Right before Gears 5 launched, it was confirmed that Dave Bautita would be in the game under his WWE ring name "Batista." Gears 5 is adding Batista as part of a crossover promotion with WWE's Clash of Champions pay-per-view, and since that event has concluded, players can finally unlock Batista in the game.
When Batista was first confirmed for Gears 5, it was unclear if he would be his own distinct character or if he would just be a skin for Marcus Fenix. We know now that Batista is in fact a Marcus skin, available through the Marcus customization menu. This means that Batista has Marcus's Ultimate ability and stats, so he's not a completely new character that will shake up the Horde meta as some may have hoped.
To unlock Batista in Gears 5, players simply need to play the game between now and October 28. Anyone that does so will have Batista in their Marcus customization menu. At this point, we're not sure if Batista will be available after the October 28 date as paid DLC or not, so anyone that wants "The Animal" in Gears 5 will want to make it a point to play the game sometime between now and then.
Batista's appearance in Gears 5 is mainly to promote the WWE Clash of Champions pay-per-view, but The Animal was added for another reason as well - the Gears of War movie. It's no secret that Batista wants to be in the Gears of War movie as Marcus Fenix, as he has been actively campaigning for the role on social media for years. A Gears of War movie is in development, but there has been no casting announcements, so we don't know if Batista's dream will come true.
But even if Batista doesn't get cast as Marcus in the Gears of War movie, at least fans can get an idea of what it would be like by swapping to the Batista skin in Gears 5. In the meantime, fans can expect other new characters to make their way to Gears 5, including ones that will be full-blown characters instead of just an alternate skin. More information on new Gears 5 characters should come to light in the coming months.
Gears 5 is out now for PC and Xbox One.