It's really not that people don't want innovation.. I mean, Overrun was an innovation in Judgment and it was well received and brilliant! I don't know how they could think it's innovative to turn Gears versus into run 'n gun shooter with modes we see in any other shooter. They even changed King of the Hill to lame Domination -__- Also, playing multiplayer in Gears where blue cogs kill red cogs, come on.. Only 4 maps at launch too ffs..
Campaign was ok but it was too short and it did feel rushed and empty. Declassified missions was "innovation" but arcade-mode from Gears offered much more gameplay value. Their version of Horde was Survival, which I enjoyed, but it was pretty much like Overrun against AI. Lazy.
So in the end, Judgment wasn't creative or innovative, it just effectively took away features that are essential to Gears and make it unique (dbno, active reloads, blind fire with no reticule etc.) and replaced them with features from other shooters. It really can't be even called Gears 3.5.
As for Gears 4, I hope TC will balance between staying true to Gears and also come up with actual innovations. Pleasing Gears community is perhaps the most challenging thing a dev can face :) I'm confident they're going to pull it off tho,
