Why Was Gears of War SO AWESOME?!

foreign [Music] friends I knew it wasn't for something different when I first booted up this main menu you're immediately transported into this post-apocalyptic world that's hopeless but with a small sliver of Hope peeking through with those horns that sound quite similar to Horns you might find in military-esque propagandicals displays that though the world is gone it's the gears who are going to be Our Saviors at the end of the day there's two ways I could talk about Gears of War there's only speaking from the context that one provides which we all know is the same

amount of people ninja got dancing on New Year's or use the context from the other games and outside and here we're gonna do both because I remember playing gears as a kid and I loved it so much and I want to share my childhood with y'all a bit what's E day who's this dude why is he in prison you're only gonna get answers to one of those questions and it's honestly Gears of War's biggest strength that it doesn't dive deep into the narrative keeping its focus tightly on the gameplay and also what the [ __

] are these things we actually do find out and thank God don't get used to it but we see Marcus that even batting an eye about these terrifying creatures showing he's either seen some [ __ ] in this time or that he's just given up on caring about life or shows how long he's been in a year to the point he couldn't care less about the rats but actually he doesn't care about lives as this place is under attack and he has no care in the world about seeing the locusts to costing him not anymore

things have changed we better go don't care that it's technically not the gears theme it is to me hearing in the menus and it being the first music tied to Marcus and Dom I'll be dead before I say otherwise I love this track and all its melancholic Glory they're gone Hoffman pardoned everybody is that right welcome back to the Army soldier hardened more like conscripted again Cog gave food and housing to those who joined up in the Army hence Mark is as sarcastic is that right he knows danwell Hoffman wouldn't have parted him without benefit

shows us that Marcus is quick with it and doesn't miss much except for maybe a truck with his best friend or we can go through the prison blocks to get right into the fight your choice we did more of this in games Always Forever never not I love having the option to trial by fire and figure out the controls and mechanics than just getting my hand out let's take the prison blocks I'm ready to kick some ass tit gears really do a lot of heavy lifting of creating the stigma of dude bro gaming culture absolutely

with the help of its cousin Cod the late 2000s and early teens were dominated by the mindset that these games were made by boys four boys no girls allowed and as a kid growing up with these games no girls were allowed only me and my cousin trying to get to wait 15 gears to horde mode and never actually getting there it's the dude bro Arrow gave me the best that's for you to decide but it is for sure a memorable time in gaming history that we can look to gears as a fun reminder gears watch

that line between post-apocalypse shooter and horror shooter every other moment it feels something that we've all noticed slowly went to the Wayside with future gears games and it's what makes gears still stand out what the hell's been going on in this prison you don't want to know pretty much epic games's answer to everything story world and pretty much anything that isn't gameplay related and yeah you heard me epic games was the lead developer on this title we've gone from this to this are we evolving backwards I don't know but I do miss the grounded gritty

nature of Gears very much gears knowing what its goal is doesn't waste any time showing us the crazy bits we all saw the Mad World trailer and there was no need to try and make the corpser a big reveal eating the camera for a natural faded black I like it the Lancer has already got blood all over it little storytelling beats are found all over like this Cog is running out of men and fresh weapons probably a car mine I had it previously hey are you the Marcus Phoenix the one who fought at aspiel fields

we never learned more about the steering gears but it alludes to a larger world of story out there and it seems gears prerogative to constantly hint at the larger narrative and never get to it as to focus on the gameplay wow cool not really if you're wondering why the wars are failing and they need Marcus look no further than this interaction fresh meat is all excited and have fun with war while Marcus has paid the price of it don't worry yes man you'll get yourself for the definitive edition Gear's got a facelift and nowhere more

than the cutscenes some are completely recreated offering a more cinematic experience such as Marcus emerging from The Darkness at the start or this grunt meeting God they didn't need to do this and we still would have loved it but that's not saying much in this age of remakes and Masters we have a this war five more games and all the spin-offs to create epic probably I expect you to give me 110 Phoenix I'm not doing this for you who is he doing it for I really wonder I bet we'll find out about this cryptic line

