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Gears of War, sometimes referred to as Gears, is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games (the creators of the Unreal Tournament series) using Unreal Engine 3.0 technology and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Released for the Xbox 360 on November 7 2006 in select stores in the United States, it was broadly released in major U.S. retailers on November 12 2006. The game was released on November 17 2006 in Europe outside of Germany, where Microsoft Game Studios did not publish the game after it was denied a rating. A limited collector's edition was also released, which included a disc of bonus content and an art book titled "Destroyed Beauty" that detailed much of the game's backstory.

Gears of War centers on the soldiers of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from a relentless subterranean enemy known as The Locust Horde. The player assumes the role of Marcus Fenix, a former prisoner and war-hardened soldier. In cooperative play, the second player plays as Fenix's friend and fellow soldier Dominic Santiago, or "Dom". The two soldiers join Delta Squad, and battle the Locust Horde through the course of the campaign.

Story

Template:Spoiler Gears of War takes place on a planet known as Sera, inhabited by the human survivors of a once-glorious civilization. For a century, however, they fought among themselves. Eventually they knew the hush of peace that blanketed the land. That was until the discovery of Imulsion, a phosphorescing, low-viscosity fluid. Discovered by an oil-exploration drill, it was unusable until a woman named Dr. Helen Cooper created the Lightmass Process, which enabled production of cheap energy. The world economy soon collapsed due to its extremely low price and the elimination for the need of hydrocarbon and nuclear fuel sources. The few countries that had an overabundance of Imulsion under their feet soon found themselves at war with nations who were not as lucky, and so began the Pendulum Wars. During the 79-year war, the Coalition of Ordered Governments, or COG, became a legitimate minor political party. Founded long before the Pendulum Wars by fanatical socialist Alexiy Desipich, the party operated according to an obscure world-government philosophy based on eight guiding principle values: Order, Diligence, Purity, Labor, Honor, Loyalty, Faith, and Humility.

The Pendulum Wars ceased on what is now called Emergence Day. In less than 24 hours, a ravenous species known as the Locust burst from under the ground and attacked every major city on Sera. By the time human forces pulled together to form an effective defense, it was too late. The Locust Horde had already taken control of the majority of the world's urban, military, and manufacturing centers. Billions lay dead, approximately one quarter of Sera's population. The COG took matters into their own hands and re-enacted the Fortification Act, allowing martial law to be placed on all remaining survivors from the initial invasion. All survivors were ordered to evacuate to the Jacinto Plateau, a safe haven that the Locust Horde could not penetrate from the underground due to its thick granite substrata. Survivors who could not make it to the plateau were given the following apology: "For those citizens who can't make it to Jacinto, the Coalition appreciates your sacrifice. Please forgive us, this is the only way." Orbital particle laser weapons were used in a scorched earth strategy to deny the Locust Horde survival on the surface, forcing them to stay in their underground warrens. This war would continue for another fourteen years.

Somewhere around the tenth year, Jacinto was being fortified into an unassailable fortress. Its once-magnificent cities, envied for their beauty, were soon converted into military defense platforms. The plateau's natural fissures and utility systems were destroyed or flooded with nerve gas to delay the Locust Horde's inevitable attack. People who had made it to Jacinto Plateau, but were not in the army, were called the Stranded. The Stranded are living in horrible conditions and malnutrition, and have to find ways to defend themselves. When the Locust began their attack on Jacinto, Marcus abandoned his post in a response to a distress call from his father, a renowned soldier, at the East Barricade Academy, but he was too late to save him. At his trial in the House of Sovereigns, Marcus was charged with dereliction of duty, cowardice, and failure to obey orders. The COG found themselves running low on able-bodied soldiers, so they turned to untraditional sources of men: the infirm, the young, and the condemned. Marcus Fenix was pardoned, and freed by his friend Dominic Santiago. Shortly afterwards, the Locust Horde overran his prison. The Gears of War campaign begins here.

Characters

Gears of War focuses primarily on the characters of Delta Squad and their encounters with the Locust Horde. Delta Squad's members fluctuate throughout the first act, consisting first of Min Young Kim, Carmine, Marcus Fenix and his best friend Dominic Santiago, but during the last four acts of the game, Delta Squad consists of the former prisoner Marcus, Dom, and the dynamic duo Augustus "Cole Train" Cole and Damon Baird. Players take control of Marcus Fenix, freshly rescued by Dominic Santiago (controlled by a second player in cooperative play) from the Jacinto Maximum Security Penitentiary. In multiplayer on the COG side, there are all the Delta Squad characters to choose from, plus Victor Hoffman.

