With Gears 5, The Coalition took the criticism Gears of War 4 had received for playing things a bit too safe to heart, and changed things up noticeably in quite a lot of ways. Though at its core, it was still a classic Gears experience, changes to its world design, lite-RPG mechanics in terms of progression, and more options presented to players in how they wanted to tackle combat scenarios made for an experience that felt fresh and exciting, and one that successfully invigorated the franchise.

And The Coalition only plan on taking those things even further in future instalments. Campaign design director Matt Searcy recently told GamingBolt in an interview that the open world sections, more open-ended combat, stealth sections, and the progression mechanics involving Jack are all things that The Coalition did in Gears 5 as a way to lay down a foundation for the future. According to Searcy, future instalments in the series are going to continue building on those foundations.

“Gears 5 took some leaps forward in how we think about a Gears game, and as you mentioned, fans responded positively,” Searcy said while speaking with GamingBolt. “Gears 5 was all about laying the foundation for the franchise to steer it into the future, so it’s safe to say we’ll continue to build off this foundation in the future so we can continue to surprise and delight fans as we look forward to whatever might be on the horizon.”

Spoilers follow for Gears 5

Gears 5 made one more notable change as well, of course, which was having two different endings based on a pivotal choice made at the end- a first for the Gears franchise, and a significant new addition. We can expect to see more of this from future games as well.

When we asked him if a branching narrative is something that we will see more of in future Gears games, Searcy said, “A huge goal and pillar of Gears 5 was player choice, and it’s definitely something we’ll be looking to build on going forward.”

End of spoilers

Gears 5 is out now on Xbox One and PC. It recently received several new playable characters in multiplayer, and is currently in the middle of a Halloween event.