Gears of War Games Tier List

For nearly 19 years, Xbox and PC players around the world have been enthralled by the groundbreaking third-person gameplay, dynamic narratives, and characters of the Gears of War franchise. First debuting as an Xbox 360 exclusive in late 2006, the Gears of War franchise has evolved to become one of Xbox’s landmark properties alongside fellow celebrated Xbox franchises such as Halo, Forza, and Fable. Initially developed by Fortnite’s Epic Games and later spearheaded by Xbox Game Studios’ The Coalition, Gears of War has managed to stay relevant over two decades thanks to its ever-expanding lore and gameplay mechanics.

While the Gears series hasn’t received many entries lately compared to its 360 days — its latest game, Gears Tactics, released five years ago — Gears of War still retains an active fan base eager for the next game, book, and upcoming film. Gears of War may even earn some new fans when it makes its first debut on PlayStation consoles with the upcoming release of Gears of War: Reloaded. With Gears of War: E-Day expected to debut in 2026 amid the franchise’s 20th anniversary, it’s a good time to assess and rank every Gears of War game by its story and gameplay features.

While Gears of War’s Next Step After Reloaded Seems Obvious, Going Off the Beaten Path May Be Best

The Coalition may have to make a difficult choice in deciding which Gears of War games should get remastered after Reloaded and E-Day

S-Tier Gears of War Games

Gears of War 2
Gears of War 3
Gears 5

The best Gears of War games are those that feature a perfect balance of an engrossing campaign, addictive online multiplayer, and engaging offline features that perfectly innovate on numerous aspects of past Gears titles. This is best exemplified with Gears of War 2, which improved on practically everything that made Gears of War 1 great. Gears of War 2 arguably still has the best campaign in the entire franchise thanks to heartbreaking character developments with Dominic Santiago, thrilling battle scenarios with an improved Locust Horde, and intriguing expansions on pre-established lore. On top of that, Gears of War 2 introduced the groundbreaking PVE Horde Mode, which had up to five players fight endless waves of Locust and Sire combatants, resulting in several other games imitating the mode.

Gears of War 3 built upon 2’s advancements by featuring a campaign that perfectly resolved the Locust War, an updated Horde 2.0 that many still claim to be the best iteration of the mode, and an updated PVP multiplayer. On top of those developments, Gears of War 3 was also the first to release a DLC campaign. Gears of War 3: RAAM’s Shadow highlighted several fan-favorite side characters and allowed gamers to play as the Locust General RAAM in all his menacing glory.

While Gears 5’s base campaign wasn’t as universally well-received as Gears of War 2 or 3, its PVP multiplayer and Horde 4.0 greatly improved upon Gears of War 4’s multiplayer offerings. It additionally featured the intriguing DLC campaign Gears 5: Hivebusters.

A-Tier Gears of War Games

Gears of War 1
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
Gears of War 4

Gears of War’s mid-level games are those restricted by being the first Gears games produced by their respective developers. For as monumental Gears of War 1 was for Xbox and third-person games overall, it doesn’t necessarily hold up too well against its successors due to a lack of gameplay variety, enemy diversity, and multiplayer offerings. The same could be said for Gears of War 1’s first remaster and the first Gears game released by The Coalition, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. However, Ultimate Edition does have a few more fun things than its predecessor, such as five previously PC-exclusive single-player chapters and digitized issues of Wildstorm and DC Comics’ Gears of War series.

The Coalition’s first original Gears game, Gears of War 4, was a respectable reintroduction to the war-torn world of Sera following the well-received conclusion of Gears of War 3’s campaign. However, most of Gears of War 4’s campaign focuses on fighting rather unengaging DeeBee robots instead of the more horrifying and gameplay-diverse Swarm. On top of that, Gears of War 4’s Horde 3.0 only featured DeeBees and Swarm as enemies, the only iteration of Horde to not include the Locust at all. Gears of War 4’s multiplayer was additionally absent of several fan-favorite gametypes, such as Beast mode. That said, Gears of War 4’s more horror-themed campaign, interesting expansions on COG, UIR, and Locust lore, and introduction of several new weapons made it a fun game overall.

B-Tier Gears of War Games

Gears of War: Judgment
Gears Pop!
Gears Tactics

The worst Gears of War games are those that deviated too much from franchise norms in terms of campaign, multiplayer, and gameplay offerings. 2013’s Gears of War: Judgment, while not a bad game in its own right, was held back by its self-contained, score-focused mission structure and relatively short campaign runtime. Judgment was additionally the first Gears game to not feature any playable Locust or alternate species in standard PVP multiplayer, and it was the first game since Gears of War 2 to not feature Horde Mode. Instead, Gears of War: Judgment featured the class-based OverRun and Survival, which were fun but poor replacements for Horde or Beast.

With Gears of War being a nearly 19-year-old franchise, it was inevitable for Gears to experiment with other game genres beyond its standard third-person gameplay. The franchise’s first excursion into other genres was arguably the worst Gears game ever released, that being the 2019 mobile real-time strategy game Gears Pop! Based on the popular bobbleheads of Funko, Gears Pop! was an odd diversion from Gears’ typical realistic and hardcore aesthetics and this odd use of the Gears property ultimately led to few people playing the game and subsequently resulted in Gears Pop! shutting down in 2021. In contrast, Gears Tactics retained Gears’ classic art style and themes but was locked to the relatively niche turn-based tactics gameplay.