Some of the characters received voiceovers from popular-culture icons. Marcus Fenix is voiced by John DiMaggio, best known as the voice of Bender in Futurama, and Augustus "Cole Train" Cole is voiced by Lester "The Mighty Rasta" Speight, who plays "Terrible" Terry Tate, the "Pain Train", in the Office Linebacker commercials made for Reebok. The Cole character is clearly based on the mannerisms and catchphrases of the Tate character.

Plot

Act 1: Ashes - As the game opens 14 years after Emergence Day, former soldier Marcus Fenix is freed from the Jacinto Maximum Security Penitentiary by his close friend, Dominic Santiago, who needs Fenix's help in the fight against the Locusts. Both manage to escape the prison moments before it is destroyed by a Corpser, and then meet up with the other members of Delta Squad, Private Carmine and Lieutenant Kim, with orders to find Alpha Squad and secure possession of the "Resonator", a device intended to map out the Locust underground tunnel network for the Lightmass Bomb. En route to Alpha's last known location, Carmine is killed by a Locust sniper and Kim perishes at the hands of General RAAM. Dominic and Marcus are able to meet up with two privates from Alpha Squad, named Cole and Baird, at the House of Sovereigns. After defeating a Locust Berserker, the team confirms with headquarters that the Resonator is safe, and are then ordered to an Imulsion mining facility 10km from their position. Marcus is also granted the rank of sergeant due to completing his mission and the death of Lieutenant Kim.

Act 2: Nightfall - Dom suggests the fastest way to reach the mine would be to borrow an APC from a Stranded named Franklin, who owes Dom a favor from deals in the past. After reaching the camp, Franklin reluctantly agrees to give them his "Junker" on the condition that Cole and Baird remain at the Stranded camp to help them defend against the Locust. Marcus and Dom head across the ruined city as nightfall descends, bringing out the carnivorous bat-like creatures known as Kryll that attack anything in the dark. The two fight through the Locust forces to reach the gas station where the Junker is kept, and then drive it back to the camp, defending themselves from the Kryll with an ultraviolet light attached to the Junker, which can kill the Kryll. The two arrive just in time back at the Stranded camp to help defend it from a large Locust onslaught. Once the situation is secured, the team moves onwards towards the mining facility in the Junker.

Act 3: Belly of the Beast - Delta Squad reaches the outskirts of the mining facility just as the Junker ceases to function. They make their way on foot through the abandoned facility and into the Imulsion mine tunnels, heading towards a predetermined location where the effect of the Resonator should have maximum effect, all the while defending themselves against constant Locust onslaughts. The team eventually reach their target destination, and after securing the area, set off the Resonator device and narrowly escape back to the surface. Unfortunately, the team quickly learn from HQ that the data collected from the Resonator blast was much too limited to be of use for the Lightmass Bomb. However, a device found by Baird seems to already contain a near-complete map of the tunnel system, with the data linking back to Marcus' father and his home at the East Barricade Academy.

Act 4: The Long Road Home - Delta Squad ride a Raven helicopter to the East Barricade Academy, now ruined and heavily controlled by Locust, losing a helicopter to an attack by Nemacyst air spores in the sky. The team is dropped off just outside the Academy and are forced to fight their way through massive numbers of Locust to the mansion where Marcus' father lived. Cole and Baird discover another APC in need of repair at the back of the manor, and they rush off to repair it while Marcus and Dom search the manor for the data. After finding the hidden laboratory in the basement, they leave their cloaked robot Jack to download the data and defend the house against waves of Locust attackers. As Jack finishes downloading the tunnel maps, the two soldiers rush for the newly repaired APC behind the manor with a gargantuan reptilian-like Locust called a Brumak already charging towards them. The Squad and Jack reach the APC just as the Brumak smashes through the manor, escaping the pursuing monster.

Act 5: Desperation - The team now rush for the train station to get aboard the Tyro Pillar, an armored freight train carrying the Lightmass Bomb at its front. Locust attack them at the station and prevent Cole and Baird from jumping onto the train as it speeds past, leaving only Marcus and Dom to battle through to the front of the train as it travels across the wasteland towards the Locust stronghold. They unfortunately encounter General RAAM at the front of the train, guarding the Lightmass Bomb, but the two are able to defeat him. With a destroyed bridge quickly approaching as the train speeds ahead, Marcus uploads the tunnel data into the Lightmass Bomb and activates it, escaping the train by jumping into a nearby Raven helicopter, with the help of Dom and Cole. Dominic grabs Marcus seconds before the train falls off the tracks and into the Imulsion below. Struggling to hold on to Dominic's hands with only one of his, Hoffman comes over, and, to the team's surprise, offers his hand to help Marcus up. Marcus grabs his hand and is pulled onto the King Raven. The bombs from Lightmass launch into the Locust tunnels beneath, successfully eradicating most of an important Locust stronghold. Hoffman's voice later announces their victory to the rest of the world, but the haunting voice of what is assumed to be the Locust Queen clearly tells the player that the Locust have not been defeated, and will fight back, possibly foreshadowing the premise of a sequel to Gears of War.