letter it's the world design of Gears it tells most of the story we've got these towering buildings with architecture that we can only imagine its beauty in its time pictures of Presumed lost family members in the church a statue holding a cog it all makes you wonder did Cog create their own religion around the military-industrial complex did people actually worship them and just from there you can get real weird of interpretation is the locus divine retribution for Humanity swinging too far into the mice were people forced to worship instead of choosing as we'll see later

that people to test the gears we all know the answers now but back in 2006 we had no idea what anything could be or mean the locusts are actually kind of scary at least for a 10 year old kid they were terrifying and maybe you want to put them in the dirt even harder even back in the original 360 game it still holds up amazingly well all the definitive edition really did was clean up some of the textures and lighting everything from battle arenas in the art design were left unchanged the gray and brown palette

do help at age as it hides many imperfections plus it's a broken world we wouldn't expect things to look so nice so in a way the older version of the game fits the atmosphere even more than the footage you're seeing with all the gray and brown it makes the little bits of color we do get pop the blue of our gears are red from the Locust always brighten up the scene more so in later titles when everything is sunshine and rainbows God tags are gone COG Tags dog tags it's fun it Rhymes more fun fade

blacks gears has got a very slow pace of gameplay compared to its contemporaries at the time having to slowly grind your gears forward against the onslaught of enemies this made the small choices like weapons and flanking grounds feel impactful do I gnasher it up while Dom stays back in I flank do we take them head on together at range or just Roadie run in there faster than Dom driving a truck into you know what it doesn't get more iconic than that does it what's left to say about it other than that's awesome looks like we

need to split up these are fun especially when playing cop getting split up from your buddy when playing on the couch brings back good memories of making fun of each other when the other goes down and giving them [ __ ] that it wouldn't have happened if you were there which brings me to the co-op much of Gears was made with it in mind between the many flanking sections and splitting it up and the god awful turret Mission with the Krill You're Gonna Want to Buddy for that one at least I miss first person shooters

and third person shooter games like this being made with couch co-op in mind better yet missed what it was assumed expected thing in any multiplayer game but now has become really good at very specific games like it takes two or obvious party games looking at you halo infinite thank God gears five to do away with local co-op it keeps the jamming it's not just him digging around out of cover but dude pulling the trigger as he aims his weapon towards concrete I mean what the [ __ ] the car rides might love to fight but

damn do they now know how to do it see but we all know who's not seeing now and the beginning of the Kenny I mean Carmine curse but the radios don't work for [ __ ] sir keeping respect to your Superior Cole as in the coal train yeah that's right coach right is actually played by a real life professional football player and wrestler Lester splite talked about having experience in the field you could have gotten a voice actor or you could get an actor who has done it we're Delta Squad we're here to retrieve the

Sonic device and to get you guys out of here leave to markets to be the one who cares about extraction over all else I wonder what his dad thinks of this remember this guy he plays addictive lineman in case you weren't sure that Cog was recruiting just about everyone they could I remember you owe me 20 bucks oh yeah see me after the war do I keep making jokes about it hold here Jack D cloak and rip this door had no clue Jack was with us the whole time a little surprise but no attention brought

to it because it's a normal thing for these guys it's cool me you and my mom would try to wake me up from school in the morning it's holding up bits like these that made epic realize the potential of horde mode releasing days before World of War even came out so we really did it first Power Instinct the answer is powerless the hammer of dawn is badass and understandably opened up a boatload of questions story I imagine the hamburger was a cool weapon idea with no backstory that ballooned into the super weapon that basically ends

the pendulum Wars art is always fun like that when you start at the badass endpoint and then figure out how it got there it only works outside and even then only when the satellites are overhead in other words don't expect to get to use as badass broken wmd whenever you want and that's fair obviously don't want to trivialize the game and also I want to make the hammer feel special active reload gives us something to do when behind cover and we're gonna be behind cover a lot I actually reloaded something that I love in every

single game I'm mostly playing these for story and constantly reloading against tiresome and so I like the mini game it adds a lot even though we're slow lumbering brutes our finesse with Weaponry feels really great because of the mechanic especially when we pull a carmine and jam and then we epic purposely wanted the overall movement to be a bit unwieldy a bit clunky and slow highlights the tank nature of the gears how when we're running we feel like a cold try coming into Ruck house that's why Roti run has the low angle camera shake and

