Agreed, they should of just come up with a new threat. Or just create a new ip. I got tired of the game being unable to make up it's mind whether these are the locusts or not. Trying to give the player the illusion of it being something new but it's really not.
Completely agree, the moment that I found out in Gears of War 4 that the swarm were just the Locust reincarnated I was just like......fucking really, so I guess everything we went through in the first two games to finally get rid of the locust in Gears 3 just means nothing now.....it’s like getting kicked in the dick, then offered a bag of ice, only to get hit in the dick with said bag of ice adding to the pain.....it’s so fucked.
Yep, by far the thing that made me instantly hate them and the Gears games in general. Even if it was some other bad origin, nothing makes it more pointless or stupid than just being the Locust
Constantly throughout Gears 4 and 5, they always say "Oh, the Swarm is MUCH worse than the Locust ever were" or something along those lines, but the gameplay NEVER reflects that at all.
What about the fact that despite all the technological advancements the cog have made the swarm is pretty much winning effortlessly The cog literally have an army of robots yet are still getting pummeled
@@some_shitposting_idiot3023 Honestly, a lot of it isn't that useful. Like, the most useful technological advances they've had that would be useful for fighting against them are the DBs, but all of those are worthless when they can just be taken over by the Swarm and used to increase the Swarm's own numbers. Everything else wasn't really too much military technological weapon advancements, more just general ones to make life better living like the manufacturers or the giant walls to protect from natural disasters. Only outlier is really just the giant robots that people can pilot, but there doesn't seem to be many of them. The Locust were all gone and all the Sarens had for the most part come together as one outside of small outsider camps, but those aren't like full people against them like the UIR vs the COG was, more just like little bandit camps at most. That's why the DBs were more made to help protect settlements for the most part or deal with small outsider camps or deal with tiny revolts/criminals despite the Sarens' low population after the Locust War ended when they didn't have enough manpower to protect everyone themselves. Also, while the Swarm are a big issue, it seems less dire so far compared to the Locust. Like, outside of big threats like the giant worms or big thing from Gears 5, they're more attacking settlements one-by-one and moreso reflected by how they didn't have a Queen yet, and even after they do get one, doesn't feel like it's amped up much more. Feels more like just a large annoyance issue actually fighting them and the little battles going on, while the characters talk about them like they're a bigger issue than we're actually seeing because they're not good at showing us it rather than telling us.
"We gotta up the stakes more, then the players will be more interested. See this chart? It has one line in parallel with another. So just make the line go up, and other line go up!" "Line go up?" "Line go up!!!" *foaming at the mouth*
The Locust also kidnapped humans to turn into slaves, food for their animals, or just to torture them, The fact that they were so brutal but organized made them scary. The Swarm only abducts humans to genetically alter them into the Swarm, they are just mindless beasts that carry baggage from the past games. To be honest while I appreciate new Gears content, the swarm just doesnt feel right.
@@overthelight1914 your right, the Locusts were at least more organized. The Swarm, while smart, only has their goal as kill humans and make more Swarm drones and soldiers. Pretty much the goal of a sickness. While some are cool, the humanoid ones are really not cool.
The reason for the swarm being the way they are is simply because they're trying to bolster their numbers. When the Locust sprang their attack they were already well established in the canon as having vast, perhaps even superior numbers to the Cog, which was devastated by years of war. So now the Cog has the established foothold on Sera whereas the swarm has to establish itself in the fight for Sera. So the swarm haven't had time to tame the creatures of Sera like the Locust. Yes the Locust had the advantage of hiding deep below the surface so they could take their time and ready their attacks. The swarm pretty much would be what the Locust would've been if they were discovered very early on. As far as the main cast is concerned imagine these guys as being young and confused. Gears 5 is basically a fish out of water tale from both sides to establish a new arc. We come in on Marcus and the crew years after these guys have been in conflict. There's your differences. One generation only knew conflict and war thus, they are hardened to the ways of a harsh planet. But JD and his crew are now having to learn everything as they go along. It's kind of a retelling of Marcus and Adam Fenix and the clash in philosophies. The Coalition just played it too safe when it came to Gears 4 but if they would've went in another direction then we would've complained that it wasn't a proper Gears game. They were in a no win situation
The Swarms biggest failure is that during their first appearance they are made to be "A blitz force" meant to destroy entire villages quickly and effectively. Hence "Swarm". However, rather than introducing them as such, they have the leader whose HUGE get his ass kicked by some skinny Mary Sue with a knife. So let that sink in: The main villains first appearance is marked by an ass kicking on a 1v1 with a woman whose several kilos below his weight and height. Compare that to the first time we see RAAM who just strolls around with a bullet proof locust shield and wipes everything out like he's not even trying. Making even the big Steroid-induced heroes worry. THAT was intimidation at its best because you sat there and wondered "How in the hell do I kill that thing?" With this it's the opposite. This skinny chick we never seen before, have no knowledge of, just pulls out a knife and kicks this giant creatures ass and we just sit there like "kek captain hook". Mary Sue storytelling at its very best.
the locust antagonists all had development too. RAAM was a big, menacing, vengeance driven (he even says it when he is downed and revived) boss who served his, at the time, mysterious queen to the death. He had drive and purpose. Skorge was just as vengeance driven and was just as faithful to the queen, gave marcus purpose to kill him and even taunted him when they were dueling. Karn was essentially Bairds RAAM and was hated by him and Paduk for what he did to Paduks country and to Bairds duty station at the time. The Queen had plot development since the first act of Gears 1 and had all the background and purpose any arch nemesis could need to challenge our hero. Even her death carried weight. The Locust foot soldiers, every single one, had reason to be feared and was just as deadly. The Swarm is just a nuisance. A bug infestation with no purpose other than to inconvenience and annoy.
It was like that because they actually had a military ranking system for the locust, RAAM was like second in command. They had real meaningful Locust characters with actual weight on the story, not just mindless villains. But if you think about it the Locust couldn't live without a queen so they went dormant, maybe they lost a lot of their human ways while they were hiding, waiting for a new queen to lead them, and that's why they're so mindless and forgettable. Theyre still in the process of rebuilding.
@@boringshawn33 perhaps. But we still really know nothing about what they want. Maybe we will get some info in the 6th game. There is still some mystery. Like who the hell Kate’s grandma is. Did the queen just start screwing humans. Although at the end of the game it didn’t seem like that was in question anymore. Meanwhile at the end of gears 2 we had 2 mysteries. The 1st is why did the Queen know Marcus’s father and the 2nd is what was the queens purpose for all this. We really didn’t know her reasonings behind stuff, but we did know that she was intelligent enough to not just be a mindless animal (kind of like the swarm feels).
@@coltonpiper6156 we actually know how she new his father. Watch some lore videos you'll learn a ton. Locust were created by humans, queen was the only human to have "positive" effects from the treatment hence why she still looks human, she was able to figure out she could controll the locusts through hive mind, she turned in all the scientists and went underground to form her own civilization of locusts, the yellow shit turn the locust to Lambants, queen surfaces to find scientists that made them, queen threatens to take over the surface if scientist (Dr. Phoenix) doesn't make a cure for lambant, takes too long, queen starts war, Dr. Phoenix make "cure" for lambant that also kills all locust cells, kills himself in the name of science and humanity, queen gets stabbed, locust go dormant underground, 20 years later gears 4 starts and the swarm is here. I think the real question is, what made the swarm wake up again?
@@boringshawn33that's a really good question, what made the locust wake up and become the swarm? I think their reasoning is just that they took a lot of time to evolve but that's a bad, and uninteresting reason.
I remembered Dom's death scene in Gears 3 from when I first saw it as a 7 year old, but I'll probably forget how the Swarm introduction played out tomorrow
I'm on ch4 of Gears 4 and yeah I kinda already forgot. I think it was a blink and you miss it sequence at the compound where they kidnap the queen or whoever
They aren't good because they have no reason to fight the COG other than that hey the locust did it and we need to do it. The locust fought for their own survival, and that fight was in part initiated by the humans and how they exploited and polluted the world through imulsion, the locust were an actual society with intelligence and ideals, they tried at first to survive without the extinction of the humans but because a human war took the only thing that could prevent the locust war from happening the locust HAD to. the swarm has none of that, they have no real society, reason and desperation that the locust had to survive
Okay but you don’t know this in the first gears. It makes sense that the swarm hates humanity because they carry over the bloodlines and memories of their ancestors. So the hatred lingers
@@hondaboi8195 true. I kinda wish it was deeper than that. They are just locust, same motivation and hatred for humanity... despite there being no more lambent to drive out of their home. I seriously hope their motivation isn’t just “We are perfect! You aren’t!” That would be SO lame...
I remember hearing a theory before the game came out, that the one hand leader was actually Raam. Retuning to exact his vengeance. That would have been so much better. Like imagine Raam without a Queen. A Raam who has been mentally messed up by those crystals. A pure rampage Raam. That would be dope.
Nice to know I'm not the only one who wants the good general to come back and become something more than a general raam and become emperor of the swarm and have a different name like Megatron to Galvatron and this should still happen because let's say raam has a son and he orders his son to kill the queen because he believes Myrrha is nothing more but a rabid animal that has to be put down and that's leading the swarm to disaster so with the help of his father Raam son kills the queen and then boom raam becomes the leader of the swarm and his son is the commander 😈
Another thing I’d say is that the Locust had was brutality and time to have great achievements. In gears 1-3, every time you move through the destroyed remains of humanity, you are reminded of how powerful the locust were and how far humanity has fallen due to them. You even see them sink Illima city in 2, giving you a first hand view of their power and carnage before the main characters figure out that Jacinto is going to be sank as well. The atmosphere is dark and claustrophobic because the ash, smoke, and the city now being underground, Carmine is horrified by the loss of civilian life and you even see civies get ripped apart in front of you. Compare that to settlement 2, where the characters care more about a riot that happened long ago than the fact that people are dying around them, but you never see anyone die around you. Heck, one third of the people you see die in that entire battle died to friendly fire! The atmosphere is lightly Smokey and lacks the urgency and claustrophobic feeling of gears 2. The swarm ultimately wins the battle, but no one talks about it after that. The feelings of losing settlement 2 is also offset due to the fact that you have over fifteen other settlements full of people. Compare that to Jacinto, the last city held by the COG being threatened with sinking into the ground. Anyway, the first real loss of the swarm war is forgotten and the characters focus on why JD is a dick instead. No more mention of the first and only big swarm offensive at that point. It’s like the swarm just sit there for the rest of the game doing nothing until the end of the game. Another key difference is the fact that the rift worm in 2 sank multiple cities that claimed countless lives vs the gears 5 rift worm that claimed the lives of a dozen gears and a robot…
As much as I enjoyed gears 5's story I completely agree with you. The swarm are just disorganized cannon fodder that add little to the story. Even the savage locust in gears 3 had a much greater impact than the swarm
@@joshuawillis602 only dangerous part of the swarm is the Snatcher and Kraken besides that they aren't a big deal. The locust had brumaks and corpsers everywhere
@@UzilKryll06 it’s not just snatchers. There’s also the Scions and Swarmaks (crystalized Brumaks) and Carriers and pouncers and the various Drones and the large number of juvies and those “flocks” which can not only kill but infect machines.