Multiplayer

Gears of War supports both split-screen, regular multiplayer over Xbox Live and System Link. There are two multiplayer modes in Gears of War, Cooperative and Versus mode. Multiplayer also adds the "downed" state, which works similar to down comrades the player must help in the single-player missions. When a player has taken too much damage from enemy, their character becomes incapacitated instead of dying instantly. The player remains in this state until they bleed out and die, other players can revive their teammates (in the Execution versus mode or as leader in Assassination only), or are revived by another player. A player can only be revived twice, and on the 3rd down they are dead instantly. However, in cases where the damage is severe as to cause mutilation or disintegration of the body (including chainsaw attacks, short range shotgun blasts, boomshot hits, sniper headshots, or grenade explosions), the player is dead instantly.

Cooperative

Cooperative gameplay in Gears of War multiplayer allows two players to play through the game from start to finish. The game offers the ability to invite players on the users’ friends list and have them instantly pop in (known as "Drop in, Drop out" gameplay) the player’s game to help them out. Gears of War chooses each player's character depending on certain factors. The first player or multiplayer game host plays as Marcus Fenix (the main character) while the second player as Dominic Santiago, Marcus' best friend.

Cooperative Play differs from the single-player game in some ways. On the sections of levels that offer multiple paths, the first player chooses their own path and effectively sends the other player onto the other. Both players are separated and each tackle separate parts of the level. If either player is downed while on these split paths, both characters will begin from the previous checkpoint. While outside these paths the players may revive each other and use unique flanking maneuvers impossible with the AI.

Versus Mode

Multiplayer is team-based, supporting up to eight players (four COGs vs. four Locust) engaging in battles over Xbox Live or through System Link. In versus mode, matches consist of several rounds between one and nineteen. Each player starts each round with the same standard set of weapons, but more powerful weaponry can be found across each map to be contested by the opposing teams. The team who has won the most rounds at the end of a match wins. There are two types of versus modes, player matches and ranked matches.

• Player matches have no effect on the Gears of War leaderboard ranks, allows users to invite friends or use split-screen mode (either two Gamertags or a Gamertag and a guest) and allows the host to swap the map's default weapons for those of their choice. By weapon swapping, what once might have been a sniper rifle could be a pair of grenades, thereby drastically changing the gameplay of the match and also allowing the option to turn on friendly fire. There are no achievement available for playing in Player matches.
• Ranked matches keep track of player statistics, give players a 'rank' on the Gears of War leaderboard, forbid invitations, can't be played in split-screen mode, and can be played to get achievements.

Three versus modes were available with the original game: Warzone, Assassination, and Execution. A fourth mode, Annex, was made available as the third patch of the game

• Warzone mostly follows the standard Team Deathmatch archetype, with each team trying to eliminate the other. When players are downed they can only get back up when an ally revives them. A "bleed-out" time can be set from 5 seconds to 60 seconds. This is the length of time the person will survive after being downed before they die of blood loss.
• Execution is very similar to Warzone, except that when an opponent is down, the opposing team must terminate the downed player up close. Should the opposing team fail to destroy the downed player during the allotted time, the player will be revived and will once again become a threat. The bleed-out time is applied here by altering the amount of time before a downed person rises again without any input from the player.
• Assassination requires that teams focus on killing the other team's designated leader while protecting their own. If a team's leader dies, that team loses the round. As of the most present patch, players die by rules of "Warzone", while leaders die by "Execution" rules. Prior versions before the third patch had both players and leaders dying by Warzone rules, and also required the leader to pick up a weapon before a fellow teammate could use it.
• Annex essentially a version of King of the Hill, teams win by keeping control over key map locations, or objectives, long enough to collect a winning number of points. Every map has two to five identified objectives available for capture, with one objective active at a time. Objectives are based on map weapon-spawn locations and have a potential value of 60 points toward either team’s score. Teams collect those points by maintaining ownership of an objective until all its 60 points have been distributed; players do not have to stay at the point to retain ownership but only prevent the enemy from approaching the point. Every second that a team controls an objective, the team gets one point. When an objective falls to zero points, the next objective is selected at random.. Players can be downed following "Warzone" bleed out rules, but unlike the other game play modes, players will respawn, with respawning occurring every 15 seconds, your time to respawn is dependent on your time of death.

