Before I delve into the ins and outs of UE, here is an intro/refresher to the Gears story. The inhabitable planet of Sera was fraught with a 79 year civil conflict dubbed The Pendulum Wars. The two main belligerents of the skirmish were the Union of Independent Republics and the Coalition of Ordered Governments. At the heart of the dispute was control over the Sera’s deposits of Imulsion, a highly valued source of natural energy. The COG forces were able to gain the upper hand by acquiring the blueprint for the Hammer of Dawn, a catastrophic area of effect weapon capable of scorching land masses. Predictably, this huge advantage in armament led to a GOG victory in the nearly century long war. Time of peace on Sera became short, however, as Emergence Day brought about another challenger of which the Coalition was obliged to contend. A group of intra-planetary beings known as the Locus Horde plunged from below to the surface, aimed to eradicate the human occupation. This sets the stage for our quartet of heroes, led by the ever vigilant Marcus Fenix.
Per usual with “remastered” versions of games from previous generations, the primary curiosity is the improvement to presentation. UE is boasting “full” 1080p resolution along with 60 frames as the refresh rate. Usually, these projects produce exorbitantly pronounced results. Despite the horrendous netcode issues of last year’s Master Chief Collection, the visual work done on the campaign portion of Halo 2 Anniversary was resplendent compared to it’s original Xbox counterpart. The immense in-game graphical overhaul was even outshone by the cutscene “reshoots” done at Blur Studios. These two components produced results worthy of the ornamental advertising efforts that started about this time last year. Fast forward to now and consider UE in a similar vein. Where H2A had the benefit of updating something 15 years its elder, the first Gears is just under a decade old and only reaches back one console generation. So, the breadth of UE‘s remodel was matter of factually going to be truncated in comparison. To compound the limitations, GoW was built on one of the most capable engines during its creation. March of 2004 brought the debut of Unreal Engine 3, a set of development tools that are still used today. I can remember seeing video demonstrations of its initial offering and being amazed by how it managed movement and collision. It also flaunted arguably the best visual quality of anything I had seen to that point. Gears of War stood to benefit from developer Epic Games going all in on Unreal Engine 3. And it did. Gears was by far the prettiest shooter I had ever played, with an incredible level of detail and under appreciated lighting mechanics. Splashes of bright, vibrant colors among the otherwise drab overlays and background emphasized important points in the motif that called for special attention. And the very high contact nature of the gameplay could have been a disastrous showing of collision. But even this aspect didn’t have any glaring plagues and was usually precise in terms of objects acting upon one another.
Every single positive component to Gears‘ appearance is preserved perfectly. None of the aforementioned aspects went through any frivolous “remixes” or were tweaked for a “brand new experience.” If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. The Coalition didn’t attempt to reinvent the visual wheel that Epic had created. For this, they deserve a great deal of credit. However, that does have a drawback in terms of “first glance” improvements. The 360 version of the game still looks great, even by today’s standards. Naturally, native 720 is not as crisp as 1080. But in the heat of combat, this isn’t as big of an ocular divide as one may think. Instead of a huge makeover, UE‘s advancements are more nuanced. With upped resolution, textual details are more defined and set “edges” against other palates more cleanly. Blacks are also deeper, which helps set the mood during parts of the game that show off the slight hints of survival horror, like juking in and out of light to avoid being shredded to mince meat by the Krill. Perhaps the best new look comes from using the chainsaw of the Lancer Rifle to chop down a Locus enemy. What was once a lot of blood and movement of the gun model diagonally from point A to point B is now that plus distinguishable tearing of flesh that leaves gooey chunks in an amalgamated pile directly underneath the kill site. Gross, but oh so satisfying.
Cutscenes have gotten some touch ups, as well, but they were handled in-engine. Because of this, they same level of difference from the original release for gameplay graphics is in similar proportion. Character models look a lot more “unique,” particularly in facial qualities and skin complexion. Movements are also more smooth, and set pieces like explosions show more, let’s say, oomph. But again, they aren’t revolutionary changes, rather pleasantly subtle. Speaking of subtle and pleasant, the up shift to 60fps was handled very, very well. Sometimes, this change can be really stark, if not a bit jarring. Last year’s remastering of The Last of Us seemed to have that problem. The cinematic feel to the game was muffled to some degree in lieu of more frames. In UE, the change makes combat more fluid without making individual components like aiming and shuffling in and out of cover seem foreign. Galvanized Gears muscle memory can be put to good use; you won’t need to “re-learn” how to play the game. The presentation aspect that did get markedly better is sound. While the entries on the 360 never sounded bad, extreme highs and lows would levy a good amount of distortion. My a40s used to screech when needing to relay a shotgun blast, Boomer shell, or howl from a Wretch. To my much appreciated relief, the new Dolby Digital 7.1 track smoothed out the harshness while still maintaining the superb effects, layering, and spacial adherence of the ’06 release. Again, another example of the dichotomy from UE‘s presentation package: complimenting the foundation instead of rebuilding.
