Microsoft will enjoy a new exclusive in the heavily-hyped Gears 5, out this month, and while the game arrives for both Xbox One and Windows 10 PC, questions arise about the series, its current direction and if there's any chance it can elevate the formula beyond what we've experienced over the years since the original Gears of War.

We've had the game for the better part of a week and managed a cheeky co-op session before I pulled away on my Skiff and explored the world of Gears 5 essentially on the solo front.

Here's a snippet from our review:

But with familiarity comes known and manageable expectation. This, however, can also be a slippery slope towards stagnation, and right now, Gears 5 is sliding down that icy precipice -- a metaphor more on-the-nose than at first it might seem. And problematically, for both players and the combined business of development and publishing between The Coalition and Xbox Game Studios, is that what we have here is a game and franchise that is scared to shake its cogs for fear of a machine no longer functioning from a sales and success perspective. Gears 5 changes things up, but only in so much a shop changes the clothes of its shopfront window mannequin -- we know they sell clothes. That’s nothing new. I’m just not sure if that inanimate model’s garbs are really for me. I mean, I’m already comfortable with what I have on, and they all seem really familiar, anyway -- buttons, zips, leg-holes. All of it.

Maybe I just want some auto-fit Back to the Future high-tops over tired old lace-ups, though.

Gears 5 (or, for traditionalists, Gears of War 5) is just another COG. This isn’t to be translated as entirely negative, because what made this franchise so popular is that it was an action game outlier; the cover mechanics, the gore, the Saving Private Ryan steady cam while you run… and the visuals. My Science, the visuals.

Click here for our full Gears 5 review.