I feel like time is repeating itself and going backwards. I played DMC: Devil May Cry, Borderlands, and only the other day I played Dishonored on my Xbox One. The strange trend of remastering games in HD for new generations is under way, but I’m kind of happy too – one of my favorite games from my teenage years has come back! This release marks the glorious return of a beloved classic that broke new ground for the 3rd- person shooter genre much in the same way Resident Evil 4 did (which also received a HD remaster).
Gears of War influenced the action genre with its cover based gameplay, huge set pieces, high production values, and incredible multi-player. After nearly ten years and a complete rebuild from a new developer, does Gears of War Ultimate Edition offer the same great experience as the original?
The story of Gears of War takes us to the planet of Sera, where humanity has been living on the brink of collapse. For years, humans fight for a precious resource known as Emulsion, which is basically a yellow glowing version of oil. This is until Emergence Day came and from the ground, the Locus emerged. These humanoid beings have an extremely blood thirsty nature and an unbreakable will to take over. With humanity losing the fight, they did the only thing they could and burned the surface of Sera, leaving billions dead and the planet in ruins. After 14 years, humanity still fights the endless war, but there is hope with an imprisoned war hero, Marcus Fenix.
This is a typical “Quest” narrative where our mighty heroes go on a high stakes journey to destroy the ultimate evil and reclaim all that is good. There’s no real innovation here in terms of the overall plot, but there are a few interesting themes that link up to the troubles modern day society brings forth; you can sense a strong focus on the Iraq War. Another factor that makes Gears of War‘s simple narrative rather gripping is the wondrously written cast. Shamed war hero Marcus Fenix is a gruff and tired blood thirsty killing machine along with his best friend Dominic, a man who is desperately searching for his long lost wife. But our true stars in this epic are Cole and Braid – funny, caring, and bold guys – who offer players a great deal of emotional attachment to the tale presented. Together, they form an entertaining and admirable group of heroes. Think The Lord of the Rings but without the whiny Sam and Frodo or the weird guy who was also in Lost.
With the Ultimate Edition being built from the ground up by The Coalition, they have indeed made a beautiful looking game. The environments look clearer, the detail is more in depth and the dynamic lighting brings a more organic essence to the world before you. You see the massive difference when you’re underground, and the lakes of emulsion light up the screen with a brilliant glow. On the other hand, I did at times miss the bleak and grey undertones of the original where you explore a ruined city and it felt like a hollow shell.
Despite this being disappointing, I learned to live with it as the rest of the game has such a rich atmosphere. The texture quality and frame rate do have a minimal deterioration when playing the split screen co-op, sadly. Other elements such, as the soundtrack, still sound perfect with the fantastic musical scores helping to immerse the players into the action more so than ever before.
The original Gears of War brought forth a series of simple design choices and mechanics which linked together in order to create a thought provoking and engaging tactical cover based shooter. The gameplay is still highly engrossing, considering it’s nearly ten years old. The cover based shooter gives players both pressurizing tactical action and good old over the top violence with massive weaponry, grand set pieces, and chainsaw bayonets that are mindlessly violent, yet perfectly executed (insert Gears pun here).
The great thing here as well is the fact you can play split screen co-op like the good old days. Believe me, this is good; one major flaw of playing by yourself is that the AI for Dom is atrocious! I mean, he’s hopeless, useless, and pretty much anything less than a soldier. He makes a good distraction until he’s hit once and goes down, but he’s annoying when your down and he’s just there, saying negative comments and not helping you up. There were some other minor bugs in the game (one caused me to restart the game), but they were funny rather than annoying, and far less damaging than Dom’s AI.
Another issue with the Ultimate Edition were the boss battles. They’ve been seamlessly tweaked in a manner to where they’re not challenging. Even on the harder difficulties, these spectacular fiends can be pretty easy to deal with. The infamous Ramm encounter – that made me and countless other hardcore gamers cry with abysmal defeats – felt overall a little toned down compared to the original game; it’s even easier when you’re playing co-op with someone.
Gears’ multiplayer is still, to this day, one of the most engaging and immersive competitive experiences on the market. We have a host of game modes such as King of the Hill, Execution, and Warzone. Most of the game modes don’t vary in tone or objectives, but they change certain aspects of the classic death-match formula. Gears of War keeps the design approachable for all player types without forcing them to use overly and needlessly complicated objective based team bounding. It’s plain and simple; the game has good old killing for casual and hard-core players to relish in.
The multiplayer incorporates an extreme intensity and tactical professionalism for players that makes you work hard to earn respect. However, the tweaks and leveling system are welcome but not really needed. Still, Gears of War still offers one of the best multiplayer experiences to date.
I’m a happy gamer right now. Why? Well after all this time, Gears of War is still a pretty damn good game. This remaster of Gears of War shows why the original deserves the praise it received, and it is a great influence on the genre. Originally designed by Cliff Bleszinski and the small team at Epic, these guys and girls accomplished a great achievement in gaming, and The Coalition has my thanks for reminding me of this.
There might be some minor problems and strange glitches that occur from time to time, but Gears of War Ultimate Edition is a must buy for any Xbox One owner and those who are looking for a chance to look back at the era in which action gaming was redefined.