“How long is Gears 5?” I hear you wonder, possibly during the second act of the game where everything suddenly becomes “open world.” Well, if you’re used to the normal Gears of War campaign length of 6-8 hours, then you’ll need to put that out of your mind, as the Gears 5 campaign boasts a significant increase in content. Read on for our full guide on how much time to beat Gears 5.
How long is the Gears 5 campaign?
The answer to “How long is Gears 5?” depends largely on how complete an experience you are looking for. If you focus solely on the main missions, ignoring all side missions and collectibles, you can probably get it done in 8-10 hours on the Normal difficulty. However, the side missions can be quite tempting, and the open world levels demand exploring.
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If you account for the side quests, in addition to the mandatory main missions, you’ll be looking at a bumped up 12-14 hours. The side quests require you to journey about the open world map, finding new locations that need de-Swarming. Completing these missions often results in an upgrade unlock as a reward. Side missions can help to flesh out the Gears universe, expanding on lore. The banter between Kait and the other characters is also a nice bonus, that won’t get to hear when rushing through only the required missions.
As for the collectibles, prepare yourself for a challenge, as Gears 5 steps things up a notch. Thankfully, hitting the pause button will let you see which collectibles and components you are missing. As you’ll likely be heading through levels again to pick up what you missed the first time around, you can safely add another 8+ hours to your completion timer. Total completion is therefore expected to take 21-23 hours!
