Gears 5 - Operation 3: Gridiron

The details for the new operation in Gears 5 have just been announced. This post will include a general overview details and the announcement trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-4L5_te4y8

New Mode: Gridiron

One Flag. One Life. Gridiron is our brand-new, single life objective mode!

In Gridiron, two teams of five battle over a flag that can be used to score a touchdown in the opposing team’s endzone. At the start of each round, the flag rotates between one of three locations along the center line of the map. Picking up the flag is as
simple as touching it.

Don’t worry, there are no limitations for being a flag carrier other than the massive target on your back. Fight hard and slay up!

After picking up the flag and entering the enemy endzone you’ll need to survive for 5 seconds to score a touchdown. Be careful! If at any time you go down or die then the flag is dropped at your feet, and can be grabbed by the enemy team.

As much as the flag is the center of the action in Gridiron, this is a one-life mode so kills pay the bills. Eliminating the enemy team can also secure you a round victory, so you will need to consider how you focus your effort between the battle over the
flag and the weapons and positions available on the map.

Here are the 3 ways you can secure a round victory and score points for your team:

• 2 Points for a Touchdown (scoring as above)
• 2 Points for an Elimination victory (squad wipe).
• 1 Point for a Possession victory (holding the flag when the round timer ends)

The first team to hit 13 points wins the match, and with a short two-minute time limit per round, combat in Gridiron is rapid and intense!

We’ve also created custom weapon placements for every map in Gears 5 exclusively for Gridiron. These weapon placements are aimed at delivering the best one-life experience possible, with varied initials and balanced power distribution. Our aim for Gridiron
is to provide the most interesting and exciting Gears matches you have ever experienced, and we look forward to seeing how it evolves in your hands. This is just the beginning!

Heroes:

AUGUSTUS COLE

The one and only Cole Train is back baby! Augustus Cole makes his return to PVP and PVE in Gears 5 the only way he could – making one hell of an entrance.

In PVE, the Cole Train is an unstoppable force, bringing his legendary Thrashball plays to the frontline. His Ultimate sends Cole charging forward in a blaze of fire, staggering enemies in his path and leaving a trail of fire in his wake.

Cole is packing some extra tricks in his pocket too. This is Cole we’re talking about! Cole’s melee is replaced by a powerful punch that stuns enemies. He can also melee while roadie running to perform his signature Thrashball tackle too!

Cole also introduces a new status effect to the game – Burning. Once you level up Cole, you’ll find many of his cards are built around this new effect.

CLAYTON CARMINE

The Grub Killer returns. The only Carmine to survive the curse of death (so far), Clayton is back to tear it up against the Swarm in both PVE and PVP.

In PVE, his Reflective Shell ability deflects all ballistic damage back to the enemy for a short time, allowing him to survive against overwhelming odds and turn incoming attacks into huge amounts of damage. With Skill Cards, Clayton can even deflect projectiles
back to the enemy, including missiles, rockets and buzz saw blades.

Reflective Shell has the fastest charge time out of every ultimate – but only lasts five seconds when used, so timing is key! Clayton also features some Skill Cards that help his team become just as survivable as he is…almost.

Villains:

Queen Myrrah

Now they begin to understand! Queen Myrrah returns to the battlefield raining fiery destruction wherever she goes.

In Arcade, Myrrah causes the radius around any enemy she kills to set on fire. It’s her homage to the Tempest, we guess. Or that toaster in her palace…

Theron Guard

It’s definitely not just the wind, because the Theron Guard are making their dramatic return to the battlefields of Sera.

In Arcade, these elite Locust have a penchant for headshots, causing a huge explosion whenever they land one. Try not to stand close to anybody when these guys are around.

Maps:

Pahanu

Pahanu is a brand new map set among the ruins of an old civilization and the twisted oversized trunks of the jungle.

This intense jungle landscape puts a unique twist on Gears combat, with its organic cover, strong flanks, intimidating rifle positions and position-obscuring fauna that’s unlike anything else in Gears 5 today.

Two intimidating hills mark the spawn area for each team, leading into the open swamps of the middle of the map. The altar in its center contains a key weapon pickup, but making it there is half the battle.

Flank through the cave side for ranged weapons and another key weapon pickup. Prepare for close-range battles thanks to the tight nature of the cave formation and surrounding cover.

On the opposite side, the larger Ruins area offers a mix of combat, with solid Lancer positions overlooking the cover-filled center. Watch for risky, but deadly flanks from the mid-cut.

Canals

Does it get any more classic than snipe battles on Canals? This Gears 1 favorite is back in it’s new look introduced in Gears 4. Own the bridges, own the map.

A Note on Maps for Gears 5

We know traditional Versus / Horde Maps are incredibly important to you. We’ve recently been re-evaluating the game from the ground up to assess how we can deliver more of the content you want and prioritize accordingly.

As of Operation 3, we have significantly scaled back development of Tiles in order to put more resources into the development of maps for Versus / Horde. Unfortunately, the benefits of this change weren’t able to increase the number of maps in Operation
3, but rest assured, more maps are coming. Stay tuned for more news in the coming months.

Tour of Duty Improvements

The most noticeable change when you log in on March 31st will be the extra Objective slot in the Tour of Duty system. This goes hand-in-hand with our re-work on the Objectives in Operation 3.

Two Objectives slots are now dedicated to generic objectives (e.g. Kill X enemies) that can be completed in PVE or PVP, plus one slot for PVP and one slot for PVE. This should help you complete more objectives more consistently just by playing in your preferred
modes of choice.

Secondly, we’ve added a new mechanic where playing the game in any way also earns you Stars. As you finish matches in PVP or PVE, you’ll see progress towards earning additional Stars to bolster your Tour of Duty. Now, whenever you play, you are always working
towards completing your Tour.

New Achievements

Operation 3 also marks our first ever drop of New Achievements for Gears 5, including retroactive tracking for any relevant achievements.

We’ll reveal the full list of achievements dropping with Operation 3 along with our Title Update notes on Monday, March 30th.

https://www.gears5.com/whatsup-operation-3/

It's a decent start to this operation. I'm hoping these are the characters and maps they are just announcing for now, and also looking forward to seeing when the changes are coming to Horde. I know they recently added

Horde Frenzy (basically a 12 wave game of Horde), but they mentioned on one of the developer streams a couple weeks ago that they were looking at tweaking the gameplay; for example, having enemies with abilities, like in the Escape mode.

:)