@@UzilKryll06 also they are a big deal in Gears 4 they took entire settlements of people without anyone seeing them. Plus they’ve turned many places into hives that used to have a lot of people living there.
See the locust horde had motivation other than just kill, they had to fight for their survival because of the lambent in the hollow. The swarm have no interesting motivations they no memorable characters other than the queen (and she's underdeveloped as she is at the moment) and as you said the swarm as an army is just forgettable.
I respectfully disagree...the Swarms main theme in 4 is that they have been searching for their queen and also taking humans to rebuild their army...all while humans are at war again with each other...that's the story i saw anyways
To be fair, the lambency being the thing driving the Locust to the surface wasn't really established in the games until 3, but really only in the comics.
@@jaskegoffii3968 We saw the Lambent and Locust fighting in Gears 2, which is actually when Delta figures out the reason why the Locust are so desperate. The Queen confirms this later.
@@AboveAverageAndrewJ Right we saw it. I'm saying what it actually was/the significance wasn't really established until 3. Unless I missed something big. (I haven't played gears 2 campaign since 09 lol)
Atleast the Locust actually had meaning & a reason to fight humanity. Wanting to take the surface and fleeing from an enemy they are basically powerless fighting against *(Lambet btw)* The Swarm is just whats the point of them.
What I think the Swarm need is a leader to become the face of the faction. Personally, I really liked the idea of a former Locust that is able to speak coherent Tyran within the canon. Where most Locust shout, grunt, and groan, the Speaker could have been a cool villain for the story of Gears 4. Such as explaining they are here to make sure Myrrah returns to full glory. Like, come on. What if during the Swarm Raids on New COG military outposts, the Speaker devised a plan to start to stockpile and further collect weapons. In the confusion for the raids, the Outsiders are blamed by the COG and thus paranoid, the Outsiders and the COG are on the war path. Recognizing the tensions amongst the humans, the Speaker is on a mission to summon all sleeper Locust cells. He ultimately is discovered by the heroes, is hunted down, but was able to awaken all Locust/Swarm. Meaning it showed the Swarm is ready to become a significant threat and have the weapons to supply their numbers. (It still annoys me that the Swarm haven't modified stolen human weapons into serviceable Swarm weapons. Like how the Locust turned the Markza into a Breechshot. Come on, the Swarm would gave a shit ton of Overkills and Enforcers. What kind of weapons would they horribly modify to use against the remaining humans? (Where the Locust essentially ripping off Emperor Palpatine in the Disney trilogy). Where instead of saying the Locust evolved, they developed a contingency plan in case the majority of the remaining Locust would have custom bunkers and were mutated by the doomsday weapon in Gears 3. It is not outside the realm of possibility for the Locust to come up with such a plan. They had a fucking geneticist with Ukkon and not saying he could have solved the Lambent problem. But it would be way fucking cooler if the Locust were shown to be competent enough to carry out a backup plan for their survival. On a side note, it was fucking stupid to throw the Locust bodies and their WEAPONS in the same mine shafts.
Yes and part of the locusts backup plan was to choose a leader among them that would survive the counter measure and awaken the swarm, lead them and devise a plan against the humans. So the Speakers backstory is like locust prophecy so that he has bigger importance to the story because of this he wouldn't just be killed off instantly after being introduce like in Gears of war 4. Instead they would save him until the end of Gears of war 6 where they showdown against him and finally killing him after building up his character in all 3 of the games. This would've made better game than the one we got.
Another thing I wanna say lol is that when I first played the original gears of war when I was like 8 the berserker scared the shit out of me and I didn't wanna play at that part
I recently played 4 and 5, and I don’t even remember anything notable... It’s been years since I played the original trilogy, and I remember almost everything.
I wish that characters would talk about the evolution of the Swarm. For example, Baird could talk about how Snatchers may have evolved from Reavers or why there aren't more Scions than swarm imagos. But I agree, even though the Swarm have a nice visual design, the emotional design/human factor is lackluster.
Also the fact with the Locust, they killed off a character that we believed was gonna stick with us, introducing RAAM and showing how dangerous he is. And after escaping him; you get introduced to the Baserker. Which really depicts how scary and near hopless the Locust War is
Fucking incredible video. I haven’t found a single other channel that is a long time fan of the series criticizing the new games. It’s refreshing to see an informed video of the swarm. Thank you! You’ve earned a new subscriber!
Nice to see someone else bring this up. In was explained in the trilogy that the Locust left the Hollows because of the Lambent. if there was no Lambent, then they probably would've stayed underground indefinitely. But TC retcons that and says they're doing it because of revenge..? Like, can you please make up your mind?
@@allahjustice8893 and it should have never been like that the swarm are the scions instrument of vengeance and not to mention when the scions kept telling their creations of how awful humanity is this would perfectly motivate and give personality and reasoning for the swarm to hate humanity like the locusts have before them this is exactly what we should have seen and happened not the other crappy way around.
The swarm are practically empty both in story telling and tearing through them only to find strawberry jam. Like, how do these things even stand let alone walk?
Honestly Gears 4 and 5 was a crummy idea. Gears 3 was supposed to be the end of everything. I believe that's why Gears 4 and 5 doesn't even feel like a gears game to me
I know I'm a bit late to the discussion here but honestly the big thing for me is that there IS potential in the Swarm, shitty as their naming is. The reanimated and vengeance fueled Locust of old brainwashing a new breed of weird fish cavemen guys to continue their war could have a lot of depth to it with elements like the Swarm Snipers being drones who failed at something and thus had an eye ripped out before being sent to the back lines or how most of the Swarm have their armor bolted to their bodies rather than actually wearing it like equipment. There are elements that could be explored to expand on and flesh out the Swarm but TC just haven't bothered to do it in the slightest.
@@Chronomaton thats a issue I have too. Just like the new cog characters, the swarm isn't fleshed out in the slightest. Not sure how a player is suspose to enjoy a character(s) or a faction that is blander then a white piece of paper. Furthermore, TC ignores said criticism. Passes it off as a form of hating instead of genuine feedback all because we don't compliment their "creation" or "effort" in the middle of said criticism. TCS version of criticism is just simply praising. The proof to that claim lays with the treatment of Omaha. On my channel I'm very Blunt, if a idea or execution of something is FN stupid, I say its FN stupid. Omahas criticisms are extremely just and elegantly put no matter which side the person(s) at hand sits on. But because he offers no praise, his work is ignored.
I only really felt annoyance with them. They seemed more of an inconvenience than an enemy. A tire on the track, type thing. Plus the design is a bit, meh. Too gooey and shit
I really wanted to like four and five but the swarm is just pointless it’s just basically the same enemy they are just a hive mind they don’t care if they die because there’s always more.
Man when that first berserker was introduced with that scene I felt horror, horror movie category, absolutely tense and horrified the whole fight. The first time a game made me feel like that
Pretty much, that pissed me off so much in Gears of War 4 when we find out that the Swarm are just the Locust but reincarnated essentially, it’s kinda like why the fuck did we even do everything we did in the past 3 games to kill them???
@@Qballiz2kool well Adam never wanted to kill the locust he just wanted to get rid of the emulsion sickness but a swarm evolution could have been so much more better and more iconic and it still would have been for nothing because the locust did die but now are reborn into something even more worse and monstrous that's not even locust anymore because everything that they were and acted are gone the swarm should have been more intimidating more stronger powerful not a crappy reskin and devolution of the locust.
Something that I felt like was missing for the Swarm is someone to really speak on their behalf or rather behave in leadership. The reason why Gears 4 and 5 focused so much on the N-COG. Is because that amount of screen time should have been on the Swarm. Because every leader in the main games had their methods in fighting the Humans. RAAM works by killing leadership, Skorge focused on a demoralization and defense of against the Lambent, and Queen Myrrah had her best remaining troops attempt to halt their advance. In Gears 4, I felt sorry for the creative artist who spent weeks or months designing various Speaker concept artwork. Only for the character to show that it can be easily harmed by a machete and chuckle menacingly. Because what makes the Locust Generals intimidating, is how they behaved as unstoppable killing machines. Seeing Kim fruitless chainsaw bayonet attack be halted by RAAM's hand on a whim makes him visually imposing. It is the same logic of Cosmic Horror villains from Lovecraft. If the creature is shown to be easy to kill. It makes the effort into killing them feel less rewarding overall. What I wished was the Speaker could have been the Civilian perspective within Locust society. Not so much as the soldiers we see constantly but rather the sacrificed species during the Lambent and later Human wars. I wanted to know if not all of them desired to wage a crusade for the surface because that is not properly acknowledging the problem of Imulsion mutations. I wished the Speaker could have been the voice of the Locust who were caught in the cross fire during the whole ordeal. I guess it was because the voice line "We remember." When the Speaker gets a kill. It stuck out to me to help illustrate the Locust and later Swarm. That their actions and desire to exist is shared motivation.
I gotta say this idea is very genius and deep. I love how instead of making all locusts flat evil villains it gives some of them that did survive a new motivations that is not entirely based on killing the humans.
I Agree the Speaker Should of had some Unique gear like RAAM, Skorge, and so on every locust general or leader had a Unique amour that separated from the main army with a intimidating intro, I honestly like the Idea of the swarm being the reincarnation of the swarm but it was poorly executed and thats what most of us think it went wrong by this point they would of been better off to make a locust game on the locust point of view than an attempt to keep the story going
@@AC-uw4il I completely agree the locust evolving into the swarm was an excellent idea but it was poorly executed and could have been so much more better and intimidating and we've always should have seen the side of the locust view of the war and they should have never killed Raam and the others off they should have just as mattered in the spotlight like Marcus and the others like how every cybertronian in transformers matters not just one side and race gears of war could of been a way better series than we sadly got from the start of 2006 and if the writers of epic took us story and more and characters more seriously like bioware for Mass effect since that is way better than gears and even Halo.
Jin felt like more of a damn villain in gears 4 more than anything. Honestly made me thought JD and the gang really went rogue and had to eventually fight the cog
@@xXClassicUserXx i know right. I EXPECTED HUMAN COG SOLDIERS IN GOW4 AND GEARS 5 BC THATS HOW IT WAS IN GOW1, GOW2, AND GOW3. i saw the COG bots in GOW4 and im just like... "wtf is dis shit... WHERES THE COG... DIS AINT THE FUCKING COG!!!!!!!!! AND WHEN DID THE STRANDED BECOME KNOWN AS 'outsiders' WHEN WAS WALLS BUILT, WHERES HOFFMAN, WHOS JINN AND SOMEBODY TELL ME WHERE THE FUCKIN HELL IS ANYA STROUD!!!!!!!!!"
