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, Havok Engine Build 3706
Picture format	720p, 1080i (HDTV)
Release date(s)	NA November 12, 2006 EUR November 17, 2006 AU November 23, 2006 JPN January 18, 2007
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+ CERO: Z
Platform(s)	Xbox 360
Media	DVD-DL
Input	Gamepad

Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games (the creators of the Unreal Tournament series) using Unreal Engine 3.0 technology and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Released for the Xbox 360 on November 7, 2006 in select stores in the United States, it was broadly released in major U.S. retailers on November 12, 2006. The game was 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 on the soldiers of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from a relentless subterranean enemy known as The Locust Horde. The player assumes the role of Marcus Fenix, a former prisoner and war-hardened soldier. In cooperative play, the second player plays as Fenix's friend and fellow soldier, Dominic Santiago "Dom". The two soldiers join up with Delta Squad and battle the Locust Horde through the course of the campaign.

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Story 2.1 Characters 2.2 Plot 3 Multiplayer 3.1 Cooperative 3.2 Versus mode 4 Film 5 Reception 6 Future developments 7 References 8 External links

Gameplay

Gears of War is a third-person "over-the-head" shooter. In an interview with Cliff Bleszinski, lead developer for Epic Games, he cites that three games were the primary influences in the game's design included the third person perspective from Resident Evil 4 and the tactical cover system from kill.switch.^[2] These design choices reflect themself in the gameplay as Gears of War focuses mainly on sound team-based and cover-dependent tactics with limited weapons rather than brute force.

Epic Games placed emphasis on the importance of cover, and on the 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 showing 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. 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. ^[3]

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. The Lancer is 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. Some of the more powerful weapons in the game include the Torque Bow, a high tech mechanical spring bow that fires explosive bolts, the Boomshot rocket-propelled grenade launcher, the Longshot sniper rifle, and the Hammer of Dawn, a targeting device for a powerful orbital particle cannon but only usable when outdoors. All weapons can be used to bash an opponent at melee range (except for the Lancer, which uses the aforementioned chainsaw bayonet). Both smoke and fragmentation grenades are also available which can be tossed, but can also be stuck onto an opponent by hand at close range. Single player missions usually carry over weapons from previous missions, while multiplayer matches provide players with a smoke grenade, Lancer assault rifle, Snub pistol, and Gnasher shotgun, with more powerful weapons being scattered at strategic locations on the map, though the host can select to randomize weapon locations (In unranked player matches). Discarded and dropped weapons and ammo can be collected by the player, but the player may only carry one type of grenade, one type of sidearm, and two types of the remaining weapon classes at any time.

A gameplay component unique to Gears of War, the Active Reload, entails hitting the right bumper at the correct time to speed up your reload. There are three possibilities for the result of the second tap of the reload button: perfect, good, and fail. If timed perfectly, the reload takes less than a second and any bullets refilled will momentarily have an 8% increase in damage. If timed well, the reload will simply take less time. If timed poorly, the gun will jam momentarily and the reloading process will take longer than if an Active Reload was not attempted. ^[4]

Instead of a healthbar 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 the competition mode Execution may also try to restore himself from incapacitation by rapidly pressing the (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, performing a "curb stomp", or also a headshot. 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. ^[4]

There are 49 Achievements that may be unlocked during gameplay. These achievements may be unlocked from either single player, playing 2 player co-op as Dominic Santiago, or ranked match games on Xbox Live.

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.^[5] 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.^[5] 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.^[5] 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.^[5]

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.^[5] 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.^[4] 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."^[6] 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.^[5] 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.^[5] People who had not made it to Jacinto Plateau, 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 began their attack on Jacinto, Marcus abandoned his post in a response to a distress call from his father, a renowned soldier, 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 the testimony of Dominic Santiago, 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.^[5] 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. This can also be read in the Gears of War forums in Nightmares of War that features a whole background.

Characters

Main article: List of Gears of War characters and 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, consisting first of Min Young Kim, Carmine, Marcus Fenix and his best friend Dominic Santiago, but during the last four acts of the game, Delta Squad consists of the former prisoner Marcus, Dominic or just Dom, 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. In multiplayer on the COG side there are all the Delta Squad characters to choose from, plus Victor Hoffman.

