Gears of War 4 Prologue Debut Gives Me Mixed Feelings

The Gears of War 4 Prologue debut excites me because, more Gears, but also takes away from my first 20 minutes of playing the game…

Xbox has graced and cursed us with 20 minutes of the Gears of War 4 prologue. The prologue sets the stage for what’s to come in the campaign. Every Gears game has always had an iconic opening prologue, from Marcus’ prison break from the first game to his nightmare flashback in Gears 3. Gears of War 4 looks top that with what I believe is the longest of the Gears yet. I haven’t watched it yet and not sure I want to, so here’s the information on it straight from Microsoft:

Dropping players straight into the action at the opening of the game, Prologue immerses you in a series of pivotal moments from the Gears of War universe never before seen in a Gears videogame – including Emergence Day and a key battle from the Pendulum Wars.

After a brief introduction by The Coalition’s Studio Head Rod Fergusson and Lead Campaign Designer Matt Searcy, our uncut gameplay of Prologue will have you joining the fight across three decades of Gears history: the COG’s raid on UIR forces to secure the Hammer of Dawn technology at Aspho Fields, Emergence Day at the House of Sovereigns, and the Locust’s siege of Anvil Gate.

You can play Prologue for yourself when Gears of War 4 launches worldwide on October 11 on Xbox One and Windows 10! Fans who pre-order Gears of War 4 from their local retailer, including Microsoft Stores and microsoftstore.com will receive the “Brothers to the End” Elite Gear Pack — featuring unique character skins Old Man Marcus, Zombie Dom, and Tomorrow Anya — plus the entire Xbox 360 Gears of War collection for Xbox One at no additional cost.

Xbox also announced more details about the “Gears of War 4: Live” broadcast event, airing at 3PM PT on October 5. The livestream will be broadcast on Xbox One, Xbox 360, Xbox.com, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Beam.

Hosted by Paul Scheer (The League, Children’s Hospital), Jessica Chobot (Nerdist News), Larry Hryb (Xbox Live’s Major Nelson), Scott Robison (Mr. Sark), and Justine Ezarik (iJustine), “Gears of War 4: Live” will feature interviews with the game’s creators, including The Coalition Studio Head Rod Fergusson, as well as behind-the-scenes featurettes, exclusive gameplay, a special project by British inventor Colin Furze, and the reveal of hip-hop phenoms Run the Jewels’ in-game multiplayer characters. Full details around the “Gears of War 4: Live” event are available on Xbox Wire.

Gears of War 4 is less than two weeks away, less than 10 days if you pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition, so of course news about the game is going to ramp up and give us more. But I kind of don’t want to be given the beginning of the game to be given to me. I mean it’s just a prologue, and I guess I can then skip it so I can go straight into the game when I get it. At the same time, I love well-crafted prologue movies and want to experience it on my home system instead of my day job computer… I’ll probably watch it on my lunch break, and assume that the developers and the folks at Xbox know that giving us the prologue will not take away from the experience.