@@FOXY__GAMING19 i mean the game is based like 20 years after gears 3. Just look how different our world is from 20 years ago. Hell we almost built a wall in that time lmao.
This is the problem with most modern gaming and tv as well nowadays we keep getting reboots or sequels to old games and shows except they are done by new groups and artists who in some cases have no love or connection to the legacy they are taking over or they don't understand what made the original good so they often stray away from the old formula and make it their own game or movie such as 343 did with halo or Disney with star wars sequels which leads to controversy and alot of hate or confusion and often they become forgotten or left with bad memories and leave people unsatisfied and leaving those franchises in the search for something new and better
the swarm were just a cheap remake of the locust, because nobody could be bothered to create a worthwhile villain i would have much preferred to fight the COG
The new Gears games suffer from the same problem that the Disney Star Wars films, terrible storytelling and poor direction; only made worse by the fact that you know the talent is.just sitting there. If the Gears sequel games focused on the evil of the Coalition, sure, bring back the Locust as the Swarm, but have them more like the Lambent; secondary antagonists. Highlighting the experiments that created the Locust, the rock and a hard place choice that the Queen was forced into, and how impossible peace would have been; I mean, the Coalition are evil, they're basically constantly hinted at being a Fascist state, Marcus hates them, so it wouldn't be a stretch at all. The Swarm should just be a tragic faction of evil.
@@EmergencyChannel The issue is the endless franchising to keep a brand going; both Gears and Halo worked great as Trilogies; every other game feels like an unnecessary addendum.
@@EmergencyChannel yeah and that shouldn't be the case ever even though Kate is better than Ray but still Kate is not the only one that matters they all matter.
@@noheroespublishing1907 yeah and that also should have never been the case the new games after the trilogy should have been even more better and darker and more fun but still Halo and gears of war not lackluster devolution of the series.
@@Elitesolider1023 Which is funny, since I found JD's arc in 5 much more compelling than Kate's. He's put in a no win situation where innocents are dying and, in a moment of panic, orders his soldiers to open fire on the rioters. This instance is referenced from the get go in 4 and constantly painted as "Evil cog mow down innocent protestors". Believing his friends now hate him and with their backs up against the wall, he potentially sacrifices himself to enable the use of an unstable weapon, that winds up going out of control and killing friend and foe alike. Blaming himself entirely, JD loses all confidence his own ability to make a judgement and operates as a by the book CoG officer, until he hears about the events in Mount Kedar. And as for the whole choice about who to save, saving JD certainly helps flesh him, Kate and Faz out even more.
I didn't play Gears 4 but did play 1,2,3 and 5. This new campaigns seem to be less serious and leaving the dark tone a side. In Gears 5 there was not a single moment where i was amaze by the enemies, nothing like fighting Raam, berserker, etc
I agree Locusts were a more interesting enemy. Swarm are fine, and they do look cool, but they are not creepy and seem less full of hatred than Locusts. Also, Gears 5 said Locusts/Swarm were lab-made with human DNA right? I feel that makes them less interesting, like does that mean Raam is not really a General that fought for years and is actually just a test-tube creature that escaped? IMHO, I think they should have made Locusts a species, not a mutated human. But for all I know this could have been decided in a book or something well before the Coalition devs got involved.
Not many people know this, but this was Epic's real backstory for the Locust way back in pre Gears 1. They kind of had this blueprint for the Locust backstory, but didn't expect Gears 1 to do as well and didn't want to spend so much time on this villain when they didn't know if they'd make a sequel. Well of course Gears 1 crushed it in sales and they were on a time crunch to come out with Gears 2 therefore they didn't have that much time to develop a more solid backstory.
@@bitchpudding2945 dude it was already like that even before the coalition had the rights in gears of war 2 it was revealed that there were proto locust called siers and they would mix Mara's DNA with sir DNA to create the matriarch that would give birth to the rest of the locust and they are still completely their own race they're just cousins to humanity just like the forerunners in Halo.
@@bitchpudding2945 well that's the thing it isn't human anymore it completely turn into their own DNA just like that swarm stuff because it's a nonsenseient version of the emulsion where it only breaks down parts and reforges them and I really love that it's full circle they use the Queen's DNA with sire to create the matriarch which completely becomes their own DNA and then the emulsion within them becomes that gunk the swarm uses to create life Which becomes something else entirely not reincarnation recreation it's all connected😱
@@connorbestbarlow1043 That's so stupid though... Gear 3 made us think Adam's superweapon killed EVERY LAST LOCUST. How can TC just go and retconn that? That's just lazy writing and a disservice to your OG fanbase... how can they possibly write themselves out of this hole?
I kind of like Gears of War 4 but it never should have been made the swarm should have never been a thing Gears 3 was such a perfect ending to a perfect series
I was a hardcore GoW fan and I don't even remember any memorable scenes from 4, and 5. They dont even feel canon, like the writers were given 1 hour to play each previous game and make something up. Also the protagonists are already to familiar to war that it seems irrelevant what you go up against, what I mean is Marcus was a battle hardened pendulum war vet and Prisoner so hes going to come off as very disgruntled and know how to fight. but these new guys shake everything off likes its just Tuesday. The coalition should have started GoW4 with a thriving society and introduced the swarm and making out protagonists realize the Horrors of war, make them lose their wits, and humanity, unglorify being a Gear. but instead we got a wash rinse repeat, and goofy skins. Thanks Epic Games for the fun times but This franchise is now a waste of time
While i did like Gears 4's story as an introduction set piece, i disliked the story in Gears 5 and the Swarm was never as intimidating or cool as the locust were
The swarm should have been more intimidating than the locust and lambent since they are supposed to be the perfect hybridization of the two which should make them even more goddamn frightening and powerful and enemy you do not want to mess with.
here's how i would've reintroduced the Locust. in Gears 4, the story begins the same- the group invades Settlement 5 to claim a Fabricator and all, BUT... inside, they find fliers of a strange new medical facility out near the ruins of Jacinto. then after Jinn attacks the village, the town does get invaded by the Swarm... but they find tracks that lead to the medical facility. Inside, they find COG scientists experimenting with Locust DNA taken from corpses, trying to use it to perfect a Rustlung cure, but some applicants showed signs of mutation- the Scions and Juvies. Or they could've arrived after the Swarm killed everyone inside and took over. Either way, medical facility experimenting with Locust DNA and the experiments get loose and start their rampage. As for the Pouncers and Snatchers- mutated Skitters. and the other beasts... crossbreed experiments? Anyway, as the kids investigate further and further, they find the Swarm are mutating the scientists and guards and abductees with the Pods to make more Scions and Juvies since the experiments were done on humans after all, with Kait's mom being used as their Queen due to her familial ties to Myrrah. but since the Swarm are too many, the kids are forced to flee and find help. Enter the Classic characters, who do a lot more then just show up for fan service. One reconcile with Jinn and massive return raid later and they learn the Swarm had spread across the planet using old Emergence Holes, with Kait's mom still alive and at the helm, mutated into a copy-Myrrah. and that's just Gears 4. now that would've been a better way to bring the Locust back that doesn't destroy Gears 3's perfect ending, and why they need to be stopped. as for Gears 5, it could still be the same- revive the Hammer of Dawn, fight the giant worm, and blah blah blah blah, but with some tweaking to make it less aggravating, like Kait's visions are more known and last all game, with her cut from the Locust/Swarm hivemind and battle with the Matriarch taking place at the end of the game, or at least Act 4.
(How to deal with prisoners) Locusts: Chain them up by hooks and chains that dig into their frail skin, constantly attack them with blades and sharp objects until their mind begins to break and shatter before their own body. Do not grant them death as it is a luxury they do not deserve Swarm: *Vore em*
Honestly, haven’t watched the video yet, however I will list the things I feel are flaws for the Swarm and what makes them incredibly forgettable. 1) They have no actual motives. The only possible motive I can come up with is them wanting to capture humans and convert them into swarm. However that isn’t really a motive at all as there is no end point. 2) They look way more alien and share almost nothing with their previous incarnations in the locust. The snatcher doesn’t look like anything the locust had in their army. The pouncer doesn’t look like anything the locust have. Honestly this faction would’ve done way better if, instead of being connected to the locust, they are instead a parasite that infected the dead bodies of the locust, and the new special members in the factions are actually just the parasite infector forms. 3) They were fucked from the start. You’re honestly telling me that the cog didn’t notice this new locust rip off in the early stages? The cog literally should’ve been monitoring the burial sites just in case the locust weren’t actually dead. 4) They are less diverse than the locust were. The swarm literally has 8 units: Juvies, drones, grenadiers, Scions, pouncer, snatcher, flock, and Wardens. The locust by the second game had like 14 units: Tickers, wretches, drones, grenadiers, cyclopses, kantuses, kryll, boomers, maulers, grinders, butchers, snipers, Theron guards, berserkers, Reavers, and Corpsers. 5) The fucking health bars annoy me so damn much because it’s given them an excuse to turn most of the enemies into bullet sponges. Just seeing a health bar above an enemy completely destroys my immersion as you can literally see how little your bullets affect them.
In the first Gears game Marcus Fenix was an authority on Berserkers but he"d never heard about Kryll before actually encountering them which is pretty frickin ridiculous!
The problem with the Swarm is that they are brand new, there's no history to them. So they are the bad guys because the story needs one. Yes they are the Locust 2.0 but you can't just ignore a background by saying that they basically the same bad guys as before. Gow 4 should've started 10 years into a Swarm Invasion so the game can tell us something new about them. Give the players something to hate, fear, like, etc.
The trailer actually gave me this feeling when I first watched it. There was a new war going on, and the new generation, which was meant to be peaceful and at ease, is once again fighting for their survival.
I think if the COG was made the bad guy of Gears, then you could actually have a interesting discussion of the previous games through the lens of the children of the people/actions of the previous games. I would hate to make it some kind of cringe zoomer vs boomer thing, but maybe the COG could take a drastic approach to squashing the Outsiders could be to take the Locust's corpses now resurrected and their new Dbots to enforce their rule on the humans? Maybe the main cast could try to reconcile the problems of the past. ie. "War is all we know line." We can keep the horror aspect and bring back the same kind of horror with had with Sires from Gears 2. Maybe the Locust zombie horde could combine elements of traditional Locust and Lambent, now warped together as a super weapon. Then the characters with the Outsiders have to destroy the Locust horde and the COG, with the COG trying to race the Outsiders to controlling the horde and sacrificing their own to do this, ie. Kait's mom. Kind of a ramble, but could help?
