Gears 5 received generally favorable reviews from critics who praised the gameplay, campaign, presentation and amount of content, but criticised the story and overall lack of innovation.

In Escape, the player assumes control of a "Hivebuster", who voluntarily get captured by the Swarm in order to infiltrate and destroy their hives using Venom Bombs.

[7] The game also features several competitive multiplayer modes including Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill and Escalation.

Kait is accompanied by her friend Delmont "Del" Walker (Eugene Byrd) and a robot named Jack for the majority of her journey.

Del's best friend James Dominic "JD" Fenix (Liam McIntyre) is the player character for the first chapter of Gears 5.

Other important characters include JD's father Marcus Fenix (John DiMaggio[b]); Damon Baird (Fred Tatasciore), a former comrade of Marcus and the creator of Jack; Fahz Chutani (Rahul Kohli), a former friend of JD and Del; and COG First Minister Mina Jinn (Angel Desai).

By the events of Gears 5, Kait, JD, Del, and Marcus are officially reinstated in the COG Army and reformed as the new Delta Squad.

Kait is captured by a Snatcher and experiences vivid visions of controlling the Swarm forces, compelled by the voice of Myrrah, the late queen of the Locust.

Kait and Del later find clues leading them to Mount Kadar, the former Locust stronghold, where the scientists and subjects escaped to after being shut down by the COG.

They find an AI construct of scientist Niles Samson, who explains that the Locust were the result of his experiments by hybridizing Sire DNA with the embryonic stem cells of Queen Myrrah, revealed to be the child at New Hope immune to Imulsion.

A few weeks later, Baird takes the group to the Vasgar desert, where the Union of Independent Republics' secret space program was located.

They meet Baird's former squadmate Garron Paduk, who reveals that the UIR had a rocket loaded with Hammer of Dawn satellites ready to launch.

The squad manages to assemble and launch the rocket and acquire targeting beacons to help control the Hammer of Dawn, though they encounter a giant Swarm creature called the Kraken.

At New Ephyra, Jinn attempts to arrest Kait, intending to forcibly reconnect her to the hivemind in order to find the central Swarm Hive.

The remaining soldiers are overwhelmed until the squad's robotic companion, JACK, kills the Kraken by sacrificing itself as a targeting beacon for the Hammer of Dawn.

[10] Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg explained that the new title was "cleaner" and that it was a natural change because most people had been ignoring "of War" for years.

[15] Moreover, action movie actor Dave Bautista appears as a playable character skin for Marcus Fenix for the Versus and Horde modes, as well as the Swarm and Campaign modes (with the latter mode as a togglable option), along with his finisher, the Batista Bomb, as an execution animation for the Gnasher, and his entrance music, "I Walk Alone" by Saliva, at the start of every Versus Match as him, in limited releases via updates where he uses his gimmick as a WWE professional wrestler, under his ring name, Batista, after expressing interest in portraying Marcus in a potential film adaptation of Gears of War.

The expansion is a direct prequel to the Gears of War: Hivebusters comic book series, and features the playable characters from the Escape multiplayer mode: Lahni, Keegan and Mac.

This iconic series has never really had a misfire, even when changing hands from original developer Epic to The Coalition, and the hot streak remains unbroken.

What was unexpected is just how effectively it doubles down on story with a character-focused, consequence-filled tale that plays to one of the franchise’s most underappreciated strengths and backs it up with fun, welcome additions to both its gameplay formula and flow.

Whether you want campaign or co-op, Competitive or Quickplay, there's an option for you in Gears 5, and plenty of stuff to reward you for time spent and skill gained.

Gears 5 might suffer from some of the same storytelling missteps as its predecessors, and it might not venture far out of the past, but the new ideas it brings to the series are all good reasons for fans to return.

"[33] Justin Clark of Slant Magazine gave a rating of 4/5, writing: "Escape stands out in particular because of just how much work has gone into making Gears 5 otherwise accessible.

The Gears of War series has been broken of its worst habit: trying to put up the front of being better or harder or more stoic than the rest, allowing the deeper implications of its lore to come to the forefront.

Despite dropping “of War” from its title, Gears 5 is the first time the series has made the brutality of its combat feel not only bloody and cathartic, but also captivating and disturbingly intimate on a human level.