While on the subject of foundations, the gameplay of the Gears franchise established its own set of rules in ’06 that has served as a template for the three (now four if you include UE) subsequent releases. Former lead designer Cliff “CliffyB” Bleszinski once described the combat tempo of the game as “stop-n-pop.” Basically, characters don’t deal with taking landed shots as well as playables in other action games and shooters. The prescribed method of dealing with packs of enemies in a majority of shooters is to move in open space to avoid fire while being accurate with one’s own ejection of rounds. Instead, Gears took a small page from the stealth genre playbook and put cover as the top priority. If you stand in the open in a heavily contested area, you will more than likely be downed and/or out right killed. It is paramount that you first establish yourself against sturdy cover, like a stone pillar or destroyed vehicle. Second, decide what targets from that position you can reasonably and accurately engage. Third, once those enemies are eliminated or move, quickly map out a maneuver strategy that keeps open exposure to a minimum from cover spot A to cover spot B, C, D, and so on until the area is clear of baddies.
In practice, the above plan of action should probably play out as follows. An Emergence Hole (spawn location for Locus) pops up. Immediately you start to whiz enough bullets in their general vicinity as a way to temper their advancement as you dive to your first bit of cover. The camera technique used in the game is termed “over the shoulder.” Think of it as second person shooting: you see most of your controlled character in frame, but the left and right stick movements are that of a first person game. A reticle isn’t a stagnant part of the HUD, but when ADS-ing, the proceedings shift into familiar FPS territory. For the total gameplay package, this camera style works perfectly. Now that you’ve got your bearings and are hesitantly comfortable where you are, you pull on the left trigger to peak out and take some pot shots with the Lancer to down and hopefully finish off Locus standing flat footed in the open. Then, the rest of the Horde grab their own cover and then the real fun begins. From here, it’s a battle of aggressive patience. As they pop up, you pelt them with more Lancer rounds, but they retreat back down behind their shield before a down or kill can be finished. So, the next step is to find the best way to Roadie Run (Gears version of sprinting) and combat roll closer to the enemy or enemies that are within your reach. As you get closer, they’ll begin to back away from their cover and expose themselves again in the open, which is an opportune time to go back to the original auto fire down/kill tactic. Sometimes, though, they’ll “test you gangster,” and stay right where they are despite your encroaching proximity. This is what I like to refer to as lunch time! At point blank range, it’s time to pull out the ever OP Gnasher Shotgun and blind fire blast them into a gazillion pieces. If you’re slick enough with shifting around, you just might be able to completely catch an isolated Locus off guard and execute them with the Lancer’s bayonet style chainsaw, which is maybe the most satisfying sound in an action game, ever. There are some aberrations to this prescribed scenario such as a random indoor engagement or isolated boss battle, which will call for their own “way to play.” In general, this paragraph is a decent synopsis of how combat routinely works across the Gears series.
And it’s this method that lends these games so well to co-op. In UE, you can team up with another bro or bro-ette in local split screen or online. In all honesty, this is by far the best way to go about handling the campaign. I know, that’s a pretty general statement that applies to most titles. But this notion is tenfold in GoW. Because of the cautiously frenetic nature of the action, things get taken to a whole other level when you have another real person with which to coordinate attacks, counters, and flanks. Coming up with camaraderie as the two of you go along is part of the fun. You start to understand who is better with certain weapons in certain situations and which one is able to fight in close with better efficiency. And with the revive mechanic in place, you have a bit of a fail safe within the trial and error period, which should help temper frustrations while the two of you get on the same page. That particular notion really ramps up in the sequels, but even for just the purposes of the subject at hand, it’s better to play together. More so when you consider how poor the friendly AI can be during some scenarios. Naturally, my usual Xbox LIVE kith didn’t have copies of the game during my play test, so I was subjected to single player for this portion. Routinely, when the number of Horde members reaches a certain amount, Dom (short for Dominic Santiago, Delta Squad’s assumed second in command) puts himself in very precarious situations with lack luster movement and engagement decisions. During decent sized battles, it seems he’ll be downed more often than not, which puts the onus on you to go retrieve him before he is executed and ruins the current run at the next checkpoint. Later in the game when Augustus Cole and Damon Baird join the NPC ranks, this problem seems to happen less. Which is a shock considering the number of comrades balloons from one to three, but I guess the extra bodies are able to handle the onslaught with better efficiency. The enemy AI is just fine most of the time, and puts up a proportional fight depending on the selected difficulty level. Just be ready to have your frustration meter tested if you do have to solo run the campaign.
GoW:UE is also bringing back adversarial multiplayer, and even adding some content from the sequels. Online will feature 19 maps in total, from on disc to DLC to PC exclusives, and even brand new selections. Familiar locations like Mausoleum, Canals, and Gridlock are accompanied by fresh destinations like Boxes, a map built for the purposes of introducing 2v2 MP, a mode made just for UE. While we’re on the topic, ol’ stalwart match types of Warzone, Execution, Assassination, and Annex made the trip to Xbox One, along with Team Deathmatch and King of the Hill from later releases. The improvements on tap for MP are 60 frames, like campaign, as well as dedicated servers. As I said with single player, the new refresh rate doesn’t feel foreign, which is a very good thing for the sake of the high intensity nature of play. Dedicated servers is the real point of interest. As Master Chief Collection proved, modulating netcode from previous generations can cause disastrous results for stability and match creation. From the session I was lucky enough to play with other media members and some gracious hosts from The Coalition, everything was okay. The lobby and chat systems worked just fine and there was no noticeable lag or latency issues. The true test will be the game’s public release tomorrow, but from what I can report now, it seems to be all systems go. Which I’m sure is a huge relief for awaiting fans, The Coalition, and Team Xbox members alike.