Old vid i know but i think if they would have stuck with JD as the protaganist but still put kaits story into gears 5, when jd found out what she was connected to, it would have made a way bigger impact. I kinda liked the story a litte bit, but there was a lot missing as the video stated.
something that in my mind could have made the swarm make a bit more sense would have been if the swarm was actually a minority of the reborn locusts, with most of them instead returning to the hollows to clear out the water as much as possible, with the intent of both avenging and honoring their fallen queen by surving and rebuilding, to become stronger than before once again. the swarm and the hive mind could be explained away in this scenario as a byproduct of a deathrattle from myrrahs telepathic connection with the locust (if i am interperting the way she gives RAAM orders correctly in RAAMs shaodw) which sent out both her hatred of humanity. this created the swarm, feral locust with only the anniahlation of humanity in mind. the kindapping and transformation could also be explained that the swarm searched for a human that posses simmilari genetic qualities as myrrah so that they could recreate their old queen and unify the swarm and the locust. the locust would be all for the idea, "getting back our queen and makeing the humans suffer while those feral morons do all the work and get all the blame... perfect", thus would supply them with wepons and armaments. the abduction of reyina gave the swarm a good enough template to begin the reconstruction process, sending her genetic blueprint to the location of the new "body" (which is in the main stronghold of the locust) which then gets the mental blueprint based on the hive mind and remants of the connection left in their entire species imprinted on it. the "rescue" of kaits mother stopped the process and caused the new queen to awaken, who posses both the originals connection to the locust and her affection to them but was a bit lacking in the hatred for humans part. all of this was enough for the locusts but not the swarm who imprinted their hive mind into a super berserker with their own new queen went to war with the locusts. this could result in a three way war or a human-locust allince with both parties possesing a nonexistant ammount of trust for the other (but could give one the chance to play as a locust for a bit in the campaign). but that is just me... and we could have gotten something like this... but instead we got a bunch of nothingburgers.
Locust's primary motivation to emerge was the Lambent, so there's no logic in this reincarnated war since there is no threat for them underground, both Gears 4 and 5 are unnecesary and pointless.
Completely agree, the swarm basically are at war with the humans for the Lol’s at this point, they have no motivations to wage war at all so it’s ultimately just a pointless effort for really no benefit or gain as far as we know, short of it is they suck ass as a threat.
I might be late to this discussion, but for me, another central problem with the Swarm is their lack of purpose and voluntarism. When you interact with the Locust in Gears of War 2, you can clearly see that they are not very different to humans in various regards: they need to eat, they need to sleep, they build roads, buildings, sacred places, monuments, they know how to write, how to measure time, etc. After visiting New Hope you can connect the dots and realize that the Locust were made after former humans mutated with Imulsion, and that Imulsion was the whole plot point during the original trilogy. Humans accidentally created the Locust while trying to find a cure for Lambency. Then tried to weaponize them during the Pendulum Wars and failed. The Locust then sought shelter in the sub-soil (The Hollow), but humanity went into full time consumption of Imulsion at the end of the Pendulum Wars. Myrrah had no choice but to attack humanity to prevent them from extracting Imulsion at an industrial scale, accelerating the Lambency process. The attack was led by numerous generals: RAAM, Skorge, Ukkon, Karn,...all of them with authentic identities in the horde. On the other hand, the Swarm have literally no past and no future. Their sole purpose is to feed and multiply, like a savage animal. They have literally no identity, no culture, no purpose against humanity.
We need a better perspective of how the swarm hive mind works. Is it one acting as many, can they think for themselves at all. They are made from people, do they have peoples memories. We also need swarm characters other than Rayna and a random giant monster.
I loved the part where they were attacked by flying locusts. One the COGs said in a very bad ass way, "They fly now?" The other spat out his cigarette and said, "They fly now!" And it was so bad ass and reminiscent of the first trilogy, but for some reason, it made me want to play the new trilogy. For... some reason. *checks email for message from sponsor again*
I do wish there was more of a big bad to rally against. Like Raam in gears 1 and Skorge in gears 2. They kinda made that one hand guy a boss. But he didn't feel like Raam or Skorge.
Swarm introduction section of the video made me wonder how gears would be if Gears 4 was outsider vs cog then final cutscene we see a swarm raid about to begin. and then little dlc mission where we could play as Marcus when the swarm revealed themselves to him. maybe even have them Snatch Anya. or another Locust Pov during a raid with their new surprise crusade being something along the lines of hate and revenge
Wish you used the ultimate edition version of first seeing General RAAM. That scene looked way more badass in 4K with a slight redesign on how the scene played out
I grew up playing gears games but never really understood the stories for I wasn’t even 6 at the time but when gears 4 came out I got it with my Xbox and enjoyed the story and thought it was great, I liked how since the swarm isn’t found out about until partially through the story, we play as the characters who find the swarm and make new discoveries about the swarm as we go on. I thought this was great, however maybe if most of gears 4 was a dlc to gears 5 or 6 and gears 4 took a more gears 1 intro approach, say you play as jd and Marcus and maybe dell at the start and you see Marcus get taken and jd’s reaction just like the cutscene in gears 4 maybe that would be better, just a thought though
I'm a bit late, but I kind of adore the Swarm, I just want more to be done with them, and they're definitely better than the concept arts I saw Epic had for Gears of War 4 when they still y'know owned gears.
The swarm were a wasted opportunity. I mean there were so many things they could've done with them that they didn't. Any of us fans can do a better job of creating a story for them. I can even pitch my own story that would do better then what they created.
I haven't played a gears game since gears 4 relaesed and honeslty i completely forgot the swarm existed and though you fought locusts in gears 4. I only remembered the swarm when I bought gear's 5 just this month.
rewatching that cutscene when the swarm shows up, how the f did they sneak into the village that far when they are giant as hell. also the animal minions make no sense since it seems like the just popped up out of no where
What i hated the most is how they took away everything unique about locusts. they werent experiments, they were creatures with art, culture, beliefs and a society in general. they werent mindless drones, they were individuals with their own will capable of slacking off and disobeying order, hell, e-day wouldnt have happened if raam hadnt disobeyed orders. They were a genuine threat. they keep saying the swar is better but they have absolutely no feats to back it up. they dont have strategists, they dont have named characters, no proper tech or anything while the locusts wiped out 1/4 of humanity in a single day. and most important, they were fucking diabolical; the torture, the emergence holes, and their treatment to the human race, jesus the therons hiss "sodomize" as an order, what other race does that?
The entire story of Gears 5 seems to be actually more centered on the main character than it is on the swarm. Maybe if they had focused less on what the swarm's plans were rather than what Cait and her family history had to do with it they probably would've had a better story
I agree with you in this vid and everything thing u said for the most part however I do appreciate the swarm still In a way for what they are. They definitely aren’t better than locust but I still appreciate them
10:19 omg that was so cringy Gears of war lost the essence, no more locusts, no wars, no Big guys vs giant monsters... Now it's all about a little girl and his mother
The swarm are evil just because, that's the weakest form of lore making available, the protagonist in Gears 5 is the protagonist because she was unlucky, she is there by chance Mary-sue esque, the lore after GOW 3 has been really disappointing to me.
To be fair I don't remember any of the villains except Raam and i don't even remember much about him except his name was Raam, he kills that one guy, and he takes a lot of bullets
I think the coalition should have kept the concept designs. For the new locust that Cliff blizzinski had They looked way more intimidating. Way more badass Seriously if you get a chance try to look them up.
Think how I would remake the opening scene The moment Kate tries to open the door she finds out the door is blocked by Dupree and force Kate to watch has she can't her mother instead of her mom locking the door.
Honest the swarm dont have really any thing to but something to shoot at but in the first gears of war general raam did not really have anything to him he is just a big bad guy to shoot at but he does get more lore to him in the books
Another thing that sucks about them is that they're the Locust reincarnated, making many sacrifices in the previous games meaningless.
Agreed, they should of just come up with a new threat. Or just create a new ip. I got tired of the game being unable to make up it's mind whether these are the locusts or not. Trying to give the player the illusion of it being something new but it's really not.
Right?? How did they not think this through..
Completely agree, the moment that I found out in Gears of War 4 that the swarm were just the Locust reincarnated I was just like......fucking really, so I guess everything we went through in the first two games to finally get rid of the locust in Gears 3 just means nothing now.....it’s like getting kicked in the dick, then offered a bag of ice, only to get hit in the dick with said bag of ice adding to the pain.....it’s so fucked.
wait "making many sacrifices in the previous games meaningless"? oh god Dom
Yep, by far the thing that made me instantly hate them and the Gears games in general. Even if it was some other bad origin, nothing makes it more pointless or stupid than just being the Locust
Constantly throughout Gears 4 and 5, they always say "Oh, the Swarm is MUCH worse than the Locust ever were" or something along those lines, but the gameplay NEVER reflects that at all.
What about the fact that despite all the technological advancements the cog have made the swarm is pretty much winning effortlessly
The cog literally have an army of robots yet are still getting pummeled
@@some_shitposting_idiot3023 Honestly, a lot of it isn't that useful. Like, the most useful technological advances they've had that would be useful for fighting against them are the DBs, but all of those are worthless when they can just be taken over by the Swarm and used to increase the Swarm's own numbers.
Everything else wasn't really too much military technological weapon advancements, more just general ones to make life better living like the manufacturers or the giant walls to protect from natural disasters.
Only outlier is really just the giant robots that people can pilot, but there doesn't seem to be many of them. The Locust were all gone and all the Sarens had for the most part come together as one outside of small outsider camps, but those aren't like full people against them like the UIR vs the COG was, more just like little bandit camps at most. That's why the DBs were more made to help protect settlements for the most part or deal with small outsider camps or deal with tiny revolts/criminals despite the Sarens' low population after the Locust War ended when they didn't have enough manpower to protect everyone themselves.
Also, while the Swarm are a big issue, it seems less dire so far compared to the Locust. Like, outside of big threats like the giant worms or big thing from Gears 5, they're more attacking settlements one-by-one and moreso reflected by how they didn't have a Queen yet, and even after they do get one, doesn't feel like it's amped up much more. Feels more like just a large annoyance issue actually fighting them and the little battles going on, while the characters talk about them like they're a bigger issue than we're actually seeing because they're not good at showing us it rather than telling us.
The MESSAGE only knows screaming because, although it's of little intelligence, it's effective.
"We gotta up the stakes more, then the players will be more interested. See this chart? It has one line in parallel with another. So just make the line go up, and other line go up!"
"Line go up?"
"Line go up!!!" *foaming at the mouth*
The Locust also kidnapped humans to turn into slaves, food for their animals, or just to torture them, The fact that they were so brutal but organized made them scary. The Swarm only abducts humans to genetically alter them into the Swarm, they are just mindless beasts that carry baggage from the past games. To be honest while I appreciate new Gears content, the swarm just doesnt feel right.
Swarm is not mindless, they have a queen.
