Gears of War

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Gears of War
Developer(s)	Epic Games
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(s)	Cliff Bleszinski
Engine	Unreal Engine 3.0
Release date(s)	November 7, 2006 November 17, 2006 November 23, 2006
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, System-Link, Online Multiplayer, and Co-opererative Modes
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature (17+) BBFC: 18 PEGI: 18+
Platform(s)	Xbox 360
Media	DVD-DL
Input	Gamepad

Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games using Unreal Engine 3 technology and is published by Microsoft Game Studios. Gears of War was released for the Xbox 360 on November 7, 2006 in select stores in the United States and was broadly released in major U.S. retailers on November 12, 2006. This day was dubbed "Emergence Day" by Epic Games. It was also released on November 17, 2006 in Europe outside of Germany, where Microsoft Game Studios did not publish the game after it was denied a rating.^[1] A limited collector's edition was also released, which included an art book titled "Destroyed Beauty" that detailed much of the game's backstory.^[2]

Gears of War centers around the members of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from the relentless subterranean enemy known as The Locust Horde. The player takes on the role of Marcus Fenix, a former prisoner and war-hardened soldier. In cooperative play, the second player plays as Fenix's loyal friend and fellow soldier, Dominic Santiago. The two soldiers join up with Delta Squad and battle the Locust Horde through the course of an action-packed campaign.

The game achieved major success after its release. On November 20, 2006, Gears of War became the most popular game on the Xbox Live service, overtaking Halo 2, which had held the spot since its launch in November, 2004. Xbox live use increased by 80 percent after the release of "Gears of War."^[3] After only two weeks of availability, Gears of War sold over one million copies, also making it the fastest selling Xbox 360 game ever.^[4]

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Story 2.1 Characters 2.2 Plot 3 Multiplayer 3.1 Cooperative 3.2 Versus Mode 4 Reception 4.1 Reviews 5 Future Development 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Unlike previous first-person shooters by Epic Games, Gears of War takes a completely different perspective as a third-person shooter. This design choice reflects itself in the gameplay as Gears of War focuses mainly on sound team-based and cover-dependent tactics rather than brute force. Because of this, the player is able to carry only four weapons instead of a large array. The player's inventory contains two primary weapons, a sidearm, and a limited supply of grenades.

Instead of a health bar, Gears of War uses the Crimson Omen, a cog shaped icon that fills up with blood to represent damage. When the Omen has a faint appearance, the player has experienced minor wounds. Once the Omen fills completely, the player is incapacitated. When a player is incapacitated another player can revive him (in co-op). If a character stays out of the line of fire long enough the Omen will fade, and they will regenerate health. When there is a skull inside of the symbol the character has died.^[5]

Epic Games placed emphasis on cover, similar to Kill.Switch, and on harder difficulty levels being exposed to enemy fire for only a few seconds can result in death. While behind cover, players can choose to aim carefully with their weapons or use blind-fire to avoid subsequent damage from popping their heads from behind cover. Players have a wide assortment of rolling and cover maneuvers at their disposal with the press of a single button. The availability of certain maneuvers are also indicated by context sensitive icons that appear at the bottom of the screen. The game also includes a full sprint, known as the "roadie run." The roadie run is part crouch, part run, which can help traverse exposed ground quickly as well making characters harder to target.^[5] During a roadie run, the camera lowers towards the ground and bobs considerably, as if the camera were being held by another person running behind player. ^[6]

Gears of War features a small variety of weapons, following other first-person shooter weapons sets with assault rifles, submachine guns, pistols and sniper rifles. Single player missions usually carry over weapons from previous missions, while multiplayer matches provide players with a smoke grenade, assault rifle, snub pistol, and shotgun. Weapons such as grenade launchers, torque bows, and frag grenades can be found at strategic locations in multiplayer maps.

