Gears 5 reviews have started rolling out, and the game itself will become available to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers beginning Friday, September 6. Others will no doubt wait until September 10 to buy Gears 5, but they may be on the fence for one reason or another. One thing people like to know before they commit to buying a new game is how long it takes to beat, and while the Gears of War games have not been known to be particularly long, the Gears 5 campaign may be the longest yet, especially for completionists.
We've completed the Gears 5 campaign and can confirm that there are four Acts. Past Gears of War games typically have had five Acts, so some may think that's a little short, but there are a few chapters in these Acts that literally take hours, so it evens out. Overall, it should take between eight to 12 hours to beat the Gears 5 campaign depending on difficulty level and how thoroughly one explores the game world, and that latter factor is what potentially makes this campaign even longer than past games.
Gears 5 has open world elements, where players are free to explore large areas in search of collectibles and side quests. Side quests certainly weren't a part of the Gears of War series until now, and that combined with the increased focus on exploration will definitely add hours on to one's playtime.
It's worth mentioning that there are levels in Gears 5 that are 50 times bigger than the levels in previous games, just to give players an idea of exactly how much ground they will have to cover if they hope to find everything.
Something else that adds replayability to the campaign is the inclusion of JACK as a playable character. JACK offers a different kind of experience than playing as the human characters, and since there are achievements tied to playing as him, completionists may want to do a run through the campaign as Gears 5's friendly robot.
Of course, Gears 5 has much more than just the campaign mode for players to play through. Horde mode and Versus both return, and they're joined by a new mode called Escape. Depending on how much one enjoys these modes, Gears 5 has near-endless replay value, so fans should keep that in mind as well.
Gears 5 launches on September 10 for PC and Xbox One.