CONTAINS SPOILERS
I first played gears of war back in 2008 i think. Played coop with a friend. We had no headsets so we used the chainsaws to draw each other's attention when needed.
Fast forward to 2016, i played through the game again on xbox one. No coop this time.
It's just as good as i remembered. I love the weighty, the physicality of the combat. The partner AI though is just awful. Some parts were very frustrating because of that.
The brumak encounter, god... Dom would get downed in seconds. I don't like when devs focus so much on coop they forget the lone wolves.
The soundtrack is very good. Better than in the sequels IMO.
Anyway, thanks to Xbox one backwards compatibility and the free codes for having purchased the ultimate edition i finally got the chance to play the whole saga.
I have to say though that these games are barely playable. Very often fps will dive to the early 20s. It's specially bad in 3 and judgement because of all the particle effects i assume.
It's never a slideshow. But it's very annoying. I had no other choice though. I had to endure.
Gears 2 starts and it's like nothing in the original mattered. Everything seems the same.
I was excited to know more about the locust queen by the end of gears 1. But she doesn't show up until late in the game. And nothing is explained anyway.
I don't think we should be spoonfed exposition about everything. It's cool to have food for thought. But it left me annoyed regardless.
The game is ugly. It's grey, brown, redish. I may have nostalgia googles on but i don't remember the original being this ugly.
My bigger complains are:
First, i think it drags on a little. It should have ended right after we meet the queen. Add the brumak ride and done. But no, we go back to the surface, than go back underground. Felt like pointless filler to me.
Second, the vehicle segments. I understand why they are there. It adds variety. I'm ok with that. BUT these segments are TOO long. Specially the reaver ride.
I was like "cool, it must be like halo aircraft". But it isn't. It's on rails and boring. And goes on and on. You fly, then you land, then you fight a boss, go to the surface, shoot more shit, boss shows up again...
What else? I think the bit inside the riftworm was neat.
Oh, and Maria. I knew she would die. I knew nothing about her. She was just a name and i couldn't care less. When they opened her cell and shes was ok i rolled my eyes.
But then the illusion goes away and she looks like a holocaust victim. I have to admit it shocked me a little. Wasn't expecting that.
Gears of war 3 is probably my favorite. Everyone is desperate in the brink of death. The stuff that happened in 2 has had dire consequences here. Stakes are sky high.
Game looks very good. It's colorful but also grim and dark when it needs to. There's a great variety of environments. Also great variety of weapons and enemies.
Dom's death felt forced. These guys survived worst. It's like he died just because the writer said so.
It's a great game and i'd love to experience it again but with a decent framerate.
Oh, the AI is pretty helpfull in this one. They revived me countless times. They throw grenades, help each other. And even flip switches from time to time. I didn't miss a coop partner.
And no vehicle segments! Only turret ones.
Judgement i didn't finish yet. Performance is awful. So far it seems to be a bunch of arena like encounters using everything from gears 3. Shooting is solid as usual. So it's not a big issue.
It may be too soon to say this. But it seems to me that judgement is a souless swan song for this franchise. Just like god of war ascension was on the ps3.
Something i have to praise so far are the control tweaks. Press Y to change weapons and LB to throw grenades. Oh god, thank you. I never cared about pistols in the previous games. So, bye bitch.
And i hated that big ass menu whenever i switched weapons. It was so awkward. I have a feeling that gears pros will disagree with me though.
Gears of War 4 sucks. Joking. Kinda. I watched that 6 minutes E3 video and it had me worried. I mean previous games always had these slow walking atmosphere soaking moments.
I'm just worried that these devs go the order 1886 route. Hold forward to cinematic experience.
TL;DR
Gears 1 is cool
Gears 2 is ...ok
Gears 3 is amazing
Gears Judgement is meh
And now unpopular opinion time. I think microsoft is beating a dead horse with halo and gears of war. Bungie and Epic told their stories and left. They made these games special.
Other devs will struggle trying to recapture the same magic. And i honestly don't believe they can.
I was late to the party with the halo franchise as well. Played through the MCC a couple of months ago. And i could see bungie's DNA in these games. Halo 4 and 5 are not the same and i have yet to finish both. But probably never will.
I don't know if i want more gears of war. Their story ended. The bad guys died, Marcus married Anya, had a kid named Dom and they lived happily ever after.
But i certainly want something like gears of war. I want the next gears of war. The next halo.
I know there's money to be made and these franchises will be milked to hell though.
English is not my native language. Feel free to correct my fuck ups. Thanks.