A gameplay component unique to Gears of War, the Active Reload, entails hitting the right bumper on the controller at the correct time to quickly reload the weapon. If timed particularly well, the portion of the ammo reloaded in the next magazine will gain a damage boost and be reloaded faster. If timed badly, the gun will jam momentarily and the reloading process will take longer than it would if Active Reload was not attempted.^[5]

[edit] Story

Gears of War takes place on a planet known as Sera, inhabited by the human survivors of a once-glorious civilization. For a millennium, however, they fought among themselves. Eventually they knew the hush of peace that blanketed the land. That was until the discovery of Imulsion, a phosphorescing, low-viscosity fluid. Discovered by an oil-exploration drill, it was unusable until a woman named Dr. Helen Cooper created the Lightmass Process, which enabled production of cheap energy. The world economy soon collapsed due to its extremely low price and the elimination for the need of hydrocarbon and nuclear fuel sources. The few countries that had an overabundance of Imulsion under their feet soon found themselves at war with nations who were not as lucky, and so began the Pendulum Wars. During the seventy-nine year war, the Coalition of Ordered Governments, or COG, became a legitimate minor political party. Founded long before the Pendulum Wars by fanatical socialist Alexiy Desipich, the party was based on an obscure world-government philosophy based on eight guiding principle values: Order, Diligence, Purity, Labor, Honor, Loyalty, Faith, and Humility.

The Pendulum Wars ceased on what is now called Emergence Day. Humans had to stop fighting each other in an attempt to face a new threat. In less than twenty-four hours, a ravenous species known as the Locust attacked every major city on Sera, leaving a quarter of the population dead. By the time human forces pulled together to form an effective defense, it was too late. The Locust Horde had already taken control of the majority of the world's urban, military, and manufacturing centers. Billions lay dead. The COG took matters into their own hands and re-enacted the Fortification Act, allowing martial law to be placed on all remaining survivors from the initial invasion. All survivors were ordered to evacuate to the Jacinto Plateau, a safe haven that the Locust Horde could not penetrate from the underground due to its thick granite substrata.^[5] Survivors who could not make it to the plateau were given the following apology: "For those citizens who can't make it to Jacinto, the Coalition appreciates your sacrifice. Please forgive us, this is the only way." Chemical and orbital particle laser weapons were used in a scorched earth strategy to deny the Locust Horde survival on the surface, forcing them to stay in their underground warrens. This war would continue for another fourteen years.

Somewhere around the tenth year, Jacinto was being fortified into an unassailable fortress. Its once magnificent cities, envied for their beauty, were soon converted into military defense platforms. The plateau's natural fissures and utility systems were destroyed or flooded with nerve gas to delay the Locust Horde's eventual attack. The survivors, or Stranded, living in horrible conditions and malnutrition, had to find ways to defend themselves. When the Locust Horde began their attack, Marcus Fenix abandoned his post in a response from a distress call from his father, a renowned scientist, at the East Barricade Academy, but he was too late to save him. At his trial in the House of Sovereigns, Marcus was charged with dereliction of duty, cowardice, and failure to obey orders. Exempted from execution due to his exemplary tours during the Pendulum Wars, he was imprisoned instead. Years later, the COG found themselves running low on able-bodied soldiers, so they turned to untraditional sources of men: the infirmed, the young, and the condemned. As soon as pardon was given to Marcus, the Locust Horde overran the prison. The player begins the game here.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Gears of War characters & adversaries.

Gears of War focuses primarily around the characters of Delta Squad and their encounters with the Locust Horde. Delta Squad's members fluctuate throughout the first act, but during the last four acts of the game, Delta Squad consists of the former prisoner Marcus Fenix, his best friend Dominic Santiago, and the dynamic duo Augustus "Cole Train" Cole and Damon Baird. Players take control of Marcus Fenix, freshly rescued by Dominic Santiago (controlled by a second player in cooperative play) from the Jacinto Maximum Security Penitentiary.

