Gears of War - First Look Preview

The substantial range of Xbox 360 titles at E3â??05 provided a broad look at the depth of content currently in development for the format, and with it came natural degrees of varying results â?“ some titles seemed to easily usher in the High-Definition, while others struggled to depict the gap between current and next.

When it came to embracing the next-generation however, there was little doubt that one title in particular single-handedly stood out from the crowd, casting confidence that the Xbox 360 can easily hold its own against admittedly impressive Playstation3 footage and wonderfully demonstrating the power of the Unreal Engine 3.0 in action.

Gears of War is a new franchise from Epic Games, billed as a tactical third-person shooter with heavy survival/horror influences. Set in the near-future, Gears of War paints an uncharacteristic golden-age for humanity living on a planet named Sera at a time when a vast new source of power has been discovered.

Despite its promise however the discovery of â??Imulsionâ? unwittingly created tensions amongst humanity; for seventy-nine years, nations battled for control of the miraculous energy source... however worse was still yet to come. As humanity fought on the surface a new threat gathered underground; a mass of nightmarish creatures known as the â??Locust Hordeâ?, stopped the conflict between mankind as an epic battle between the creatures from the bowels of the planet began. Witnessing one quarter of the human population wiped out within the first twenty-four hours, mankindâ??s leaders took the fateful decision to scorch the earth with its chemical and orbital-beam weapons, taking out the locust-occupied cities and those who could not evacuate the city alike. Humans won the conflict that was ultimately deemed â??Emergence Dayâ?, however the threat remained and left 90% of Seraâ??s surface all but a barren wasteland.

Players assume the role of Marcus Fenix, a disgraced former war hero who defied orders to save his father; seeking personal redemption Fenix and his squad lead up the charge against the Locust Horde in what Microsoft promises to be â??like controlling a blockbuster action movieâ?.

Initial impressions reveal Gears of War to house a lot of similarities to your conventional squad-based shooter, with heavy emphasis on dramatic action and the promise of a strong strategic element from the developers. Having designed a new â??coveringâ? system from the ground-up, Gears of War challenges the player to work his squad around the environment taking in cover and more importantly making it, whenever the opportunity arrives. One particular example saw the main character shoot out a concrete pillar and watch it crashing to the ground to provide cover, while various interactions with the environment were evident such as setting oil alight. It was hard to distinguish whether the environment is dynamic and driven by physics or whether this was all a result of scripted events, but if Gears of War hopes to equal its visual quality weâ??d have to hope for much, much more in terms of environmental damage and how you can use this to your advantage; that said itâ??s still early days and were only treated to a fragment of the what the final game will offer.

One element that should finally usher in a new benchmark for videogames is the fact that the Co-Op mode is an entire campaign, with the second player assuming the role of an equally important character and no longer simply being a clone of the main. The game presents various situations in which the squad is split and must provide assistance for one another, hopefully as Epic assured us, the Co-Op mode will embrace this design at the core of the experience. Various enticing situations to highlight the gameâ??s tactical elements were presented during the demonstration, such as using a squad-member to draw out the enemy into a cross-fire situation;

The various opponents faced within the game ranged from typical armed enemies to what accounts as black locusts big enough to pick up a house swirling around in a eerily, close-knit formation in the sky above. Fearing light, players constantly have to be in the search of illumination to protect themselves from the Locust Horde, with examples including setting an oil spill on fire and pushing a burning car-wreck along while staying under the protection that it provides. This mechanic of inching your way slowly through vast hordes of the enemy creates a unique experience amongst the intense action, very reminiscent of certain sci-fi/horror flicks - itâ??s so much like Pitch Black itâ??s unreal!

Itâ??s fair to say that the overall gaming experience is shaping up to be one hell of a ride; however Gears of War stands out above all others as the most impressive demonstration of the Xbox 360 in action. Bearing in mind that yet again the demonstration was taking place on unfinished dev kits, watching Gears of War in action was a magnificent sight to behold and a wise reminder to those that have all but written off the Xbox 360 after seeing Playstation3 videos in action! Take one look at the screenshots attached and imagine that visual quality in motion, rapid-fire and moving at a million miles an hour, at that; naturally with action taking centre stage you can expect some pretty ludicrous explosion and pyrotechnical effects, as the particle engine goes into overdrive. The demonstration claimed that the environment in which the action took centre stage was composed of over 200 million triangles, while aspects such as lighting/shadowing and texture quality easily demonstrated what High-Definition is all about â?“ crisp detail on an expansive scale. Despite impressing from virtually every angle, the true star of the show had to be the swarm of locusts that plagued the skies above; just watching these things was enough to induce fear, coming across as similar to the sentinel invasion of Zion in Matrix Revolutions, i.e. frantically fast and encompassing you in every direction you look. Rather then be a smart visual technique, it appears as though the swarm was an actual entity casting a myriad of shadows on the ground below.

Almost bound by fate, a quick leap over cover resulted in the main character falling through the environment and the re-start from scratch of the demonstration, aptly highlighting the fact that the demonstration was taking place in real-time.

Naturally both Epic and Microsoft are keeping specifics secretive for the time being, however early details suggest the appearance of a combat robot to help throughout the game, providing health support, spectral analysis and a variety of cutting and welding options. In addition a King raven dropship also features in the early documentation, suggesting that vehicles will form some part whether it be simply dropping the squad at the start, on-rails shooting action or possibly taking direct control yourself â?“ weâ??d have to say the middle option looks the most likely at present.

To leave the audience gasping for more the demonstration concluded with the appearance of a gargantuan creature known as the Brumark; measuring over 12 metres in height and over 10,000 Kg in weight, this monstrous beats did a good job to highlight the type of experience you can expect with Gears of War â?“ absolutely mental!