In Gears 5, Terminator is a bit of a cheat character

Those who take Gears 5 competitive multiplayer seriously certainly have opinions about Terminator.

Terminator in Gears 5 is an endoskeleton from the upcoming movie, Dark Fate. It's a robot skeleton, essentially - and it's causing problems.

Terminator is harder to see than other skins because it's got this dull grey colour to it. The Dark Fate endoskeleton is not the shiny kind fans of Terminator 2, for example, will know and love. It's grittier than that. And so, Gears 5's Terminator has a habit of blending in with the scenery. For a cover-based shooter, that can be a problem.

Players have also reported sometimes confusing Terminator with a COG, because it's more human like at a glance than the Swarm characters. In the fast-paced, twitch-heavy Gnasher-fest that is Gears 5 ranked play, every millisecond counts, and if you waste one thinking Terminator is a friend rather than a foe, you could end up dead.

Exacerbating the issue is the fact Terminator keeps its mouth shut during combat. In Gears competitive play you can hear your enemies are about via PvP dialogue as characters call things out. While The Terminator endoskeleton's footsteps are suitably clanky, it does not talk. I mean, that makes sense right? There's no need to talk when you can't be reasoned with.

It all amounts to a feeling among the Gears 5 community that Terminator confers an unfair advantage. And it seems the developers at The Coalition get this, too, because Terminator is currently officially banned from Gears esports play.

Players want to win, of course, so Terminator is popular as a skin pick for Swarm players in competitive multiplayer. Play ranked as a COG soldier and you could find yourself facing off against an entire team of Terminators. Play on the Swarm team and, yep, go on, pick Terminator. You know you want to.

There's something ridiculous about the sight of five Terminator endoskeletons huddled behind cover, revving the chainsaws on their Lancers. And yet here we are, in the war-torn world of Sera, all bets are off.

Some within the Gears 5 community have had enough of Terminator, and it's starting to show. Redditor ParagonFury took to the Gears of War subreddit to voice their concern, saying:

"Seriously; anyone taking Ranked seriously or trying to get an advantage at all has Terminator as their Swarm skin - something like 3/4 players on the Swarm team, if not 5/5 have the Terminator as their skin almost every match. Its gone way beyond just normal popular character metrics at this point."

So, what's to be done? Players have suggested changing Terminator's colour to chrome, so it stands out more. What about adding some lights? Or some beeps and boops? Or, given Terminator is banned from tournament play, perhaps ban it from ranked, too?

Then again, it's the Terminator. Perhaps it should be overpowered.

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