When speaking to the Coalition’s Creative Director, Chuck Osieja about the biggest gameplay changes in Gears of War 4, he pointed out that the windflares are a major part of the game. Not only do they provide a completely different experience to gunfights in the way that they sweep cover in and out of the screen, they also are unpredictable and will change. Essentially, they players have completely different experiences in certain parts of the game due to the fact that Windflares differ with each play through.

“The biggest testament to the windflares is that when we were doing preview play-throughs and the unpredictability of the windflares made it really hard to get the exact play through that we wanted. You and I when playing through the game will essentially have different experiences throughout. Everybody will have a different experience.” Osieja said about the unpredictable windflares.

“The windflares moves cover in and out of the environment. A lot of the cover is really unstable, so when you see a windflare, you should really get the hell out of there. Further to this, it will also bring in cover from outside the environment so suddenly you’ll be sitting there and a huge chunk or rubble will fly onto your field of view.” Osieja continued about the windflares which completely change firefights.

“Also, something that’s never happened in Gears before is the fact that you can go into an encounter which looks one way when you start, but it’ll look completely different when you leave. You can definitely use it as a tactic to defeat enemies. The last thing is that when the windflare gets to its peak, we have what’s called a storm wall which hits the ground and sticks, which essentially creates a puzzle for the players to get through. We think of windflares as essentially another boss that can occur at any time.” Osieja said.

Windflares assault Sera's landscape,

changing the battlefield and sweeping projectiles away in the wind #GearsofWar4 pic.twitter.com/LV9xENZ9CN — Gears of War (@GearsofWar) May 25, 2016

Gears of War 4 will release on Xbox One and Windows 10 over the next few days. The limited edition 2TB Xbox One Console will release on Thursday, October 6th. The Ultimate Edition releases on Friday, October 7th and the game hits the general public on Tuesday, October 11th.