I only played Gears of War 1...

I really want to try Gears 4 and Gears 5, but I also want to play this series in chronological order. Too bad they never released Gears 2.3 and Judgement for PC...

Pre-Ordered, bought and played Gears 1. Absolutely hated it. It was pretty much impossible to get a kill with the rifle due to a combination of teammate revives, refilling health, and overly agile characters. The best weapon in the game was the shotgun, so the entire game turned into a bunch of buff dudes rolling around cover and firing shotguns at each other point blank. The host always had a huge advantage too.

Single player was a short, pointless campaign, with terrible characters.

I hear the 2nd and 3rd games were legit good though.

Gears 1, 2, and 3 are all awesome, and even Judgement is underrated and very good in my opinion.

When it comes to best, it's a very tough call for me; 2 has the most memorable and awesome setpieces, while 3 is a bit better paced. Ultimately I went with 2.

While 2 & 3 were more polished experiences...#1 takes the Cake. Let me explain: a lot of you guys might not remember but during the 360's launch there was much talk about the system not being much of a leap over the OG Xbox because most games didn't look that much better.

As a 360 owner back in 2005-6 I was scared to death of the PS3'S vaunted Cell chip, yada yada. Then came the trailers for the OG Gears and I was blown away. For the first time I actually saw a game that graphically represented a gorgeous true leap over anything else ever seen.

The game released to compete with Resistance ( a launch title on the PS3) Gears looked worlds better. Gears immediately submerged me into its world with the greatest looking visuals I had ever witnessed. The shooting was tight and the game excellently paced. The first encounter with the Kryll was terrifying, in my opinion the cover and shoot mechanics were already polished to perfection.

It was a cinematic game, with great likeable characters. The coop was just as fun if not more so than the main campaign and at the time I don't remember any coop experience being as rewarding.

Gears was the reason to own a 360 before Halo 3. It was the reason I bought another 360 after my OG one died of the RRoD. I love Gears.

Yeah Gears 1 was absolutely mind-blowing graphically back in 2006, it's one of the most "holy crap, how is this even a video game" moments I've ever had, seeing that running for the first time. 

For that matter, Gears 2, 3, and Judgement were also among the best looking games in existence when they came out, with the latter two still among the graphical top dogs of the entire generation IMO.

For me, it's Gears 2.

It looked incredible. It expanded the universe tremendously. It had tons of diversity. A few really emotional moments. And it introduced me to Horde Mode (without all of the convoluted stuff later games would add).

It may be my overall favorite 7th gen game. If not overall, it's definitely near the top. I beat it maybe once a year and it's always a joy.

gears 1-2 for me. Dropped off around 3 and haven't come back to the series since.

Also lol at the "other- I don't like the series", that's a wee bit telling for this site, imo.

I had a guest at my house a couple of weeks ago, the same day Gears 5 released. He wanted to join in but I made him go back and play co-op Gears 1 Ultimate Edition with me. It's crazy how much fun we had. Not a lot of games hold up like that.

Never played the series. Haven't owned an Xbox, since the first one.

Rather odd those voting in here which haven't played the whole series, anyway I digress.
Here is an opinion from someone who has played all of them and finished all of them.
Gears 5 takes the cake for me, and no, not because its a technical master piece and one of the best looking games this gen no.. far from the visuals however it is a good bonus to have Gears back on top of the graphic tree since the series has always been a power house visual wise.

What Gears 5 does better is offer an actual interesting campaign, something I felt the last 5 prequels failed to bring. I felt the world Sera was bland and boring. Gears 5 brings it to life without opting for the typical Metal Gear Solid cheat by having dark and boring colours to paint the worlds. I honestly wasn't a huge fan of the first 3 + Judgment due to the colour pallet and basic dude bro story telling. They definitely have there highlights but as a whole I felt they just never hit the nail on the head emotionally. Gears 4 offered a good story with great acting and visuals that was at the time the best Unreal Engine 4 game however let me down story wise when it was basically about the emotionless machines rather than the organic beast enemies.

Best part of Gears 3 was the first level being on the ship, looked fantastic and really got you into the game. The best part of Gears 2 was being inside the giant worm and the best part of Gears 1 was.. hmm I think it was more the tech being a implemented right without doing a Killzone and basically lying straight up.

If I had to rate the Gears games in order it will be like this,

1) Gears of War 5
2) Gears of War 2
3) Gears of War 4
4) Gears of War 3
5) Gears of War 1
6) Gears of War Judgement