With “Gears of War 4,” The Coalition had the ultimate blank canvas. Microsoft purchased the franchise from Epic Games, and the recently created studio had an opportunity to put its own stamp on a series that helped redefine shooters.

It’s a monumental job, but the team has talent and experience with franchise veteran Rod Fergusson at the helm. Naturally, The Coalition wanted to continue the saga in its own way. The new vision for “Gears of War” starts with the next generation of heroes. Marcus Fenix takes a backseat to his son, James Dominic. Like his father, J.D. is a soldier for the Coalition of Ordered Governments, but it’s a different authority from that of the previous entries.

Twenty-five years after the Locust War, the COG is making an all-out effort to repopulate the planet of Sera. This aggressive program leads to strife, and that’s when J.D. and his friend Del Walker choose to go AWOL and join an opposition force called the Outsiders. But when a new threat emerges, the internal strife becomes secondary.

That threat is the Swarm, another alien entity that attacks the Outsider village, which is home to Kait, a friend of J.D. and Del. The Swarm kidnaps her mother, Reyna, and the majority of the campaign is focused on rescuing Reyna.

The game throws players right into a narrative that’s a logical extension of the “Gears of War” story. Unfortunately, J.D. and his rest of the new class don’t have the charm or likability of Marcus Fenix and the old crew. The banter is rote, and the plot meanders as the squad has to put out one fire after another to reach Reyna and uncover the secrets behind the Swarm.

The gameplay, too has ups and downs. For the most part, “Gears of War 4” plays like previous titles, but The Coalition has added a few new moves — such as the ability to grab opponents from cover and knife them while they’re stunned.

There’s also a move that lets players mount an obstacle to kick foes on the other side of it, leaving them open for an attack. A few new weapons have been added, too, such as the Dropshot, which shoots explosives along a straight line, and Buzzkill, which launches saw blades at foes.

These are welcome additions to the Gears’ repertoire, but The Coalition could have done more. Titles such as “Tom Clancy’s The Division” have added elements of role-playing games and customization to their third-person shooter. These advance the genre, much as the original “Gears of War” did.

Unfortunately, The Coalition sticks too closely to the script in the main campaign. Sure, it’s great that players can fight together in a co-op experience, but what they do mostly remains the same — moving from area to area to engage in firefights.

There are a few moments of inspired level design, including the last battle and the escape from a Swarm nest. During sieges, players will also have moments when they must defend an area with fences and turrets, created a Fabricator device.

Those instances are great, but they are too few and far between. The oddly paced narrative mostly moves players from one set piece to another, with J.D. and company bemoaning their predicament.

Although the campaign story is fairly conventional, the multiplayer version includes more innovations. The improvements are highlighted by Horde 3.0 mode, which introduces a class and progression system. In this part of “Gears of War 4,” players have to fight off increasingly tougher waves of enemies.

The battle is unrelenting, but players have some advantages. They can choose among five classes: soldier, sniper, heavy, engineer and scout. Each class plays a role in keeping a team alive. Engineers can repair turrets and fences, while heavies can deal out massive damage with explosive weapons. What’s great is that, the more gamers play, the more they can level up a class ability.

The Coalition needed to implement this change to make Horde 3.0 and “Gears of War 4” more relevant in this era of online games. It’s too bad these concepts weren’t pushed to other areas of the game. If they had been, this fresh start for the franchise could have been even better.

Gears of War 4

2 ½ stars

Platform: Xbox One, PC

Rating: Mature