Gears of War (2006) Throwback Review

Introduction:

I have to hand it to Xbox; they had a pretty stellar showcase a few weeks ago. I could definitely nitpick the lack of release dates, but I like to stay on the side of optimism when it comes to upcoming games. Their showcase closer, the Gears of War E-Day trailer, gave me goosebumps when I saw it. And it reminded me of something important:

I’ve never played a single Gears of War story.

I have experience playing the third games multiplayer for many hours, but that’s it. So I decided to dust off my Series S, and get a month of GamePass to see what all the praise is referring to.

From a historical point of view, playing the original Gears of War is fascinating. It launched four days before rival console, the PlayStation 3 (in Japan). It released a year before console definer, Halo 3.

Gears of War was the first of many games that strengthened the public perception of the Xbox 360. It was emblematic of a time that feels almost like a fever dream to somebody who keeps up with the current gaming climate. Sony were looked at as overconfident clowns. Microsoft was a force to be reckoned with. They not only provided a great online service for those looking to play games with distant friends; they also had the games!

For many, Gears of War was the game that convinced them to buy an Xbox 360. One could argue that this game was their “Nindon’t” moment.

Gameplay:

As I said prior, I had probably between 20-30 hours of Gears of War 3 multiplayer experience. I was already familiar with the cover system, the heaviness of your characters movement, and gunplay. That experience is probably what helped me feel right at home with this game. But I can imagine for complete newcomers, the heft of moving around the battlefield can come as a shock. Marcus trots around very slowly and heavily. When you sprint, the camera zooms in a bit and shakes a whole bunch; it makes you feel borderline claustrophobic during a battle. The cover system is where you can used speed a bit more strategically. If there’s multiple places to use for cover near each other, you can bounce between them pretty fast. And Marcus will gravitate towards cover as long as it’s not too far. In terms of the overall movement, the only thing I wish was different was the walking speed. I just wish it was a tiny bit faster. It’s even slower if you’re walking sideways! I understand that the game is pushing me towards rolling and taking cover, but during the brief moments of respite, the slowness always stood out to me. But I wouldn’t regard this slowness as an inherent flaw with the game. It just takes a while to get used to.

As for the actual gunplay, I love it. I always felt like my bullets were going exactly where I was aiming. If I messed up a shot it was always my fault. The signature Lancer feels excellent to shoot, and I never wanted to part with it. And who can deny the fun of chainsawing a locust in its head?! I always remembered Gears of War 3 having a fantastic shotgun, and I’m happy to see it all started with the original game. I played on Normal, so maybe that had something to do with it, but watching an enemy just explode into little pieces with one blast of the shotgun was never not satisfying. Even the pistols in the game feel heavy and powerful. I also want to commend the level of creativity regarding the weapons. In this first game we already have the Hammer of Dawn; which has come to be one of the most iconic video game weapons of all time.

The only thing I really didn’t like in terms of game flow was how your characters are constantly splitting up. Every twenty minutes your group of four gigantic muscle dudes keeps splitting into squads of two. It would be cool if it happened once or twice, but it’s all the time. The only reason I can think of to explain this is to make the co-op experience slightly more exciting. I should note that I actually started my first two hours of this playthrough with a buddy. It was a cool idea at first, but the splitting up got old. There’s nothing better than the feeling of having a squad of four guys just mowing down Locust, and when the game splits us up to “keep us on our toes” it doesn’t feel very effective after the first few times.

Presentation:

Welcome to the seventh generation of consoles; where everything is brown, tan, beige, gray, and did I mention brown?

It would be disingenuous to complain about the color palette with Gears of War. This trend started almost immediately when these consoles launched, and arguably with this game. Plus, it fits the tone of the world here so well. You can’t bring up the original Gears without mentioning the famous Mad World trailer. The feeling I get when I watch that trailer is one of pure hopelessness, but the human desire to push on and live keeps these characters going. And this muted color palette reinforces that feeling even more.

The music is fairly strong too! But for a six hour game, you will definitely be hearing the same tunes over and over again. It felt like the song “Train Ride to Hell” played every five minutes. The soundtrack is mostly composed of heavy orchestral tracks that make you feel like you’re barely winning a gunfight. There’s also a few songs that make you feel like a tourist in a world filled will horror.

Even though it went on to inspire the joke of the “dudebro” game; where a bunch of giant macho men kill things with guns, you can’t deny the iconic nature of the games two main forces. The COG soldiers (known simply as Gears) are strapped up with bulky mechanical armor. The helmets which none of our main characters wear are pretty cool too. And I must admit I’m a sucker for the Locust designs. Boomers, Corpsers, Berserkers- they all have cool codenames and appearances. The Theron Guards in particular caught my eye with their long coat-like armor. I also love General RAAMs design too (pictured to the left).

Story:

(Light spoilers ahead)

This is where I’ll probably catch a lot of heat from fans. Not just Xbox or Gears fans too…

This original Gears of War game reminds me a lot of the original Uncharted game. I feel like it gets looked at favorably in terms of characters and story because of the games that come after it. There really isn’t too much story here at all. Marcus is busted out of prison because they need help using the Resonator; a device that will help the COG map out the Locusts underground space. They use the Resonator, and then they bomb the underground. That’s it.

General RAAM is a key example of what I’m talking about. I thought he was a main character for the entire series. His wiki page is huge! But he barely has much screen time in this original game before he is killed. I don’t know any spoilers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if by some chance he returns or, shows up in a prequel scene or game. I’m not saying his lack of screen time is a flaw. But if the series is trying to establish him as a villain to remember; this first game failed at that.

Here’s where I’ll get the most heat:

I wish Epic Games had the foresight to take a page out of Naughty Dog’s book. Say what you want about Naughty Dog, but they usually have some lighthearted conversations in between the gunfights that shed backstory on the characters. How did these characters originally meet? What’s their history together? I know Dom has a wife, but what about Marcus? Maybe a funny story or two. Just something! All I know is that Baird and Marcus are snarky, Dom is Marcus’ right hand man, and Cole says “Baby!” a lot.

I just need some more.

But again, this is a short six hour game that is simply setting up the pieces. I’m sure there’s more story and exposition in later entries.

Probably the biggest narrative thread we see the beginnings of is Marcus’ father, Adam. We don’t actually meet him, but we start getting an idea of how important he was.

Gears of War 1 never keeps the player further than five minutes from a gunfight. And I can’t help but feel like that’s because this game had nothing else to say.

Overall:

Gears of War 1 feels like somebody built the outer frame of a jigsaw puzzle before filling in the middle. The foundation is there, and none of it is bad! But a clear idea of the main image still isn’t present. The gunplay is strong. The music is good. The dreariness of the world is present. And because the game is extremely short, it begs for a playthrough. Do I ever see myself replaying this game? Absolutely not. Would I recommend it for people looking to get into this now 18 year old series? Definitely.

I liked Gears of War.

(In an effort to move away from traditional numerical scores, I will use the following metric: Hated, Felt Neutral, Liked, Loved, Can’t Stop Thinking About).