The Coalition took over the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games and People Can Fly. They made some serious changes to the multiplayer progression system, focusing more on unlockables and leveling up. Well, after user complaints of having to grind too much in multiplayer, some changes have been made even though Gears of War 4 just released today.
Over on the Gears of War website the community manager revealed that The Coalition have been working hard on the game, especially the multiplayer component, where a lot of players have made complaints about the leveling progression system. The multiplayer is said to be near-perfect but some gamers have said that it feels like earning points to unlock new cards and gear felt like a grind.
The Coalition have listened to the feedback from the community for Gears of War 4 and decided to do something about the issue. They've decided to lower the costs of the Elite Pack credit cost from 4000 to 3500. The lower cost means more players will be able to unlock the pack without grinding quite as long for it.
They also mentioned in the post that Gears of War 4 multiplayer matches will dole out more match completion bonuses, whether you win or lose. Of course, winning matches means you will yield higher XP and credits while losing means... well it means you don't make as much money.
Additionally, they've increased the leveling milestones. Every time you level up you now get 500 credits in the multiplayer mode of Gears of War 4.
Many users originally made the complaints for two reasons. The first reason was that they felt as if it took a really long time to grind for credits and thus it made it difficult to earn new cards and gear in the game. The second reason was that after grinding for so long a lot of people complained that they ended up with junk gear.
They decided to make it easier to earn credits to level up and in turn allow users to purchase more crates and cards without grinding for them as much.
The game also uses a similar system to Halo's Req Pack system, where players can purchase packs from the cash shop in an attempt to unlock new gear. The Gear Packs are designed to give gamers a bit of a reward for their efforts, this includes unlocking new characters to play, new weapons and weapon skins, additional emblems for your profile, and bounties that can unlock additional leveling opportunities.
Gamers haven't talked much about the single-player campaign but they've been very vocal about Gears of War 4's multiplayer.
Part of the reason for the focus on multiplayer is that it has a long tail-end as far as player engagement is concerned. Few games have a highly replayable campaign mode (with the original Halo: Combat Evolved being one of them) so developers put a lot of focus on the multiplayer and cash shop because it's a long-term revenue source.
In this case, The Coalition is doing everything they can to make the multiplayer as engaging as possible in Gears of War 4 so that players keep coming back, and hopefully bring their friends. So when the players complained about the game being too grindy? The Coalition listened.
