September is poised to be a very busy month for shooter fans as huge games like Borderlands 3 and Destiny 2: Shadowkeep are set to launch around the same time. The next entry in Microsoft's popular third person shooter franchise, Gears of War, has also settled on a September release date, though fans will get to go hands on with Gears 5 very soon in the first multiplayer tech test. In advance of the first session later this week, The Coalition released a new trailer giving fans a glimpse at what they can expect.

Promising a jump-in/jump-out style experience, the standard Gears 5 team deathmatch has evolved into what is now called Arcade mode. Unlike previous games, players will be selecting a specialized hero character, each with their own passive abilities, loadouts, upgrade tree, and kill bounty. The tech test will feature these five heroes to pick from:

Hunter Class - Kait / Swarm Hunter

  • Passive: Increased Movement Speed
  • Bounty: Execute for an additional Skull
  • Loadout: Hammerburst, Talon Autopistol, Smoke Grenade
  • Upgrades: Boltok, Incendiary Grenades, Torque Bow

Support Class - JD / Swarm Drone

  • Passive: Spot enemies who damage you and grant health to allies who kill the enemy spotted.
  • Bounty: Multi-kill for an additional Skull.
  • Loadout: Lancer, Snub Pistol, Flashbangs
  • Upgrades: 3 Random Weapon upgrade slots of varying quality

Heavy Class - Del/Scion

  • Passive: Kills grant a stim. Extra health above the normal maximum.
  • Bounty: Multi-kill for an additional Skull
  • Loadout: Hammerburst, Talon Autopistol
  • Upgrades: Buzzkill, Mulcher, RL-4 Salvo

CQB Class - Marcus/Swarm Grenadier

  • Passive: Increased cover slide speed and distance
  • Bounty: Execute for an additional Skull
  • Loadout: Enforcer, Snub Pistol, Smoke Grenade
  • Upgrades: Shock Grenades, Gnasher, Breaker Mace

Sniper Class - Fahz/Swarm Sniper

  • Passive: Immune to flinching when aiming down the sights or fully scoped
  • Bounty: Headshot kill for an additional Skull
  • Loadout: Lancer, Talon Autopistol, Flashbang
  • Upgrades: Boltok, Marzka, Longshot

As teased above, skulls are a key mechanic in Arcade as they allow players to upgrade during a match. They're not streak rewards either as they're retained whether the player has died or switches to a different class. Each elimination awards a skull to that player, with bonus skulls earned from completing the bounty tied to that specific class.

Players will also discover during the technical test sessions that Arcade mode features a few more tweaks not present in the other multiplayer modes. For example, headshot damage is boosted which gives every weapon an opportunity to pop an enemy head. In addition, slide cancels have a longer cooldown and wall bounces have been removed entirely in an effort to keep the gameplay firmly centered on the cover to cover action.

Gears 5 will launch on September 10 for PC and Xbox One.

Source: Gears 5