Lately, more and more games are being created with some kind of pretentiousness in mind.
I’m not saying it’s bad, but personally I’m pretty tired of it.
Be it either God of War of 2018 with its problems of fathers and sons, or the unreasonably serious Mirror’s Edge (I don’t know why exactly that one).
I’m not saying that this is bad, but sooner or later you get tired of it and want to play a game where there is ultra violence and a simple plot about how you need to destroy everything bad for the sake of everything good. And now I’m talking about Gears of War, namely the first part of this game.
I generally have very warm feelings for the Gears of War series; throughout its existence, the game remained true to its roots and received even development of its ideas. The characters received their own logical and systematic development from each part, depth was added to them, but they never overdid it.
Well, we can’t help but remember that this was Cliff Bleszinski’s game, thanks to which he received his worldwide recognition and now, unfortunately, Cliffie B is quietly fading into oblivion as a result of the release of unsuccessful LawBreakers and Radical Heights.
But let’s not talk about sad things, let’s go back to the times when the grass was greener and locusts were the size of a person.
It’s worth mentioning right away that I will only talk about the single-player campaign, I will not cover aspects of multiplayer.
Plot
And we’ll start with the plot. The plot in the game, although it is presented too seriously, absolutely everything is done on such serious faces that you even begin to frown. But unlike other games that I mentioned earlier, the game does not try to dramatize, does not try to set the player on the right path and moralize him about something. The game simply tells the story and shows the war without seeming pretentious or claiming to be more than what it claims to be.
The plot in the first part of the game is as simple as two pennies. It all starts with the fact that we find ourselves in the shoes of a former Coalition soldier – pumped up, huge and brutal Marcus Fenix, now convicted and serving his time in prison, due to the fact that he loves his father more than orders. Interestingly, the soldiers here are called gears, i.e.e. gears.
Our old friend, the most https://richmoosecasino.co.uk/ deeply developed character in the series, Dominic Santiago, saves us from prison. He tells us that while we were chilling in prison everything changed, everything became very bad, he gives us coalition armor, a bandana and a gun. In addition, we learn that everyone except us was pardoned, so we shouldn’t be surprised at the empty prison.
But since everything has changed, an extra trunk won’t hurt and we’re heading out to destroy the locusts, that’s the name of the race of villains.
But we will not destroy them thoughtlessly, but very meaningfully, since first we are given the task of intercepting the Alpha squad, who have a resonator, then go down into the locust caves and use this very resonator to illuminate all the caves, so that we can then successfully blow them up and, having won the war, go into the sunset.
Along the way, we slightly less than completely re-equip our squad from: Marcus, Dom, Carmine and Kim to Marcus, Dom, Beard and Cole.
And it would seem that the reasons for the change of team are quite dramatic, but there is no emotional response. However, there is also no chemistry created between other brothers in arms. These are just dummies with guns at the ready, like the main character himself, in addition to the fact that each of the characters has some kind of backstory.
–Marcus Phoenix – former Coalition soldier, war criminal, loves family, sharp as a sickle to the balls and principled.
–Dominic Santiago – just a good guy, sincere, lost his family and is trying in every possible way to find her. There is a tattoo of his wife on his shoulder.
–Damon Beard – techie, the most technically savvy guy in the company. Maybe he can make a candy out of shit and sticks.
–August Cole Train – star of the local game – trashball. Now a Coalition soldier.
And that’s all we learn about the characters in this game. Otherwise, you don’t need more, t.To. We are not playing at snot, but at war.
On our way, we walk through the streets, from house to house, during the day, at night, in caves, ride in a car, on a train, killing locusts along the way, tons of locusts. Along the way, we learn that there is a fuel on the planet, which is called an emulsion, everything on this planet rests on it. And this very emulsion infects the locusts, turning them into uncontrollable exploding evil.
And everything we do, we do in order to achieve our goal, which we, of course, achieve, but with a nuance, which is natural, since there will be continuation later.
The plot of the game is simple, but if you understand it, you will find that it is actually deeper than it seems. But it is catchy, there is also a main villain, the huge larva RAAM, who will be constantly remembered in subsequent games of the series, there is also a consistent development of the plot itself, the heroes constantly encounter some obstacles on the way, which they solve, sometimes very gracefully, take, for example, the moment when you need to destroy the floor under you in order to destroy a giant spider. Either memorable moments, like descending into the locust caves, or launching the resonator itself, killing a brumak, etc.n. These moments are epic and they are remembered and stored in memory.
Gameplay + Visuals
In principle, you can finish the plot at this point and move directly to the gameplay.
If we talk about the gameplay, I would like to make a reservation right away… In my humble opinion, you only need to play on a gamepad, despite the fact that the game is a third-person shooter, and one could say that it is convenient to shoot only with a keyboard mouse, etc.n., but still it’s clear WHAT TO PLAY. NEED TO. ONLY. ON. GAMEPAD.
