Former Gears of War writer and co-director Joshua Ortega has seemingly returned to the franchise.
Ortega said as much on Twitter yesterday. “Once again it’s on!”, he tweeted, replying to his own tweet from back in 2019 in which he summarized his work on the Gears series.
Once again it’s on! 💥💥💥💥💥💥 https://t.co/wMjE9xbqbp
— Joshua Ortega (@JoshuaOrtega88) February 21, 2023
We’re pretty sure that fans of the original Gears games will be happy with the return of Ortega to the franchise. Of course, we don’t know if this means that the writer will be helping out on a new Gears game, or solely novels/comics based on the series. We’ll update you as soon as more information about this matter of possible Gears of War 6 comes in.
As highlighted by Ortega, he co-directed and wrote Gears of War 2, and co-created the story and narrative level design for 2011’s Gears of War 3 together with Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski.
Many fans consider 2008’s Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360 the best installment in the series with Gears 3 also being highly ranked among the Gears community. Here’s what we had to say about the story of the most recent Gears installment from 2019 – Gears 5 (which wasn’t written by Ortega):
We primarily follow Kait, who seems to be suffering following her mother’s abduction in Gears 4, and in her off-the-record mission to find the truth, she discovers a few things and, as of the finale of the game, solves nothing. She finds out a lot about the Swarm, but nothing concludes. Nothing ends. This goes for side-plots too. A close friend is discovered to have ordered shooting on civilian protestors, which colors your view of them, and in outlander villages, children and villagers shout at the COG for being fascists. But much like the main story, none of these are given their time to develop properly. Even an emotionally “poignant” scene at the end of the game has its impact blunted, as the characters have to put it behind them and get on with the fight. Some might say these characters are being stoic with their decision to finish the fight and put emotions second, others might say they’re running from their feelings. Both are probably correct. The bottom line is that none of the big moments from the final act and none of the main plot points are resolved, instead, leaving us on a cliffhanger, and a vague promise of a Gears 6. This game gives me hope that Gears 6 will be excellent but also leaves me bitter from a distinct lack of narrative satisfaction. Though, despite that, I can’t deny the fact that I want to play more.
