Gears of War

aka: GOW
Moby ID: 25761
Xbox 360 Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/26 4:30 PM )

Description official descriptions

Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter where the player controls Marcus Fenix, a member of Delta Squad, to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from an enemy known as The Locust Horde. The story, played over 5 acts with 30 chapters in total, has the humans reunite their strength after fighting over cheap energy in the Pendulum Wars for many years, to face this new alien threat.

Unlike many other shooters, the emphasis is not on brute violence, but rather team-based actions and cover-dependent tactics. Gameplay requires looking for cover options all the time, from which the player then attacks, along with turns and rolls to quickly pop out. By holding a button, a "roadie run" is performed, to sprint to another location. Marcus is part of a full squad, but another human player can take on the role of Dominic Santiago to fight cooperatively (split-screen, system link, or online). At times, the paths will even be split up to face different challenges. Players can only hold two weapons, a sidearm, and a few grenades. There is a selection of submachine guns, sniper and assault rifles, grenades, grenade launchers, and pistols, but the main gun is the COG Lancer Assault Rifle, which can also be used as a chainsaw bayonet in close combat. There are also a few exotic weapons, such as the Torque Bow with explosive arrows, or the Hammer of Dawn, to make an orbiting satellite fire a laser at targeted enemies.

All weapons need to be reloaded manually. By timely pressing a button on a meter, the weapon is reloaded, with more damage and at a faster rate with perfect timing, or it gets jammed when timed poorly. Instead of a health bar, the game has the Crimson Omen, a cog-shaped icon that fills up with blood when the player sustains damage.

In addition to Co-op multiplayer, there is also Versus which has three game modes: Warzone (deathmatch), Execution (deathmatch, but with the addition of "fatalities" to take out enemies completely), and Assassination (focus on killing each other opponent's team leader).

Spellings

  • ζˆ˜δΊ‰ζœΊε™¨ - Chinese spelling (simplified)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Xbox 360 version)

304 People (251 developers, 53 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 94% (based on 138 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 93 ratings with 5 reviews)

You don't know how much you need a chainsaw until you've played this.

The Good
The background: humanity has been fighting itself for more than 3 generation's over emulsion, a new hyper fuel that solves the energy problem's of the human world of Sera. But one eventful day, forever known as emergence day (E-day), the rival nation's of Sera are forced together by a nightmare that has sprung up from beneath the surface to bring the human race to it's the brink of extinction, turning Sera into a living hell, and it's your job, freshly sprung from prison due to a dwindling army, to keep humanity going and cripple the Locust Horde....

It is this back story that gives rise to a one of the bloodiest games that is not for the faint hearted. It is this back story that has given rise to one of the greatest potential story's ever, and while it does not have the greatest in game story line ever, you can sense the potential throughout the game.

Add to that, the delta squad, who you fight with through gear's feel very believable. Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, the most loyal of comrades and friends. And backing them up, the sarcastic but slightly abrasive tech head Damon Baird and the ever boisterous and cheerful Augustus 'cole train' Cole. They are the team you like to like.

Whilst fighting through the game with delta squad you will no doubt come to enjoy the Lancer assault rifle. What makes it so unique is it's chainsaw bayonet. It may sound crude, and, well it is. But unlike a lot of weapons in other games, it's distinct and surprisingly fun to use.

And while using the Lancer, you come across another thing that makes gear's such a stand out hit. Almost insane amount's of blood and gore. In a world of political correctness, this makes a change from games that really don't push the envelope that much. But that said, it is not recommended that you use it too much, with is a good thing, because in this you discover one of the other great's of gear's in it's cover system. In other games, you don't need it. in gear's you do. Luckily, using cover is a very smooth and easy to use process.

The Bad
Whilst gear's does have a decent story to it's name, you get the feeling it could be much better.

Multiplayer wise the only problem would be that it lack's any bots for when your game number's are a little low.

Graphic's could of also used a little bit more polish, especially the lighting.

The Bottom Line
A word of caution, you could potentially turn into a vegetarian as a result of this game....

