Gears of War – We See It In The Flesh

It really, really sucks when aliens emerge from the depths of the planet bent on wiping out civilisation. It sucks even more if they manage to wipe out billions of us, and there’s naught but a teeny rag tag group of commandos left to fight for survival… sucks.

But sweet Mandy does Gears of War rock, and rock hard! I went into E3 highly skeptical, expecting nothing but a rehashed clone of Epic’s Unreal Tournament with a third person camera bolted on. I couldn’t have been more wrong, and I’ve rarely been so glad that I’ve been so wrong, cus it feels right to be wrong, and if being wrong is this good, I don’t ever wanna be right… you dig?

  

Find out how I really feel after the jump.

It really, really sucks when aliens emerge from the depths of the planet bent on wiping out civilisation. It sucks even more if they manage to wipe out billions of us and there’s naught but a teeny rag tag group of commandos left to fight for survival… sucks.

But sweet Mandy does Gears of War rock, and rock hard! I went into E3 highly skeptical, expecting nothing but a rehashed clone of Epic’s Unreal Tournament with a third person camera bolted on. I couldn’t have been more wrong, and I’ve rarely been so glad that I’ve been so wrong, cus it feels right to be wrong, and if being wrong is this good, I don’t ever wanna be right… you dig?

   

Yes, this game does actually look just as good as the screens you’ve been seeing. It’s unbelievable, but when you get to see more HD videos of this you’ll be able to judge for yourself. It really puzzles me why Epic isn’t releasing more media for this title, but perhaps they’re worried about over exposure.

As I said I was pretty sckeptical going into E3, but then we were seated in a darkened mini theatre (actually we sat on the padded floor), and were given giant wireless headphones to make us look like ninnies. First of all we watched a cool little intro cinematic that outlined the story, aliens emerge, kill humans, yadda, yadda. It was all very pretty. The game finally opens in a jail cell with the main chacarter, a huge hulking brute by the name of Marcus Fenix (ugh) being busted out by Dom, a fellow soldier. At this point you’re given the option of choosing one of two routes through the level, the objective being to make it through the ruins of the prison, past the courtyard and to the designated LZ (that’s landing zone). There’s only one problem, the path ahead is crawling with the horde (those mighty unpleasant types that are exterminating us humans). Thankfully Marcus is armed to the teeth, outfitted like a Sherman tank and possessed of a wit so sharp it could pop a denobulan’s cranial mound.

So he makes his way through the dark prison tunnels, encountering the corpses of some rather unfortunate fella’s hanging from chains in the ceiling, and finally comes to a large derelict atrium with broken columns littering the ground. Suddenly, the horde attack and Marcus is forced to take cover behind some of the fallen pillars. In the demo the player is armed with a shotgun, grenades and a massive assault rifle with a chainsaw on the end instead of a bayonet, yes a chainsaw. The horde aren’t as dumb as they look, sure they can take a full clip straight to the chest before going down, but they’ll duck behind cover, roll and dive into posisiton, all the time attempting to flank you and your teammate Dom, good thing you brought grenades then. Attached on the end of a piece of rope, the ‘nades in Gears are swung like slingshots, a dotted arc is drawn ahead of you showing the project path of the the grenade, aiming the path at a wall will force it to recalculate, taking into account the angle of the wall and giving you an accurate depitcion of just where it’ll land. I can tell you now it was satisfying to watch as Marcus bounced a ‘nade round a wall at an unsuspecting horde, only to hear him scream in terror before being blown to smithereens.

 

With only one horde drone left  in the room, Dom laid surpressing fire while Marcus vaulted over beams, dodging in and out of cover, closing the gap till at last he was face to face with the beast. With a blood curdling yell he activated his chainsaw and cut deep into the drone’s chest. The audience watched in stunned silence as a mixture of excitement, awe and disgust washed over them all at once… cool!

Not over, not by a long shot. With a yell Dom warns that more horde are cutting through the steel door that barricades you from the outside world. Just as well, you need to get out there anyway. In a flurry of blood, steel and fire, the horde rush through, and in a matter of minutes you and Dom have wiped them all out. Racing out into the courtyard you encounter more resistance, teamwork and strategy, and a healthy dose of suicidalism serve you well. Slashing into the last of the drones with your chainsaw, you both make a mad dash for the helicopter hovering in the LZ. The pilot informs you that there’s something moving underground, something big. Just as you get to the chopper and begin to take off a humongous spider creature rips its way through the earth, rearing at the camera. And then the demo ends. Shucks!

Needless to say this exhilirating demonstration was more than enough to convince me that Gears of War meant business, it was the most exciting game on display for the 360 at Microsoft’s booth, and I can’t wait to play it again. Keep an eye peeled for further coverage from QJ!

EDIT: I see Chris G had similar impressions. You know what they say about great minds 😉