Game: Gears of War 

Condition: Pre-Owned 

Included: Game Disc & Case 

License: Product License Key Included 

Year: 2006 

Gears of War, or simply known as Gears, is a video game franchise created by Epic Games, developed and managed by The Coalition, and owned and published by Xbox Game Studios. The series focuses on the conflict between humanity, the subterranean reptilian hominids known as the Locust Horde, and their mutated counterparts, the Lambent. The franchise consists of six third-person shooter video games, which has also been supplemented by a comic book series and five novels.

The first installment, titled Gears of War, was released on November 7, 2006 for the Xbox 360. The game follows protagonist Marcus Fenix, a soldier in the Coalition of Ordered Governments tasked to lead a last-ditch effort to destroy the Locust Horde and save humanity. Two subsequent titles, Gears of War 2 (2008) and Gears of War 3 (2011), continued Fenix and humanity's ongoing conflict with the Locust Horde and Lambent forces. In 2013, Epic Games and Microsoft released Gears of War: Judgment, a prequel to the series’ first title, which instead focuses on Damon Baird, one of Fenix's squad-mates. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was released for Microsoft Windows on March 1, 2016. The series' third sequel, Gears of War 4, is set 25 years after Gears of War 3 and follows Marcus Fenix's son, JD, as he battles a new resurrected Locust Horde that once again threatens humanity. Gears 5 (2019) revolves around Kait, a friend of JD, who embarks on a quest to learn her true origin and relation to the Locust Horde.

Gears of War was developed by Epic Games. Cliff Bleszinski, who has previously worked on Epic's Unreal Tournament games, served the series’ lead game designer for the first three installments. He was inspired by gameplay elements from Resident Evil 4, Kill Switch, and Bionic Commando. The series was also guided by Rod Fergusson, the executive producer and director of development of Epic Games until 2012. The first four installments of the Gears of War series used a modified version of the Unreal Engine 3 engine. On January 27, 2014, Microsoft acquired all rights to the franchise from Epic Games. Canadian studio The Coalition developed Gears of War 4, which was released on October 11, 2016 for the Xbox One and Windows 10. A sequel, Gears 5, was released on September 10, 2019.

Gears of War became one of the best-selling franchises for the Xbox 360. The series is well known for its emphasis on cover-based combat, in which players can use objects to avoid gunfire or safely engage enemies. All six installments in Gears of War featured several multiplayer modes that allowed players to compete against each other or team-up to battle AI opponents on Xbox Live. The Gears of War games have been amongst the most popular and most played titles on Xbox Live.

Former Naughty Dog developer Lucas Pope has stated that the Uncharted franchise drew inspiration from Gears of War, with the first game in the series being delayed after the first Gears of War game released in order for certain core gameplay and technical elements to more resemble that of the latter.

The Gears of War series takes place on Sera, a fictional Earth-like planet. Human civilization develops on Sera and endures a millennia-long conflict that leaves humanity on the brink of extinction. Sera's leaders broker an era of peace that ushers an era of scientific advancements and a cultural renaissance. Humanity's population sporadically grows and demands more energy provided by fossil and nuclear fuels. Sera's scientists discover Imulsion, a naturally occurring substance that can be refined into a potent energy source. Imulsion solves Sera's energy crisis but ultimately creates great economic disparity. Nations with direct access to Imulsion prosper, while other nations fall into financial turmoil.

Sera's citizens balkanize into two warring factions: the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) and Union of Independent Republics (UIR). The ensuing 79-year strife, known as the Pendulum Wars, consumes millions of lives with both sides locked in a virtual stalemate. The UIR develops the 'Hammer of Dawn', a system of satellites capable of delivering precise and potent orbital-to-surface laser strikes. However, a contingent of COG commandos, led by Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, and Victor Hoffman launch a daring raid on a UIR stronghold and steal the schematics for the Hammer of Dawn. The UIR quickly surrenders after witnessing the Hammer of Dawn devastate one of their naval vessels after being completed by Marcus Fenix's father, scientist Adam Fenix.