Xbox 360 · by Starbuck the Third (22608) · 2010

Just don't think about it too much

The Good

  • One of the great things about this game is that it is simple. From the beginning, your primary solution to pretty much every problem you come across will be to shoot everything you see, move forward, and do it all again. The game is strictly linear - you go from point A to point B, and the only time points C, D, and E exist is when they are directly in-between A and B. There's no need to overthink anything, you don't need to devote any time to planning a strategy or figuring out how solve puzzles; the most complex decision you'll ever come across will be whether you want to carry this gun, or that one. Please don't misunderstand me - there is a time and a place for more robust gameplay mechanics, and countless fantastic games use them. But Gears of War just wants to watch stuff blow up, and every once in a while that's the kind of game I need.

  • Luckily, Gears of War knows this about itself and consequently does not overstay its welcome. Shallow games are fun. That, in fact, is all they're meant to be. But they can get tedious - and, subsequently, not fun. Gears of War can be finished in a few sittings - the campaign is no more than 7-8 hours from start to finish. Finishing this game was satisfying not only because of the intrinsic satisfaction one gets from finishing a game, but because I felt like it needed to finish exactly when it did. The designers recognized the game's inherent faults and didn't try to cover them up and milk the gamer for every last second of play; rather, the game bows out humbly when it's right at the peak of its entertainment value. It's the difference between going to a buffet, eating just enough and walking away from a meal with a full stomach, and overeating and feeling like the restaurant not only overcharged you, but robbed you of being comfortable for the next couple hours.

  • The gameplay mechanics are, like much of the rest of the game, simple but effective. Unlike other military shooters, you need to spend a lot of time in cover, taking care to pop out only at opportune times. Enemies too use this tactic, and because you are fragile and can't take too much damage, gunfights in Gears of War tend to be much more methodical and delicate affairs than in other games. Even though the overall pace of the game tends to be fast, there will be several battles that require you to slow down, take your time, and be patient. It's an interesting dynamic that works well to balance out the flow of the game and keep it interesting.

  • The controls are, mostly, excellent. Running, moving to cover, moving out of cover, and jumping-and-rolling all are done with the same button. The gunplay is similar to most other third- (and first-) person shooters. The only minor complaint (which I might as well mention here as long as I'm on the topic) is that sometimes actually getting your character into cover can be tricky in the more intense situations, since you have to be facing the object you want to hide behind. If you're running parallel to a low barrier on your right, for example, it's all too easy to jump-and-roll forward instead of getting down and hidden behind the barrier. There were a few instances where this kind of thing happened and resulted in my death, but they were too infrequent to complain too loudly about and for the most part the controls are very fluid and responsive.

  • The voice-acting is especially great - protagonist Marcus Fenix's voice just fits his character so well and really helps to define his personality. Given the almost complete lack of any kind of backstory or other character development (see below), this is a welcome and noteworthy feature. All the other main characters are also memorably voiced. There are several instances of dialogue that is humorous not only because of the writing, but because of the convincing way it is actually spoken. The voice acting rarely sounds scripted or forced, and this goes a long way towards immersing the gamer, which unfortunately the components like storytelling or character development (the components that should be carrying this weight) largely fail to do.

  • At least on the Hardcore difficulty setting (which is equivalent to "Hard" in any other game), the game provides a healthy challenge. I feel that this is a very important factor - I don't like to feel like I'm dominating the game with little effort, nor do I like being relentlessly destroyed over and over. I died many times, but I never felt like it was unfair. In pretty much every circumstance I knew that I had died because of my own stupidity or lack of foresight, not because the AI was simply overpowered. This resulted in a very low level of frustration throughout the game, even when I had to retry segments again and again. There's something delicately psychological about that, and striking that balance can make all the difference between feeling like (a) you won the game because the computer didn't try, (b) you won the game because you chipped away at it until there was nothing left to chip away at, and (c) you won the game because you learned how to adapt to it and outsmart it. I much prefer (c), and I felt like this game definitely gave me that particular satisfaction I crave.

  • The game's graphics are gorgeous. Although the settings don't vary too much, they look fantastic - the crumbling buildings, the overcast skies, the rocky terrain...it looks very much like you are in the middle of a dilapidated war zone and the gritty world lends itself to the overall feel of the game very well. Similarly, the cinematics can be breathtaking - although better things were to come in this series' future, several of the cinematic breaks feel like scenes from an A-list blockbuster movie. Take that how you will, but I mean it as a compliment.