And I say this as a person who completed Gears of Wars several times on a gamepad and played them on a PC. I say this, in particular, because the game has such a feature as active reloading, and you can get complete satisfaction from it only with the implementation of vibration, which, alas, is not on the keyboard.
Throughout the passage of all parts of the game, and there are no less than 5 of them today, I received some kind of psychological pleasure from those moments when active reloading was carried out. I can’t share such a thrill when playing the keyboard.
Also, don’t forget about the Lancer with a chainsaw, because the vibration complements the effect of sawing and only makes you more interested in the game.
Otherwise, the game is the most classic third-person shooter with cover, rolls and regeneration, where you can shoot, throw grenades, you can do this with aim, or from the shoulder. Both behind cover and not behind it.
At the same time, it would seem that the game is absolutely typical and can easily get lost among billions of other similar things. But the game has one distinctive and very cool feature, this is the previously discussed brutality and ultra cruelty. You play as a huge brutal square cabinet, which cuts the enemy into two parts with a chainsaw, shoots off his head, and then simply tears the carcass into pieces with a grenade.
I’ll make a reservation that no, I’m not trying to justify violence, don’t think about it, but you really get some kind of satisfaction from a chainsaw.
And what’s most important is that it’s pleasant to do this, it doesn’t get boring throughout the games, and is still complemented by a rather pleasant and juicy picture.
Unfortunately, only the Ultimate Edition can boast of the richness of the picture, because.To. The original game has a brown color scheme, which was common for games of those years, just remember Bayonetta. Therefore, if I would advise playing, it would be straight away in the Ultimate Edition, because.To. This is a worthy remaster, where they updated the picture, sounds, remade cutscenes, making them more cinematic, without touching the main gameplay of the game.
Although I said that this is a game with rolls and shelters and no matter how easy it all sounds, the game remains quite hardcore, since they kill you quickly, the locusts crush you in mass and sometimes crush you quite brazenly, even on normal difficulty. The artificial intelligence is quite smart, you throw a grenade, the locusts run away from it, you sit in a shelter and they try to smoke you out of it. And accordingly, you need to quickly think through your actions, assessing the battlefield and the balance of forces.
As the plot progresses, sometimes the game offers us to split up, go right or left, but such episodes are extremely rare and they are quite short, so there’s not much to say about them, although sometimes they offer interesting solutions, for example, to cover your partner while the latter is besieged by larvae.
I would also like to separately mention the soundtrack of the game, and I’m not talking now about the musical component, which is wonderful, but about how the game itself sounds. Sounds of walking, shooting, etc.n. They are great here.To. You really feel that you are a healthy man with a huge gun that sounds like it should sound, the saw sounds like a real saw, war feels like war, not colofdust.
And for “nice” Marcus, I’m ready to forgive the game everything.
Well, a few words about localization:
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In general, I noticed that sound design has one of the most important meanings for me in a game, because.To. You still want to immerse yourself in the world, and not only the picture and gameplay contribute greatly to immersion, but also the sound. The sound should draw you into the world, create your own atmosphere, show that all this is a little more than a set of graffiti.
And, for example, this is one of the reasons why I stopped playing kolofduti a long time ago. Since there is disgusting sound design, the sound of walking is always the same, the sounds of a shot are like throwing peas against a wall (sound comparison at 10:34 of the video review).
Well, I think I’ve spoken out, and I think we can draw some conclusions
Bottom line
As a result, it’s hard for me to rate this game poorly. It has certain disadvantages, namely, the short duration of the plot, it is very short here and is completed on average in 5 hours. At the same time, despite the short plot and the fact that the game wants to be varied, it is quite monotonous and begins to get a little boring towards the end.
Some may not like the simplicity of the plot, although despite its simple premise, the game’s lore is quite deep and well-developed.
Also, a definite disadvantage can be written down as a rather meager arsenal of weapons, several guns, a couple of pistols and grenades, although each weapon feels different and has its own character. At the same time, I noticed that although the weapons are all very unique and you constantly have to change them depending on the situation, for example, if you are attacked by creatures, then you need a shotgun, if the enemies are relatively far away, it is better to find a sniper rifle. But despite all the situations, you always have one weapon – a Lancer with a chainsaw, you change other weapons depending on the situation. Well, the pistol is basically a purely situational weapon; I can’t say that I constantly used it during the game. Oh, yes, I forgot to say about grenades… Grenades are cool, their implementation is one of the best in games, because you use them all the time, it was very rare that I had a full pack of grenades in stock, because the bastards need to be smoked out of shelters, and how to do this if not with grenades?
Well, as you can understand, I love this game with all my heart, it’s really cool. It not only set a certain direction for the development of the genre of third-person shooters with cover, but also showed that a game about huge cabinets chopping maggots can be cruel, cool and addictive.
And accordingly, 9 points out of 10 possible.