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Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games (the creators of the Unreal series) using Unreal Engine 3.0 technology and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released for the Xbox 360 as an exclusive title on November 7, 2006 in select stores in the United States, and later broadly released in major U.S. retailers on November 12, 2006. The game was released on November 17, 2006 in Europe outside of Germany, where Microsoft Game Studios did not publish the game after it was denied a rating. A Limited Collector's Edition was also released, which included a disc of bonus content and an art book titled Destroyed Beauty that detailed much of the game's back-story.

The game centres on the soldiers of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from a relentless subterranean enemy known as the Locust Horde. The player assumes the role of Marcus Fenix, a former prisoner and war-hardened soldier. When in cooperative play, the second player takes control of Fenix's best friend and fellow soldier Dominic Santiago ("Dom").

Gears of War has been highly successful since its release; it sold over three million copies in just ten weeks and was the fastest-selling video game of 2006. A film adaptation is currently in the works, and the game is slated to be the first of a trilogy. At E3 2007 Microsoft confirmed the persistent rumor that Gears of War would be ported over to Windows. The game is a Games for Windows title, and was shipped on November 6, 2007.A Mac OS X release was confirmed by Epic's Mark Rein, speaking on a July 14, 2007 episode of Game Head.

Gameplay

Gears of War is a third-person "over-the-shoulder" shooter. In an interview with Cliff Bleszinski, lead developer for Epic Games, he cites three games that were the primary influences in the game's design including the third person perspective from Resident Evil 4 and the tactical-cover system from kill.switch. These design choices reflect themselves in the gameplay, as Gears of War focuses mainly on sound team-based and cover-dependent tactics with limited weapons rather than brute force.

Epic Games placed emphasis on the importance of cover, and on the harder difficulty levels being exposed to enemy fire for only a few seconds can result in death, making cover essential. While behind cover, players can choose to aim carefully with their weapons or use blind-fire to avoid subsequent damage from showing their heads from behind cover. Players have a wide assortment of rolling and cover maneuvers at their disposal with the press of a single button. The player can perform a roadie run, or a sprint, where the camera will lower towards the ground and bob considerably, as if the camera were being held by another person running behind the player. This, of course, makes targeting enemies much more difficult.

Setting

Gears of War takes place on Sera, a planet inhabited by humans, who have warred over a phosphorescent, low-viscosity fluid known as "Imulsion". Over several decades, the Pendulum Wars took place between various human countries, and ended with the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) taking control of the planet. The war quickly came to an end on "Emergence Day", when a ravenous force known as the Locust Horde bursts from underneath major human cities using a network of underground tunnels.

The Coalition, unable to defend against the sudden attack, is routed, and the Locust Horde takes control of the majority of Sera's urban, military, and manufacturing centers within 24 hours. The COG orders any survivors to Jacinto Plateau, a safe haven from Locust underground attacks, and then uses orbital laser weapons in a scorched earth strategy to deny the Locust Horde its gains. The human survivors that could not make it become known as the "Stranded" and have to survive on their own. In the 14 years since "Emergence Day", the Locust continue to attack the fortified Jacinto Plateau and force the COG to turn to the infirm, the young, and the condemned to replace their dwindling numbers. The game begins as Marcus Fenix, a COG soldier imprisoned for abandoning his post to attempt to rescue his father, is pardoned after only four years of his sentence and freed from prison by his friend Dominic Santiago.

Characters

Gears of War focuses primarily on Marcus Fenix, the main character, and Delta Squad's (consisting of Marcus, Dominic, Augustus "Cole Train" Cole, and Damon Baird) encounters with the Locust Horde. Players take control of Marcus Fenix, freshly rescued by Dominic Santiago from the Jacinto Maximum Security Penitentiary. When in co-op two player, the second player assumes control of Santiago. All four of the squad members are available for play during multiplayer games, along with Victor Hoffman.

