Gears 5 – Movement Mechanics Change

As part of the Operation 2 release, there were a few changes made to the core movement tuning. The three main goals were intended to address some of the feedback we received during Operation 1.

1. Increase the opportunities for skilled strafing
2. More options for engaging at close-range combat
3. Improve responsiveness, reduce some of the delayed feeling

The key change is in the initial movement acceleration. The top speed has been unaffected only now the character will start moving and reach their top speed sooner than before. This means that if you use the left stick / WASD (e.g. move it left and right) the character will now feel more responsive.

These numerical changes are as follows:

• Base walk acceleration increased by 50%
• Backward movement speed increased 15% (now at 85% of forward / lateral speed)
• Roadie run speed increased 5%
• Slide to cover speed increased 3.5%
• Cover slip speed boost increased 3.5% (Matches outgoing roadie run speed)

Overall, this makes direction changes more responsive – especially while strafing. You can now use backwards movement to play with the engagement more than before. Sliding into cover and slipping out into a roadie run will have more consistent speed throughout, removing the ‘speed boost’ feeling when sliding into and then around a corner. The knock-on has been that slipping out of cover from being stationary is faster, which is a concern to us and we will look into how to solve this in future updates.

We’ve also adjusted the shoot out of roadie running delay which we hope increases the amount of ‘roadie strafing.’ Finally, the general feel of bouncing into and out of combat should now feel faster and smoother.

These numerical changes are as follows:

• Roadie run to shoot delay decreased by 25%

All in all, our goal is for close range combat to feel more dynamic, with minute, skillful movements allowing for more opportunities to seize the initiative more consistently.

These changes will certainly impact the speed of the fights but our goal is to increase options and tactical play. This is just the first phase of adjustments and we will continue to explore more areas, including these:

• Ways to see if we can make delays more responsive and less restrictive
• The shotgun’s long-range poke and short range gib distance.
• Ways of reducing the impact of the speed increases above without removing some of the close-range opportunities.