Some Gears of War's characters recieved voice overs from popular culture icons. Augustus "Cole Train" Cole is voiced by Lester "The Mighty Rasta" Speight, who plays "Terrible" Terry Tate, the "Pain Train", in the Office Linebacker commercials made for Reebok. The Cole character is clearly based on the mannerisms and catchphrases of the Tate character.^[6] John DiMaggio, the actor who voices Marcus Fenix, also voices the character Bender on the TV series Futurama.^[7]

[edit] Plot

• Prison Break - The game begins with the player as Marcus Fenix being freed from jail by Dominic Santiago. Marcus is handed a weapon and required to fight through the prison to the escape helicopter.
• Act 1: Ashes - After Marcus and Dom join up with Delta Squad, their first mission is to locate and join up with Alpha squad and retrieve the item in their possession, the resonator, which Colonel Hoffman claims will help the COG win the war. The resonator is a sonic explosive designed to map the locust tunnels (presumably via the use of something similar to sonar/radar) and create launch data for the lightmass bomb. About half-way through Act 1, Delta Squad loses Private Carmine to sniper fire, only later to find Private Augustus 'Cole Train' Cole from Alpha Squad to fill the gap in the team. Near the end of the first act, Delta Squad has met up with Alpha squad at the cost of losing Lieutenant Kim to an attack from General RAAM. Before recovering the resonator, Marcus and Dom encounter a Berserker the first time inside the tombs. After leading the rampaging Locust outside and using the Hammer of Dawn to slay it, Marcus and Dom retrieve the resonator. It is at this time that Marcus is promoted to sergeant.
• Act 2: Nightfall - Marcus, Dom, Cole, and Private Baird begin moving through a (mostly) abandoned cityscape as daylight begins to fade. Their next objective is too far to walk to, but Dom has some ties to a local Stranded in the area named Franklin; he lends them his APC at the next gas station. In exchange for this gesture, Baird and Cole are kept by the Stranded as collateral. Marcus and Dom make their way to the gas station and has to return to the stranded camp using the Junker and defend from Kryll attacks using a UV Turret. At the stranded camp, Marcus and Dom aid the Stranded in defending the camp.
• Act 3: Belly of the Beast - Delta Squad must gain entrance to the Imulsion mine to plant the resonator underground. During their approach they encounter Wretches that glow in the dark and explode when they die. After entering the mining facility and reaching the depths, Marcus and Dom encounter the Corpser that has been following them since Act 1. It blocks their path to the resonator in a pumping station. After defeating the Corpser and reaching the pumping station, the resonator is planted and subsequently armed and activated while Delta Squad escapes to the surface. However, Colonel Hoffman explains that the resonator did not work as planned and barely provided any data on the tunnels. Luckily, Baird locates another device (a 'geobot') with mappings of the Locust tunnels, after analyzing the data Anya suggests the data came from Fenix's fathers' estate. Baird suggests that the solution to the problem is there as well.
• Act 4: The Long Road Home - Delta Squad makes its way across several firefights on their way to the Fenix estate. Apparently an APC broke just outside of the estate, so Baird and Cole stay with the APC while Marcus and Dominic search the Fenix estate for the data. Deep in the basement of the house, Marcus and Dom uncover a secret laboratory behind a wine-case. They leave their special robot 'Jack' behind to collect the data while they defend the estate from subsequent Locust encounters. As 'Jack' finishes collecting the data, Marcus and Dom meet up with Baird and Cole and attempt to escape to the APC. The APC appears to be moments away from being destroyed by a massive Brumak, and the squad must escape the backyard area within only a few seconds or suffer a horrible death at its hands. After speeding away from the Brumak, 'Jack' joins up with the APC.
• Act 5: Desperation - Fenix and Dominic catch a ride with the train - the Tyro Pillar - carrying the Lightmass bomb that requires the data retrieved in Act 4. After fighting another Berserker, a slew of Reavers, and fighting the remaining Locust horde on the train, the final obstacle for Marcus and Dominic is General RAAM. After his death, the Lightmass bomb succeeds in mostly wiping out the Locust threat, but it does not completely eradicate them (see below). At various points throughout the game, narration is provided by a character who is assumed to be the Locust "Queen"; her voice is heard during the opening cinematic, the death of Lt. Kim, and the end-game sequence, where she claims that the humans "...do not understand; they do not know why we wage this war; why we cannot stop; will not stop; why we will fight and fight and fight...until we win...or we die...and we are not dead yet" leaving little doubt in most players' mind as to the possibility of a sequel.

