person shooters forever, and the sheer terror of that first encounter with a Berserker. This wasn’t just another shooter. Gears was the reason you showed your mates why you pulled the trigger on an Xbox 360 instead of a PS3.
Now, two decades later, The Coalition has gone back to the start with Gears of War Reloaded. This isn’t a quick texture pass or a lazy port. It’s a full-blooded overhaul that makes one of the most important shooters of its era feel like it belongs in 2025. The studio has worked with Sumo Digital and Disbelief to make sure that every aspect of this thing screams modern. And for the first time in history, PlayStation faithful finally get to wrap their hands around a bloodthirsty Lancer.
Let’s not forget, we’ve been here before with 2015’s Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on Xbox One and PC. At the time it looked sharp, but the campaign was still stuck at 30 frames per second, and though multiplayer had a smoother 60, the whole package topped out at 1080p. HDR wasn’t even in the conversation yet, and textures were only lightly buffed. It was a solid remaster but it never felt like a full rebuild.
Reloaded makes Ultimate look like a proof of concept. The campaign now runs in 4K at 60 frames per second on PS5. Multiplayer gets the royal treatment with 120fps options if your display can handle it. HDR has been added across the board, and the result is explosive.
Textures have been rebuilt in 4K, lighting has been reworked, shadows and reflections have been sharpened, and post-processing effects like bloom and motion blur have been dragged into the present. Even better, loading screens have been curb stomped like a downed grub. That might sound like a minor footnote, but the difference in pacing is enormous. Instead of hitting a brick wall every time the game needed to spool up assets, everything just flows.
Of course, no Gears experience is complete without multiplayer. Reloaded takes no shortcuts here. All 19 classic maps are back and remastered with new textures and detail. Every multiplayer mode that defined the series is included. That means you get Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Execution, Warzone, 2v2 Gnasher Execution, Assassination, and Annex. Nothing is chopped up for DLC or locked behind a storefront. Everything is unlockable through play.
The technical foundation has also been modernised. Servers now run at 60Hz instead of 30, which makes every shot land cleaner and every movement feel sharper. Regional coverage is wider too, so Aussies, Kiwis, and players outside North America won’t be stuck on laggy connections. Speaking of love-ins, cross-play is in from the start, letting Xbox, PC, and PlayStation players unite, fight, and find out who is number one.
For me, the biggest improvement is in the schizophrenic weapon balancing of the original multi. The absolute godly Gnasher shotgun has finally been tuned down from Excalibur status. Spread is tighter, damage is more consistent, and hit recognition is solid. Likewise, active Reload bonuses have been standardised across all weapons too, so you won’t get screwed by random damage spikes anymore.
Reloaded might be coming to everything, but the PS5 edition has some unique tricks. The DualSense controller is used brilliantly. You can feel the weight of the Lancer through adaptive triggers, and every explosion and bullet impact is transmitted through haptics (though I have to say that the fixed gun trigger effects are waaay too rigid). As you’d expect, the speaker pipes through radio chatter and reload clicks, while the light bar syncs to in-game events; small and novel touches that I nevertheless got a kick out of.
If you’re running on a PS5 Pro, Reloaded gets extra juice. Resolution in 60fps campaign and multiplayer modes climbs from 1440p to 1620p before being upscaled to 4K using Sony’s Spectral Super Resolution. 120fps multiplayer modes jump from 1080p to 1440p. Shadow quality has been boosted with higher resolution sampling, and reflections are much cleaner. The result is a game that doesn’t just keep up with native PlayStation exclusives but often outshines them.
When it comes to splashes of new paint, lighting is the most obvious leap forward. On Xbox One, environments often looked flat, with sources bleeding across surfaces in ways that betrayed the age of the tech. On PS5, HDR and modern lighting models give every scene depth. In the ruined cities, shafts of light cut through broken windows with volumetric sharpness. Shadows are deep and properly cast, hugging rubble and architecture. Wet surfaces glisten with reflections that react to your movement, giving firefights a cinematic sheen.
Textures have been overhauled top to bottom, too. Stone walls now have cracks, grime, and chipped edges you can almost feel. COG armour looks battered and war-torn, with scratches and dents etched into the surface. On Xbox One, those same assets often looked plastic, too smooth to convince. Character models benefit from better sampling and anti-aliasing, so Marcus Fenix’s iconic scowl has wrinkles and definition instead of looking like a painted-on grimace.
Post-processing has been reworked too. Explosions erupt with bloom that feels properly hot in HDR. Depth of field is more cinematic, shifting your focus during cutscenes and firefights. Motion blur has been tuned so it sells speed without smearing detail.
The improvements aren’t just cosmetic. The jump from 30fps on Xbox One to 60fps on PS5 transforms combat. The old version always felt a touch sluggish in big firefights. Now everything is sharper, snappier, and more responsive. Every shotgun blast lands harder, every roadie run feels urgent, and the pacing of fights benefits from the smoother framerate.
The Berserker chase is a perfect example. On Xbox One, the whole section was a foggy mess, with bland textures and muted lighting. On PS5, the creature towers with terrifying clarity. Firelight reflects off its carapace. Crumbling stone and splintered wood litter the ground. The whole set piece, once frightening thanks to audio design alone, is now visually overwhelming too.
Even scale has been touched up. Draw distances have been pushed out, giving environments more room to breathe. Battlefields stretch further into the horizon. Skies and skylines look like vast painted canvases instead of blurry backdrops. The world feels bigger, harsher, and more believable.
Essentially, Gears of War Reloaded is almost everything you’d want a modern re-release to be. It respects the bones of the original while upgrading almost every piece of connective tissue (friendly AI is still too boneheaded on Hardcore difficulty for my tastes). The campaign otherwise runs like a dream, multiplayer has been rebuilt with fairness and stability in mind, and the visuals have had the kind of glow-up that makes it hard to go back.
This review was made possible by a no strings attached code provided by the publisher.
