Gears of War Realm

I saw my first glimpse of Gears of War while sitting in a large theatre room at the Microsoft Xbox booth at E3 2005. I had heard very little about it at that time, and had maybe seen one screenshot. So getting to see the demo was totally unexpected and very memorable. Sitting there watching that demo I was sold on the Xbox 360. The game defined what I thought a next generation game should look like. Showing Cliff “CliffyB” Bleszinski playing the game with his running commentary was way more convincing than a bunch of pre-rendered videos that was playing in the Sony PlayStation 3 booth. It demonstrated how much further along Microsoft was with the Xbox 360. I searched the floor for the game, but left disappointed to find out it wasn’t on the floor that year.

A year later, present day, I stand in line outside of what appears to be the same room for the first public demo of Gears of War at E3 2006. At first I was disappointed when the girl outside the theatre told me it was going to be just a video presentation. But all my fears were gone as I walked in. Inside I saw CliffyB standing behind a pedestal with an LCD TV and a Gears of War decorated Xbox 360. Obviously the girl outside was confused; this was going to be a live demo of the single player game by the lead designer himself. The disappointment faded away, very quickly.

CliffyB prepares to present us Gears of War.

The game opens with a dramatic cinematic of the history of the beautiful planet Serra and how the Locust Horde came and messed it all up for everyone. Seeing the planet’s surface being scorched deliberately is really a sight to see. Shortly after the cinematic ends; your old friend Dom rescues you, Marcus Fenix, from the bowels of an abandoned prison where you’ve been locked up for some time.

The peaceful streets of Serra before Emergence Day.


Serra’s now less peaceful streets being scorched from the sky.

As you take control for the first time, Dom asks you to follow his flashlight to setup your look inversion. After this Dom presents you a choice of paths to take. This choice is something I’m glad us experienced shooter fans are being given. You can finally skip over the traditional training level of the game, and instead be thrown right into the action fighting the Locust Horde. This is a very welcome idea in my eyes, but I also feel a Gears newbie may want to actually walk through the training level on the first try to get used to it’s unique controls, but more on that in Part II.

From here you and Dom have to fight your way out of the prison through waves of Locust. This sequence demonstrates very well the proper application of the “30 second experience.” This is the idea where the game has a constant cool or fun factor every thirty seconds, so you don’t get tired of the game because it continues to change your experience constantly throughout the game.

Dom teaches you how to look.

Battling through the prison.

Once outside the prison you will rendezvous with the extraction copter just as the level boss begins to emerge from the ground. The level boss appears to be a large spider-like creature that is about the four times the size of the helicopter. I would also bet that the boss fight happens from within the helicopter, which means you would have the formulaic experience of fighting someone 50x your size from the ground, the odds will be a little bit more in your favor. But the designers haven’t commented on much more about vehicles just yet, other than a tease about a rail cart level in the Official Xbox Magazine feature on Gears of War.

The boss begins to emerge.

A mere few hours later, CliffyB presented the game at a conference to a room full of journalists and gaming fans. Many of these gamers may or may not have been there to see Gears of War, due to showings of Red Steel for the Nintendo Wii and Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PlayStation 3, but they all walked away awe struck. How can I say this? Well Gears of War clearly got the most crowd reaction out of all the demos shown. Not only were there a lot of cheering on as CliffyB tore though some Locust with the gun-mounted chainsaw, but everyone was turning to those sitting around them expressing their amazement.

Doing what chainsaws do best!

Overall the demo was so great that it blew me away even more than I had originally expected. I’ve watched our recording of the conference many times now and it still does not get old. It only makes me want to play the game again; too bad we now have to wait until the game’s release date now. This I think is a great sign that this game may in fact be more intense than we already think it can be.