**The Bad**
  • This game did a lot of things right; it also did a couple things wrong, or, at least, there were things it could have done better. Take, for instance, the story and characterization, or lack thereof. The game starts with the main character Marcus being broken out of a prison cell, given a soldier's uniform and gun, after which the basic training begins. This is fine; no explanation is given as to why he was there, or where he is, or who he is, but as modern gamers I think we've come to expect this. It'll all be filled in later, we say, let's just learn how to play for now and expect story afterwards. Flash forward eight hours: you've just beat the game, watched the closing cinematic, and you still don't really know anything about Marcus's history, the history of the war you are apparently engaged in, and man, if you're still wondering about why Marcus was in prison eight hours ago, well, you'll just have to look it up on Wikipedia. This, unfortunately, is not an exaggeration. You are shuttled from one objective to the next with either no or very minimal explanation. The game seems to expect the gamer to infer just about every major story detail; this can be a compelling way to flesh out a story, but when the primary vehicle for communicating the story to the gamer is through inference, this is a problem, and you're going to have a lot of very lost gamers.


    The sad thing about this is that the story, quite frankly, seems awesome. At least, by the end of the game, I thought it seemed awesome, but didn't really have enough information to tell. There's so much going on, so much that the designers could have done with this. For example, a common storytelling device in recent years has been to reveal backstory by having the player pick up objects scattered around the environment, like recordings or writings in journal pages, which help explain exactly what is going on (see: BioShock, Dead Space). It's a cliche mechanic but it works great. Although this game's successor did catch on and add this kind of thing into the gameplay, it's a shame it wasn't implemented in this game as well, because this is the one that really needed it. There's so much I want to know, and so much that the game should have revealed to me, but didn't.

  • On a more technical note, the game's AI is not particularly smart. Enemies tend to duck behind cover, pop out, duck, pop out, run across to another piece of cover even though you are shooting at them, repeat. To be fair, as the player I did pretty much exactly the same thing, but I still felt that the enemies were really lacking in creativity. Very few, for example, used grenades, and when they did their aim was horrible. If the AI had known how to use them properly, they could have thrown the grenades behind wherever I was hiding to flush me out and then started shooting at me as I ran to find more cover. As it stands, sitting in the same place for an entire gunfight and picking off enemies as they pop out of cover is a pretty effective strategy, and although there are times when this doesn't always work, this was my main tactic and it tended to get me from one objective to the next without much hassle.


**The Bottom Line**
It might look impressive, that list of seven good things vs. the measly two negatives I was able to list. But make no mistake, I feel very strongly about those two bad things. When you have so much potential story material to work with, you should use it. It's a shame that this game's full potential wasn't realized, but sometimes that's just the way of things, and luckily with Gears of War, so many other things were done right that it's still possible to thoroughly enjoy every second of this game, even if your brain isn't being creatively stimulated.

It is, when all is said and done, one of those quick-fix action games that will come in handy to have when you're between the Skyrims, the Fallout 3s, the Final Fantasys of the gaming world. It's not deep, it has very little actual substance, but holy crap is it fun. While I wouldn't go so far as to call it mindless, it's easy to just kind of halfway tune out when you play this and have that transient fun that these kinds of games are all about. Sometimes, as gamers, we needs breaks like this, and if you're ever in need of one, Gears of War is one of the best options you have.

Xbox 360 · by CrackTheSky (30) · 2012

Definitely On Par With Halo!

The Good
The main thing I love about this game is the atmosphere! From the musical score to the intense sound of bullets whizzing past your head, you feel as if you are actually part of the war. It's been a very long time since I've played a game and actually felt a part of it. The controls are perfect as they are basic so you don't get frustrated trying to remember what button does what when you are already worrying about that incoming Berzerker! Even though the controls are basic, you can pull off some snazzy moves like Blind fire, covering behind objects, aiming and running for more cover. Oh and the graphics...DROOL

Also, it's been a very long time since I've played a game which you don't mind been killed on! I was stuck on a few areas for quite a while and I had a smile on my face every time I died, it's just so much fun to play!

The Bad
I can honestly say that there is nothing I hate about this game! When I first picked up the controller and entered the Gears Of War world for the first time, my immediate thoughts was "This is a bloody hard game!". But as you play on, you start to love it and you feel the difficulty is spot on!

The Bottom Line
If you're after a game which is just as much fun to play as Halo, this is the game for you. It's not exactly like Halo because these are two different games but in my opinion, Gears Of War is more playable and atmospheric than Halo. Halo 3 had better be good to top Gears Of War!

