Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games. This is the best action game on 360.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Characters
Gears of War focuses primarily on Marcus Fenix, the main character, and Delta Squad's (consisting of Marcus, Dominic, Augustus "Cole Train" Cole, and Damon Baird) encounters with the Locust Horde. 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 four 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, but 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, revealing that the Locust Tunnels are honeycombed throughought the entire planet's crust and are much larger than anyone ever expected, 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. Fenix activates the bomb while Santiago escapes onto a helicoptor and then, with the help of Colonel Hoffman, pulls Fenix onboard after the Bomb is activated. 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, direct or close hammer of dawn blasts,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 while the players can give each other support as the paths are parallel. 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.