ypically when a studio sits down
to envision how a new project
might take shape, the creative
leads exile themselves to a room
to create a mission statement: a
broad outline of objectives that
they’d like the team to accomplish with the time and
budget that it has been allocated. For Gears 5, Rod
Fergusson, The Coalition’s studio head and creative
director, stood up in front of the entire office and
outlined what he calls the ‘Commander’s Intent’.
His aim was to do something with Gears Of War
that had never been done before. “Our goal with
Gears 5 was to challenge expectations. Gears Of War
is seen as a corridor shooter, a game where you’regoing from point A to point B and the way that you
interact with the world is through the end of a gun,”
Fergusson tells us, as we sit down at The Coalition’s
studio in Vancouver, Canada. “We wanted to find
ways to make that experience more interesting. We
wanted to shake up the formula without losing what
makes Gears Of War... well, Gears Of War.”
Gears 5 didn’t have an ordinary development
cycle because it is no ordinary game. For starters,
it’s undoubtedly the most challenging game the
studio has attempted to engineer; the team was
driven by a desire to prove what it is truly capable of
after turning around its recreation of Delta Squad’s
first mission in Gears Of War: Ultimate Edition and
its homage to past adventures in Gears Of War 4.T
WANT TO KNOW HOW GAME PASS COULD CHANGE THE WAY
DEVELOPERS CREATE AND SUPPORT GAMES? YOU NEED ONLY LOOK
AT GEARS 5 TO GET YOUR FIRST LOOK INTO THE WAY XBOX
GAMES STUDIOS IS CHANGING THE STATE OF PLAY
JOSH WESTOF WAR
RETO LING
GEARS 5
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 059