@@funkyreapercat5280 Yea right, I guess I just view the swarm as less intelligent then the locusts
@@overthelight1914 ok
@@overthelight1914 your right, the Locusts were at least more organized. The Swarm, while smart, only has their goal as kill humans and make more Swarm drones and soldiers. Pretty much the goal of a sickness. While some are cool, the humanoid ones are really not cool.
The reason for the swarm being the way they are is simply because they're trying to bolster their numbers. When the Locust sprang their attack they were already well established in the canon as having vast, perhaps even superior numbers to the Cog, which was devastated by years of war. So now the Cog has the established foothold on Sera whereas the swarm has to establish itself in the fight for Sera. So the swarm haven't had time to tame the creatures of Sera like the Locust. Yes the Locust had the advantage of hiding deep below the surface so they could take their time and ready their attacks. The swarm pretty much would be what the Locust would've been if they were discovered very early on. As far as the main cast is concerned imagine these guys as being young and confused. Gears 5 is basically a fish out of water tale from both sides to establish a new arc. We come in on Marcus and the crew years after these guys have been in conflict. There's your differences. One generation only knew conflict and war thus, they are hardened to the ways of a harsh planet. But JD and his crew are now having to learn everything as they go along. It's kind of a retelling of Marcus and Adam Fenix and the clash in philosophies. The Coalition just played it too safe when it came to Gears 4 but if they would've went in another direction then we would've complained that it wasn't a proper Gears game. They were in a no win situation
The Swarms biggest failure is that during their first appearance they are made to be "A blitz force" meant to destroy entire villages quickly and effectively. Hence "Swarm". However, rather than introducing them as such, they have the leader whose HUGE get his ass kicked by some skinny Mary Sue with a knife.
So let that sink in: The main villains first appearance is marked by an ass kicking on a 1v1 with a woman whose several kilos below his weight and height. Compare that to the first time we see RAAM who just strolls around with a bullet proof locust shield and wipes everything out like he's not even trying. Making even the big Steroid-induced heroes worry. THAT was intimidation at its best because you sat there and wondered "How in the hell do I kill that thing?"
With this it's the opposite. This skinny chick we never seen before, have no knowledge of, just pulls out a knife and kicks this giant creatures ass and we just sit there like "kek captain hook". Mary Sue storytelling at its very best.
If you play in chronological order, RAAM's intro is even better, because you get to BE him and push the humans' shit in deep.
the locust antagonists all had development too. RAAM was a big, menacing, vengeance driven (he even says it when he is downed and revived) boss who served his, at the time, mysterious queen to the death. He had drive and purpose. Skorge was just as vengeance driven and was just as faithful to the queen, gave marcus purpose to kill him and even taunted him when they were dueling. Karn was essentially Bairds RAAM and was hated by him and Paduk for what he did to Paduks country and to Bairds duty station at the time. The Queen had plot development since the first act of Gears 1 and had all the background and purpose any arch nemesis could need to challenge our hero. Even her death carried weight. The Locust foot soldiers, every single one, had reason to be feared and was just as deadly. The Swarm is just a nuisance. A bug infestation with no purpose other than to inconvenience and annoy.
It was like that because they actually had a military ranking system for the locust, RAAM was like second in command. They had real meaningful Locust characters with actual weight on the story, not just mindless villains. But if you think about it the Locust couldn't live without a queen so they went dormant, maybe they lost a lot of their human ways while they were hiding, waiting for a new queen to lead them, and that's why they're so mindless and forgettable. Theyre still in the process of rebuilding.
@@boringshawn33 perhaps. But we still really know nothing about what they want. Maybe we will get some info in the 6th game. There is still some mystery. Like who the hell Kate’s grandma is. Did the queen just start screwing humans. Although at the end of the game it didn’t seem like that was in question anymore. Meanwhile at the end of gears 2 we had 2 mysteries. The 1st is why did the Queen know Marcus’s father and the 2nd is what was the queens purpose for all this. We really didn’t know her reasonings behind stuff, but we did know that she was intelligent enough to not just be a mindless animal (kind of like the swarm feels).
@@coltonpiper6156 we actually know how she new his father. Watch some lore videos you'll learn a ton. Locust were created by humans, queen was the only human to have "positive" effects from the treatment hence why she still looks human, she was able to figure out she could controll the locusts through hive mind, she turned in all the scientists and went underground to form her own civilization of locusts, the yellow shit turn the locust to Lambants, queen surfaces to find scientists that made them, queen threatens to take over the surface if scientist (Dr. Phoenix) doesn't make a cure for lambant, takes too long, queen starts war, Dr. Phoenix make "cure" for lambant that also kills all locust cells, kills himself in the name of science and humanity, queen gets stabbed, locust go dormant underground, 20 years later gears 4 starts and the swarm is here. I think the real question is, what made the swarm wake up again?
@@boringshawn33that's a really good question, what made the locust wake up and become the swarm? I think their reasoning is just that they took a lot of time to evolve but that's a bad, and uninteresting reason.
I remembered Dom's death scene in Gears 3 from when I first saw it as a 7 year old, but I'll probably forget how the Swarm introduction played out tomorrow
Only thing I remember about the swarm is the anger I felt when I found out in Gears of War 4 that they are just the reincarnations of the Locust.
I'm on ch4 of Gears 4 and yeah I kinda already forgot. I think it was a blink and you miss it sequence at the compound where they kidnap the queen or whoever
They aren't good because they have no reason to fight the COG other than that hey the locust did it and we need to do it. The locust fought for their own survival, and that fight was in part initiated by the humans and how they exploited and polluted the world through imulsion, the locust were an actual society with intelligence and ideals, they tried at first to survive without the extinction of the humans but because a human war took the only thing that could prevent the locust war from happening the locust HAD to. the swarm has none of that, they have no real society, reason and desperation that the locust had to survive
Okay but you don’t know this in the first gears. It makes sense that the swarm hates humanity because they carry over the bloodlines and memories of their ancestors. So the hatred lingers
@@EggEnjoyer Swarm are here to finish what the locust started. I guess that works...
@@ValentinoMarino11 thats what i was thinking but that doesnt stop from making them still kind of forgettable unlike the locust
@@hondaboi8195 true. I kinda wish it was deeper than that. They are just locust, same motivation and hatred for humanity... despite there being no more lambent to drive out of their home.
I seriously hope their motivation isn’t just “We are perfect! You aren’t!” That would be SO lame...
@@ValentinoMarino11 yeah dude fr hope gears 6 gets better if not then ill probably not buy it
I remember hearing a theory before the game came out, that the one hand leader was actually Raam. Retuning to exact his vengeance. That would have been so much better. Like imagine Raam without a Queen. A Raam who has been mentally messed up by those crystals. A pure rampage Raam. That would be dope.
Nice to know I'm not the only one who wants the good general to come back and become something more than a general raam and become emperor of the swarm and have a different name like Megatron to Galvatron and this should still happen because let's say raam has a son and he orders his son to kill the queen because he believes Myrrha is nothing more but a rabid animal that has to be put down and that's leading the swarm to disaster so with the help of his father Raam son kills the queen and then boom raam becomes the leader of the swarm and his son is the commander 😈
Another thing I’d say is that the Locust had was brutality and time to have great achievements.
In gears 1-3, every time you move through the destroyed remains of humanity, you are reminded of how powerful the locust were and how far humanity has fallen due to them.
You even see them sink Illima city in 2, giving you a first hand view of their power and carnage before the main characters figure out that Jacinto is going to be sank as well. The atmosphere is dark and claustrophobic because the ash, smoke, and the city now being underground, Carmine is horrified by the loss of civilian life and you even see civies get ripped apart in front of you.
Compare that to settlement 2, where the characters care more about a riot that happened long ago than the fact that people are dying around them, but you never see anyone die around you. Heck, one third of the people you see die in that entire battle died to friendly fire! The atmosphere is lightly Smokey and lacks the urgency and claustrophobic feeling of gears 2.
The swarm ultimately wins the battle, but no one talks about it after that. The feelings of losing settlement 2 is also offset due to the fact that you have over fifteen other settlements full of people. Compare that to Jacinto, the last city held by the COG being threatened with sinking into the ground.
Anyway, the first real loss of the swarm war is forgotten and the characters focus on why JD is a dick instead. No more mention of the first and only big swarm offensive at that point. It’s like the swarm just sit there for the rest of the game doing nothing until the end of the game.
Another key difference is the fact that the rift worm in 2 sank multiple cities that claimed countless lives vs the gears 5 rift worm that claimed the lives of a dozen gears and a robot…
As much as I enjoyed gears 5's story I completely agree with you. The swarm are just disorganized cannon fodder that add little to the story. Even the savage locust in gears 3 had a much greater impact than the swarm
Savage Locust appeared so little gameplay wise, but lore wise they're an amazing look into the Locust culture without a Hollow or Queen.
That’s not true. The swarm have proven to be dangerous and somewhat organized.
@@joshuawillis602 only dangerous part of the swarm is the Snatcher and Kraken besides that they aren't a big deal. The locust had brumaks and corpsers everywhere
@@UzilKryll06 it’s not just snatchers. There’s also the Scions and Swarmaks (crystalized Brumaks) and Carriers and pouncers and the various Drones and the large number of juvies and those “flocks” which can not only kill but infect machines.
@@UzilKryll06 also they are a big deal in Gears 4 they took entire settlements of people without anyone seeing them. Plus they’ve turned many places into hives that used to have a lot of people living there.
See the locust horde had motivation other than just kill, they had to fight for their survival because of the lambent in the hollow. The swarm have no interesting motivations they no memorable characters other than the queen (and she's underdeveloped as she is at the moment) and as you said the swarm as an army is just forgettable.
I respectfully disagree...the Swarms main theme in 4 is that they have been searching for their queen and also taking humans to rebuild their army...all while humans are at war again with each other...that's the story i saw anyways
To be fair, the lambency being the thing driving the Locust to the surface wasn't really established in the games until 3, but really only in the comics.
@@jaskegoffii3968 We saw the Lambent and Locust fighting in Gears 2, which is actually when Delta figures out the reason why the Locust are so desperate. The Queen confirms this later.
@@AboveAverageAndrewJ Right we saw it. I'm saying what it actually was/the significance wasn't really established until 3. Unless I missed something big. (I haven't played gears 2 campaign since 09 lol)
They want revenge and a new home because the hollow got sunk
Atleast the Locust actually had meaning & a reason to fight humanity.
Wanting to take the surface and fleeing from an enemy they are basically powerless fighting against *(Lambet btw)*
The Swarm is just whats the point of them.
What I think the Swarm need is a leader to become the face of the faction.
Personally, I really liked the idea of a former Locust that is able to speak coherent Tyran within the canon. Where most Locust shout, grunt, and groan, the Speaker could have been a cool villain for the story of Gears 4. Such as explaining they are here to make sure Myrrah returns to full glory.
