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Gears of War

36 Ratings: 3.4

A video game

Gears of War, an Xbox 360 exclusive game that blends tactical action with survival horror, thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing tale of humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface … see full wiki

Tags: Video Games, Xbox360, Shooters

Console: Xbox 360

Genre: Shooter

Release Date: November 07, 2006

1 review about Gears of War

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The Art of Gears of War

Jan 16, 2009

by SuperPhamicom

Rating:

Gears of War is one of my all-time favorite games, and to  me it's one of many that makes a very strong case for the pro side in the  silly "Can Video Games Be Art?" debate (of course they can). And please,  before you, dear Lunchster, jump to any conclusions, I do not propose that GoW's  incredibly detailed and fully-realized production design make it a work of art.  Nor am I positing that the clunky premise and macho narrative—the story—qualify  it as such either. Folks who try to defend games-as-art often miss the point:  it isn't necessarily the game's look or the story that should be the focus when  deeming a game artful, at least not yet. Games haven't quite  matured enough in the storytelling department to compete with the best of other  narrative-based media (like novels, comics, or really good movies). Might  happen in the future, but so far not so much. And like I said, it's beside the point  anyway.

Where the focus should be (as far as considering whether a game is artful or valid as an aesthetic experience) is the simple mechanism—the core gameplay element—that makes a game unique, innovative, addictive (gulp), or  beautiful, even. And fun. Let's not forget that. Tetris is a wonderful example, and so are other games like Katamari Damacy, Pac-Man and (on the analog side)  Chess. Tetris in particular is an amazing game built around a very simple, primal desire: To Organize Space. The graphic simplicity of it is part of what  makes it work; the game is essentially abstract, like a Piet Mondrian painting  in motion. Yep, I said it.

Which brings me back to Gears. The beauty of this game lies  in what I have narrowed down to 3 well thought out, well executed elements:

-The "stop and  pop" method of fire. This little in-game function lets you move your character  behind an obstacle to find cover. Depressing the left trigger "pops" you up or  to the side for a quick look-see while also zooming you into a reticle.  Releasing the trigger "pops" you back down to safety.

-The "active reload" system. Difficult to explain but  basically this is a function that lets you control the speed at which you  reload ammo, rewarding you if you do it perfectly with a boost in firepower.  It's like a small game within the game.

-Implementation of multiplayer "versus" mode. Also hard to  explain briefly, but trust me when I tell you that the team play element of the  game is very well balanced while encouraging teamwork and communication. It's  not completely as innovative as "active reload" or "stop and pop," but I feel  the multiplayer experience is still head and shoulders above most  other console shooters out there (except for maybe Halo). The new "Horde" mode in Gears of War 2 adds a wonderfully fun gametype where a team of up to five friends work together to survive wave after wave of aggressive, zombie-like enemies.

So while I do not think that Gears deserves a place in the permanent collection of the World Art Museum of All-Time Great Games, I do  believe its 3 above mentioned gameplay elements are incredibly well-designed  and in short, little works of art. If anything, Gears of War could be in one of the smaller, local "low-brow" art galleries that specialize in  representational, macho stuff.

PS I'm a wimpy pacifist and yet I find the more aggressive,  violent aspects of this game to be a complete gas, I'm ashamed to admit.

um, I dunno if this is appropriate for the site.

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ajrawls May 15, 2009

as long as the credits include ANY title that has the word artist attached to it i believe it should be considered art as much as a movie would be.

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Husher315 May 05, 2009

I don't know if you have a PS3 as well, but you should definitely check out Killzone 2. If you think Gears of War is beautiful, you really should it out. It is by far the most realistic warfare game out there right now. It features smart adaptive AI that reacts to every bullet, to beautiful graphics that i cannot compare to any other game out there right now besides maybe Heavenly Sword. I do share your love for Artistic and realistic games :)

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