gears of war

Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games using Unreal Engine 3.0 technology (build 3706) and 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 (however, by reserving it at special retailers, you could get it on the 7th). 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 a disc of bonus content and an art book titled "Destroyed Beauty" that detailed much of the game's backstory.

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 usage increased by 80 percent after the release of Gears of War.^[2] It was named the GameSpot Game of the Year.^[3] As of January 19, 2007, just ten weeks after its debut, over three million units of the game have been sold.^[4]

Gameplay

Unlike previous efforts by Epic Games, which were first-person shooters, Gears of War is 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 two-handed weapons, a sidearm, and a supply of up to four grenades.

Instead of a traditional health bar found in many first-person shooters, Gears of War uses the Crimson Omen, a cog shaped icon that fills up with blood to represent damage. If there is a faint appearance of the Omen on the screen, it shows that the player has experienced minor wounds. When the Omen becomes more defined, it shows that the player has experienced severe wounds. When there is a skull inside of the symbol, the character has been incapacitated; in the single player mode, this represents player death and game over, while in multiplayer (both co-op and competition modes), another team member may attempt to revive the player. A downed player in competition modes may also try to restore himself from incapacitation by rapidly pressing a button for several seconds, though during this time, the enemy can brutally end the player's life by using the chainsaw bayonet, smashing the player's head with the butt of a weapon, or performing a "curb stomp". If the player has taken damage but is not incapacitated, the damage can be healed by staying out of the line of fire for a short time, which causes the Omen to slowly fade away. In higher difficulty modes, the Omen will fill faster, therefore killing the player more quickly.^[5]

Epic Games placed emphasis on cover and on harder difficulty levels where 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", a roll, and the ability to jump over small walls. 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 the player. ^[6]

Gears of War features a small variety of weapons, following other first-person shooter weapons sets with assault rifles, shotguns, pistols and sniper rifles. One of the most notable weapons is the game's signature firearm, the Lancer (an assault rifle with a chainsaw bayonet). This weapon gives the player the ability to cut enemies in half, killing them in a single blow. Single player missions usually carry over weapons from previous missions, while multiplayer matches provide players with a smoke grenade, Lancer, Snub pistol, and Gnasher shotgun, while more powerful weapons such as the Torque Bow (a high tech mechanical spring bow that fires explosive bolts), the Boomshot rocket launcher, and the Hammer of Dawn (a targeting device for a powerful orbital particle cannon, but only usable when outdoors) can be found in strategic locations throughout the level.

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

There are 49 Achievements that may be unlocked during gameplay. These achievements may be unlocked from either single player or ranked match games.

Story

Gears of War takes place on a planet known as Sera, inhabited by the human survivors of a once-glorious civilization. For a century, however, they fought among themselves. Eventually they knew the hush of peace that blanketed the land.^[7] 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.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[10]

The Pendulum Wars ceased on what is now called Emergence Day. In less than twenty-four hours, a ravenous species known as the Locust burst from under the ground and attacked every major city on Sera. 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, approximately one quarter of Sera's population.^[11] 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."[1] 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.^[12] 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 inevitable attack.^[13] People who had not made it to Jacinto Valley, but had survived, were called the Stranded. The Stranded are living in horrible conditions and malnutrition, and have to find ways to defend themselves. When the Locust Horde began their attack, Marcus Fenix abandoned his post in a response to 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.^[14] Marcus Fenix was pardoned and freed by his friend Dominic Santiago. Shortly afterwards, the Locust Horde overran his prison. The Gears of War campaign begins here.

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 characters received voice overs from popular culture icons. Marcus Fenix is voiced by John DiMaggio of Futurama fame, and 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.

