I disagree with you about the story aspect actually. I am a huge fan of the original trilogy, but in my opinion there stories were very very limited. I just started replaying the original trilogy and finished gears 2 yesterday, and the whole story mission is basically Marcus and friends going under ground and planting a bomb there, thats it.
Its different here though. You got to see more of the Outsiders, and more the true COG because they have always been portrayed as the good when they werent. You get to see the swarm as the new threat. Yes the writing sometimes could get a bit stupid I agree, but Old Marcus is amazing. Making Marcus even more badass and grumpy is just truly amazing to see.
I dont know if its my favorite game of the series or no, but it is definitely way better than Gears 1, and maybe a little bit better than 2, but not 3.
EDIT: Also the ending makes me super excited for Gears 5 more than the previous games did, so waiting for you to see that.
IMSM
