Dust off that bulky armor and rev up that bayonet positioned chainsaw once again! During Microsoft’s impressive media briefing this week during day 0 of E3, two new Gears of War projects were shown. The simply titled Gears 4 was unveiled with a short clip of gameplay footage to get us all riled up for (presumed) holiday 2016 availability. The other half of GoW news came in the form of Ultimate Edition, a re-release of the first Gears entry from 2006. With improved graphics and upped frame rate, GoW:UE will keep most of what made the initial entry of the series a premier first party IP for the Xbox 360’s campaign. I was given the privilege to play the multiplayer beta, which showed off a couple game modes and maps to show any cautions optimists/pessimists the direction and progress of the project leading up to its August 25th street date.
As some of you may know, the first three GoW titles were done primarily by Epic Games, the company responsible for creation and continued evolution of the Unreal Engine. That particular bit of gaming tech was the bee’s knees during the last console generation, which gave Gears a ton of gameplay and graphical prowess. So, Ulitmate Edition already had a great show piece upon which to “buff out” some minor things visually. This remix is being handled by The Coalition, which recently went through a name change from Black Tusk Studios. Standing as a subsidiary of Microsoft Studios, the switch in moniker (which is most certainly in reference to the Coalition of Ordered Governments, the ruling human faction of Gears storyline and lineage) comes in accordance with them being handed the keys to the property acquired by MS from Epic in 2014. Again, the mid 2000’s was Unreal Engine’s heyday, so the first GoW looked amazing on the 360, and still looks great for its age on the old platform. The jump to “full 1080” on the One doesn’t initially seem like a drastic change. Edges are more defined and color management has more pop and shimmer, but these things have to be noticed with a focused gaze. The touch ups seemed to get lost in all the close-in carnage of gameplay. This is in no way, shape, or form a knock on The Coalition’s artistry; it’s more of a tip of the hat to Epic that they were able to design a game that rung the 360’s horsepower plum dry to present one of the best looking series from the previous generation. I’m sure when the game is released and we get a chance to replay the campaign that the environments and cut scenes will be a better demarcation of the then and now. But this beta was all about online adversarial play.
Looking back, 2006 was a simpler time in the world of online shooters. You had a few stand out franchises that tried to employ balance among players (Halo and Rainbow Six to name a couple), but many others were a haphazardly fun affair. I say that to preface incoming statements that could easily be construed as indictments against the MP functionality of the original Gears. For the record, I love this series. If not for Halo, this would probably be my favorite shooter IP. However, the gameplay mechanics that made the single player/co-op experience an instant classic didn’t translate as well to foster steady, competitive play. Former design director at Epic Cliff Bleszinski called the basic tenants of playing GoW “Stop and Pop.” The 2nd person/over-the-shoulder perspective is meant to strike a chord between FPS controls and 3rd person camera outlook. While the application of this control/camera style can be somewhat inconsistent and more trouble than it’s worth (see Ghost Recon 2), it was the absolute best decision for Gears. Cover is the most important aspect of combat engagements. Quickly analyzing the immediate battle ground, locating targets, ranking importance of those targets, and going from cover spot to cover spot is a frenetic game of bullet & chainsaw laden chess that makes playing a GoW game feel unique. And while these sensibilities work best in campaign, they also play host to really entertaining multiplayer. Problem is the fun factor is rivaled by the immense frustration of inconsistency.
Again, the gaming audience of 2006 didn’t seem quite as cynical and antagonistic as it does now, particularly the shooter crowd. While playing the beta for GoW:UE, welcomed nostalgia was accompanied by recollections of the less-than-stellar portions of playing online. I don’t and will never claim to be a game designer, but what it seems like (from a player’s perspective) is that the campaign gameplay was applied to the multiplayer with little to no nerfing or buffs to weapons. Gears is, well, geared towards mano a mano, in your face, up-the-gut kill shots. Moshing through hordes of Locust forces while blaring some thrash metal puts a devilish grin on my face. Uprooting that style and planting it in a 4v4 scenario with real participants doesn’t work quite as well. MP is generally played at two speeds: incredibly patient with contemplative/prudent movements to gain position or guns a blazing, hell raising lunacy trading kills for deaths until someone is left alive (then quickly gets taken out by a respawned enemy). Personally, I prefer the latter because that’s when GoW acts most “at home.” Yes, the cover-to-cover strategy is always necessary to observe, as to not become a big target in an open kill box. But at some point, you have to get down to the nitty gritty and blast a fool with a shotgun shell or split their wig with the Lancer’s saw. Inherently, this gameplay style removes much of the nuanced finesses that separate players at different skill levels in many of today’s shooters. The main (read: only) assault rifle option is the aforementioned Lancer rifle. Works pretty well up close, per usual, but performs horrendously at any mark-able distance. I had honestly forgotten just how inaccurate the stream of fully auto rounds are when needing to zoom. Good gracious. To be completely honest, engaging a target from beyond a few steps is much more trouble than it’s worth because you give away your position. You’re much better off trying to dodge roll in close and pull out the Gnasher shotgun. My friends and I dubbed it “the broom” because it was the best way of dispatching a group of Wretches, the pint sized Locust members that rely on a piranha influenced attack to be of any real threat. Aim the shotgun reticle at a 45 degree angle down and unleash the fury! On Xbox LIVE, the shotty takes on a much different usage strat. When at point blank range, the game turns into a hip fire spamfest, and it’s anybody’s guess as to who will come out with the kill. It seemed that trying to focus the blast up for a headshot might have edged out the 1v1 battle here and there, but the determination of winner and loser feels like a crap shoot more often that not. Using the Lancer chainsaw works sometimes, but any buckshot stops the rev, so you’ll need to be extra sneaky or extra jumpy to beat someone playing with the Gnasher. The only thing worse than shotty v. shotty exchanges are two people charging at each other with revved ‘saws. That is even more of a coin flip as to who will carve out the kill. Gears 2 remedied the situation a bit with the Lancer duel system, in which the warring pair would spam B to see who would win, but that construction wasn’t in place for the original GoW.
No doubt these weapon frustrations are negatives, but anyone who decides to play this game online will understand the lay of the land very quickly. Even someone with no knowledge of the mechanics at all wouldn’t need more than an hour or two to realize this is a game that’s not for someone who pedantically obsesses about their K/D. Let you hair down, have fun, and try not to allow your level of anger or “tilt” to carry over to the next round or match. During my play test, it seemed King of the Hill was more enjoyable than Team Deathmatch (which debuted in Gears 3), but that may have been from the map availability. KOTH was hosted on Canals, War Machine, and Courtyard (a GoW PC selection that came to the 360 in Gears 2 by way of a DLC pack) while TDM was exclusive to Gridlock, and aggravatingly small map. But the biggest shortcoming of the Beta was the lack of custom lobby support. I have a couple of folks on my friends list that got access to the trial, and being able to work through the madness and try to generate some strategies with gamers I know and trust would have increased the longevity of each session tenfold. Not being able to “party up” was a huge issue. Because of the cover system, clean/focused communication is paramount to map control. Without it, the proceedings came across more sloppily as they probably would have otherwise. From what I can gather, this is something that The Coalition will definitely have up and running when the full game releases. There are also a few other things I noticed in the Beta that I’ll wait for full retail to delve into, like the effect of 60fps. The points discussed here were to say that the basic gameplay tenants of the original game have evidently returned (for better and worse), and that anyone not on board with that should probably avoid playing the adversarial aspects of the game. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is slated to blast onto the Xbox One August 25th.