Like, come on. What if during the Swarm Raids on New COG military outposts, the Speaker devised a plan to start to stockpile and further collect weapons. In the confusion for the raids, the Outsiders are blamed by the COG and thus paranoid, the Outsiders and the COG are on the war path. Recognizing the tensions amongst the humans, the Speaker is on a mission to summon all sleeper Locust cells. He ultimately is discovered by the heroes, is hunted down, but was able to awaken all Locust/Swarm. Meaning it showed the Swarm is ready to become a significant threat and have the weapons to supply their numbers.
(It still annoys me that the Swarm haven't modified stolen human weapons into serviceable Swarm weapons. Like how the Locust turned the Markza into a Breechshot. Come on, the Swarm would gave a shit ton of Overkills and Enforcers. What kind of weapons would they horribly modify to use against the remaining humans?
(Where the Locust essentially ripping off Emperor Palpatine in the Disney trilogy). Where instead of saying the Locust evolved, they developed a contingency plan in case the majority of the remaining Locust would have custom bunkers and were mutated by the doomsday weapon in Gears 3.
It is not outside the realm of possibility for the Locust to come up with such a plan. They had a fucking geneticist with Ukkon and not saying he could have solved the Lambent problem. But it would be way fucking cooler if the Locust were shown to be competent enough to carry out a backup plan for their survival.
On a side note, it was fucking stupid to throw the Locust bodies and their WEAPONS in the same mine shafts.
Swarm have the claw. They shouldve ran with the idea of modifying Cog weapons instead of adding one gun.
@@plotskosisii312like a more vicious Lancer or something
Yes and part of the locusts backup plan was to choose a leader among them that would survive the counter measure and awaken the swarm, lead them and devise a plan against the humans. So the Speakers backstory is like locust prophecy so that he has bigger importance to the story because of this he wouldn't just be killed off instantly after being introduce like in Gears of war 4. Instead they would save him until the end of Gears of war 6 where they showdown against him and finally killing him after building up his character in all 3 of the games. This would've made better game than the one we got.
Another thing I wanna say lol is that when I first played the original gears of war when I was like 8 the berserker scared the shit out of me and I didn't wanna play at that part
Same
Bro
Hey i know u
Scariest shit was when I was hiding from it and it sniffed me out
@@shabushabu5319 that was another thing that terrified me lol
I recently played 4 and 5, and I don’t even remember anything notable... It’s been years since I played the original trilogy, and I remember almost everything.
I wish that characters would talk about the evolution of the Swarm. For example, Baird could talk about how Snatchers may have evolved from Reavers or why there aren't more Scions than swarm imagos. But I agree, even though the Swarm have a nice visual design, the emotional design/human factor is lackluster.
The swarm is just another generic hive mind
Also the fact with the Locust, they killed off a character that we believed was gonna stick with us, introducing RAAM and showing how dangerous he is. And after escaping him; you get introduced to the Baserker. Which really depicts how scary and near hopless the Locust War is
Had to skip past the Kait dramatic moment to get to giant robot fighting lol
You need to hide and you need to run How am I gonna run u locked me up in here?
Fucking incredible video. I haven’t found a single other channel that is a long time fan of the series criticizing the new games. It’s refreshing to see an informed video of the swarm. Thank you! You’ve earned a new subscriber!
I remember when I first saw them in Gears 4, and just eye rolling because it was just a copy and paste enemy that was worse
What is the swarm’a motivation? Locust had to go out from earth’s core because of the lambent
Revenge and getting a new home since hollow was sunk
@@edtheangler4930 revenge for what? They aren’t Locust no matter what people say, the swarm are basically just thrown into the game for us to fight
@@allahjustice8893 Remember that the Scions are the original locust that were crystallized.
Nice to see someone else bring this up. In was explained in the trilogy that the Locust left the Hollows because of the Lambent. if there was no Lambent, then they probably would've stayed underground indefinitely. But TC retcons that and says they're doing it because of revenge..? Like, can you please make up your mind?
@@allahjustice8893 and it should have never been like that the swarm are the scions instrument of vengeance and not to mention when the scions kept telling their creations of how awful humanity is this would perfectly motivate and give personality and reasoning for the swarm to hate humanity like the locusts have before them this is exactly what we should have seen and happened not the other crappy way around.
The swarm are practically empty both in story telling and tearing through them only to find strawberry jam. Like, how do these things even stand let alone walk?
Swarm is just a crummy idea.
Furthermore, the naming is awful. The entirety of the Swarm was named by a man child who went AWOL, its absolutly silly.
Honestly Gears 4 and 5 was a crummy idea. Gears 3 was supposed to be the end of everything. I believe that's why Gears 4 and 5 doesn't even feel like a gears game to me
I know I'm a bit late to the discussion here but honestly the big thing for me is that there IS potential in the Swarm, shitty as their naming is. The reanimated and vengeance fueled Locust of old brainwashing a new breed of weird fish cavemen guys to continue their war could have a lot of depth to it with elements like the Swarm Snipers being drones who failed at something and thus had an eye ripped out before being sent to the back lines or how most of the Swarm have their armor bolted to their bodies rather than actually wearing it like equipment. There are elements that could be explored to expand on and flesh out the Swarm but TC just haven't bothered to do it in the slightest.
@@Chronomaton thats a issue I have too. Just like the new cog characters, the swarm isn't fleshed out in the slightest. Not sure how a player is suspose to enjoy a character(s) or a faction that is blander then a white piece of paper. Furthermore, TC ignores said criticism. Passes it off as a form of hating instead of genuine feedback all because we don't compliment their "creation" or "effort" in the middle of said criticism. TCS version of criticism is just simply praising. The proof to that claim lays with the treatment of Omaha. On my channel I'm very Blunt, if a idea or execution of something is FN stupid, I say its FN stupid. Omahas criticisms are extremely just and elegantly put no matter which side the person(s) at hand sits on. But because he offers no praise, his work is ignored.
The editing in this video though, 🤣. Great video!
I only really felt annoyance with them. They seemed more of an inconvenience than an enemy. A tire on the track, type thing. Plus the design is a bit, meh. Too gooey and shit
I really wanted to like four and five but the swarm is just pointless it’s just basically the same enemy they are just a hive mind they don’t care if they die because there’s always more.
I like how they introduced speaker its just he didnt have enough meaning in the story
Man when that first berserker was introduced with that scene I felt horror, horror movie category, absolutely tense and horrified the whole fight. The first time a game made me feel like that
Let's all not forgot that the swarm is literally just the locusts with a different look
Pretty much, that pissed me off so much in Gears of War 4 when we find out that the Swarm are just the Locust but reincarnated essentially, it’s kinda like why the fuck did we even do everything we did in the past 3 games to kill them???
Exactly they should have been more than that a complete different species similar but very different.
@@Qballiz2kool well Adam never wanted to kill the locust he just wanted to get rid of the emulsion sickness but a swarm evolution could have been so much more better and more iconic and it still would have been for nothing because the locust did die but now are reborn into something even more worse and monstrous that's not even locust anymore because everything that they were and acted are gone the swarm should have been more intimidating more stronger powerful not a crappy reskin and devolution of the locust.
Something that I felt like was missing for the Swarm is someone to really speak on their behalf or rather behave in leadership.
The reason why Gears 4 and 5 focused so much on the N-COG. Is because that amount of screen time should have been on the Swarm.
Because every leader in the main games had their methods in fighting the Humans. RAAM works by killing leadership, Skorge focused on a demoralization and defense of against the Lambent, and Queen Myrrah had her best remaining troops attempt to halt their advance.
In Gears 4, I felt sorry for the creative artist who spent weeks or months designing various Speaker concept artwork. Only for the character to show that it can be easily harmed by a machete and chuckle menacingly. Because what makes the Locust Generals intimidating, is how they behaved as unstoppable killing machines. Seeing Kim fruitless chainsaw bayonet attack be halted by RAAM's hand on a whim makes him visually imposing. It is the same logic of Cosmic Horror villains from Lovecraft. If the creature is shown to be easy to kill. It makes the effort into killing them feel less rewarding overall.
What I wished was the Speaker could have been the Civilian perspective within Locust society. Not so much as the soldiers we see constantly but rather the sacrificed species during the Lambent and later Human wars. I wanted to know if not all of them desired to wage a crusade for the surface because that is not properly acknowledging the problem of Imulsion mutations.
I wished the Speaker could have been the voice of the Locust who were caught in the cross fire during the whole ordeal.
I guess it was because the voice line "We remember." When the Speaker gets a kill. It stuck out to me to help illustrate the Locust and later Swarm. That their actions and desire to exist is shared motivation.
I gotta say this idea is very genius and deep. I love how instead of making all locusts flat evil villains it gives some of them that did survive a new motivations that is not entirely based on killing the humans.
I Agree the Speaker Should of had some Unique gear like RAAM, Skorge, and so on every locust general or leader had a Unique amour that separated from the main army with a intimidating intro, I honestly like the Idea of the swarm being the reincarnation of the swarm but it was poorly executed and thats what most of us think it went wrong by this point they would of been better off to make a locust game on the locust point of view than an attempt to keep the story going
I Agree indeed
@@AC-uw4il I completely agree the locust evolving into the swarm was an excellent idea but it was poorly executed and could have been so much more better and intimidating and we've always should have seen the side of the locust view of the war and they should have never killed Raam and the others off they should have just as mattered in the spotlight like Marcus and the others like how every cybertronian in transformers matters not just one side and race gears of war could of been a way better series than we sadly got from the start of 2006 and if the writers of epic took us story and more and characters more seriously like bioware for Mass effect since that is way better than gears and even Halo.
On that Lovecraft comment - YES. Old Man Henderson wouldn't have been such a badass if Hastur wasn't nigh-impossible to kill.
Brilliant video man, well-explained points and visually excellent as always. 🤙
The Coalition's problem is they don't understand how to show vs tell.
Jin felt like more of a damn villain in gears 4 more than anything. Honestly made me thought JD and the gang really went rogue and had to eventually fight the cog
AAAAAAAND all we fought were robot cog lol
@@xXClassicUserXx i know right. I EXPECTED HUMAN COG SOLDIERS IN GOW4 AND GEARS 5 BC THATS HOW IT WAS IN GOW1, GOW2, AND GOW3. i saw the COG bots in GOW4 and im just like... "wtf is dis shit... WHERES THE COG... DIS AINT THE FUCKING COG!!!!!!!!! AND WHEN DID THE STRANDED BECOME KNOWN AS 'outsiders' WHEN WAS WALLS BUILT, WHERES HOFFMAN, WHOS JINN AND SOMEBODY TELL ME WHERE THE FUCKIN HELL IS ANYA STROUD!!!!!!!!!"
@@FOXY__GAMING19 Anya died and Hoffman went into hiding after retirement. Play the new hivebuster DLC in Gears 5 to see him.