Plot

• Act 1: Ashes - As the game opens 14 years after Emergence Day, former soldier Marcus Fenix is freed from the Jacinto Maximum Security Penitentiary by close friend Dominic Santiago, who needs Fenix's help in the fight against the Locust. Marcus gears up, armed with a Hammerburst semi-automatic rifle, and together the two escape from the prison to the King Raven helicopter just as a massive spider-like Corpser bursts from underground and destroys the prison. Marcus and Dom are united with the other two members of Delta Squad, Private Carmine and Lieutenant Kim, and the team arrives at a rendezvous point organised by Colonel Hoffman. Hoffman expresses his disdain at Marcus being released, but all the same briefs Lieutenant Kim. Delta Squad's mission is to locate a sonic mapping device called the "Resonator" in the possession of Alpha Squad, a device which will map the Locust tunnels and provide launch data for a new superweapon known as the Lightmass Bomb. Alpha Squad's last transmission was from Embry Square, but after fighting through several battles with Locust, Kim's team finds only two deceased Alpha Squad members, and the team receives new orders to proceed to the House of Sovereigns (the courthouse where Marcus was sentenced to prison). After defeating Locust at the entrance to the House, Private Carmine is killed by sniper fire, but soon after entering the House the team locates a lone member of Alpha Squad, Private Augustus "Cole Train" Cole, a former thrashball professional. Cole joins Delta Squad and the team is forced to eliminate three Seeders in the House, which are producing dangerous flying creatures called Nemacyst and blocking radio transmissions. Marcus is forced to use the Hammer of Dawn (a weapon that provides targeting data for an orbital particle laser satellite) to kill the Seeders and soon after they reestablish contact with the remaining three members of Alpha Squad, who are pinned down just outside the Tomb of the Unknowns next to the House of Sovereigns. Delta Squad rushes to help them and eliminates all Locust in the area, but an ambush led by Locust military leader General RAAM destroys the team's escape helicopter. General RAAM impales Lieutenant Kim on his longsword, and the remaining five soldiers are forced back inside the Tomb of the Unknowns. However, RAAM sends a Berserker into the Tomb, a psychopathic and dim-witted killing machine impervious to nearly all firearms. One of Alpha Squad's members is mauled and killed by the Berserker, leaving only Marcus, Dominic, Cole and Damon Baird. Anya, Delta Squad's contact from command, suggests luring the beast outside the Tomb and using the Hammer of Dawn, and Marcus and Dom painstakingly do so. After the beast's death, the four soldiers report back to Hoffman on their success in retrieving the Resonator, and Hoffman orders the team to plant the Resonator at an Imulsion mining facility ten kilometres from their position. Marcus is also granted a rank as Sergeant in place of Kim.
• Act 2: Nightfall - Marcus, Dom, Cole and Baird begin to make their way towards the mining station through the ruined city, and soon encounter large armoured Boomers wielding Boomshot rocket launchers. Dom suggests that the fastest way to reach the mine would be to borrow an APC from a Stranded named Franklin, who owes Dom a favour from deals in the past. After several fights with Locust Drones and Boomers, the Squad reaches the Stranded camp and Franklin relunctantly agrees to give them his "Junker" APC on the condition that Cole and Baird remain at the Stranded camp to help them defend against the Locust. Marcus and Dominic head for an ammo checkpoint across a nearby river as directed by Franklin, but as they cross the river the sun finally goes down, and Kryll flood the night skies. These carnivorous, bat-like, light-hating creatures will eat any living thing that strays into the shadow under open sky, including the unfortunate Stranded at the river checkpoint after their light fails. The two soldiers make their way through the dark city ruins towards Chap's Gas Station where Franklin keeps his Junker, lighting their way by blowing up propane tanks and moving through roofed houses infested with maniacal Wretches. As they reach the gas station and the Junker, the Locust launch a large attack, but not enough to stop the two Gears. Marcus, Dom, and the gas station's owner race back to the Stranded camp in the APC, using the Junker's UV light to burn the pursuing Kryll, and arrive back at the camp just as the Locust mount an enormous attack. After helping the Stranded defeat the Locust, the reunited Delta Squad drives off toward the Imulsion facility in the Junker.
