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Gears of War (video game)

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This article is about the video game. For the Megadeth song, see Gears of War (song).
Gears of War
File:Gearsofwar.JPG
Developer(s)Epic Games
Publisher(s)Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(s)Cliff Bleszinski
EngineUnreal Engine 3.0
Platform(s)Xbox 360, Windows, Mac OS X
ReleaseXbox 360



Windows


Mac OS X

Genre(s)Third-person shooter, Tactical shooter
Mode(s)Single player, System Link, Multiplayer, Cooperative modes

Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games (the creators of the Unreal 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 back-story.

The game 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, or "Dom". The two soldiers join Delta Squad and battle the subterranean-creatures through the course of the campaign.

Gears of War has been enormously successful since its release, selling over three million units in just ten weeks and becoming the fastest-selling title of 2006.[2] A film adaptation is currently in the works, and the game is slated to be the first of a trilogy.[3][4] At E3 2007 Microsoft confirmed the persistent rumors of Gears of War being ported over to Windows. The game will be a Games for Windows title and is set to ship sometime in the 2007 holiday season, with additional content not found in the Xbox 360 version of the game.[5] A Mac OS X release was confirmed by Epic's Mark Rein, speaking on a July 14, 2007 episode of Game Head.[6]

Gameplay

Gears of War is a third-person "over-the-shoulder" shooter. In an interview with Cliff Bleszinski, lead developer for Epic Games, he cites three games that were the primary influences in the game's design including the third person perspective from Resident Evil 4 and the tactical-cover system from kill.switch.[7] These design choices reflect themselves 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 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. The player can perform a roadie run, or a sprint, where the camera will lower towards the ground and bob considerably, as if the camera were being held by another person running behind the player.[8]

The game uses an over-the-shoulder camera angle when using the LT button to display the targeting reticule.

Gears of War features a small variety of weapons, following other third-person shooter weapons sets with assault rifles, shotguns, pistols and sniper rifles with additional melee capabilities. Notably, the "Lancer" assault rifle is equipped with a chainsaw bayonet that instantly kills a foe, while each of the other weapons can be used to bash an opponent at close range. There is also a more tactical weapon called the Hammer of Dawn which targets areas for an orbital satellite-mounted laser to destroy. Both smoke and fragmentation grenades are available to be thrown or used in melee. 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 side arm, 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. A perfect reload is accompanied by a distinctive sound. If timed well, the reload will simply take less time. If timed poorly, the gun will jam momentarily and the ammo screen turns red, and the reloading process will take longer than if an Active Reload was not attempted. When a gun jams, players cannot change weapons or melee, exposing themselves to several seconds of extreme vulnerability, especially when involved in close-range combat.[9]

Instead of the health bar found in many third-person shooters, Gears of War uses the Crimson Omen, a cog shaped icon that grows brighter to indicate increased damage. If there is a faint appearance of the Omen on the screen, it indicates that the player has sustained minor wounds. When the Omen becomes more defined, it shows that the player has sustained severe wounds and should seek cover. When there is a skull inside of the symbol, the character is incapacitated; in the single-player mode, this represents player death and the player must restart from the last checkpoint, 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 taking 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,[9] similar to the energy shield system from Halo.

The game features three difficulty modes (Casual, Hardcore, and Insane) across the five-act single player maps. The harder difficulties, Hardcore and Insane, are made more difficult primarily due to an increased number of enemies and a greater amount of damage taken from enemies. There are 49 Achievements that shipped with the game. These achievements may be unlocked through playing single player, two-player co-op as Dominic Santiago, and ranked match games in Warzone, Execution, Assassination, and Annex on Xbox Live. Eight new Achievements that can be earned in either Ranked or Player matches for Annex mode and the Hidden Front maps were introduced in the fourth update, bringing the total number of achievements to 57.[10]

Story

Setting

Gears of War takes place on Sera, a planet inhabited by humans, who have warred over a phosphorescent, low-viscosity fluid known as "Imulsion". Over several decades, the Pendulum Wars took place between various human countries, and ended with the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) taking control of the planet. The war quickly came to an end on "Emergence Day", when a ravenous force known as the Locust Horde bursts from underneath major human cities using a network of underground tunnels.

File:Gow-locusts.jpg
The Locust Horde overruns Sera's population on Emergence Day.

