Gears 5 To Change Shooting Mechanics, Remap The Game's Legendary Chainsaw

When Gears 5 arrives this September on PC and Xbox One, it'll come with some changes that might take fans a bit of getting to used to. According to developer The Coalition, however, these changes should markedly improve the gameplay experience.

In an interview with IGN, The Coalition took questions from IGN readers and podcast listeners... and most were very good! Nice job, people. We encourage you to check out the entire thing. But we've keyed in on two of the answers in particular, because they have to do with gameplay mechanics that are changing in Gears 5.

More specifically, the shooting in the game, and how players will use the ever-present chainsaw.

"There are many core mechanics that we've improved upon in 'Gears 5,' the studio said. "As an example, we've changed the accuracy model for shooting. In past games, the reticle bloom would determine how accurate your shots were, while in 'Gears 5' we've moved to a recoil based system, where each weapon has a predictable recoil pattern that players can learn and master."

This is a huge change! No longer will you need to pace your shots to keep the reticle from growing in size. In Gears 5, you'll now have to compensate for the recoil of each weapon you're using. That's more in line with how just about every other shooter operates, and it should actually make Gears 5 feel like a better shooter as a result.

And then there's the chainsaw, which has become a sort of symbol for the Gears franchise.

"The Chainsaw is just as brutal and useful as ever!" The Coalition said. "However, we have modified the controls, as we've moved all weapons' secondary attacks to hold on the right bumper on default control schemes. This allows players to access all of their weapon's attack options without having to let go of the thumb sticks, allowing for greater control of both movement and attacks."

We can already see your brains trying to rewire themselves. Yes, the chainsaw will now be mapped to the right bumper, which used to be the home of the reload command. And if you're like us, you're probably thinking the same thing: the reload button is probably going to be mapped to X, which again, is more in line with just about every other shooter.

It'll be interesting to see how longtime players adapt to these changes. They make sense, and they'll likely make the game more approachable for newcomers. But we can't help but think some vets might take issue with them.

Gears 5 hits PC and Xbox One on Sept. 10.