Xbox 360 · by Reaver (1732) · 2006

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Gets too much credit for the gameplay Simoneer (29) Oct 10, 2010

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Gears of War appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Novels

To date, five books based on the Gears of War universe have been written. All five are written by Karen Traviss and are canon material:

  • The first, Aspho Fields, bridges the gap between the first and the second game, as well as the battle of Aspho Fields, with takes place pre E-day during the Pendulum Wars.
  • The second, Jacintos Remnant, takes place after Gears of War 2, as well as one year after E-day.
  • The third book, Anvil Gate follows up from the ending of Jacintos Remnant, as well as the siege of Anvil Gate during the Pendulum Wars, during which Col. Hoffman was in command of the COG forces involved.
  • The fourth, Coalitions End, continues the story of Jacinto's Remnant and Anvil Gate, as well as bridging the gap between the books and Gears of War 3
  • The fifth, The Slab, deals with Marcus Fenix's time in Jacinto Maximum Security prison.

References

  • The achievement unlocked by defeating a berserker on hardcore difficulty is called My Love for You Is Like a Truck. That is a reference to the film Clerks (1994) where it is used as a line in a fictional, Russian metal song: "My love for you is like a truck, Berserker!"
  • The character of Augustus Cole (the "Cole Train") shares a name with a character to have appeared on the X-Files television show. The season two episode, Sleepless features a super-soldier of the name Augustus D. Cole, portrayed by Tony Todd, who has been modified to never require sleep. It is unknown if this is a coincidence or deliberate.

References to the game

The game is referenced in the movie Live Free or Die Hard where one of the characters is playing it at the beginning. It also appears in Disturbia where a teenager is killing some time with it.

Technology

According a news item from TeamXbox.com, and as mentioned in a podcast interview with Epic's VP Mark Rein, this game is the reason the 360 has 512 MB of RAM instead of the planned 256 MB. This modification of the system's hardware cost Microsoft an alleged $ 1 billion.

To convince Microsoft that the change was worth it, the guys at Epic took a screenshot of the game as if it were running using 256 MB.

Apparently the Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft Game Studios called Mark Rein to tell him that they had cost Microsoft one billion dollars, to which Mark Rein replied "we did a favor for a billion gamers".

To see the whole news item, click here.

Trailer

The game's teaser trailed used Gary Jules' Mad World as the soundtrack. That sequence was later spoofed through a teaser trailer of Battlefield: Bad Company titled Bad World. A link to the clip is available in the related links section.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2006 – Best Xbox 360 Game of the Year
    • 2006 – Best Graphics of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2006 – #4 Game of the Year
    • 2006 – #3 Console Game of the Year
    • 2006 – Xbox 360 Game of the Year
    • 2006 – Xbox 360 Game of the Year (Gamers' Vote)
    • 2006 – Multiplayer Game of the Year
    • 2006 – Offline Multiplayer Game of the Year
    • 2006 – #3 Online Multiplayer Game of the Year
    • 2006 – Xbox 360 Action Game of the Year
    • 2006 – Xbox 360 Offline Multiplayer Game of the Year
  • Golden Joystick Awards
    • 2007 - Ultimate Game of the Year
    • 2007 - Xbox Game of the Year
    • 2007 - Editor's Choice Award
    • 2007 - All Nighter Award

Information also contributed by havoc of smeg, PhoenixFire, piltdown man and Tracy Poff.

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Make War
Released 2019 on Macintosh, 2019 on Windows, 2020 on Nintendo Switch
Acquisition War
Released 2020 on Windows
Gems of War
Released 2014 on iPhone, Windows, 2015 on Android...
Gears of War 3
Released 2011 on Xbox 360, 2015 on Xbox One, 2021 on Xbox Cloud Gaming
Gears of War: Judgment
Released 2013 on Xbox 360
Gears of War: Judgment
Released 2013 on Xbox 360, 2015 on Xbox One, Xbox Cloud Gaming
Gears of War 2
Released 2008 on Xbox 360, 2015 on Xbox One, 2021 on Xbox Cloud Gaming
Gears of War 4
Released 2016 on Windows Apps, Xbox One, 2020 on Xbox Cloud Gaming
Worms: W.M.D.
Released 2016 on Linux, Windows, Macintosh...

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 25761
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Sciere.

Xbox One added by MAT.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Yearman, charlie morrison, Patrick Bregger, Starbuck the Third, ResidentHazard, FatherJack.

Game added January 5, 2007. Last modified March 4, 2024.