minimal directional control it's also intentional to not give a reticle to the troikas to really make them this garden hose of bullets where's Rojas originally gears was meant to be much more Bandit Brothers instead of Predator we get glimpses of that throughout but much more so in the sequels even in death Carmine's dying again also foreshadowing that they are family friendly YouTuber in case you were sure Iran was the real deal straight up just catches our One-Shot move like Carmine catches the bullet a dolly Zoom what almost feels like for the sake of it but

nah it's Marcus truly realizing for a moment that he might truly be cooked haha they're funny calling this china shop with our lady friend to come didn't know that Berserkers are ladies me neither but now I do so [ __ ] are the Locust from Arkham because what's up with them juicing with Titan and just when you think they can't get any worse with them okay it always gets worse that's the best part of playing games is wondering what the next Abomination is going to pop up out of the ground is going to be as

a kid I thought everyone with the Cog helmet was Karma like it was a rank or something and they were fun little red shirts and like yeah they still are I love that they're used to display the power of new enemies we came here to help you and that's what we're gonna do get listen to Jake the dog I mean Bender I mean Dr Dragon John DiMaggio never misses and his Marcus has got a beautiful rasp that makes my Straight knees buckle you can always get behind developers shaking up the core gameplay for a little

Variety in a boss she sounds almost like a Dino from Jurassic Park but more so like an Unstoppable dive bomber which like cheers I also like splitting up a cop as you and your buddy both feel like you're in charge versus whoever Marcus is of being the big nuts gotta love the Boomer seeing them pop up in battle and needing to have all focus on them before things get out of hand these guys are almost as big as you Cole yeah almost reverse humility sometimes you gotta walk around with a big head we also don't

have a reticle until we ads and even then it's not Pitch Perfect with its Bloom epic wanted these bites to feel a bit desperate not being able to have pinpoint accuracy was one of the ways they achieved this and also with the enemies being quite spongy it takes half a MAG sometimes to take down one drone but it's never so egregious that you're feeling cheated like Far Cry 6 bullet sponges for example and to top it all off there's the weightiness of the Gunplay when shooting enemies or turning them into little gibbly bits the physics

feel very grounded which in tandem with the presentation is what gives gears one that iconic gritty feeling that later ones have somewhat lost it's still coming this is [ __ ] we get to play in the game exactly what the Mad World trailer showed us which doesn't always happen especially didn't expect it with how stylized the trailer seemed but we get chased by a corpse or teller forced to fight him just like in it for the first time we get to see how the other half live and it's not pretty it does make you wonder

what could be so bad about the Cog that makes people risk these rickety defenses versus joining up at the Coalition I don't want people seeing me with you all right it's not good for business man want to know what else ain't good for business humanoid bug name things running around in case it wasn't dire and scary enough let's make it rapidly dark time like it's the Krill themselves honing the sun to their will also if you like vampire bats or something and with how they devour humans I don't feel too far off somebody here figured

out that Coldplay thrash ball now it's all oh cool train tell us all about that play again see the Band of Brothers Vibe definitely the most entertaining part of Gears outside of the combat their report is second to none with each other instead of giving a tutorial how the Krill work when they first come out we're shown through the world how they work and what we've got to do to avoid them gears and all actuality is really sparse on in your face tutorials which is obviously because of its Simplicity but is so welcome people out

here aren't gonna like that Marcus they use that [ __ ] that and they kill us and the gears wonder why nobody really likes them breaking the propane brings a whole new level to grinding the front line forward in case you weren't sure that the gears are strong as [ __ ] I mean just look at them boys never Skip Leg Day being able to move this [ __ ] nothing but rims and the definition of two pieces born close enough at least did anyone else do 1v1s with only nashers against a buddy the Krill

are a really fun element added into firefights having to deal with an enemy you can't fight directly is a novel obstacle for these tanks of human flesh but you guys are welcome to come back anytime you know copy that Marcus always keeping cool calm and collected epic knew what they're doing with this beat walking with a buddy and toying with them that you're gonna steal away his little safety blanket is too much fun I screw up I'll never see your ass again he's got a point Black's still out I'm just playing with you my man's

