Gears of War, was it really that good?

This is not a flame post, it's a subjective view based on my later experience with a game i previously completed.

Ok coming back to the original game, playing on Hardcore which to most games is medium.

AI is brain dead, your companions literally get dropped every time leaving you to fend for yourself, when they do fight they are literally barely capable of killing an enemy.

The bigger issue is how much ammo a single enemy takes, it makes dealing with a horde frustrating to the point of just not caring and not playing again.

It's been a good 9 years since i last played, now i feel like it's a cheap tacky game put together with not much thought behind it other than to look good.

It is a graphically stunning game for it's age that's for sure.

I can't even imagine me enjoying this game which is what makes this all so surreal and hard to take in, i once enjoyed this game but can't now?

Not done Gears 2 or 3 or any other Gears games.

First one was good! HD and lots of action.. Got me to buy a freaking 360 for it~

It was fun, and was one of the first UE3 games to show what the engine could really do, hence the hype. But yeah, I found the game merely okay.

I also kind of resent it for kickstarting the whole "chest-high cover shooter" phase in AAA shooters. The game itself was okay, but the industry trend it created was not.

Back in it's Xbox 360 early days, Gears of War was really impressive on the console version due to it being the first Unreal Engine 3 what it can do on a console and it paid off. Granted, I enjoy it on Xbox 360 and later on, got it again for PC. Gears of War is (or rather) the spiritual successor to Kill.Switch.

Afterwards, I enjoy Gears of War 2 but 3 was the most fun I had, I put alot of hours into 3 then any Gear game to date mainly both MP & single player. I even enjoy Gears of War: Judgement campaign more so and that was made by People can Fly. Gears of War 4 totally suck big time, but at least I got it for free with my GTX 1070 purchase few years ago, so can't complain about that.

I'll play Gears 5 when it comes to Game Pass.

It was my favorite Xbox franchise, probably still is. It set the standard for third person cover shooters and almost every tps took the cover mechanic from GeoW. I honestly think RE4, GeoW and Uncharted are the most influential games in the TPS genre. RE4 started the over the shoulder mechanic, GeoW really perfected the cover system and UC blended stealth, shooting, melee combat and platforming all together.

So honestly yes it was one of the best franchises of the PS3/360 gen.

I always liked it but it was never a game series which blew my socks off, in my eyes it's no Halo.

I don't feel like the original game has aged well, but it was certainly very entertaining shooter at the time and influenced many other TPSs.

I thought Gears of War was awesome, totally loved it. The third game is probably my favourite of the franchise overall but I still really enjoyed Gears 4 and am very hyped for Gears of War 5.

At the time yes it was great but nothing changed over the span of the series. 4 was a safe option they need to refresh with 5.

I really enjoyed the first two, still have to play the rest.

At the time, it was - like Halo - a system seller. Graphically amazing, still is....gameplay is somewhat samey though.

Played it after Uncharted 2, this may have affected my perception of the game being another 3rd person shooter and not blowing me away graphically after UC2, but everything in Gears of War felt underwhelming.

It was good for its time and was the only game that made me want to get an Xbox 360. Being able to play the entire campaign with one other person online or splitscreen was a pretty good selling point. The horde mode implemented in later Gears Of War titles was also somewhat groundbreaking. I've played a bunch of rounds of horde mode in Gears Of War 4 and I almost find it as fun as Killing Floor. But what kills it for me is that everyone in public matches is a moron thus it becomes hard to enjoy because not a single person understands the concept of team work so we end up failing by wave 6-8. There have been far too many times of me being down right next to a teammate and they just ignore me when all it would take is a second to pick me up. Too many idiots that abandon the game right after dying instead of just waiting for the wave to be over or someone to revive them. They usually die because they run off to the other side of the map by themselves instead of sticking with the group or near where we place the fabricator and sentries. 90% of the time I'm the only person that picks up downed teammates and try to revive them I even go out of my way to save idiots that run off to the other side of the map by themselves. They also horde all the energy points and waste em on things that we don't need. I try to save up points to buy a gun locker, turret or sentry but then some jackass steals it all to buy ammo for their own guns.

