Problems with Horde and Kadar event

Gears 5 is here again and this time they have something new with Operation 6. This means new characters: Colonel Victor Hoffman, Queen Reyna and locust Zealot. It also comes with a new… well not new a map from the past called Speyer. We are overall disappointed with it. Like that’s all. That’s not going to bring in new players or change anything really. We like new characters though. Just stop messing around and give us Aaron Griffin!!!! The Coalition need to step it up. 

Now this isn’t about about Operation 6. We always did like Hoffman and locust Zealot does look real cool. Don’t like how Queen Reyna looks though but hey. Tis is about horde and some issues it has. Even the new event which came with Operation 6 called ‘Escape from Kadar’. So lets’ get right into it. Horde overall is our favourite thing in Gears 5. We have survived hundreds of waves solo (with random players) and in a team. We have beaten inconceivable difficulty many times, even in Escape mode. So yes we are more than authoritative and relatable as a source of information.

Horde needs an additional resource for players. Players use their collected energy to power up themselves with passives like increased health, ammo regeneration, critical damage etc. This is very good and cool but then this means players aren’t donated their enemy to the fabricator for the mechanics t build strong defences. After all you need to be powerful to survive so you priorities yourself first instead of the team. They need to make it so that collecting energy contributes to both a energy and maybe boost points or experience points which you can use for upgrading yourself and the energy for fabricator or building. So yeah, they need a second resource management bar.

Now let’s talk about one big problem, actually scratch that – two! Two big problems with one literally being bigger. Firstly the Swarmak. This big good for nothing son of a pharaoh results in an instant loss. It’s presence means you lose. It spawns in and just heads straight for your base. It doesn’t take it’s time. If you aren’t under shelter or up in a really high place where the boltok spawns in Gridlock then you are screwed. Fences don’t stop it, sentry don’t stop it. Nothing stops it! We hit it with the demolitionists ultimate ability, had brawlers set it on fire and even a whole team attack it and it doesn’t die in time. Sure there can be exceptions like two demolitionists using their ultimates and then lancer grenade launch missiles spam with boom shots maybe but then another spawns to take it’s place which is stupid design. Why another? You out of resources by then. Regardless even if the whole team faced the swarmak, the whole horde are still coming for you including pouncers who jump right into your base, scions with heavy weapons and more. The Coalition got the formula right in Gears 4. The Brumak would sit back and fire it’s guns and missiles from a distance then after while it then makes it’s approach. It’s like it either waits until you almost killed all enemies or after a certain period of time. Do that developers instead of have the swarmak comes straight for our base and destroy everything. It’s better for the team to run straight at the swarmak and get themselves killed to so when they start again they get a different boss and keep all their fortifications alive, saving energy.

The Guardians and Sentinels are huge problem and simply put have no business in Horde. These guys are fast, deal immense damage and worst of all have large amounts of health then on top of that… they have shields. Cool design but shouldn’t be in horde. Imagine this. You have a nice base with great defence and sentries. Wave starts. A Sentinel shows up and heads straight for your base. It flies OVER all your defences and parks itself right in the back of your base while spraying it’s Tri-gun (which is like the strongest weapon in the game) killing everyone. If you are allow health class like demolition, marksman, mechanic etc you go down within half a second on inconceivable difficulty. We have seen it wipe out a whole team before. It doesn’t care about defences as it flies over. It’s so strong that you aren’t beating it 1v1 unless you are a Gunner class or maybe Pilot in your silver back. The shields get stronger in later waves too for some reason. You manage to get it’s shield down bu then it flies away behind cover out of reach so you can’t get it. Then comes back with it’s shield again. Wasting your ammo and time. So you need a team to face it which means less or no one is focusing on the horde coming to you since you are either fighting or reviving downed teammates. It can also straight up kill a downed person too which is unfair. Guardians are worse as they have salvo rockets which can down groups at the same time even when trying to revive. They can truly ruin a good run. Shriekers from Gears of War 3 were fine because they had really low heath but if ignored can really weaken your team as they fire from high up meaning cover is useless. Remove sentinels and guardians. 

Now for the main reason that Escape from Kadar sucks. This big woman above this paragraph. The Matriarch is the alpha woman. Body building ladies don’t mess with her. All jokes aside she does rule. She doesn’t give a shake about your fortifications. Actually she doesn’t even acknowledge them or know what they are. She just walks through them and wonders what she hit (she doesn’t seem blind like beserkers). In Escape from Kadar you have loads of locust hybrids which come at you with pipes which delivery a one shot kill strike. Unless you have really high armour or good stim etc. Then you have Sires which rush you down and try to grab you. If they grab you, it doesn’t matter how much health you have as it’s instant kill if you don get freed from it’s grip. Those aren’t too bad but then the boss on wave 5 is a Matriarch which isn’t too bad but she does destroy all your fortifications. St wave 10 there’s TWO of them though at the same time. Unless you are a very specific build of classes you can’t stop them in time. It’s like Attack on Titan. The Matriarch is the armoured titan who smashed a hole through the wall and so the locust hybrid and sires can come straight in. Imagine fighting the sires and pipe swingers while dodging the big women who are trying to kill you. Also she can grab you and rip you apart even in the middle of your chainsaw execution! You be saying something she be like “wat chu doin likkle one” Then rip. We be like you can’t do that, it’s na execution. She be like “I make the rules”. So cheap indeed. We did beat them though. X35 Earthwalker being the universe ultimate strategist came up with a plan and it worked so well that we actually made it so easy. Inconceivable difficulty next. The Swarmak is the colossal titan and the matriarch is the armoured titan. Most teams can’t beat Escape from Kadar, even in advanced difficulty. It’s super tough unless you find that good formula.

Overall it’s clear that horde has some problems. Swarmak needs to be reprogrammed, Two matriarchs should be just one instead and less amount of enemies on later waves , guardians and sentinels need to be removed. AAn additional resource needs to be added for personal upgrades instead of the energy. This is us keeping it simple though. We aren’t going to go into every little detail. Horde needs to be improved. Maybe we will talk about the classes more next time. Now Gears 5 has horde problems but it’s problems are clearly seen by… the ‘Earth Walk!’