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