I first played gears of war back in 2008 i think. Played coop with a friend. We had no headsets so we used the chainsaws to draw each other's attention when needed.
Fast forward to 2016, i played through the game again on xbox one. No coop this time.
It's just as good as i remembered. I love the weighty, the physicality of the combat. The partner AI though is just awful. Some parts were very frustrating because of that.
The brumak encounter, god... Dom would get downed in seconds. I don't like when devs focus so much on coop they forget the lone wolves.
The soundtrack is very good. Better than in the sequels IMO.
Anyway, thanks to Xbox one backwards compatibility and the free codes for having purchased the ultimate edition i finally got the chance to play the whole saga.
I have to say though that these games are barely playable. Very often fps will dive to the early 20s. It's specially bad in 3 and judgement because of all the particle effects i assume.
It's never a slideshow. But it's very annoying. I had no other choice though. I had to endure.
Gears 2 starts and it's like nothing in the original mattered. Everything seems the same.
I was excited to know more about the locust queen by the end of gears 1. But she doesn't show up until late in the game. And nothing is explained anyway.
I don't think we should be spoonfed exposition about everything. It's cool to have food for thought. But it left me annoyed regardless.
The game is ugly. It's grey, brown, redish. I may have nostalgia googles on but i don't remember the original being this ugly.
My bigger complains are:
First, i think it drags on a little. It should have ended right after we meet the queen. Add the brumak ride and done. But no, we go back to the surface, than go back underground. Felt like pointless filler to me.
Second, the vehicle segments. I understand why they are there. It adds variety. I'm ok with that. BUT these segments are TOO long. Specially the reaver ride.
I was like "cool, it must be like halo aircraft". But it isn't. It's on rails and boring. And goes on and on. You fly, then you land, then you fight a boss, go to the surface, shoot more shit, boss shows up again...
What else? I think the bit inside the riftworm was neat.
Oh, and Maria. I knew she would die. I knew nothing about her. She was just a name and i couldn't care less. When they opened her cell and shes was ok i rolled my eyes.
But then the illusion goes away and she looks like a holocaust victim. I have to admit it shocked me a little. Wasn't expecting that.
Gears of war 3 is probably my favorite. Everyone is desperate in the brink of death. The stuff that happened in 2 has had dire consequences here. Stakes are sky high.
Game looks very good. It's colorful but also grim and dark when it needs to. There's a great variety of environments. Also great variety of weapons and enemies.
Dom's death felt forced. These guys survived worst. It's like he died just because the writer said so.
It's a great game and i'd love to experience it again but with a decent framerate.
Oh, the AI is pretty helpfull in this one. They revived me countless times. They throw grenades, help each other. And even flip switches from time to time. I didn't miss a coop partner.
And no vehicle segments! Only turret ones.
Judgement i didn't finish yet. Performance is awful. So far it seems to be a bunch of arena like encounters using everything from gears 3. Shooting is solid as usual. So it's not a big issue.
It may be too soon to say this. But it seems to me that judgement is a souless swan song for this franchise. Just like god of war ascension was on the ps3.
Something i have to praise so far are the control tweaks. Press Y to change weapons and LB to throw grenades. Oh god, thank you. I never cared about pistols in the previous games. So, bye bitch.
And i hated that big ass menu whenever i switched weapons. It was so awkward. I have a feeling that gears pros will disagree with me though.
Gears of War 4 sucks. Joking. Kinda. I watched that 6 minutes E3 video and it had me worried. I mean previous games always had these slow walking atmosphere soaking moments.
I'm just worried that these devs go the order 1886 route. Hold forward to cinematic experience.
TL;DR
Gears 1 is cool
Gears 2 is ...ok
Gears 3 is amazing
Gears Judgement is meh
And now unpopular opinion time. I think microsoft is beating a dead horse with halo and gears of war. Bungie and Epic told their stories and left. They made these games special.
Other devs will struggle trying to recapture the same magic. And i honestly don't believe they can.
I was late to the party with the halo franchise as well. Played through the MCC a couple of months ago. And i could see bungie's DNA in these games. Halo 4 and 5 are not the same and i have yet to finish both. But probably never will.
I don't know if i want more gears of war. Their story ended. The bad guys died, Marcus married Anya, had a kid named Dom and they lived happily ever after.
But i certainly want something like gears of war. I want the next gears of war. The next halo.
I know there's money to be made and these franchises will be milked to hell though.
English is not my native language. Feel free to correct my fuck ups. Thanks.