got jokes just like the gears even our vehicles have got to be as chunky as can be well no need to worry about the strength of this ride no more this is when having a buddy really shines won't work these doors are too thick oh poor Jack little guy just wants to be helpful I'll be sure to take that under advisement cold now move it yes sir so many things would go more smoothly if Karen's I mean people could just drop the ego and do what is needed for a challenge not us of course we're

perfect guys I miss older titles where the most they really had to offer to change the gameplay was a constant onslaught of new enemy types or very Niche gameplay experiences slash mechanics you'll never barely see again having the game be shorter as a consequence of this but not also be bloated with the 14 tailing missions AC4 watch out for the boogeyman even Baird knows this level is going to be a lot of jump scare orbits she's fine [ __ ] not yet come on dips I'd pay Marcus figures to call me a [ __ ]

your peers all suck a bunch of bloodthirsty fascist pigs human nature am I right one moment counting is lucky stars being saved by some gears in the next talking because he didn't get what he wanted especially since they're trying to help the situation of the Locust and he did anything twice before casting judgment this floor is the most rage reducing thing since trying to beat all battle tones this game really does have it all great gameplay scary monsters in Minecraft we ran into a problem you and Cole are gonna have to find an alternate route

naturally Barrett's starting to lampshade the developers gay design crazy to think about Emulsion how important it is to the story and we don't get anything about it here about this Factory nothing we just see this as alien lava but it's indicative of this game's development cycle which was to put gameplay first 90 of this game is actually made and all the levels created before even a link of story was written for it gears was all focused on gameplay with how it took the World by storm and even almost 20 years later how tight it still

is I'd say it was worth giving less story than a first grade Show and Tell oh nice it's not the final boss of the game I'd assume as much since this Cutie Pie has been chasing us since the start of the game like police trying to hit the quotas at the end of the month and I mean it's kind of cute right like when Sheila was hiding her face after being cut by sand you can't help but feel for these kinds of creatures sometimes just me all right and that ladies and gentlemen is why we

love Marcus freaking Phoenix Emulsion is really pretty though kind of looks like the Gatorade commercials where they'd sweat out the Gatorade and with it being an energy source I bet it would make us say it's in me there actually was an Emulsion gears branded energy drink that's been discontinued we could buy I guess people didn't think drinking a video game equivalent to oil was that interesting the torque bow baby this is what separated the boys for the men back in the multiplayer days lousy Raider didn't deliver the goods why does every hiring military dude sound

the same I swear A Few Good Men did something to our media oh my gosh that just reminded me that tatcom still exists in this game a super Niche feature that had the right idea but wrong this is a super itty bitty baby baby version of the system we'll see in Mass Effect the Tom Clancy series and what Halo 5 why what can I say old habits are hard to break what can I say having the ego sometimes brings along fun dialogue oh no it must have been here where they were inspired to create horde

mode the state just won't end yeah at least in prison they gave me three odds and a cut Marcus is onto something I had a buddy who was not in a great place in his life and decided that the best place for him was to serve a bit of time in jail so he could get some food and set his mind right the person feels more favorable than the Cog maybe the stranded her onto something all right epic set us up for that one I can't be the only one that got turned into a pig

on a slaughterhouse floor here adding more layers like an onion to the Berserker fight having to destroy the columns to get the clear sky and like good games of old they don't mention anything about how to do it or after a while explicitly tell you how Look At You Gotta Wear Ragnarok yours is also quite a hard game you've really got to use your cover and not get flanked because even on casual you're gonna die fast God I love the sound design something Oberyn could never see coming and the ball talk seriously all the weapons

except for maybe the hamburgers feel so unique and fun to use popping heads and Gibbon locusts can never get old God damn is this ever gonna end until people stop buying the games now uh copy that Anya we are aware gotta love that drives my grandma's Ash's humor what's up ladies locusts are inside [ __ ] is straight up acting like he's the only one who knows or at least I love how I know what he is but everyone's seemingly not giving too short and curly is that his family home is ransacked now when you