The Coalition, unable to defend against the sudden attack, is routed, and the Locust Horde takes control of the majority of Sera's urban, military, and manufacturing centers within 24 hours. The COG orders any survivors to Jacinto Plateau, a safe haven from Locust underground attacks, and then uses orbital laser weapons in a scorched earth strategy to deny the Locust Horde its gains. The human survivors that could not make it become known as the "Stranded" and have to survive on their own. In the 14 years since "Emergence Day", the Locust continue to attack the fortified Jacinto Plateau and force the COG to turn to the infirm, the young, and the condemned to replace their dwindling numbers. The game begins as Marcus Fenix, a COG soldier imprisoned for abandoning his post to attempt to rescue his father, is pardoned after only four years of his sentence and freed from prison by his friend Dominic Santiago.[9]

Characters

Main article: List of Gears of War characters and adversaries

Gears of War focuses primarily on Marcus Fenix, the main character, and Delta Squad's encounters with the Locust Horde.

File:Gow-cogs.jpg
Main characters (left to right): Baird, Cole, Marcus, and Dom

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 Marcus, Dominic, Augustus "Cole Train" Cole, and Damon Baird. Players take control of Marcus Fenix, freshly rescued by Dominic Santiago from the Jacinto Maximum Security Penitentiary. All of the squad members are available for play during multiplayer games, along with 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.

Plot

The game’s actual plot begins fourteen years after Emergence Day. Marcus Fenix, a former COG soldier, is reinstated into the military after spending 4 years in prison. Dominic Santiago successfully extracts him from the prison, and takes him to meet Delta Squad. The group seeks to obtain the "resonator", a device that will map the Locust Tunnel, and later deploy the "Lightmass Bomb", which will destroy the heart of the Locust forces. Fenix and his allies recover the device, but suffer multiple casualties in the process. Amidst the chaos, Fenix leads the remaining soldiers through the ruins of Sera, to a mining facility, and finally into the planet’s depths.

Delta Squad succeeds in detonating the resonator, only to shortly discover that the device failed to map the entire tunnel network. Fortunately, they discover a near complete map of the network that originates from Fenix’s old home, specifically his father’s laboratory. The group ventures to the Fenix estate at East Barricade Academy, encountering heavy Locust resistance. The data is collected, and the group then boards a train carrying the Lightmass Bomb. Fenix and Santiago battle their way through the train, and defeat General RAAM, before finally uploading the data. Fully activated, the Lightmass Bomb launches into Sera's underground, and eradicates the Locust tunnel networks. In the game's final sequence, Hoffman delivers a victory speech as the tunnels collapse and explode, while another haunting voice promises that the Locust will keep on fighting.

Multiplayer

Gears of War supports both split screen, regular multiplayer over Xbox Live and System Link. There are two multiplayer modes in Gears of War, Cooperative and Versus. Both multiplayer modes add the "downed" state. 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, or are revived by their teammates. It works similarly to the way that the player's comrades can be incapacitated and then revived during the single-player missions. In Execution, a player can revive without the need of other players. However, a player can only be revived twice and dies instantly on the third down. In cases where the damage is severe enough to cause mutilation or disintegration of the body (including chainsaw attacks, short range shotgun blasts, boomshot hits, sniper headshots, torque bow hits, or grenade explosions), the player is killed instantly.

Cooperative

Cooperative gameplay in Gears of War allows two players to play through the game from start to finish. The game offers the ability to invite players on the user's friends list and have them instantly pop in (known as "Drop in, Drop out" gameplay) the player’s game to help them out. The game 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

This multiplayer mode is team-based, supporting up to eight players (four COGs vs. four Locust) engaging in battles over Xbox Live or through System Link. While the single player and co-op limited the player to playing as Marcus or Dom, the versus mode allows play with every COG in the game, and every locust as well. In versus mode, matches consist of several rounds between one and nineteen. Each player starts each round with the same standard set of weapons, but more powerful weaponry can be found 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 the Gears of War leaderboard ranks, allows users to invite friends or use split-screen mode (either two Gamertags or a Gamertag and a guest) and allows the host to swap the map's default weapons for those of their choice. By weapon swapping, what once might have been a sniper rifle could be a pair of grenades, thereby drastically changing the gameplay of the match and also allowing the option to turn on friendly fire. As of June 14, 2007, an update containing new achievements allows the newly released achievements to be obtained in player matches.
  • Ranked matches keep track of player statistics, give players a 'rank' on the Gears of War leaderboard, forbid invitations, cannot be played in split-screen mode, and can be played to get achievements.

