Gears of War: E-Day: First Impressions

I just completed the first Act of the Gears of War: E-Day campaign and I already want to talk about it because – holy shit, what a first Act! If the rest of the campaign keeps up this level of quality, we’ve got a serious contender for my GOTY on our hands! I knew from the Multiplayer Beta that E-Day might be something special, but I was still blown away right from the opening.

With all the graphical bells and whistles now unlocked, E-Day is easily one of the best looking games I’ve ever played. I don’t normally get quite so excited when talking about visuals but – wow! As soon as I took control of Marcus I had to spend a few moments just admiring the scene. The opening Act takes place at night in the city of Kalona just as Emergence Day is beginning.

As tremors shake the city, nobody knows what the f**k is happening and then – the Locust begin to emerge, pouring out of sinkholes that are opening all across the city and slaughtering anyone in their path. E-Day doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to portraying this opening salvo of the Locust invasion.

The Locust don’t differentiate between civilians or soldiers, and E-Day doesn’t shy away from the pure horror of a city under siege by an unrelenting and monstrous force that shows no mercy. The streets are wet with blood as you and a small group of fellow soldiers attempt to fight back, rally what forces remain and guide what civilians you can save to safety.

It’s tense, brutal and fast paced. And it looks f**king glorious! The attention to detail is staggering, the lighting is incredible and the blood – the blood! After one intense shoot-out against the Locust in a supermarket, I noticed a slick, wet trail of blood snaking through the aisles. I followed the trail to find a wounded Locust drone crawling slowly away. Blood has never looked this good!

Which sounds . . . kind of a weird thing to say, but it’s true! I don’t think I’ve ever played a game with such a satisfying head shot system as a Locust’s face explodes in a shower of gore. And you don’t feel bad about it – not when you see the horrors the Locust are inflicting upon the people of Kalona.

The world is also incredibly reactive to the action – at one point I was firing at a Locust taking cover behind a stone pillar and my shots were chipping away at the stone, exposing him to fire. But the same later happened to me as I ducked behind a wooden board which promptly shattered from enemy fire.

The movement system feels even better than it did in the Beta – it’s the Gears cover based shooting that we all know and love, but with a higher degree of mobility and directional flexibility. The weight is still there, the punch of the guns, but everything feels a little smoother, with more fluid transitions between cover, aiming or movement.

I’m not going to jump into the MP modes just yet – I want to play through the campaign first. And it’s a campaign I’ll likely play again in co-op – it supports up to four players and (if you’re playing on console) 2 player split screen! We don’t see that often, these days! As a package, with the Campaign, co-op play, Versus and Horde Siege, E-Day offers fantastic value.

I know I still have a long way to go and it’s very possible my impressions of the game will change as I progress. But right now – what an opening! I’m going to get back to it!

Now Playing: Gears of War: Reloaded

After thoroughly enjoying the Gears of War: E-Day Multiplayer Beta, I was hankering for some more Gears action. So when I saw Gears of War: Reloaded on sale – the latest remaster of the original Gears of War – I bought two copies. One for me and one for my friend so we could play through the campaign in co-op again, just like we did 20 years ago on the 360 when the game first released.

I didn’t play the previous remastered version – the Ultimate Edition – so I can’t compare, but my understanding is that Reloaded is built upon it and more optimised for modern systems. And it’s important to recognise that this is a pure remaster – not a remake. It’s the original Gears of War just with a visual overhaul. No bells. No whistles. There are a few bonuses you can unlock in the form of comic pages and concept art, but that’s all.

I hadn’t played Gears 1 for more than a decade but just as with the recent E-Day Beta, the muscle memory kicked in quick and me and my friend were chainsawing our way through the locust horde with ease. We figured we’d put it on Normal difficulty to get reacquainted, but we ended up breezing through the campaign in less than five hours – not just because we found it easy, but because the campaign is extremely short.

Much shorter than I recall, in fact. The five chapters pass quickly but they do at least provide a solid experience. Gears 1 may not possess the most substantial campaign, but it does offer a fair degree of replay value with multiple difficulty options, collectibles to find and alternative paths you can take as you progress. It’s a game you’ll be happy to replay because it’s just so damn fun.

If there’s one thing that’s not changed in 20 years, it’s that the core combat of Gears remains just as satisfying today as it did back then – blasting drones into chunks with the Gnasher shotgun will never, ever get old. The game smartly mixes up the locations, providing a steady stream of varied environments and combat encounters with a small, but decent selection of enemy types.

Where Gears is really showing its age are the extremely frequent ‘radio talk’ moments. I’d forgotten how often these interrupt your progress, sometimes two or three times within just a few minutes. Your character is reduced to a crawl as they listen or talk over their earpiece. It’s a very annoying part of the original game.

From a story point of view, Gears still holds up well, but it feels like there’s so much more they could have explored or expanded upon. And that’s why, as much as I enjoyed playing this pure remaster of the original, it’s also convinced me that this is a game crying out for more than just a remaster.

Gears of War – hell, the entire original Gears trilogy I’d say – deserves the full remake treatment. After seeing so much exciting campaign footage for Gears of War: E-Day which serves as a prequel to Gears 1, my hope is that the next step are proper remakes of the original games in the same engine.

It makes sense – you have the engine, you have the models, and remakes of classic games are one of the safest bets you can make these days. But I do believe Gears is the sort of game that really would benefit from it – with scope to expand on the existing levels, flesh out the story and characters and all but removing those pace stalling over the radio conversations.

I hope they do it but if not, I’m also glad we have this modern remaster we can enjoy on modern systems. If you’ve never played the original Gears of War – or any Gears of War for that matter – this isn’t a bad way to start, but be aware this is a 20 year old game just with a visual overhaul. The most important thing is that Gears of War is still just fun to play. Sometimes, that’s all you really need.

7/10