[edit] Multiplayer

Gears of War supports both split-screen and regular multiplayer over Xbox Live and System Link. There are two multiplayer modes in Gears of War, Cooperative and Versus mode. Multiplayer also adds the "downed" state. When a player has taken too much damage, their character becomes incapacitated instead of dying instantly. The player remains in this state until they bleed out and die, are killed by the enemy, revive themselves (tapping A in execution) or are revived by another player.

Though Gears of War's multiplayer has been well-received since release, certain problems have been recognized. The inability to join matches with a friend in ranked matches has drawn some criticism from gamers.^[8] Another aspect of the multiplayer mode that has frustrated gamers is the host's inability to change maps while maintaining the same group of players. In addition, many players have been unable to connect to ranked matches. Ray Davis, Lead Programmer of Gears of War, promises a patch to fix multiplayer issues in the near future.^[9]

[edit] Cooperative

Cooperative gameplay in Gears of War multiplayer allows two players to play through the game from start to finish. The game offers the ability to invite players on the users’ friends list and have them instantly pop in the player’s game to help them out. Gears of War chooses each player's character depending on certain factors. The first player or multiplayer game host plays as Marcus Fenix (the main character) while the second player as Dominic Santiago, Marcus' best friend.

Cooperative Play differs from the single-player game in some ways. On the sections of levels that offer multiple paths, the first player chooses their own path and effectively sends the other player onto the other. Both players are separated and each tackle separate parts of the level. If either player is downed while on these split paths, both characters will effectively die and co-op players will have to load the previous checkpoint.

[edit] Versus Mode

Multiplayer is team-based, supporting up to eight players (four COGs vs. four Locust) engaging in battles over Xbox Live or through System Link. In versus mode, matches consist of several rounds. Each player starts a round with the same standard set of weapons, but more powerful items of warfare are laid out across each map to be contested by the opposing teams. The team who has won the most rounds at the end of the match wins. There are two types of versus modes, player matches and ranked matches.

• Player matches have no effect on leaderboard ranks and allows users to invite friends or use split-screen mode.
• Ranked matches keep track of player statistics, give players a 'rank' on the Gears of War leaderboard, forbid invitations, and can't be played in split-screen mode.

Three types of versus modes have been developed: Warzone, Assassination, and Execution.^[10]

• Warzone mostly follows the standard Team Deathmatch archetype, with one team trying to eliminate the other.
• Execution is very similar to Warzone, except that when your opponent is down, you must finish them off using certain violent fatalities. These include the curb stomp, the chainsaw attack, a body-decimating explosion, a head-shot, a standard melee attack, or a point-blank shot from any weapon. Standard shots will not affect your opponent when he is in this state. Should you fail to destroy your enemy during the allotted time, the player will be revived and will once again become a threat.
• Assassination requires that teams focus on killing the other team's designated leader while protecting their own. The leader is the only player that can pick up weapons during play. If a non-leader player kills the other team's leader character, that player becomes the new leader on their team.

[edit] Reception

Leading up the game's release, Gears of War had been very highly anticipated as the one of the biggest Xbox 360 games of 2006.^[6] The game received a multitude of awards at E3 even before the game's release.^[11] According to Microsoft Game Studios Vice President Shane Kim, Gears of War preorder sales were second only to Halo 2 in the studio's history.^[12] The game has been stated by the Vice-President of Epic Games, Mark Rein, to have cost an estimated $10 million to make.^[13]

The game is one of few video game titles that has lived up to its hype in recent memory, receiving a majority of positive reviews by critics. Currently, the game has an average score on Metacritic.com of 94 out of 100.^[14]. As of December 10, 2006, Gears of War has a 94% ratio on Game Rankings making it currently the 30th highest rated game of all time and the fourth highest rated game so far this year.^[15] Two weeks after its release, Gears of War has sold more than a million copies worldwide.^[4]

In its special feature titled "Amazon Editors - Top 10 Games of the Year (2006)", Amazon.com ranked Gears of War 5th overall [1].