Three versus modes were available with the original game: Warzone, Assassination, and Execution. A fourth mode, Annex, was made available as the second patch of the game.[11] Epic has announced that a new mode King of the Hill will be available exclusively for the PC and Macintosh versions of Gears of War.[12]

  • Warzone mostly follows the standard Team Deathmatch archetype, with each team trying to eliminate the other. The length of time during which a downed player can be revived before they die of blood-loss, also called the bleed-out time, can be set from 5 seconds up to 60 seconds. A post-release patch changed the maximum number of per-player revives from unlimited to two. On the third down, the player will automatically die. Dead players do not respawn until the next round.
  • Execution is very similar to Warzone, except that when an opponent is down, the opposing team must terminate the downed player up close. Should the opposing team fail to destroy the downed player during the allowed time, the player will be revived and will once again become a threat. A post-release patch changed the maximum number of per-player revives from unlimited to two. On the third down, the player will automatically die. 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. Dead players do not respawn until the next round.
  • Assassination requires that teams focus on killing the other team's designated leader while protecting their own. If a team's leader dies, that team loses the round. As of the most present patch, players die by rules of "Warzone", while leaders die by "Execution" rules. Prior versions before the third patch had both players and leaders dying by Warzone rules, and also required the leader to pick up a weapon before a fellow teammate could use it. Dead players do not respawn until the next round.
  • Annex is essentially a version of King of the Hill, teams win by keeping control over key map locations, or objectives, long enough to collect a winning number of points. Every map has two to five identified objectives available for capture, with one objective active at a time. Objectives are based on map weapon-spawn locations and have a potential value of 60 points toward either team’s score. Teams collect those points by maintaining ownership of an objective until all its 60 points have been distributed; players do not have to stay at the point to retain ownership but only prevent the enemy from approaching the point. Every second that a team controls an objective, the team gets one point. When an objective falls to zero points, the next objective is selected at random. Players can be downed following "Warzone" bleed out rules, but unlike the other game play modes, any dead players will respawn simultaneously at the next respawning interval, which occurs every 15 seconds beginning at the start of the round. On June 14, 2007, 8 new achievements were added to the game; 3 of which specifically concern the Annex game type.[13]

Updates

Epic Games has been working on new content for Gears of War since as early as August 2006. These updates will remain free according to Epic Games president Mike Capps.[14] The first of these updates was released over Xbox Live on January 9 2007,[15] 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.[16] Another update was released for Gears of War on January 22 2007,[17] 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.[18]

On April 9, 2007, Epic Games released the third update, containing a new game mode titled Annex, which requires teams to capture and hold certain areas of each map, as well as additional gameplay tweaks and fixing up some glitches. The update was free of charge.

Epic Games has also said that four new maps will be made available in conjunction with the third patch. However, due to disagreements between Microsoft and Epic Games, Epic will "put these maps on sale at a reasonable price then make them free a few months later," according to Mark Rein of Epic Games.[19] The map pack, titled "Hidden Fronts", was released on Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 Microsoft Points on May 3, 2007, and includes the maps Bullet Marsh, Garden, Process, and Subway.[10] Free downloads of these maps will be made available on September 3, 2007, four months after the initial release. The new maps are currently not available in Germany.

A fourth update on June 14, 2007 added 250 additional Achievement points in eight Achievements related to Annex mode and the maps from Hidden Fronts. Additionally, the update includes improvement of roadie run to keep the player from sticking to cover areas, and a patch to prevent the Annex clock from counting during connection errors. Other "housekeeping" issues were also addressed.[20]

Reception

Publication Score
1UP.com 10/10[21]
Game Informer 9.5/10
GamePro 4.75/5[22]
Game Rankings 94%[23]
GameSpot 9.6/10[24]
IGN 9.4/10[25]
Metacritic 94%[26]
Official Xbox Magazine 10/10
Edge Magazine 8/10
X-Play 5/5

Leading up to the game's release, Gears of War was one of the most anticipated Xbox 360 games of 2006.[8] The third person action game received a multitude of awards at E3 even before the game's release.[27] 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.[28] Gears of War was also the first Xbox or Xbox 360 game to sell out and reach the top ten charts in Japan.[29]

Upon its release, Gears of War received mostly positive reviews from critics, maintaining an average score of 94% on Metacritic and Game Rankings (ranked fourth game of 2006).