Some of the characters received voice overs from popular culture icons. Marcus Fenix is voiced by John DiMaggio, best known as the voice of Bender in Futurama, 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 his close friend, Dominic Santiago, who needs Fenix's help in the fight against the Locusts. Both manage to escape the prison moments before it is destroyed by a Corpser, and then meet up with the other members of Delta Squad, Private Carmine and Lieutenant Kim with orders to find Alpha Squad and secure possession of the "Resonator", a device intended to map out the Locust underground tunnel network for the Lightmass Bomb. En route to Alpha's last known location, Carmine is killed by a Locust sniper and Kim is killed by General RAAM. Dominic and Marcus are able to meet up with 2 Privates from Alpha Squad, named Cole and Baird, at the House of Sovereigns. After defeating a Locust Berserker, the team confirms with headquarters that the Resonator is safe, and are then ordered to an Imulsion mining facility ten kilometers from their position. Marcus is also granted a rank as Sergeant in place of Kim.

Act 2: Nightfall - 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 favor from deals in the past. After reaching the camp, Franklin reluctantly agrees to give them his "Junker" on the condition that Cole and Baird remain at the Stranded camp to help them defend against the Locust. Marcus and Dom head across the ruined city as nightfall descends, bringing out the carnivorous bat-like creatures known as Kryll that attack anything in the dark. The two fight through the Locust forces to reach the gas station where the Junker is kept, and then drive it back to the camp, defending themselves from the Kryll with an ultraviolet light equipped on the Junker that can kill the Kryll. The two arrive just in time back at the Stranded camp to help defend it from a large Locust onslaught. Once the situation is secured, the team moves onwards towards the mining facility in the Junker.

Act 3: Belly of the Beast - Delta Squad reaches the outskirts of the mining facility just as the Junker ceases to function. They make their way on foot through the abandoned facility and into the Imulsion mine tunnels, heading towards a predetermined location where the effect of the Resonator should have maximum effect, all the while defending themselves against constant Locust onslaughts. The team eventually reaches their target destination, and after securing the area, set off the Resonator device and narrowly escape back to the surface. Unfortunately, the team quickly learns from HQ that the data collected from the Resonator blast was much too limited to be of use for the Lightmass Bomb. However, a device found by Baird seems to already contain a near-complete map of the tunnel system, with the data linking back to Marcus' father and his home at the East Barricade Academy.

Act 4: The Long Road Home - Delta Squad rides a Raven helicopter to the East Barricade Academy, now ruined and heavily controlled by Locust, losing a helicopter to an attack by Nemacyst air spores 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 newly repaired APC behind the manor with a gargantuan reptilian-like Locust called a Brumak already charging towards them. The Squad and Jack reach the APC just as the Brumak smashes through the manor, escaping the pursuing monster.

Act 5: Desperation - The team now rushes for the train station to get aboard the Tyro Pillar, an armored 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. They unfortunately encounter General RAAM at the front of the train, guarding the Lightmass Bomb, but the two are able to defeat him. With a destroyed bridge quickly approaching as the train speeds ahead, Marcus uploads the tunnel data into the Lightmass Bomb and activates it, escaping the train by jumping into a nearby Raven helicopter, with the help of Dom and Cole. Dominic grabs Marcus seconds before the train falls off of the tracks and into the Imulsion below. Struggling to hold on to Dominic's hands with only 1 of his, Hoffman comes over, and, to the team's surprise, offers his hand to help Marcus up. Marcus grabs his hand and is pulled onto the King Raven. The bombs from Lightmass launch into the Locust tunnels beneath, successfully eradicating most of an important Locust stronghold. Hoffman's voice later 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, possibly foreshadowing the premise of a sequel to Gears of War.

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, revive themselves (in the Execution versus mode only), 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, boomshot hits, sniper headshots, 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 a 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, can't be played in split-screen mode, and can be played to get achievements.

Three types of versus modes are currently available.: Warzone, Assassination, and Execution.^[7]

• 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. A "bleed-out" time can be set from 5 seconds to 60 seconds. This is the length of time the person will survive after being downed because they die of blood loss.
• Execution is very similar to Warzone, except that when an opponent is down, the opposing team must finish them off using certain violent fatalities. Should the opposing team fail to destroy the downed player during the allotted time, the player will be revived and will once again become a threat. However, this can only be done twice. If the player is downed a third time, he dies. The bleed-out time is applied here by altering the amount of time before a downed person rises again without any input from the player.
• 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.

• 'Annex' A fourth multiplayer mode, called "Annex", will be available in the next patch for Gears of War, though details of it are yet known, Epic claims that beta testers "think it is our best multiplayer gametype yet".^[8]. The release date for this patch is yet unknown.