Gears of War also created some intrigue in the music industry. The cover version song of "Mad World", performed by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews for the 2001 film Donnie Darko was used in the recently airing Gears of War commercials. By November 26, 2006, The usage of this music in the commercial caused the song to reach #1 on iTunes sales charts.^[16] Thrash Metal band Megadeth have also written a new song titled Gears of War that will be featured in their upcoming album United Abominations.^[17]

[edit] Reviews

• IGN gave the game a 9.4/10 saying, "Gears of War is a must-have game, pure and simple. Epic has effectively created a new gaming universe, and the rich story of planet Sera holds its own with the likes of Hyrule, City 17 and the Mushroom-friggin'-Kingdom. A game so gorgeous, both visually and aurally, that is this fun to play comes along only a handful of times a console generation."^[18]
  
• GameSpot gave the game a 9.6/10 saying, "Gears of War is a game that capitalizes on all of the promises made by the next generation of gaming. It looks more than a few steps beyond what consoles have been doing to this point, and the gameplay is supremely fulfilling from start to finish in all of its various modes. While there have certainly been plenty of similar shooters before it, the game's great weapons, amazing graphics, and absolutely thrilling action make it stand out from the pack in a big, big way."^[19]
  
• 1UP gave the game a 10/10 saying, "I can go on and on, but you really need to play this visual and visceral masterpiece for yourself. When you do, you'll find plenty of minor problems, just like I did...but you can always find reasons not to give a game a 10. And while I was playing Gears of War, all I kept running into was reasons to give it a 10."^[20]
  
• Eurogamer gave the game a 8.0/10 saying, "If you want to gorge on a next generation audio-visual feast then Gears of War is a king's banquet. But what of the gameplay pudding that Peter Moore so often reminds us that he likes? The proof, he says, is in the eating, and in this case Gears of War sticks to a well-worn recipe."^[21]
  
• GameSpy gave the game a 5/5 saying, "There's only one other game that I've got to play this year that I can imagine coming close to being this much fun -- and you'll see what that is in a few weeks. But for right now, I'm smitten with Gears of War and all its glorious, horrific violence, blood and anarchy. Move over Master Chief, 'cause Marcus Fenix, will kick your bony ass all over town."^[22]
• GamePro gave the game a 4.75/5 saying, "No matter how hard we tried to hate it, we couldn't. The commercial was cheesy and the storyline was lacking, but it was the most gorgeous game we have ever seen. No matter how angry we got at the lame storyline, we would use the chainsaw and smile at the blood sprays."^[23]

[edit] Future Development

Gears of War news has been hinting at its future development since its release in fall of 2006. PC Gamer accidently released an image in its 2006 holiday issue where Gears of War can be seen in a Games for Windows display, which seems to indicate that Gears of War could be released for the PC^[24]; however, the image was later stated to be a mock-up.^[25] Epic Games's Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski said he hoped for the game to expand into graphic novels and eventually film.^[26] On November 21, 2006, Jeff Bell stated Gears of War is the first in a trilogy.^[27] Epic Games' Mark Rein made a counter-statement on the Gears of War Official Forums indicating that three games may not be enough, and it's possible Gears of War may become an endless gaming franchise like Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog.^[28]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Official Websites Gears of War website Gears of War community page & list of fan websites Gears of War forums at Epic Games Media Pages Gears of War The Movie Gears of War videos at GameTrailers Multiplayer Gameplay Footage at FileFront

Profile Pages Gears of War profile at IGN Gears of War profile at GameSpot Gears of War profile at GameSpy Gears of War profile at 1UP.com Gears of War profile at GamePro

Interviews Interview with CliffyB at GameSpy Interview with CliffyB and tour of Epic Games at 1UP.com Interview with Kevin Riepl at TheGeekZine