Gears of War has achieved major success since its release. On November 7, 2006, it became the most popular game on the Xbox Live service, overtaking Halo 2, which had held the spot since its launch in November 2004.[30]By January 19, 2007, just ten weeks after its debut, over three million units of the game had been sold.[2]

Gears of War was awarded the Gamefly Game of the Year, along with Best Xbox 360 Game from Gamefly as well. Gears of War also won GameSpot's 2006 Game of the Year Award and Official Xbox Magazine's 2006 "Xbox 360 Game of the Year Award."[31]

Gears of War has received numerous awards:

  • IGN's Best of 2006
    • Xbox 360 Game of the Year[32]
    • Best Action Game[33]
    • Best Xbox 360 Action Game[34]
    • Best Graphics Technology[35]
    • Best Graphics Technology for Xbox 360[36]
    • Best Developer for Xbox 360 (Epic Games)[37]
  • 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
  • IEAA Awards[38]
    • Samsung Xbox 360 Game of the Year
    • GameSpot AU Editor's Choice Award
    • GAME 1 Ultimate Game of the Year
  • GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2006
    • Game of the Year
    • Fyo's choice award
    • Best Xbox 360 Game[39]
    • Best Graphics, Technical[40]
    • Best New Character(s) (Delta Squad)[41]
    • Best Multiplayer Game[42]
    • Best Shooter[43]
  • 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

Collector's edition

At the game's release, Epic Games released a Limited Collectors Edition. Some of the notable differences are a steel case instead of the normal-style case and an extra disc which contains artworks of environments and stages including Locusts that never made it to the game. The disc also contains a time-lapse on the creation of the "Emergence" mural. The game's disc and case has a different cover and instead features the Omen background. Another of the Collector's Edition extras is a book titled Destroyed Beauty which illustrates the games back-story and includes concepts, sketches, and descriptions of the game's characters. The Collector's Edition also includes the same instruction manual and 48-hour Xbox Live Gold trial as the regular game does.[44]

Soundtrack

Main article: Gears of War - The Soundtrack

Gears of War - The Soundtrack is the soundtrack of video game music from the game Gears of War. It is scheduled for release on July 31, 2007 by Sumthing Else Music Works.

Future developments

Gears of War lead designer Cliff Bleszinski said he hoped for the game to expand into graphic novels and eventually film.[45] 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).[46] Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein posted a message on the official Gears of War Internet forums, stating "It's not over until it is not fun anymore", and, in his view, Gears of War may become the next Halo series in terms of popularity.[47]

The ending to Gears of War heavily suggested a sequel is in the works, and at the 2007 Game Developers Conference, Bleszinkski confirmed that Epic Games does "intend to do a sequel" to Gears of War.[48]

PC and Mac versions

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;[49] however, the image was later stated to be a mock-up.[50] 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; Epic was not currently ready to release it on that format, but the upcoming release of Unreal Tournament 3 was "helping (Epic) get optimization on the PC".[51]

On July 11, 2007 at the E3 conference, it was revealed that Gears of War would indeed be released for Windows.[5] New features include three new multi-player maps,[12] five new single-player chapters which describe events of Delta Squad escaping a giant Brumak between Acts 4 and 5[12] (which Mark Rein claims is "about 20 percent extra" over the existing Xbox 360 content[52]), new game modes, a game editor, and Games for Windows - Live support integrated into Unreal Engine 3. When asked about bringing the additional content to the Xbox 360 version, Mark Rein of Epic Games stated that "it is unlikely we will bring that content to 360". He then states, "Unfortunately the [PC version]'s built on is not really compatible with the 360 and so it would involve a massive patch, a patch larger than all five we've done so far, to Gears of War to do that."[53] Additionally, the PC and Xbox 360 versions will not allow for cross-platform play; Cliff Bleszinski stated that "while this feature does add value, it just wasn't that desired nor worth the extra months of design and development time. We want Gears of War to be out this holiday on PC."[12] This news angered many owners of Gears of War on the Xbox 360 due to the game no longer living up to its "Exclusively for the Xbox 360" title and not receiving the additional content.[54] Mark Rein noted that despite their original label of the game as an Xbox 360 exclusive, Microsoft allowed them to develop the game as part of the "Games for Windows" moniker, as has been done previously with Halo 2.[55]

A Mac version was confirmed by Mark Rein at the end of E3, on the Game Head television program on July 14, 2007, along with Unreal Tournament 3, but no release time frame was specified.[6]

Film

On March 20 2007, it was announced that New Line Cinema had purchased the rights to make a 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 2009.[56] Producer Wyck Govrey said of the film adaptation, "I'm not a gamer, but what blew me away about Gears was how it captures the mythology of a war mission and how high the stakes are."[57] It has been announced in the May 2007 issue of Game Informer that Cliff Bleszinski (lead designer of the game) will be the executive producer of the film.[citation needed]

See also

References

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