Here's another review for a game that I finished in August 2022... so a little while ago 😂. Let's see what I remember from this (and the notes from my stub).  

Gears of War 5 (Or just "Gears," apparently...) is the second game in a new trilogy?  It's a continuation of Gears of War 4, and it still follows the same group of Kait, JD, and Del (and their robot Jack) on new adventures.  The main character in this one is Kait (even though we switch playable characters in the different chapters).  

Gears 5 Summary from Wikipedia:

Delta Squad travel to the ruins of Azura to restore an old superweapon network called the Hammer of Dawn. Shortly after their return to New Ephyra, First Minister Jinn directs them to assist the evacuation of COG Settlement 2. It is revealed during the battle that JD, Del, and Fahz had previously been deployed in Settlement 2 to quell a riot, which resulted in civilian deaths and prompted JD and Del to go AWOL, and that it was JD who gave Fahz the order to open fire on the civilians, causing Del and Kait to lose their trust in him. As the Swarm threatens to destroy the evacuation convoy, JD orders Baird to fire the Hammer of Dawn prematurely. While the Swarm forces are annihilated, the Hammer of Dawn malfunctions and begins firing wildly, severely injuring JD.

Four months later, Kait and Del go to an Outsider village located in the skeleton of the Riftworm to try to convince them to join the COG. The village chief, Kait's uncle Oscar, refuses, but they are suddenly attacked by the Swarm. Kait is captured by a Snatcher and experiences vivid visions of controlling the Swarm forces. She escapes the Snatcher but is unable to prevent Oscar's death which she witnesses through her visions. COG reinforcements then arrive to evacuate the village. Kait tells everybody about her visions, and Marcus recommends she head to the secret lab at New Hope to find answers, with Del joining her. At the lab, they find clues leading them to Mount Kadar, a former Locust stronghold.

Kait and Del reach another secret COG lab hidden beneath Mount Kadar. There, they find an AI construct of scientist Niles Samson, who explains that the Locust were the result of his experiments by hybridizing the DNA of Imulsion-infected children with the indigenous creatures of the Hollow. He also reveals that Queen Myrrah was a human immune to Imulsion, who could control the Locust due to her genetics being used to create them. However, when her newborn daughter Reyna, Kait's dead mother, was taken away by her father, Myrrah led the Locust to rebel against the scientists and gain their independence. Kait realizes that she is the next queen and demands to be separated from the Swarm's hivemind. Niles puts Kait in a special machine connected to a dormant Berserker called the Matriarch, which successfully severs Kait from the hivemind but also resurrects Reyna in the process, this having been Niles' true intention. Niles is destroyed by the revived Matriarch, and Kait and Del kill it before escaping the facility. Realizing that Reyna is now the Swarm's queen, Kait reaffirms the COG's need to reactivate the Hammer of Dawn.

A few weeks later, Baird takes the group to the Vasgar desert, where the Union of Independent Republics' secret space program was located. They meet Baird's former squadmate Garron Paduk, who reveals that the UIR had a rocket loaded with Hammer of Dawn satellites ready to launch. JD and Fahz arrive to help, with JD apologizing to Del and Kait for his previous deception and subsequent behavior. The squad manages to assemble and launch the rocket and acquire targeting beacons to help control the Hammer of Dawn, though they encounter a giant Swarm creature called the Kraken. The group escapes when Paduk picks them up in a Raven to fly them home.

At New Ephyra, Jinn attempts to arrest Kait, intending to forcibly connect her to the hivemind in order to find the central Swarm Hive. Before she can do this, however, the Swarm attacks New Ephyra. The Gears attempt to set up UIR targeting beacons to provide targeting data to the Hammer of Dawn, but the Kraken destroys them. The transformed Reyna appears and attacks Kait, JD, and Del, forcing Kait to choose to save either JD or Del, leaving Reyna to kill the other. Kait and the survivor fight their way back to their friends but are attacked by the Kraken. The remaining soldiers are soon overwhelmed until the squad's robotic companion, Jack, kills the Kraken by sacrificing itself as a targeting beacon for the Hammer of Dawn. In the aftermath, Marcus tells Kait that Reyna will return, with Kait remarking that they will find her first before discarding her mother's Locust necklace.

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Overall, I'd say that I liked this game.  I rather enjoyed parasailing through the desert and exploring the remnants of cities on Sera. A bit post-apocalyptic depressing, but still enjoyable. The open-world aspect was kind of fun, a bit of a departure (I think) from past Gears games.  It was small enough to get a taste of it without having to slog through vast wastelands of nothingness. I think it was in this Gears game that we got more UIR dialogue and text on walls and posters, which makes me wonder if the UIR language spoken was a conlang, or if someone decided to make up some gibberish.

Some stats:

• Gamerscore 250
• Achievements: 29
• TrueAchivements score: 367
• Completion: 35%

Fun game, good story, but I don't feel the need to return to this game (at least not until 2026 ;-) )