If you want to play Gears of War in its 20th year, Gears of War: Reloaded is the version to get, and the reviews point to a simple condition: you need to want the 2006 game, grey walls and all. A remaster this faithful is a lovely way to meet an old shooter and a slightly odd way to pay for one you already know by heart.
A quick note on how this works. I haven't played Reloaded. This is an assessment of published material: what Xbox says is in the package and what critics reported when it launched in August 2025. The opinions are mine, the observations belong to the people who sat down with a controller.
The anniversary is real enough. Time Extension's game listing dates the Xbox 360 original to November 7, 2006, in North America and November 17 in the UK and Europe. Two weeks later, Game Developer reported Microsoft's claim that it had sold more than a million copies, making it the fastest-selling Xbox 360 game to that point. The strange detail history kept is that the game built to sell Xboxes now runs on a PlayStation.
What Reloaded actually is
This is the second remaster of the same campaign. The Coalition's job here was to rebuild the presentation, not the game, and Xbox's launch post sets out the deal. It came to Xbox Series X|S, PC through the Xbox app and Steam, Xbox Cloud Gaming and PS5, at a launch price of US$39.99, with post-launch content included: a bonus campaign act, multiplayer maps, characters and cosmetics. Campaign runs at 60fps and multiplayer goes up to 120fps. Players on Xbox, PlayStation and Steam can party up, which is the real headline, although cross-platform parties need a Microsoft account.
Two practical catches come with that. The store details Xbox lists say campaign split-screen isn't available on PC or handhelds, so couch co-op people should buy on console. And if you bought the digital Ultimate Edition before May 5, 2025, Xbox says the upgrade is free, which rather changes the sums.
Where the critics agree
The gunplay is the part nobody much wants to argue with. TechRadar's Billy Givens called the campaign "loud, gory, and incredibly satisfying" and said it had aged shockingly well. Dexerto's Nathan Warby gave it 4/5 and called it the definitive version of one of the best shooters ever made. Pure Xbox's Ben Kerry went to 9/10 and singled out the lighting.
The reviews also agree on length and shape. Pure Xbox and Push Square both put the campaign at roughly six hours, TechRadar at six to eight, and it's linear from start to finish. Pure Xbox calls it "quite a basic affair". That sounds like a complaint, and it is, but it's also a fair description of what a 2006 corridor shooter was meant to be.
Where they part ways
The looks are the first split. TechRadar thinks the upgrades bring it reasonably close to current expectations, while accepting that the grey-brown palette and stiff animations give its age away. Push Square's Liam Croft, reviewing on a PS5 Pro, gave it 7/10 and said the remaster "still looks like an early to mid-generation PS4 game". Same game, same month, and a very different reaction to the same paint job. My guess is that it depends on what you were expecting from the word "Reloaded".
AI is the second. Dexerto called it a major letdown, with teammates running straight into enemy fire, and reported bugs that included the squad vanishing mid-mission. Push Square called it "very dated" on both sides of the fight. Neither of those is a reason to skip the game, but if you're playing solo, you're the one carrying Dom.
Then there's multiplayer, which is less of a split than a personality test. Push Square reckons "absolutely nothing else plays quite like" it. TechRadar sums it up with the question "Do you like shotguns?" and warns that the wall-bouncing meta can feel like an exploit to newcomers. Dexerto liked it but missed any meaningful progression. Pure Xbox also notes there are no offline bots and no Horde mode, so this isn't a game that keeps you company when the lobbies thin out.
The verdict: yes, with one sensible exception
Reloaded looks to me like the best way to play Gears of War today, and that's a judgement on the published evidence rather than a hands-on one. It has the fullest content, the best performance and the widest reach, and a game that was once tied to one console family can finally be played with friends on another.
It suits PS5 owners who've never touched the series, anyone with a couch and a co-op partner, and people who want a tidy six-to-eight-hour campaign instead of another 60-hour open world. It's worth a look for multiplayer fans too, as long as they're happy to be shot at very close range by people who've been practising for 20 years.
The exception is anyone who finished the campaign recently and doesn't care for the shotgun meta. TechRadar makes that point, and I agree with it. The paint is new, the walls are not, and if you know where every one of them is, you don't need to pay to crouch behind them again.
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