It makes more sense when you go trough the games and books etc.  Anyway without spoiling,  Jacinto is the last city with approximately 25 million people, the city was going to fall and when it would fall it would be the end for most of them.  Letting it sink will destroy atleast a huge group of locust and also gives the humans the ability to evacuate more safely.

Almost done with act 2.

One huge positive that I forgot to mention before, is the move to requiring you to hold X to pick up items. It removes accidentally picking up the wrong gun or something when you're just looking for ammo. Huge QoL change.

Completed Gears 3 and the Aftermath DLC in Judgement.

Gears 3 was pretty good. I guess this series relies more heavily on fans finding lore outside of the video games, there is a lot in the mainline games that is never explained very well but are apparently explained in the books and comics. Like the Queen for example. Who is she? Is she human? I even watched a video supposedly explaining her and even that person wasn't sure. I know Reyna from Tactics becomes the next Queen, I guess that happens in Gears 4?

I also didn't understand the lambent human part. These are supposed to be small patches of human survivors barely surviving and yet each location seems to have a hundred people turned into lambent. But that's a small gripe I guess. My favorite part of Gears 3 had to be Ice T as Aaron Griffin, when he calls Marcus a bitch and then slowly rides away in a trolley cart holding up a middle finger LOL.

I started Gears 4. Apparently I had already played up to chapter four in the first act, but I went ahead and started over. What a beginning! Three straight levels where you get to just annihilate people with turrets and shit. And you get to see Dom and Kim. I'm now just starting where you control JD, I remember you infiltrate some city and fight robots.

Made it to the second chapter of act 4. Apparently Gears 4 is not a very long game.

It’s cool how both Halo 4 and Gears 4 were the first games in their series after MS brought in another dev to continue the original devs work. Both introduced pretty radically different enemies into the fold. Halo 4 is easily my favorite Halo, but idk if I’d say Gears 4 is my favorite. The Snatchers and Pouncers are just boring bullet sponges.

Game looks fucking amazing. If this looks this good, Gears 5 should be pretty amazing visually.

1) What about Raam's shadow dlc that one was great aswell.

2) Yeah and the comics are good/great while the books by Karen Traviss are amazingly good.

3) Continue with the franchises you will learn more :)

4) Well the stranded are everywhere, like the trashball Cole settlement had hundreds of people. 

5) Also from the Lore, it isn't Dom but his brother Carlos

And yeah Gears 4 is rather short, from the mainline it is my less favourite one.

Yeah I did the RAAM's Shadow DLC earlier in the play through. It was good. His powers were fun to use.

Finished Gears 4.

Maybe my favorite one of them all. Varied gameplay, incredible graphics, unique enemies. The story was not that strong, it seems it is just building up for Gears 5. Also I wish it let you use the badass new weapons more in the game. There are like two spots where you can use the new sniper or Overkill weapon on Locust. I love how they modernized the cover and movement systems. Also it's easily the most brutal Gears I have played. There were a couple times where a Locust ran up opposite of me in cover and I was expecting it to jump over and kick me out of cover but instead yanked me across the cover, pulled out a giant knife and disemboweled me and then slit my throat. Or did leap over and kicked me out of cover, but followed that up with a knife to the gut and throat to kill me.

I did start Gears 5 and yes, looks jaw dropping on XSX.

Gears 4 was a low point for me. Gameplay was good but the story was....bleh. Gears 5 is a return to form so hopefully you enjoy it as well. It's just great fun from beginning to end.

Gears 4 is the absolute low point for me. The tomatoes line made me LOL but outside of that it was not very enjoyable.

The entire first act fighting those stupid robots was boring. Act 2 gets better and imo, was the best part of the game. Things slow down big time in Act 3 even the more traditional enemies and fights couldn't save iy. Act 4 is solid but a shame it's pretty much entirely underground. By act 5 I couldn't wait for the game to finish.

Gears 5 is better in terms of structure, design and enemies, but the story is awful, the worst in the series by far. Again, Marcus's line to Faz made me LOL and the highlight of the game.

I'm on Act 3 of Gears 5 now. Gotta say, game seems pretty amazing so far. Graphically it's just gorgeous. Maybe the best looking game I have ever played. I know Hivebusters looks even better. I know a lot of people hated it, but I enjoy the skiff sections. Apparently people hate the idea of Gears not being completely linear, idk why. I am digging the extra layers of depth and strategy in the combat thanks to Jack.

Story wise, it's been hit or miss. I am digging the revelations about the Locust history and Kait's connection to it. Not really understanding how Reyna and Myrra are resurrected and Myrra is possessing Reyna? Maybe it is explained further in the game. Also it's cool that they wanted to elevate Kait as the main character but it seems they are basically discarding JD. Still, a great game so far.

Finished Gears 5. I think it is my favorite one. I did the entire Halo play through last year, and when 343i took over from Bungie, they made Halo 4, which I thought was the best Halo. Then they followed it with Halo 5, probably the worst Halo. I am glad Coalition started strong with Gears of War 4 but improved upon it with Gears 5 and didn't see a Halo type drop off. Speaking solely about single player.

I think Gears 5 is probably the best looking game I have ever played. The Series X version anyway. Technically and sound wise it's incredible. And the weather in the game and the effects it has on enemies and shots/grenades, amazing stuff. Story wise I still think it's all kind of dumb, it's Gears, but gameplay wise it's extremely good. I have started the Hivebusters DLC and it looks even better, so much more colorful. And the writing between the squad seems very good.

Overall I'd rate the entire series, minus DLC, as follows:

Gears 5
GoW3
GoW4
Gears Tactics
GoW
GoW2
GoW Judgement

And I don't think any of them are bad games or anything. Judgement and GoW 2 are the lowest games on my ranking but they are still good. Gears 5 sets up for a Gears 6 very well. I hope they go all out more with the open world hub type gameplay kind of like Tomb Raider did, plus add more abilities and upgrades.

Spoiler


I saved JD in the game. But I can see them somehow bringing either of the guys back to life somehow, idk which choice is canon in the story.