Sarah Connor will be a playable character in Gears 5, with Linda Hamilton reprising her iconic Terminator role in the game’s multiplayer Horde mode. Clearly, the Gears 5 version of the character has been modeled on Hamilton’s in the film Terminator: Dark Fate, which marks the third attempt in recent memory at relaunching the Terminator franchise on the big screen.
However, during a presentation at Gamescom, we learned that the developers at The Coalition have also taken inspiration from the much-loved Terminator 2, with a key scene from the film birthing an idea for one particular attack in Sarah Connor’s repertoire. It’s worth praising the fact the team at The Coalition went to the effort of looking back at this classic movie when they could’ve easily just chucked something together with minimal effort instead.
It was one very specific moment in T2 that caught the developers’ attention: the bit where Sarah Connor goes face to face with the T1000 and shoots it repeatedly with a shotgun. Every shot she fires sends the hard-to-defeat robot baddie stumbling back. You can rewatch the scene here if you want a refresher…
So, in Gears 5 Horde mode, Sarah Connor has been kitted out with a shotgun that differentiates her playstyle from the other available characters (which will also include familiar faces from Halo: Reach). When you fire a shotgun blast at an enemy, your foe will stagger back just like the T1000 did in T2. As well as being a knowing nod, the shotgun attack is also a handy tool for crowd control if you’re backed into a corner by hordes of attackers.
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This Easter egg is a small detail, sure, but it’s also the kind of neat feature that will make fans of this character happy. Going that extra mile and putting in these kinds of references can go a long way to a making a brand partnership like this look a lot more like something for the fans and a little bit less like a corporate marketing ploy.
Gears 5 launches on Xbox One and PC on Sept. 10, with early access available on Sept. 6 for Xbox Game Pass members. And, if you were wondering, Terminator: Dark Fate will hit theaters on Nov. 1.
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