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PayPalGears of War: Reloaded has been officially released so now we can experience the beginning on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck. Note: personal purchase.
Surprisingly, it does work rather nicely out of the box on the Steam Deck and seems like it does actually deserve the Steam Deck Verified rating. Naturally, on a more powerful Linux desktop, it's even better. It also uses Easy Anti-Cheat, which is thankfully enabled for Linux platforms as noted on our anti-cheat page.
With this new edition powered by Unreal Engine you get all post-launch content for the original including a bonus campaign act, multiplayer maps, characters and cosmetics. The controls have also been updated to be a bit more modern feeling. It adds in 4K assets, remastered textures, lighting, shadows and reflections. Along with ultrawide support, HDR, a benchmark mod, VRR, mouse and keyboard support, AMD FSR 3.1 and DLSS3.5 Super Resolution.
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Some nice accessibility settings included in this release too including multiple screen narration options, flash reduction, changing between tapping and holding for button tap challenges and more.
An issue I did encounter on Steam Deck is trying to link my Microsoft account, which is required for cross-platform online play. It just repeatedly failed to contact the servers when entering the code on my PC or phone. You can still play online with other PC players without it though. However, doing a full proper restart of the Steam Deck did eventually allow the linking connection to succeed.
The same issue with account linking I saw on my Linux Desktop too, it just always gave an error about the connection. I tried many times, through many reloads and it just refused. However, adding this Steam launch option for it did enable it to actually work eventually on Desktop Linux:
SteamDeck=1 %command%
Here's the results when running the built-in benchmark mode on a Steam Deck LCD (SteamOS Beta - Proton 9.0-4), with the default graphics settings where it does actually look pretty good:
And for my Desktop Linux (Kubuntu 25.04 - Proton 9.0-4) running Ryzen 5800x and Radeon 6800 XT at 2560x1440 here's what performance you might expect:
One important thing I will touch on here though are the reports about split-screen co-op from negative reviews and forum posts. It was actually originally advertised as having it on PC, but it does not. 15 days ago they removed the tags from Steam (thanks SteamDB) without a word, and a previous trailer on Steam noted it that has since been edited to remove it. Not a good look overall and not surprising players aren't happy about that.
Now we just need the sequels to get remasters so we can play through them all properly on PC. For now, we'll have to settle for the prequel in Gears of War: E-Day that will arrive eventually (no date yet).
Overall, if you're after an action-packed experience this is a great game to pick up. I hadn't played it since the original edition of the game on Xbox 360 so this
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Linux_Rocks 6 hours ago
Looks like the removed splitscreen from the PC version which is a massive shame
tohur 2 hours ago
Looks to be based off the "ultimate edition" version, so think I'll be waiting for a sale as the differences seem kinda minor
Did Microsoft not give you a free upgrade to this on what ever platform form you had Ultimate Edition? I had it on Xbox so they gave me the upgrade to Reloaded via a code in my messages.
Last edited by tohur on 28 Aug 2025 at 7:50 pm UTC
Wasn't aware they were giving away keys, I have the ultimate edition on Microsoft store, if I recall it didn't run very well
Thanks for the heads up, I'll be sure to check it out if that's the case. Though I'd be limited to my Windows install with it being the Microsoft store
Last edited by Doktor-Mandrake on 28 Aug 2025 at 8:03 pm UTC
tohur 1 hour ago
Really hope they add splitscreen, my partner has never played GoW
For me it's a very nostalgic game, I'd go round my mates all the time playing splitscreen co-op and its what made me want a 360 (along with the fact I knew Halo 3 was coming)
Then I met a great group of people I'd play custom server with, all of us brits and we'd have a great laugh in party chat while enjoying some Execution mode. The amount of hours I put into the multiplayer was insane!
Bonus points for the easy anticheat working on linux, hopefully we'll be able to workaround the microsoft account issue to enable crossplatform play.. also I just hope people stick around and the MP stays active
Last edited by Doktor-Mandrake on 28 Aug 2025 at 8:38 pm UTC
Also the lack of Gow2 and 3, alot of us were hoping for those two games to be included
sarmad 13 minutes ago
sarmad 10 minutes ago
Looks like the removed splitscreen from the PC version which is a massive shame
Yes, that's unfortunate. I guess they didn't think of the case where a PC is connected to the TV in the living room and used as a console.
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