• Act 3: Belly of the Beast - The Junker fails just as the team reaches the mining station, and Sergeant Fenix leads them into the factory on foot. Anya informs them that the usual lifts down to the mine have failed, and that they'll have to use the drilling platforms deep inside the factory. The Squad splits up to find a way in past the barred iron doors, with Cole and Baird looking for a basement entrance while Marcus and Dom head around the back, and dangerous exploding lambent Wretches attack them. Both teams manage to get inside at different points, and Marcus finds the factory's last survivor among the corpses of the other miners. The Stranded miner leads them through the factory towards the drilling room but dies after the rotting floor collapses under him, sending him falling into a pit of Wretches. Eventually Delta Squad is reunited, and use the mine cars to ride over to the drilling core room where they hitch a ride down into the mine. Not far into the gigantic caverns, the team is forced to split up again in hopes of finding the pumping station before the Kryll return to the caves at dawn. Marcus and Dom encounter the Corpser that destroyed the prison and tracked them through the city into the mine, and kill it by forcing it back into the vast pits of Imulsion. After battling through the Locust in the mines the Squad meets up and locate the pumping station, which is guarded by the Locust Horde's elite Theron Guards, who wield explosive Torque Bows and Lancer Rifles. The Squad wipes them all out, triggers the Resonator, and use the restored elevators to return to the surface just as the Resonator detonates. On the surface, they discover from Hoffman that the Resonator's signal was far too weak to map the enormous network of Locust tunnels, but Baird finds a small geobot which already contains part of a complete map of the tunnels. Anya discovers that the data originated from Marcus's home: the East Barricade Academy. Hoffman sends the team in to find the rest of the data in the secret basement lab of Marcus's father.
• Act 4: The Long Road Home - Delta Squad rides the Raven helicopter to the East Barricade Academy, now ruined and heavily controlled by Locust, and one of their choppers is brought down by Nemacyst in the sky. The team is dropped off just outside the Academy and are forced to fight their way through massive numbers of Locust to the mansion where Marcus's father lived. Cole and Baird discover another APC in need of repair at the back of the manor, and they rush off to repair it while Marcus and Dom search the manor for the data. After finding the hidden laboratory in the basement, they leave their cloaked robot Jack to download the data and defend the house against waves of Locust attackers. As Jack finishes downloading the tunnel maps, the two soldiers rush for the APC behind the manor with a gargantuan reptilian Brumak already charging towards the house. The Squad and Jack reach the APC just as the Brumak smashes through the manor, and luckily escape the pursuing monster.
• Act 5: Desperation - The team now rushes for the train station to get aboard the Tyro Pillar, an armoured freight train carrying the Lightmass Bomb at its front. Locust attack them at the station and prevent Cole and Baird from jumping onto the train as it speeds past, leaving only Marcus and Dom to battle through to the front of the train as it travels across the wasteland towards the Locust stronghold. As they rush for the Lightmass Bomb, they encounter flying mounted Reavers which attack from alongside the train, Wretches which attempt to cut power to the rear carriages where the pair are fighting, and a Berserker at the rear of the train. Eventually they manage to get to the Lightmass Bomb's carriage, but General RAAM is waiting there to stop them. Hoffman, Anya, Cole and Baird fly alongside the Tyro Pillar in the Raven, killing attacking Reavers while Marcus and Dom mount a tense and difficult fight against General RAAM, who carries a Troika gatling turret, summons Kryll from the night sky as a shield from attacks, and takes a massive amount of firepower to take down. After the pair finally kill RAAM, Dom jumps onto the Raven as Marcus uploads the map launch data into the Lightmass Bomb. As he waits for the bombs to launch, he sees with horror a destroyed bridge up ahead over a pit of Imulsion and realises he has to get off the train. Dom grabs him from the Raven just as the train catapults off the bridge into the Imulsion, where the bombs launch and successfully eradicate the entire Locust stronghold. Hoffman helps Dom pull Marcus up into the chopper and announces their victory to the rest of the world, but the haunting voice of what is assumed to be the Locust Queen clearly tells the player that the Locust have not been defeated, and will fight back.

