About the game
Gears of War is a 2006 third-person shooter developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It is the first game in the Gears of War series and launched as an Xbox 360 exclusive in November 2006. The story can be played alone or in co-op and follows a squad of soldiers making a last-ditch attempt to end a war against the Locust, a genocidal subterranean race, and save what is left of humanity on the planet Sera.
It is a cover-based shooter. The main weapon is the Lancer assault rifle with a chainsaw bayonet, and reloading has an active reload mechanic where a well-timed second tap gives a damage bonus and a mistimed one jams the gun. The campaign has five acts and three difficulties, Casual, Hardcore and Insane, with Insane unlocking after you finish the game on either of the others. Multiplayer is up to four against four, Gears against Locust, and an Xbox 360 patch added an Annex mode in which teams fight to control a moving zone.
The campaign follows Marcus Fenix, a soldier freed from prison, and his comrades in Delta Squad: Dominic Santiago, Augustus Cole and Damon Baird. They try to map the Locust tunnels and drop a Lightmass Bomb into the Hollow, and the trail leads through the ruins of Ephyra to the Fenix family estate. The main antagonist is General RAAM.
The first concept dates to around 2000 and 2001 as Unreal Warfare. Lead designer Cliff Bleszinski cited Resident Evil 4 and Kill Switch as the main influences on pacing and cover. Epic first showed it as an unnamed Xbox 360 exclusive at the 2005 Game Developers Conference, and the demo helped Epic argue that Microsoft should double the console's memory to 512 MB. Kevin Riepl composed the music, recorded with the Northwest Sinfonia, and the title track is by Megadeth. The TV ad set to Gary Jules' cover of Mad World, directed by Joseph Kosinski, is remembered as one of the most iconic game trailers of the 2000s.
Epic released free updates through Xbox Live in 2007, which added two maps, the Annex mode and more achievements. A Windows version followed in November 2007 with an extra chapter, new maps and new modes, and the extra content was not brought to the Xbox 360.
The game was a hit. It sold a million copies in its first two weeks, over three million within ten weeks and 5.88 million by November 2008, and it was the second most played game on Xbox Live during 2007. It averaged 94 on Metacritic and won over 30 Game of the Year awards in 2006, and it helped popularize the cover system. A remaster, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, came to Xbox One in 2015.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 94 out of 100 (Xbox 360). GameRankings 94 out of 100 (Xbox 360). Individual reviews: GameSpot 9.6/10, IGN 9.4/10, GameTrailers 9.1/10, Game Informer 9.5/10, Eurogamer 8/10, Official Xbox Magazine 10/10, GamesRadar 10/10, GameSpy 5/5.
Extra content
All the content for the Xbox 360 version came as free title updates, apart from the Hidden Fronts map pack, which was paid at first and free from September 2007.
- Title update 1: Free update through Xbox Live.
- Raven Down and Old Bones maps: Two free multiplayer maps.
- Title update 2: Fixes for compatibility with the Japanese release. No gameplay changes.
- Title update 3 (Annex): The Annex game mode and bug and exploit fixes. Free.
- Hidden Fronts Map Pack: Four maps: Bullet Marsh, Garden, Process and Subway. Free from 2007-09-03.
- Title update 4: Eight achievements worth 250 gamerscore for Annex and the Hidden Fronts maps, taking the total to 1,250, plus roadie run fixes.
Good to know
- The Limited Collector's Edition came in a steel case with an Omen-background cover and a bonus disc of unused concept art.
- Hidden Fronts was sold for about four months before Epic made the four maps free on 2007-09-03.
- An update on 2007-06-14 added 250 gamerscore, so the list on the finished game is worth 1,250 rather than the 1,000 on the original disc.
- The Windows version has an extra chapter in act five, new maps and new modes that the Xbox 360 version never received, and it does not play against Xbox 360 players.
- Insane difficulty only unlocks after beating the game on Casual or Hardcore.
Made by
Producer Rod Fergusson, Lead designer Cliff Bleszinski, Programmer Ray Davis, Artist Jeremiah O'Flaherty, Artist Chris Perna, Writer Susan O'Connor, Writer Eric Nylund, Composer Kevin Riepl.