I'm starting to think this is a console gamer thing because every coop game I play on PC everyone in public matches is able to effectively work together without even saying anything to each other.

It was good. Cheesy and actiony, shooting and chainsawing enemies was fun, albeit a bit repetitive.

Gears 1 was ok for its time, I haven't played one since then because they never came out on PC and I gave up buying consoles.

Never played it but I see it compared negatively to Uncharted which I already think is tedius and unfun so maybe I should pass?

It was fun at the time, but has aged badly. Now it just feels repetitive and cheesy.

First one is awesome.

The first one has aged very poorly. I played it for the first time in 2013 and it felt terrible to play. The 2nd one(and everything after) on the other hand still feel good to play.

As far as campaign is concerned I really have no expectations for the series anymore, just in it for horde and multiplayer at this point.

@NoodleFighter: couldn’t agree more. People also do not play their class strengths. If I’m the engineer let me do the buying as I get the discounts, scouts pick up energy as the get bonus etc.

Hell yeah it was.

Nope! but many people loved it on release. My guess is that it felt badass so it made it good for some people.

It was cool for its time, and definitely inspired many other 3rd person cover shooters, but only the first hit that precedent. Every single game, thereafter, was unfortunately beating the proverbial dead horse, and the games became extremely derivative. 2 felt like more of the first, and by then, better 3rd person games were out, meaning that it was merely okay, because they basically improved nothing over the first, and every game after that hasn't changed much.

Still holds up well, co-op still plays great. And despite universal scoffing about Gears 4 being worth playing, the campaign is actually good and it has the best Horde mode out of any of them. Gears of War Judgement is another one not given enough credit, campaign was good fun, and I liked the conditional challenges through the campaign. Anyhow, like I said, series still holds up well, maybe not the killer app it once was but still a series that hasn't worn out its welcome.

I got to wave 50 a few times in pubs with randos. Only ever beat it once. Sob.

Its an actual TPS (third person SHOOTER). Not a tomb raider adventure movie game wannabe.

But yes, it got repetitive. 2 is still the worst in the series. 3 was fun for MP, 4 has been so-so. Looks great in 4k/60+ hdr from my PC tho :D

@cainetao11: They need to introduce a class similar to the Survalist perk in Killing Floor 2 because I pretty much have to play every role while everyone else is being a crappy rambo. Soon as a Snatcher or helicopter appears its instant game over because people seem to become really stupid when it comes to those two things. A bunch of idiots stand right in front of the Snatcher when you're suppose to keep your distance from it because it has two moves that can instantly knock you down and one of them can't be dodge so hiding behind cover is the only way to avoid its quill. So as a result the Snatcher knocks down 1/2 or 3/4 of the team and makes off with one of them. None of the standing teammates try to pick up the downed or stop the Snatcher walking off with a teammate and just continue on as if nothing happen then eventually we get overwhelmed by the Swarm due to lack of manpower and everyone starts leaving the game. Everyone has crap aim when it comes to hitting the helicopter's engines and the demolition people always use up their explosive rounds before it comes. I've managed to take out helicopters several times by using the dropshot which is the hardest weapon to aim with. I've never made it past wave 10 because of these people.

I liked the first one a lot, but the second and third games were pretty forgettable. I didn't bother with Judgement and Gears 4.

No I didn't like Gears, so much so that I only finished it because a friend wanted to do it in co-op.

Never touched the series after that.

First one was good but it all went downhill after that.

Oh heck ya. The first three are jolly good cheesy fun. Not deep or sophisticated, but fun.

Yes until today i find geow to be 1 of the most solid TPS out there. i love the entire series.

Like a lot of games from that era, they were great at the time but not have aged well.

I would argue that they were always shitty. Its just that people were distracted by the other elements such as graphics and "badassery".

