Gears of War 4 Could've Been a First-Person Game

gamerant.com:

Gears of War 4 could have been a first-person shooter, according to the series' original designer who recently revealed his initial vision for the fourth installment in the franchise, describing a radically different game to the one Microsoft ended up greenlighting. This bit of insight into the project arrived not long after The Coalition started hiring for a new Gears of War game.

The Canadian studio was given the reins of the series after Microsoft acquired the IP in 2014. But the franchise itself was created by former Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszinski, who also served as the lead designer on the original Gears of War trilogy. The industry veteran who's also known for his work on the Unreal series ended up taking a career hiatus after Microsoft bought the rights to the franchise and decided to play it safe with Gears of War 4, though he already had concept for the next game by the time Epic games started negotiating a sale.

Gears 6 May Be Bringing Back Gears of War 2 Writer

Appearing on a recent episode of the XboxEra podcast, Bleszinski revealed that he initially envisioned Gears of War 4 as an FPS. Elaborating on that idea, the famous designer hinted that he was primarily motivated by the rule of cool, asking the interviewer if he could «imagine chainsawing a Locust in first-person [view].» Given Bleszinski's contributions to the Unreal franchise, arguably one of the most iconic FPS series to date, it's certainly possible that Gears of War 4 could have pulled off such a perspective shift. During the same interview, Bleszinski also revealed that Xbox chief Phil Spencer wanted Gears of War to feature more horror elements following the Microsoft acquisition.

While Microsoft might not have been eager to stray