Gears of War.This was played on original Xbox 360 hardware, not the remake version.
I first got this on my original Xbox 360 in 2007 or 2008. I never completed it. At the time I just didn't "get" it and vastly preferred Uncharted 1 and especially 2.
14 years since I last played it (last achievement was Chapter 3 acquired in 2008) I decided to give it another try and loved it. At first I found the game extremely difficult on the Hardcore difficult and didn't feel slighted in any way in the necessity to switch to Casual mode, which I completed the game upon. At first I felt the game was a bit too slow, but the more I went through the game the better I got, to the point where by end game I was consistently in the zone and took out enemies with ease. What was originally a slow game of hide and seek became an aggressive shooter of pressing the advantage and taking over a map like a chess board. After completing the game on Casual I ended up starting another game on Hardcore and I got through a good portion of the game in one sitting. The design ethos of Gears forces the player to get good to continue, even on Casual, and especially on Solo mode.
What a punishing game because it's fit for such a punishing world.
I was beyond impressed with the storytelling. Despite the amount of dialogue it's pretty minimalist in its storytelling. It helps enrich the world of Gears often by showing rather than telling and with minimal cutscenes. We witness personally the beautiful turned ugly as beautiful architecture and works of art of an old, perished society lays in ruins. And yet through all of that, hope remains. Those crumbled buildings sometimes have been taken back my nature, filled with vines, trees, and twigs. It gives hope to a hopeless situation that the fight for humanity can continue despite the cracks, despite the losses, despite everything. Even Marcus, a man left to rot and falsely accused of a crime, gets a chance to redeem himself and save his own humanity. In spite of all the darkness, and Gears is a dark game, there's hope and light at the end of the tunnel. The characters themselves are well written from the unfortunate Carmine and Kim, to Baird, Cole, Dom, and Marcus' as the brotherhood and friendship the four of them experience gets deeper and deeper. I particularly like how the game starts out with tension between Baird and Marcus. Baird does not, even in the least bit, like Marcus. You think Baird is kind of an overbearing asshole. But by the end of the game Marcus is covering for Baird and trying to help him recover mentally when he's scared shitless. The bond these two have that starts out bad but seemingly grows more tight knit by end is natural and flawless. I like their relationship even more than Dom and Marcus'.
Originally at the time of release I hated the visuals, but now understood and came to even appreciate the heavy contrast, low key visual style. Even the character designs which I thought were too much when I first played it fell into the category of "cool" for me now. I have no idea how my tastes changed this wildly but I somehow felt the original Gears to be a breathe of fresh air. No stupid side quests, no stupid large worlds, no stupid filler, no stupid fruitcake shit. Just all action, all killer. Even more impressive was the sound design and overall soundtrack. Holy shit.
The presentation is general is just cool as fuck, from Marcus low voiced grunts, to the way he picks up weapons off the floor and flips his rollout. "Sweet", he says as he picks up a pile of nades. Gears of War is such a fucking cool game in how it looks, how it sounds, and how it feels.
My favorite Act was Act III where they enter the mines. Just an overall flawless Act in terms of level design, enemy encounter design, and sound.
If there were any flaws for Gears I'd say that the friendly AI can be absolutely braindead dumb even when following "orders".
Another flaw. To me there's Knowledge games and Skill games. Some games hinge themselves on knowledge more than technical skill, while others reward skill over knowledge. Most games are hybrids of the two but most games lean one way or the other. I would say Halo is a skill-based game in the campaign because it's such an intuitive experience but I would label Gears a knowledge-based game sometimes to its detriment. For example there's boss fights like the Corpser on Act III. I kept shooting its belly but nothing was happening. I didn't realize you had to shoot its belly *and* its mouth and that the goal was to push the boss backwards into the ooze in a Metroid like fashion.
Another difficulty was the final boss fight. RAAM, the final boss is a complete bullet sponge. I had no idea how I was supposed to beat him and he just kept on going. The awful friendly AI of Dom rushing towards him within melee range outright didn't help things. It wasn't until I found out I could load the torque while in cover and then shoot that I was able to beat him. Certain other encounters are much better with knowing how to deal with them rather than rely on intuition. It's not an entirely bad thing because it lends to replay value and makes things better on replays, but it *is* a niggle.
This is a nitpick but I absolutely abhor the grenades in Gears, from the fact they're slow to the fact you have to aim a particular way, to their very specific throw range. Hopefully grenades improve in future titles.
Looking forwards to Gears 2, which is apparently amazing.
Bonus:
Halo: CE
Halo 2
Halo 3
Outrun Arcade Online (replay)