Film

On March 20th of 2007, it was announced that New Line Cinema had purchased the rights to make the Gears of War film, with Stuart Beattie writing the script along with Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey who will be producing it. The film is scheduled to be released in the year 2009.^[9]

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.^[3] The third person action game received a multitude of awards at E3 even before the game's release.^[10] 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.^[11] Gears of War was also the first Xbox or Xbox 360 game to sell out and reach the top ten charts in Japan^[12].

Upon its release, Gears of War received unanimously positive reviews from critics, with an average score on Metacritic & Game Rankings of 94%, tying with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the highest ranked Xbox 360 game ^[13]. The game also received scores of 9.4/10 from IGN ^[14], 9.6/10 from GameSpot ^[15], a 10/11 from Official Xbox Magazine, and 4.75/5 from GamePro ^[16].

Gears of War achieved major success after its release. On November 07, 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. ^[17]By January 19, 2007, just ten weeks after its debut, over three million units of the game have been sold.^[18] Recently, Gears of War has been awarded the Gamefly Game Of The Year, along with Best Xbox 360 Game from Gamefly as well. Gears of War has also won GameSpot's 2006 game of the year award and Official Xbox Magazine's 2006 "Xbox 360 Game of the Year Award." ^[19]

Gears of War has received numerous awards:

IGN's Best of 2006 Xbox 360 Game of the Year [20] Best Action Game [21] Best Xbox 360 Action Game [22] Best Graphics Technology [23] Best Graphics Technology for Xbox 360 [24] Best Developer for Xbox 360 (Epic Games) [25] 2006 Spike TV Video Game Awards Best Multiplayer Game Best Shooter Best Graphics Best Studio (Epic Games) D.I.C.E 07 Overall Game of the Year Console Game of the Year Outstanding Achievement in Animation Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction Outstanding Character Performance - Male Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering Action/Adventure Game of the Year

GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2006 Game of the Year [26] Best Xbox 360 Game [27] Best Graphics, Technical [28] Best New Character(s) (Delta Squad) [29] Best Multiplayer Game [30] Best Shooter [31] Official Xbox Magazine Xbox 360 Game of the Year Developer of the Year Epic Games Enemy of the Year The Berserker Best Studio (Epic Games) 2006 Interactive Achievement Awards Game of the Year Animation Character Performance Male Original Music Composition Sound Design Console Game of the Year Console Action/Adventure IEAA Awards[32] Samsung Xbox 360 Game of the Year Gamespot AU Editor's Choice Award GAME 1 Ultimate Game of the Year

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] Possible leaked pictures were released on February 4, 2007, leading to more suspicion of Gears on the PC. In an interview with Xbox fansite Team Xbox, Mark Rein stated that the game would eventually come to the PC, but that Epic was not currently ready to release it on that format, but the upcoming release of Unreal Tournament 3 is "helping (Epic) get optimization on the PC."^[35].

Gears lead designer Cliff Bleszinski said he hoped for the game to expand into graphic novels and eventually film.^[36] 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 research (which the character finds in Gears).^[37] 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.^[38]

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.^[39] The first of these updates were released over Xbox Live on January 9, 2007,^[40] with two new maps released the following day on 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 chopper and a museum, respectively.^[41] Another update was released for Gears of War on January 22, 2007,^[42] which, according to Epic Games' Marc Rein, is said to fix some compatibility issues with the release of Gears of War in Japan, and that no game play or functionality features were changed.^[43] At the 2007 Game Developers Conference Cliffy B confirmed that Epic Games does "intend to do a sequel" to Gears of War possibly set to be released in 2008.

References

External links

Official Websites Gears of War website Planet Gears of War Gears of War list of E3 Awards & fan websites Gears of War forums at Epic Games Gears of War Fan Forums Media Pages Destroyed Beauty Art Book at GameSpy Gears of War videos at GameTrailers Multiplayer Gameplay Footage at FileFront Gears of War video review at xleague.tv

Profile Pages Gears of War at IGN Gears of War at GameSpot Gears of War at GameSpy Gears of War at 1UP.com Gears of War at GamePro Gears of War at TGZ Gears of War at Game Informer Online Gears of War at GameFAQs Gears of War at Mobygames

Interviews Interview with CliffyB at Evil Avatar Interview with CliffyB at GameSpy Interview with CliffyB and tour of Epic Games at 1UP.com Articles USA Today - Gears of War breaks out Wikias Gears of War Wikia