@@FOXY__GAMING19 i mean the game is based like 20 years after gears 3. Just look how different our world is from 20 years ago. Hell we almost built a wall in that time lmao.
@@boringshawn33 im very fucking confused i dont remember commenting on this video... where did you find my name at in these comments?
the worst problem of swarm is that they don't have any memorable boss, no one like Raam or Skorge.
This is the problem with most modern gaming and tv as well nowadays we keep getting reboots or sequels to old games and shows except they are done by new groups and artists who in some cases have no love or connection to the legacy they are taking over or they don't understand what made the original good so they often stray away from the old formula and make it their own game or movie such as 343 did with halo or Disney with star wars sequels which leads to controversy and alot of hate or confusion and often they become forgotten or left with bad memories and leave people unsatisfied and leaving those franchises in the search for something new and better
The swarm are just the locus with a fresh coat of paint. No one in the game talk about the swarm. But the locus are talked about it more.
the swarm were just a cheap remake of the locust, because nobody could be bothered to create a worthwhile villain
i would have much preferred to fight the COG
The new Gears games suffer from the same problem that the Disney Star Wars films, terrible storytelling and poor direction; only made worse by the fact that you know the talent is.just sitting there. If the Gears sequel games focused on the evil of the Coalition, sure, bring back the Locust as the Swarm, but have them more like the Lambent; secondary antagonists. Highlighting the experiments that created the Locust, the rock and a hard place choice that the Queen was forced into, and how impossible peace would have been; I mean, the Coalition are evil, they're basically constantly hinted at being a Fascist state, Marcus hates them, so it wouldn't be a stretch at all. The Swarm should just be a tragic faction of evil.
Both Star Wars and Gears of War are now lead by women, coincidentally.
@@EmergencyChannel The issue is the endless franchising to keep a brand going; both Gears and Halo worked great as Trilogies; every other game feels like an unnecessary addendum.
@@EmergencyChannel yeah and that shouldn't be the case ever even though Kate is better than Ray but still Kate is not the only one that matters they all matter.
@@noheroespublishing1907 yeah and that also should have never been the case the new games after the trilogy should have been even more better and darker and more fun but still Halo and gears of war not lackluster devolution of the series.
@@Elitesolider1023 Which is funny, since I found JD's arc in 5 much more compelling than Kate's. He's put in a no win situation where innocents are dying and, in a moment of panic, orders his soldiers to open fire on the rioters. This instance is referenced from the get go in 4 and constantly painted as "Evil cog mow down innocent protestors". Believing his friends now hate him and with their backs up against the wall, he potentially sacrifices himself to enable the use of an unstable weapon, that winds up going out of control and killing friend and foe alike. Blaming himself entirely, JD loses all confidence his own ability to make a judgement and operates as a by the book CoG officer, until he hears about the events in Mount Kedar. And as for the whole choice about who to save, saving JD certainly helps flesh him, Kate and Faz out even more.
I didn't play Gears 4 but did play 1,2,3 and 5. This new campaigns seem to be less serious and leaving the dark tone a side. In Gears 5 there was not a single moment where i was amaze by the enemies, nothing like fighting Raam, berserker, etc
The matriarch fight could have been more scarier
I just thought that the 1st warden fight was cool, when its introduced in New hope
@@HnyRse I like the part in gears 4 where you se the first swarm hold a gun and speak. That was bad ass too
Swarm: basically Locust with new skin
"When you kill a character and later in the story you Need him back"
I agree Locusts were a more interesting enemy. Swarm are fine, and they do look cool, but they are not creepy and seem less full of hatred than Locusts. Also, Gears 5 said Locusts/Swarm were lab-made with human DNA right? I feel that makes them less interesting, like does that mean Raam is not really a General that fought for years and is actually just a test-tube creature that escaped? IMHO, I think they should have made Locusts a species, not a mutated human. But for all I know this could have been decided in a book or something well before the Coalition devs got involved.
Not many people know this, but this was Epic's real backstory for the Locust way back in pre Gears 1. They kind of had this blueprint for the Locust backstory, but didn't expect Gears 1 to do as well and didn't want to spend so much time on this villain when they didn't know if they'd make a sequel. Well of course Gears 1 crushed it in sales and they were on a time crunch to come out with Gears 2 therefore they didn't have that much time to develop a more solid backstory.
@@bitchpudding2945 so pretty much like always it was Microsoft fault since they're a bunch of inpatient greedy bastards 😡
@@bitchpudding2945 dude it was already like that even before the coalition had the rights in gears of war 2 it was revealed that there were proto locust called siers and they would mix Mara's DNA with sir DNA to create the matriarch that would give birth to the rest of the locust and they are still completely their own race they're just cousins to humanity just like the forerunners in Halo.
@@Elitesolider1023 I’m just going off what they give us in the lore... nowhere in the series (pre-Gears 5) did it imply that the Locust had human DNA.
@@bitchpudding2945 well that's the thing it isn't human anymore it completely turn into their own DNA just like that swarm stuff because it's a nonsenseient version of the emulsion where it only breaks down parts and reforges them and I really love that it's full circle they use the Queen's DNA with sire to create the matriarch which completely becomes their own DNA and then the emulsion within them becomes that gunk the swarm uses to create life Which becomes something else entirely not reincarnation recreation it's all connected😱
I feel people wouldnt be as upset if coalition just went hey.
The locusts not dead
The hive busters dlc confirmed there were locusts survivors who were hunted by the cog
@@connorbestbarlow1043 That's so stupid though... Gear 3 made us think Adam's superweapon killed EVERY LAST LOCUST. How can TC just go and retconn that? That's just lazy writing and a disservice to your OG fanbase... how can they possibly write themselves out of this hole?
Ngl, I keep forgetting that they’re the swarm, I just keep calling them locusts
I kind of like Gears of War 4 but it never should have been made the swarm should have never been a thing Gears 3 was such a perfect ending to a perfect series
I was a hardcore GoW fan and I don't even remember any memorable scenes from 4, and 5. They dont even feel canon, like the writers were given 1 hour to play each previous game and make something up. Also the protagonists are already to familiar to war that it seems irrelevant what you go up against, what I mean is Marcus was a battle hardened pendulum war vet and Prisoner so hes going to come off as very disgruntled and know how to fight. but these new guys shake everything off likes its just Tuesday. The coalition should have started GoW4 with a thriving society and introduced the swarm and making out protagonists realize the Horrors of war, make them lose their wits, and humanity, unglorify being a Gear. but instead we got a wash rinse repeat, and goofy skins. Thanks Epic Games for the fun times but This franchise is now a waste of time
While i did like Gears 4's story as an introduction set piece, i disliked the story in Gears 5 and the Swarm was never as intimidating or cool as the locust were
They were too cartoonish if I'm being honest, what with the bright colors and the scaled back gore when you chainsaw them
The swarm should have been more intimidating than the locust and lambent since they are supposed to be the perfect hybridization of the two which should make them even more goddamn frightening and powerful and enemy you do not want to mess with.
Especially when you spear somebody with an retro Lancer with kait against a creature that's well over 350 lbs
That opening made me go watch that scene from a Few Good Men and then come back and finish the video
here's how i would've reintroduced the Locust. in Gears 4, the story begins the same- the group invades Settlement 5 to claim a Fabricator and all, BUT... inside, they find fliers of a strange new medical facility out near the ruins of Jacinto. then after Jinn attacks the village, the town does get invaded by the Swarm... but they find tracks that lead to the medical facility.
Inside, they find COG scientists experimenting with Locust DNA taken from corpses, trying to use it to perfect a Rustlung cure, but some applicants showed signs of mutation- the Scions and Juvies. Or they could've arrived after the Swarm killed everyone inside and took over. Either way, medical facility experimenting with Locust DNA and the experiments get loose and start their rampage. As for the Pouncers and Snatchers- mutated Skitters. and the other beasts... crossbreed experiments?
Anyway, as the kids investigate further and further, they find the Swarm are mutating the scientists and guards and abductees with the Pods to make more Scions and Juvies since the experiments were done on humans after all, with Kait's mom being used as their Queen due to her familial ties to Myrrah. but since the Swarm are too many, the kids are forced to flee and find help. Enter the Classic characters, who do a lot more then just show up for fan service. One reconcile with Jinn and massive return raid later and they learn the Swarm had spread across the planet using old Emergence Holes, with Kait's mom still alive and at the helm, mutated into a copy-Myrrah. and that's just Gears 4.
now that would've been a better way to bring the Locust back that doesn't destroy Gears 3's perfect ending, and why they need to be stopped. as for Gears 5, it could still be the same- revive the Hammer of Dawn, fight the giant worm, and blah blah blah blah, but with some tweaking to make it less aggravating, like Kait's visions are more known and last all game, with her cut from the Locust/Swarm hivemind and battle with the Matriarch taking place at the end of the game, or at least Act 4.
I saw the thumbnail for my Swarm vs. Locust video early on in the video. Love you fam!
(How to deal with prisoners)
Locusts: Chain them up by hooks and chains that dig into their frail skin, constantly attack them with blades and sharp objects until their mind begins to break and shatter before their own body. Do not grant them death as it is a luxury they do not deserve
Swarm: *Vore em*
Great video man locust > swarm
Oscar knew the truth about the swarm that's why he was digging the giant worm of gears 2 to find better antagonists
Honestly, haven’t watched the video yet, however I will list the things I feel are flaws for the Swarm and what makes them incredibly forgettable.
1) They have no actual motives. The only possible motive I can come up with is them wanting to capture humans and convert them into swarm. However that isn’t really a motive at all as there is no end point.
2) They look way more alien and share almost nothing with their previous incarnations in the locust. The snatcher doesn’t look like anything the locust had in their army. The pouncer doesn’t look like anything the locust have. Honestly this faction would’ve done way better if, instead of being connected to the locust, they are instead a parasite that infected the dead bodies of the locust, and the new special members in the factions are actually just the parasite infector forms.
3) They were fucked from the start. You’re honestly telling me that the cog didn’t notice this new locust rip off in the early stages? The cog literally should’ve been monitoring the burial sites just in case the locust weren’t actually dead.
4) They are less diverse than the locust were. The swarm literally has 8 units:
Juvies, drones, grenadiers, Scions, pouncer, snatcher, flock, and Wardens.
The locust by the second game had like 14 units:
Tickers, wretches, drones, grenadiers, cyclopses, kantuses, kryll, boomers, maulers, grinders, butchers, snipers, Theron guards, berserkers, Reavers, and Corpsers.
5) The fucking health bars annoy me so damn much because it’s given them an excuse to turn most of the enemies into bullet sponges. Just seeing a health bar above an enemy completely destroys my immersion as you can literally see how little your bullets affect them.
Glad I'm not the only one who hated those damn health bars..
In the first Gears game Marcus Fenix was an authority on Berserkers but he"d never heard about Kryll before actually encountering them which is pretty frickin ridiculous!