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, which works similar to down comrades the player must help in the single-player missions. When a player has taken too much damage from enemy, 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, or are revived by another player. However, in cases where the damage is severe as to cause mutilation or disintegration of the body (including chainsaw attacks, short range shotgun blasts, or grenade explosions), the player is dead instantly.

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 (known as "Drop in, Drop out" gameplay) 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 begin from the previous checkpoint. While outside these paths the players may revive each other and use unique flanking maneuvers impossible with the AI.

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 each 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.^[15]

• Warzone mostly follows the standard Team Deathmatch archetype, with each team trying to eliminate the other. When players are downed they can only get back up when an ally revives them
• 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 point-blank head-shot from any weapon , or a standard melee attack. 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 initially. However, if the leader picks up a weapon and drops it, the rest of his team can pick it up. If a non-leader player kills the other team's leader character, that player becomes the new leader on their team the next round.

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.^[16] 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.^[17]

Upon its release, Gears of War received unanimously positive reviews from critics, with an average score on Metacritic & Game Rankings of 94%, tying it with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the highest ranked Xbox 360 game ^[18]. The game also received scores of 9.4/10 from IGN ^[19], 9.6/10 from GameSpot ^[20], a 10/10 from Official Xbox Magazine, and 4.75 from GamePro ^[21].

Gears of War has received numerous awards:

• IGN's Best of 2006
  • Xbox 360 Game of the Year ^[22]
  • Best Action Game ^[23]
  • Best Xbox 360 Action Game ^[24]
  • Best Graphics Technology ^[25]
  • Best Graphics Technology for Xbox 360 ^[26]
  • Best Developer for Xbox 360 (Epic Games) ^[27]
• GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2006
  • Game of the Year ^[3]
  • Best Xbox 360 Game ^[28]
  • Best Graphics, Technical ^[29]
  • Best New Character(s) (Delta Squad) ^[30]
  • Best Multiplayer Game ^[31]
  • Best Shooter ^[32]
• 2006 Spike TV Video Game Awards
  • Best Multiplayer Game
  • Best Shooter
  • Best Graphics
  • Best Studio (Epic Games)

Future developments

News of the franchise's future has emerged multiple times since the game's release. PC Gamer accidentally released an image in its 2006 holiday issue where Gears of War can be seen in a Games for Windows display, which led to suspicion that Gears of War would be released for the PC;^[33] however, the image was later stated to be a mock-up.^[34] Gears lead designer Cliff Bleszinski said he hoped for the game to expand into graphic novels and eventually film.^[35] On November 21, 2006, Microsoft Corporate VP of Global Marketing and Interactive Entertainment Business Jeff Bell stated Gears of War is the first in a trilogy, through sequences on E-Day and the battle of Jacinto Plateau, as well as information on Adam Fenix and his reseach (which the character finds in Gears).^[36] Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein posted a message on the official Gears of War Internet forums, stating "It's not over until it isn't fun anymore", and, in his view, Gears of War may become the next Halo series in terms of popularity.^[37]

Epic Games will also release new Gears of War content available for download to the Xbox 360. Production on this content began as early as August 2006. These updates will be free according to Epic Games president Mike Capps.^[38] The first of these updates were released over Xbox Live on January 9, 2007^[39], with two new maps released the following day on Wednesday, January 10, 2007. The two maps reflected background scenes from the game's storyline, known as "Raven Down" and "Old Bones", which depict Gears fighting Locust amidst the crash site of a King Raven helicopter and a museum, respectively.^[40] Another update was released for Gears of War on January 22nd, 2007^[41], which, according to Epic Games' Marc Rein, is said to fix some compatibility issues, and that no game play or functionality features were changed.^[42]