Updates

Epic Games has been working on new content for Gears of War since as early as August 2006. These updates will remain free according to Epic Games president Mike Capps. The first of these updates was released over Xbox Live on January 9 2007, with two new maps released the following day on January 10 2007. The two maps reflected background scenes from the game's storyline, known as Raven Down and Old Bones, which depict Gears fighting Locust amidst the crash site of a King Raven chopper and a museum, respectively. Another update was released for Gears of War on January 22 2007, which, according to Epic Games' Marc Rein, is said to fix some compatibility issues with the release of Gears of War in Japan, and that no game play or functionality features were changed..

On April 9, Epic Games released the third update, containing a new game mode titled "Annex", which requires teams to capture and hold certain areas of each map, as well as additional gameplay tweaks and fixing up some glitches. The update was free of charge.

Epic Games has also said that 4 new maps will be made available in conjunction with the third patch. However, due to disagreements between Microsoft and Epic Games, Epic will "put these maps on sale at a reasonable price then make them free a few months later," according to Mark Rein of Epic Games. The map pack, titled "Hidden Fronts", was released on Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 microsoft points ($10) on May 3, 2007, and includes the maps Bullet Marsh, Garden, Process, and Subway. Free downloads of these maps will be made available on September 3, 2007, 4 months after the initial release.

Film

On March 20 2007, it was announced that New Line Cinema had purchased the rights to make the Gears of War film, with Stuart Beattie writing the script along with Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, who will be producing it. The film is scheduled to be released in the year 2009. Producer Wyck Govrey said of the film adaptation, "I'm not a gamer, but what blew me away about Gears was how it captures the mythology of a war mission and how high the stakes are."

On April 27 2007, Latino Review released part of the script to the film from a source known as Gearhead.

Reception

Leading up to the game's release, Gears of War was one of the most highly anticipated Xbox 360 games of 2006. The third person action game received a multitude of awards at E3 even before the game's release. According to Microsoft Game Studios Vice President Shane Kim, Gears of War preorder sales were second only to Halo 2 in the studio's history. Gears of War was also the first Xbox or Xbox 360 game to sell out and reach the top ten charts in Japan.

Upon its release, Gears of War received mostly positive reviews from critics, with an average score on Metacritic and Game Rankings of 94% (ranked 4th game of 2006).

Gears of War achieved major success after its release. On November 7, 2006, Gears of War became the most popular game on the Xbox Live service, overtaking Halo 2, which had held the spot since its launch in November 2004. By January 19, 2007, just ten weeks after its debut, over three million units of the game have been sold. It has been rumored that Gears of War has sold four million copies, only two months after selling three million copies. Later, Gears of War was awarded the Gamefly Game Of The Year, along with Best Xbox 360 Game from Gamefly as well. Gears of War also won GameSpot's 2006 game of the year award and Official Xbox Magazine's 2006 "Xbox 360 Game of the Year Award."

Gears of War has received numerous awards:

Future developments

News of the franchise's future has emerged multiple times since the game's release. PC Gamer accidentally released an image in its 2006 holiday issue where Gears of War can be seen in a Games for Windows display, which led to suspicion that Gears of War would be released for the PC; however, the image was later stated to be a mock-up. Possible leaked pictures were released on February 4 2007, leading to more suspicion of Gears on the PC. In an interview with Xbox fansite Team Xbox, Mark Rein stated that the game would eventually come to the PC; Epic was not currently ready to release it on that format, but the upcoming release of Unreal Tournament 3 is "helping (Epic) get optimization on the PC.".

Gears of War lead designer Cliff Bleszinski said he hoped for the game to expand into graphic novels and eventually film. On November 21, 2006, Microsoft Corporate VP of Global Marketing and Interactive Entertainment Business Jeff Bell stated Gears of War is the first in a trilogy, through sequences on E-Day and the battle of Jacinto Plateau, as well as information on Adam Fenix and his research (which the character finds in Gears). Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein posted a message on the official Gears of War Internet forums, stating "It's not over until it isn't fun anymore", and, in his view, Gears of War may become the next Halo series in terms of popularity.

At the 2007 Game Developers Conference Bleszinkski confirmed that Epic Games does "intend to do a sequel" to Gears of War possibly set to be released in 2008.

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External links

• Gears of War
• Epic Games games
• Third-person shooters
• 2006 video games
• Xbox 360-only games
• Cooperative video games
• Tactical shooter video games
• Post-apocalyptic fiction