get out of this [ __ ] hole oh armor doing its job for once I know I'm cold oh sorry baby me and cold bond I feel I just used to call everyone baby and it has led to some really awkward circumstances just that alone makes the locus 10 times more terrifying knowing that anywhere on Earth they can emerge wait what this doesn't happen on Earth why would they do that and make another stations other than some weird yellow glue oh well the game doesn't take place on Earth so that's cool I guess Bayard is

just upset because his soul patch doesn't hold a candle to Marcus's Oh No this must have been the idea where they got for horror mode okay I'll stop I'm done do straight up put a mine on the end of a stick and it's gonna use his straight up strength to detonate it now that's pretty hardcore makes me wonder where Saruman didn't do the same he was already second irks just what do you think it can't get any worse I love the Brew Mac the locusts are so creative who needs a Mech when you've got a

flesh Mech bomb is mounted and ready to deploy wait the is on a train this is the collective reaction when the riding team found out that the levels were already created that they had to make a story for or more so that this entire chapter was added for the definitive edition Oh No this must have been the inspiration for no just no hey stupid you want some of this come and get me you know I would have expected coal to be a lineman not a running back guess he's the train and the way of speed

and not Unstoppable call back to the start when Marcus is looking up at wretches with not a care in the world you'll see no blood for Emulsion signs all around the game which is directly paralying the real life slogan in response to the Iraq war no blood for oil Gears of War came out at the exact time the war was really Brewing up and dipped its toe in a pot of media referencing the war and it's telling just how quick e day happened right after the pendulum Wars if there are still signs around I mean

this war is also fought over some of the reasons but you can see what I'm saying and more propaganda which is huge for the military industrial complex making Cog out to be the indult having to kill a cedar not using a hammer of God but we'll never see that again oh wow not even five minutes later we do that again our boys are efficient give me big Jurassic Park Vibes right now you know I mean hell the brewmak attack chapter is even called Jurassic proportions and it's cool that we finally get to fight the big

son of a bit in the definitive edition and I thought the food in prison smelled bad gotta have your heroic one-liners right viewers were originally Act five started now the question did we need all this extra filler nope but this is a game all about his gameplay so the more the merrier in this case all good things come in threes right I like that we're finally forced to face one without a hammer of Don we've got to think our way out of this one the presentation here really makes it feel like it's the end times

the locus blotting at the sun to make room for the krill [Music] I'm in straight up sound like the patriarch from Killing Floor Ram is a tough boss fight for all the wrong reasons but it is interesting because he forces us to throw out everything we knew about combat encounters and face him differently finally earning and showing some respect for the man that did it and we got a long hold on these two sides that make Marcus his family and his military family but you have my word is again oh the corny cliche and monologue

from the military man and cut two they do not understand what they do not know why we waged this war why we cannot stop will not stop oh what the [ __ ] a human lady is running the Locust okay now that is some good sequel Bay right there the Locust Queen can fly of course you can there's a whole other Locus creature we've never seen oh when's my second game coming out these developer notes are really cute but what is truly cute is kill trans song totally just stealing away any lassy tone in the

end wanted to leave the player with and reminding us just how much fun we had with our boys Gears of War is a Hallmark classic of the 360 era and again I think we all remember looking back on it it reminds me of a time when gaming was so simple just purchase the game and there you go no politics no microtransactions the entire game actually came on the [ __ ] disc it was a simpler time which is actually what made Gears quite hard to talk about and what makes it so great gears doesn't pretend

that it's anything other than big man shooting weird aliens it's not trying to make commentary on war or telling a moving story that'll bring you to tears those come later but with one it's just straight up playing goopy gamer mode shoot stuff and move to the level which normally I'd take issue with but the gameplay is so solid you can't help but enjoy yourself and then there's the multiplayer that was just checked on right at the end by epic and oh my God how was I obsessed I grew up a Playstation kid so I always

had to wait to see my cousin to play Gears before but you know damn well I was always trying to get on that grind with him especially two is where most of my memories with the franchise lie playing gears again so many years later on PC and 4K has been a treat and again why I love doing all this for you get into experience games and I wouldn't even think twice about picking up but did y'all first play Gears or review as young as me did it take over your life as well let me know

and as always drop the speed limit pick some water drop one another it's all [Music]