Some of the characters received voice-overs from popular culture icons. Marcus Fenix is voiced by John DiMaggio, best known as the voice of Bender in Futurama, and Augustus "Cole Train" Cole is voiced by Lester "The Mighty Rasta" Speight, who plays "Terrible" Terry Tate, the "Pain Train", in the Office Linebacker commercials made for Reebok

Plot

The game’s actual plot begins fourteen years after Emergence Day. Marcus Fenix, a former COG soldier, is reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison. Dominic Santiago successfully extracts him from the prison, and takes him to meet Delta Squad. The group seeks to obtain the "resonator", a device that will map the Locust Tunnel, and later deploy the "Lightmass Bomb", which will destroy the heart of the Locust forces. Fenix and his allies recover the device, but suffer multiple casualties in the process. Amidst the chaos, Fenix leads the remaining soldiers through the ruins of Sera, to a mining facility, and finally into the planet’s depths.

Delta Squad succeeds in detonating the resonator, but only to shortly discover that the device failed to map the entire tunnel network. Fortunately, they discover a near complete map of the network that originates from Fenix’s old home, specifically his father’s laboratory. The group ventures to the Fenix estate at East Barricade Academy, encountering heavy Locust resistance. The data is collected, revealing that the Locust Tunnels are honeycombed throughout the entire planet's crust and are much larger than anyone ever expected, and the group then boards a train carrying the Lightmass Bomb. Fenix and Santiago battle their way through the train, and defeat General RAAM, before finally uploading the data. Fenix activates the bomb while Santiago escapes onto a helicopter and then, with the help of Colonel Hoffman, pulls Fenix onboard after the Bomb is activated. Fully activated, the Lightmass Bomb launches into Sera's underground, and eradicates the Locust tunnel networks. In the game's final sequence, Hoffman delivers a victory speech as the tunnels collapse and explode, whereupon the voice of the Locust Queen promises that the Locust will keep on fighting.

Collector's edition

At the game's release, Epic Games released a Limited Collectors Edition. Some of the notable differences are a steel case instead of the normal-style case and an extra disc which contains artworks of environments and stages including Locusts that never made it to the game. The disc also contains a time-lapse on the creation of the "Emergence" mural. The game's disc and case has a different cover and instead features the Omen background. Another of the Collector's Edition extras is a book titled Destroyed Beauty which illustrates the games back-story and includes concepts, sketches, and descriptions of the game's characters. The Collector's Edition also includes the same instruction manual and 48-hour Xbox Live Gold trial as the regular game does.

Soundtrack

Gears of War - The Soundtrack

Gears of War - The Soundtrack is the soundtrack of video game music from the game Gears of War. It was released on July 31, 2007 by Sumthing Else Music Works. The music was composed by Kevin Riepl who has previously worked with Epic Games on soundtracks for Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Championship.

Future developments

Gears of War lead designer Cliff Bleszinski said he hoped for the game to expand into graphic novels and eventually film. On November 21, 2006, Microsoft Corporate VP of Global Marketing and Interactive Entertainment Business Jeff Bell stated Gears of War is the first in a trilogy, through sequences on E-Day and the battle of Jacinto Plateau, as well as information on Adam Fenix and his research (which the character finds in Gears). Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein posted a message on the official Gears of War Internet forums, stating "It's not over until it is not fun anymore", and, in his view, Gears of War may become the next Halo series in terms of popularity.

The ending to Gears of War heavily suggested a sequel is in the works, and at the 2007 Game Developers Conference, Bleszinkski confirmed that Epic Games does "intend to do a sequel" to Gears of War

Film

On March 20, 2007, it was announced that New Line Cinema had purchased the rights to make a Gears of War film, with Stuart Beattie writing the script along with Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, who will be producing it. The film is scheduled to be released in 2009. Producer Wyck Godfrey said of the film adaptation, "I'm not a gamer, but what blew me away about Gears was how it captures the mythology of a war mission and how high the stakes are." It has been announced in the May 2007 issue of Game Informer that Cliff Bleszinski (lead designer of the game) will be the executive producer of the film. On August 3, 2007, AICN.com reported that Len Wiseman was to direct the movie adaption of Gears of War'