Really enjoyed the first two back in the day, especially the local co-op. Finished Judgement, 3 and 4 much later. Judgement and GeoW4 are the weakest of the bunch. Hopefully Geow5 will mix things a bit (MUCH!).

play ultimate edition and it is basically a next gen game

Ultimate edition is well worth picking up dirt cheap as well. 2 was my fav with judgement the worst. Looking forward to see what 5 turns out to be.

that over the shoulder running camera angle was awesome. loved gears 1. bought an xbox 360 just to play it (and cod 3). mechanics were slick, marcus fenix was a great character, the dark / horror themed atmosphere worked really well and the visuals for the time were really impressive. i even bought the pc version for that extra level they couldn't fit onto the console release. haven't played it in about ten years though but i've got good memories of it and the original trilogy.

with judgement the series teetered on the edge of a cliff. gears 4 fell off the cliff

I've only beat the 1st one, and certainly for its time it was extraordinary. Of course I beat it for first time last year and was great.

You can't remove it from it's day and look at it with today's eyes. When it came on the scene, it was fresh, new, hadn't seen anything quite like it before. As the series went on it became stale and they didn't mix it up enough, and other games came out which beat it.

It's a shame but you can't deny the impact of the first and the enjoyment had at the time.

No. You gotta think, at the time of the first Gears there wasn't much competition. Kill.switch and rogue trooper on last gen systems? lol

A gen of shooters later though and Gears aged badly. 2 deserves credit as they really tried to pad it into more than what the first was, but it didn't really make it feel like anything special. By the time the third came out the gears franchise already felt tired and stale. Too many other interesting shooters on the market that had offered more.

I have all the gears games and the only ones I like are 1 and 2.

1 and 2 were awesome. I haven't played 3 or 4 so can't comment on them

The first game blew my mind graphically. It is still a “good” looking game, but doesn’t have the same wow factor anymore lol

I only ever played the games on Easy/Normal. I thought the first 3 games were fun/great. Playing co-op with friends is appealing.

The story is lol worthy. The characters are dude bro’s. I can tell you now, Despite playing all the games, I have no idea what happens in any of them.

I know Marcus was in jail for some reason, Dom cries about Maria, Baird is Sid/cid from Final Fantasy and the other guy played foot ball and says cheesy one liners about Cole trains lol

Yeah, the story sucks. I have no idea who the female chicks are in Gears 3 or 4. Forgetable.

Marcus’ son in Gears 4 is uh...I don’t even know. I beat Gears 4 and it’s forgetable.

Gears 1-3>Gears 4> Judgement.

Judgement was complete trash and should have been DLC. I hated the entire mission structure. Legit a bad game.

In my opinion, no! It was pretty, but the action was slow, the controls were tank like, the chainsaw would suck people in from 10 feet away, and cover was kinda the same, hit a button from 10 feet away and it snaps the player against the wall. Aiming was slow, but the level layouts were for the most part very good. I was beyond pumped for Gears before it launched. Then I played it and it just didn't live up to what I had hoped it to be. It had a bunch of gore, so people loved it. I tried to play it again with my friend when the remaster launched, but found I still felt the same about it. Just my opinion of course, I know there are diehard fans of the series, my brother being one of them.

I loved the first and second Gears better than the rest.

@superfluousreal: it was one of my favorite series last gen. But to be fair it was always about the MP and horde mode, campaign is cool, but the series was really about the mp

I still remember the Gears of War trailer it was so good that I bought the game when it came out. My wife loves the Gears of War series, but I prefer Halo more.

It was all right. If I remember correctly, it was a pretty dry year, so I think it had the fortune of coming out at a time where people were just happy to get anything. I played the hell out of it with my buddy, though, so no regrets.

Yeah, I was perfectly happy crouching behind boxes and other obstacles prior to that, and I still am to this day.

"Sticky cover" systems belong in some games, but not every game. And definitely not every action game.

No its not. its ruined third person shooters by popularizing stupid cover system and regen health. since then TPS games couldnot recover.