I finally got a chance to try out the Gears of War 4 campaign demo that's been wafting around the web, and overall I was happy, but it could've been better. First off, here's the footage of the level I played at SDCC.

The video makes this segment out to be only 7 minutes long, but trust me when I say I spent longer than that trying to beat this level.

Let's talk about the good. I liked the size of the level in the new game. Seeing stuff in the distance and the giant stone walls really gave me a sense of depth that I felt the previous games lacked and kind of drew you out of. I also really liked the weather effects and how they played into your battle. Having to factor in wind made for some very interesting trick shots with teh "kill saws" and frags were essentially useless. Overall the level was a blast to play through.

On the downside, and I don't know if this was just the TV I was playing on, but the main characer looked grainy in comparison to literally everything else. I also didn't like that my teammates were practically useless until I needed to be healed. We were going 9-4 at timesand I felt like they were never truly doing anything useful the whole mission. One final gripe I don't understand breaking up the action sequences with quick time events like moving a tree branch. This game is meant to be fast paced so let it be!

All my gripes aside, I still think the game is shaping up well, and hope that multiplayer experience continues to be tweaked so we have a great returning franchise! I'm sure it'll be polished by it's October release.