When comparing Abzû vs Gears of War 4, the Slant community recommends Abzû for most people. In the question“What are the best subscription Xbox Game Pass games for PC and Xbox?” Abzû is ranked 5th while Gears of War 4 is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose Abzû is:
Diving through the ocean with an array of colorful fish is very soothing. Your character can even meditate, allowing you to gaze at the surrounding aquatic life. The orchestral music further adds to the soothing feeling, while also giving most locations a sense of wonder. Nothing quite like seeing a school of fish swimming around to the soft tune of pipe instruments.
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Pros
Pro Soft and calming
Diving through the ocean with an array of colorful fish is very soothing. Your character can even meditate, allowing you to gaze at the surrounding aquatic life. The orchestral music further adds to the soothing feeling, while also giving most locations a sense of wonder. Nothing quite like seeing a school of fish swimming around to the soft tune of pipe instruments.
Pro Educational
Every time you encounter a new fish, you can learn what it's called. There is also the 'meditate' mode which cycles between all the different kinds of fish, naming them on screen.
Pro Absolutely striking art style
Abzû was made by Thatgamecompany, the makers of Journey and Flower. In each of their games, they emphasize taking a distinctive art style and Abzû is no exception.
It uses a very bright and vivid color palette to bring out the allure and mystique of the ocean. Lots of colorful fish and underwater plants with the sun shining down on you.
Each location looks so peaceful it makes you rethink if the ocean truly is scary. Some of those are followed by a dark area, dim lights and ominous creatures to remind you of the fear.
Pro Local splitscreen multiplayer
Nowadays, some titles tend to exclude local multiplayer, focusing primarily on online play but Gears of War 4 is an exception. You can play both the campaign and all multiplayer modes with your friends via splitscreen.
Pro Really fun horde mode
Horde mode is a multiplayer co-op mode where up to 5 players try to survive against waves of enemies. It features regular combat and allows you to build fortifications, which you can do by collecting resources from killed enemies and using the fabricator. This allows you to build blockades, sentries, and various other defenses, giving it a very tower defense-esque feel, which is also a lot of fun.
You can also choose between 5 classes with each class being better at something different. For example, the Engineer can build and repair defenses much faster than others and the Heavy uses stronger weapons that allow him to kill large enemies much faster. As a result, teamwork is very important, so when your squad is co-operating like a well-oiled machine, it just feels incredibly satisfying.
Pro Exciting gameplay
In Gears of War you and a squad of several other soldiers fight against the enemies of humanity, using various weapons such as rifles, a shotgun, and even a weapon that fires saw blades. It's very fast paced and a lot of fun, rewarding not only effective use of cover and accurate shooting, but also quick decision making on when to charge your enemy and take them out with your knife or your chainsaw bayonet. This leads to a lot of very intense, sometimes brutal, and always satisfying battles, making Gears of War 4 a really enjoyable ride.
Pro Excellent visuals
Gears of War 4 has some really outstanding visuals with high quality textures, great lighting, and excellent shadow mapping. This makes all of the armored human characters, monstrous lizard-like enemies, and the various lush landscapes filled with ruins look especially good. All of this is turned up a notch with the help of excellent weather effects, such as rain, lighting, and gusts of heavy wind that carry massive objects over your head, giving Gears of War 4 a very cinematic feel.
Cons
Con Extremely short
The first playthrough will take you only about 3 hours, which is way too short for a game of its price. You won't get much replay value out of it either, unless you want to get all the trophies.
Con Poorly done story
The story has some cool moments, but it mostly focuses on pointless drama and issues that end up feeling like filler because they have no real impact on the story or character building. This coupled with a few plot holes will make you want to press the skip button and just get back into the action.