We’re exactly six months out from the release of Gears of War 4, and Microsoft put up a cinematic trailer last night to promote it.
The trailer, titled Gears of War 4 – Tomorrow, clocks in at just under a minute but teases a bit of information about just what is going on. Set to Disturbed’s cover of the Simon and Garfunkel classic The Sound of Silence, the video is without a doubt going for the same vibe that made the Mad World trailer for Gears of War such a phenomenon. The whole motif of ‘contrast quiet music with a chaotic scene’ isn’t particularly original, nor is it subtle. Then again, this series has never been known for its nuanced storytelling.
Gears of War 4 takes place 25 years after the end of the third title. The trailer consists of two sequences intercut; the first showing protagonist JD Fenix (son of original trilogy hero Marcus Fenix) in the present day, being chased through a forest by an unseen enemy during a particularly nasty storm. The second calls back to JD as a child, helping plant a tree with his mother and father on their family farm on the planet Sera. It ends with JD fighting off an enemy in the darkness and revealing…well, watch it for yourself.
While there is no gameplay shown in the trailer per se, we do get a glimpse of the game’s weather effects, which promise to affect the game world in some unique and interesting ways. As for the story (maybe) revealed within the trailer, there are a lot of questions which have arisen, mostly having to do with what the flashback means in terms of the overall Gears fiction. Is that Anya with Marcus and JD? Is she JD’s mother? If so, wasn’t she supposed to be sterile or something? Maybe he was adopted? Does it even matter?
There will likely be more information forthcoming as Gears of War 4 nears its release on October 11, 2016. Stay tuned to learn more.