The problem with the Swarm is that they are brand new, there's no history to them. So they are the bad guys because the story needs one. Yes they are the Locust 2.0 but you can't just ignore a background by saying that they basically the same bad guys as before. Gow 4 should've started 10 years into a Swarm Invasion so the game can tell us something new about them. Give the players something to hate, fear, like, etc.
Or have a time skip from when we first meet and then what happens 5 years in the future and what they've done to humanity..
The trailer actually gave me this feeling when I first watched it. There was a new war going on, and the new generation, which was meant to be peaceful and at ease, is once again fighting for their survival.
HEY, COALITION... hire this man as your lead director NOW
I think if the COG was made the bad guy of Gears, then you could actually have a interesting discussion of the previous games through the lens of the children of the people/actions of the previous games. I would hate to make it some kind of cringe zoomer vs boomer thing, but maybe the COG could take a drastic approach to squashing the Outsiders could be to take the Locust's corpses now resurrected and their new Dbots to enforce their rule on the humans? Maybe the main cast could try to reconcile the problems of the past. ie. "War is all we know line." We can keep the horror aspect and bring back the same kind of horror with had with Sires from Gears 2. Maybe the Locust zombie horde could combine elements of traditional Locust and Lambent, now warped together as a super weapon. Then the characters with the Outsiders have to destroy the Locust horde and the COG, with the COG trying to race the Outsiders to controlling the horde and sacrificing their own to do this, ie. Kait's mom.
Kind of a ramble, but could help?
Old vid i know but i think if they would have stuck with JD as the protaganist but still put kaits story into gears 5, when jd found out what she was connected to, it would have made a way bigger impact. I kinda liked the story a litte bit, but there was a lot missing as the video stated.
something that in my mind could have made the swarm make a bit more sense would have been if the swarm was actually a minority of the reborn locusts, with most of them instead returning to the hollows to clear out the water as much as possible, with the intent of both avenging and honoring their fallen queen by surving and rebuilding, to become stronger than before once again. the swarm and the hive mind could be explained away in this scenario as a byproduct of a deathrattle from myrrahs telepathic connection with the locust (if i am interperting the way she gives RAAM orders correctly in RAAMs shaodw) which sent out both her hatred of humanity. this created the swarm, feral locust with only the anniahlation of humanity in mind. the kindapping and transformation could also be explained that the swarm searched for a human that posses simmilari genetic qualities as myrrah so that they could recreate their old queen and unify the swarm and the locust. the locust would be all for the idea, "getting back our queen and makeing the humans suffer while those feral morons do all the work and get all the blame... perfect", thus would supply them with wepons and armaments. the abduction of reyina gave the swarm a good enough template to begin the reconstruction process, sending her genetic blueprint to the location of the new "body" (which is in the main stronghold of the locust) which then gets the mental blueprint based on the hive mind and remants of the connection left in their entire species imprinted on it. the "rescue" of kaits mother stopped the process and caused the new queen to awaken, who posses both the originals connection to the locust and her affection to them but was a bit lacking in the hatred for humans part. all of this was enough for the locusts but not the swarm who imprinted their hive mind into a super berserker with their own new queen went to war with the locusts. this could result in a three way war or a human-locust allince with both parties possesing a nonexistant ammount of trust for the other (but could give one the chance to play as a locust for a bit in the campaign).
but that is just me... and we could have gotten something like this... but instead we got a bunch of nothingburgers.
The Locust are Cool
SWARM haha no way their gross
They have to focus more towards the Swarms hive and give them characters and directions in Gears 6
"Mom can we please have Locust?" No we have Locust at home. Locust at home....^^^^
I will remember the Beserkers intro till the day I die. That shit scared the hell out of me as a child.
Locust's primary motivation to emerge was the Lambent, so there's no logic in this reincarnated war since there is no threat for them underground, both Gears 4 and 5 are unnecesary and pointless.
Completely agree, the swarm basically are at war with the humans for the Lol’s at this point, they have no motivations to wage war at all so it’s ultimately just a pointless effort for really no benefit or gain as far as we know, short of it is they suck ass as a threat.
Your 100 % right about everything you just said props man 👏
I will say the lambent are my favorite and that if they were brought back (although lore wise would make no sense) I would love it
I might be late to this discussion, but for me, another central problem with the Swarm is their lack of purpose and voluntarism.
When you interact with the Locust in Gears of War 2, you can clearly see that they are not very different to humans in various regards: they need to eat, they need to sleep, they build roads, buildings, sacred places, monuments, they know how to write, how to measure time, etc.
After visiting New Hope you can connect the dots and realize that the Locust were made after former humans mutated with Imulsion, and that Imulsion was the whole plot point during the original trilogy.
Humans accidentally created the Locust while trying to find a cure for Lambency. Then tried to weaponize them during the Pendulum Wars and failed. The Locust then sought shelter in the sub-soil (The Hollow), but humanity went into full time consumption of Imulsion at the end of the Pendulum Wars.
Myrrah had no choice but to attack humanity to prevent them from extracting Imulsion at an industrial scale, accelerating the Lambency process. The attack was led by numerous generals: RAAM, Skorge, Ukkon, Karn,...all of them with authentic identities in the horde.
On the other hand, the Swarm have literally no past and no future. Their sole purpose is to feed and multiply, like a savage animal. They have literally no identity, no culture, no purpose against humanity.
My complaint about them was that it doesn't make sense to have an emulsion based life form exist without emulsion
We need a better perspective of how the swarm hive mind works. Is it one acting as many, can they think for themselves at all. They are made from people, do they have peoples memories. We also need swarm characters other than Rayna and a random giant monster.
I loved the part where they were attacked by flying locusts. One the COGs said in a very bad ass way, "They fly now?"
The other spat out his cigarette and said, "They fly now!"
And it was so bad ass and reminiscent of the first trilogy, but for some reason, it made me want to play the new trilogy. For... some reason. *checks email for message from sponsor again*
When he said like a swarm i never rolled my eyes so hard in my life
It would have made better sense of Chairwoman Jinn coined "Swarm."
Can we all agree that the Coalition ruined Gears of War just as much as 343 did to Halo?!
I do wish there was more of a big bad to rally against. Like Raam in gears 1 and Skorge in gears 2. They kinda made that one hand guy a boss. But he didn't feel like Raam or Skorge.
Swarm introduction section of the video made me wonder how gears would be if Gears 4 was outsider vs cog then final cutscene we see a swarm raid about to begin. and then little dlc mission where we could play as Marcus when the swarm revealed themselves to him. maybe even have them Snatch Anya. or another Locust Pov during a raid with their new surprise crusade being something along the lines of hate and revenge
Wish you used the ultimate edition version of first seeing General RAAM. That scene looked way more badass in 4K with a slight redesign on how the scene played out
Silent Warrior the original has more impact because of the low quality graphics and color
Prefer the original version myself. Mainly for the zoom to Marcus after Raam tosses Kim aside
I grew up playing gears games but never really understood the stories for I wasn’t even 6 at the time but when gears 4 came out I got it with my Xbox and enjoyed the story and thought it was great, I liked how since the swarm isn’t found out about until partially through the story, we play as the characters who find the swarm and make new discoveries about the swarm as we go on. I thought this was great, however maybe if most of gears 4 was a dlc to gears 5 or 6 and gears 4 took a more gears 1 intro approach, say you play as jd and Marcus and maybe dell at the start and you see Marcus get taken and jd’s reaction just like the cutscene in gears 4 maybe that would be better, just a thought though
I'm hearing and enjoying the Gears of War 3 menu theme
It really is like the difference between lord of the rings and the hobit trilogies.
I'm a bit late, but I kind of adore the Swarm, I just want more to be done with them, and they're definitely better than the concept arts I saw Epic had for Gears of War 4 when they still y'know owned gears.
The swarm were a wasted opportunity. I mean there were so many things they could've done with them that they didn't. Any of us fans can do a better job of creating a story for them. I can even pitch my own story that would do better then what they created.
I haven't played a gears game since gears 4 relaesed and honeslty i completely forgot the swarm existed and though you fought locusts in gears 4. I only remembered the swarm when I bought gear's 5 just this month.
I always felt like the swarm was just a "generic villian for action videogame 8276" type of deal.
as a soldier in gears one has more emotion and the human factor
rewatching that cutscene when the swarm shows up, how the f did they sneak into the village that far when they are giant as hell. also the animal minions make no sense since it seems like the just popped up out of no where
What i hated the most is how they took away everything unique about locusts. they werent experiments, they were creatures with art, culture, beliefs and a society in general. they werent mindless drones, they were individuals with their own will capable of slacking off and disobeying order, hell, e-day wouldnt have happened if raam hadnt disobeyed orders. They were a genuine threat. they keep saying the swar is better but they have absolutely no feats to back it up. they dont have strategists, they dont have named characters, no proper tech or anything while the locusts wiped out 1/4 of humanity in a single day. and most important, they were fucking diabolical; the torture, the emergence holes, and their treatment to the human race, jesus the therons hiss "sodomize" as an order, what other race does that?
The difference is night and day. Gears 1 made me shit my pants, gears 4 made me uninstall the game 😂
Gears of war 1 was the pinnacle of the franchise. The sense of dread felt throughout the campaign was exciting. Cant say the same for 4-5.
The entire story of Gears 5 seems to be actually more centered on the main character than it is on the swarm. Maybe if they had focused less on what the swarm's plans were rather than what Cait and her family history had to do with it they probably would've had a better story
Instead of another sequel what about a prequel of the pendulum wars between the cogs and the uir?
I agree with you in this vid and everything thing u said for the most part however I do appreciate the swarm still In a way for what they are. They definitely aren’t better than locust but I still appreciate them
I did played the game and im gonna say I perfer the locust over the swarm
10:19 omg that was so cringy
Gears of war lost the essence, no more locusts, no wars, no Big guys vs giant monsters... Now it's all about a little girl and his mother
Bro I literally cried when Minh died
The swarm are evil just because, that's the weakest form of lore making available, the protagonist in Gears 5 is the protagonist because she was unlucky, she is there by chance Mary-sue esque, the lore after GOW 3 has been really disappointing to me.
To be fair I don't remember any of the villains except Raam and i don't even remember much about him except his name was Raam, he kills that one guy, and he takes a lot of bullets
I think the coalition should have kept the concept designs. For the new locust that Cliff blizzinski had They looked way more intimidating. Way more badass Seriously if you get a chance try to look them up.
Ok I’ll admit the calling it a snatcher was funny and smart
Think how I would remake the opening scene
The moment Kate tries to open the door she finds out the door is blocked by Dupree and force Kate to watch has she can't her mother instead of her mom locking the door.
Honest the swarm dont have really any thing to but something to shoot at but in the first gears of war general raam did not really have anything to him he is just a big bad guy to shoot at but he does get more lore to him in the books