Gears 5: Hivebusters (DLC)

My first thought firing up Hivebusters was simple relief: no skiff, no open traversal sections, no padding. The Coalition stripped Gears 5 back to its cover-shooting bones and built a six-chapter origin story around Scorpio Squad - Keegan, Lahni, and Mac - three characters who were, until this point, multiplayer-only fixtures inside the base game's Escape mode. The result lands closer to the classic Gears 1-4 structure than anything in the mainline sequel, and for most series fans that is a straight-up win. The mechanical hook here is the trio's individual ultimate abilities, each upgradeable through collectibles scattered across the levels. Keegan throws down an ammo resupply station for the whole squad, Mac deploys a mobile energy shield that blocks incoming projectiles, and Lahni activates an electrified blade that stuns and chews through enemies fast. In co-op (up to three players, online or split-screen), these abilities create real coordination moments. Solo, you queue up AI-controlled teammates via simple commands, which works but never quite captures the same rhythm. The expansion is clearly designed with co-op in mind first, and character-specific locked doors become mildly tedious when you are running it alone. Environmentally, Hivebusters earns its keep. The Galangi island setting moves from dense jungle to a lava-river defensive stand to the grimy corridors of a derelict mining facility across its three acts, and the visual variety is genuinely impressive for a package this compact. The dynamic lighting and flora that react to movement were a proper showcase for Xbox Series X hardware at launch. Audio holds up its end too - gunfire sounds exactly as chunky as you want from a Gears title, and the ambient score builds well during encounters. Difficulty sits a notch above the average Gears campaign, and harder settings make ammo a real resource consideration rather than an afterthought. The honest sticking point is length. At roughly three hours for a straight playthrough - with completionists landing around four to four-and-a-half - Hivebusters barely constitutes an evening. The story packs in backstories for all three leads (Mac's in particular lands with some genuine weight), an origin explanation for the Escape mode's venom bomb premise, and a new predator boss fight, but tries to do all of that in too short a window. Character motivation arrives through dialogue between firefights rather than cutscenes or playable flashbacks, which means you need to actively listen during hectic gunfights or you will miss the emotional beats entirely. The ending also wraps things up off-screen in a way that feels like a budget decision disguised as a narrative choice. Who should play this: series veterans who want a dense, no-filler Gears hit and either have a co-op partner handy or are comfortable with a brisk solo run. New players should start with the base game - the difficulty and the assumption of franchise familiarity make this a rough entry point. Anyone hoping for a meaty, standalone story expansion will come away underwhelmed by the runtime, but anyone who just wants the cover-shooting to feel as focused and punchy as the original trilogy will find Hivebusters delivers exactly that. Alex, Scout Team