Gears Of War 4's Cutscenes Make Up An Awesome Movie, Watch It Now

So you want to find out what happens in Gears of War 4 but you don't have the time or desire to actually play the game yourself? Well, it turns out you can now watch all of the game's cutscenes, back to back, in one location.

It should go without saying that there are plenty of spoilers ahead. Gears of War 4 only launched a few weeks ago, so if you are still working your way through the campaign you might not want to hit the play button below. The same goes for folks who are hoping to pick up Gears 4 soon or maybe get it as a holiday gift in the next couple of months.

So, yeah, consider yourself warned. Here's the entirety of Gears of War 4 in cutscene form, clocking in at just over an hour of footage.

I'm a bit torn when it comes to videos like this one. It's posted by IGN, so we've got to assume they at least let the developers/publishers know that they would be putting something like this together. But while quite a few folks in the comments section claim that this seems wrong, its quickly pointed out that folks streaming the game on day one did the exact same thing.

That's actually one advantage just posting the cutscenes has over standard streaming. Folks who are inclined to get the story without actually playing the game themselves likely have no desire to watch the actual gameplay or listen to the streamers witty banter. If you're interested in Gears 4 for narrative alone, watching a compilation of the cutscenes seems like the way to go. If you're interested in all of that other stuff, then there are plenty of streamers out there just dying for new viewers.

But then that begs the questions, how is this really any different than posting a movie online for folks who don't want to, you know, pay for it?

The answer to that one is a bit more tricky. Games are in a weird middle ground when it comes to this type of spoiler-filled content and, for the most part, developers and publishers not named Nintendo seem to feel like their hands are tied. All of those streamers showing off your game from hour one are likely going to convince a few extra customers to buy your game. It could also be argued that folks who prefer to watch via stream or through cutscene compilations were never going to purchase the game in the first place. Then again, maybe all of that is a bunch of speculation and there's no real way to know.

What we do know is that this type of stuff has become so embedded into gaming culture that it might be too late to turn back.

We'd certainly like to hear from our readers on this one. If you had no intention of playing Gears 4, does this seem like a good way to experience the bare-bones narrative? Do you think stuff like this hurts or helps sales? Let us know in the comments below.