Gears of War 4 could have been a first-person shooter, according to the series' original designer who recently revealed his initial vision for the fourth installment in the franchise, describing a radically different game to the one Microsoft ended up greenlighting. This bit of insight into the project arrived not long after The Coalition started hiring for a new Gears of War game.
The Canadian studio was given the reins of the series after Microsoft acquired the IP in 2014. But the franchise itself was created by former Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszinski, who also served as the lead designer on the original Gears of War trilogy. The industry veteran who's also known for his work on the Unreal series ended up taking a career hiatus after Microsoft bought the rights to the franchise and decided to play it safe with Gears of War 4, though he already had concept for the next game by the time Epic games started negotiating a sale.
Appearing on a recent episode of the XboxEra podcast, Bleszinski revealed that he initially envisioned Gears of War 4 as an FPS. Elaborating on that idea, the famous designer hinted that he was primarily motivated by the rule of cool, asking the interviewer if he could "imagine chainsawing a Locust in first-person [view]." Given Bleszinski's contributions to the Unreal franchise, arguably one of the most iconic FPS series to date, it's certainly possible that Gears of War 4 could have pulled off such a perspective shift. During the same interview, Bleszinski also revealed that Xbox chief Phil Spencer wanted Gears of War to feature more horror elements following the Microsoft acquisition.
While Microsoft might not have been eager to stray away from the formula immediately after acquiring the series in 2014, the company did demonstrate a willingness to experiment with the IP some five years into its ownership. It first did so with 2019's Gears POP, an online real-time strategy game for PC and mobile born out of a collaboration with vinyl figurine manufacturer Funko. Its Clash Royale-inspired design received mediocre reviews and was met with a lukewarm response from the fandom, resulting in the Gears POP servers shutting down after just 18 months.
Even once it became apparent that Gears POP was a commercial failure, The Coalition was not discouraged from continuing to explore spinoff possibilities. In 2020, it released a much more successful experiment in the form of Gears Tactics, a turn-based strategy co-developed with British studio Splash Damage. Given that track record of increasing leniency with the popular IP, a Gears FPS reminiscent of Bleszinski's original vision for Gears of War 4 might not be outside the realm of possibility moving forward.
Gears of War 4 is available for PC and Xbox One.
Source: VGC