Six weeks after the COG and UIR agreed to an armistice, a race of creatures known as the Locust Horde unexpectedly emerge from Sera's depths and begin assaulting all human cities, wiping out 25% of the world population in the first 26 hours. The Locust Horde easily overwhelms the already battleworn COG forces during this surprise attack, referred to as 'Emergence Day'. The COG retreats to cities located on the Jacinto Plateau, their last bastion where the Locust cannot dig through, and reluctantly bombard their own cities with the Hammer of Dawn to halt the Locust Horde's offensive. The ensuing scorched earth tactic destroys much of Sera's cities and human population. The COG continues to operate out of the capital city of Ephyra and cities on the plateau such as Jacinto, while the surviving humans, known as Stranded, are left to wander through Sera's charred ruins.

Five years after Emergence Day, the Locust reemerge and begin a campaign of occupying human cities located on the Jacinto Plateau to act as stepping stones in order to destroy Ephyra. Eventually, the Locust are able to emerge and overrun the COG capital of Ephyra ten years after Emergence Day. During the chaos, Marcus Fenix leads an unauthorized mission to save his father, Adam, from the Locust assault. However, a King Raven helicopter is shot down by the Locust Horde and crash-lands into the Fenix Estate, presumably killing Adam Fenix. The COG's leadership court martials Marcus and sentences him to life imprisonment. After losing Ephyra, the remainder of the COG retreats to Jacinto City, which resides on the edge of the plateau against an ocean.

Gears of War is set fourteen years after the Locust emerged and attacked Sera's human population. The COG forces devise a last-ditch offensive to destroy the Locust Horde with the Lightmass Bomb, weaponized forms of Imulsion. Marcus Fenix, now a disgraced veteran, is reinstated into the COG army four years after imprisonment to supplement the COG's depleted ranks. Marcus joins his best friend, Dominic Santiago, on a mission to map the Locust Horde's tunnel network in preparation for the bombing. However, their unit is ambushed by Locust Ground forces and sustain heavy casualties. Fenix and Santiago regroup with two other survivors, Augustus Cole and Damon Baird, and continue their mission. Marcus ultimately prevails in not only mapping, but successfully deploying the Lightmass Bomb and crippling the Locust Horde. However, the Locust Queen, Myrrah, pledges to continue the war effort.

In the weeks following the Lightmass Bombing, the human population begins suffering from a condition known as Rustlung, a fatal disease caused by the inhalation of Imulsion fumes - due to the evaporation of Imulsion caused by the Lightmass Bomb. The Locust reemerge and brought with them a force allowing them to sink the cities on the Jacinto Plateau. Following the sinking of nearby cities Tollen and Montevado, and the desperate raid attacks on Jacinto City, the COG fears that the Locust might be trying to sink Jacinto as well.

In Gears of War 2, the COG Forces in-turn deploy thousands of soldiers directly into the depths of Sera to directly battle the Locust Horde and stop their plans to sink Jacinto. The COG discovers after the sinking of Ilima City that the Locust have been using a gargantuan worm to sink the cities on the Jacinto Plateau. After killing the Riftworm, Delta Squad is then ordered to locate the Locust stronghold by accessing intel from a decommissioned COG laboratory called New Hope, which is full of genetically altered humans called Sires, which Marcus believes were experiments that led to the creation of the Locust Horde. Locating the Locust stronghold, Nexus, under Mount Kadar - the COG discovers during the battle that members of the Locust Horde are mutating from exposure from Imulsion into ‘Lambent’. These abominations have been forcing the Locust to abandon their underground civilization to try to claim the surface world as their new home. Marcus devises a plan to intentionally sink Jacinto and using the surrounding sea water to flood the Locust and Lambent tunnel network. The COG evacuate Jacinto just as the city collapses and drowns a majority of the Locust Horde.

The remaining population of the COG rediscover an island base never attacked by the Locust Horde called Vectes, with a town known as Pelruan. The Stranded gangs on the island threaten the safety of the town, but the COG and Stranded cease when the Lambent begin to overrun the island and surrounding ocean. Due to the underground being flooded, the Imulsion from the Hollow was raised into the surface of Sera, causing a pandemic and turning all life into Lambent organisms. The leader of the COG, Chairman Richard Prescott, is believed to be holding secrets from the population. Prescott then abandons the COG, forcing them to disband and live as nomads, surviving against the Lambent and Locust stragglers.

Gears of War 3 is set seventeen years after Emergence Day. Set two years after the COG disbanded, Prescott returns to reveal that he kidnapped Marcus Fenix's father during the fall of Ephyra and transported him to a secret island facility known as Azura, and that Adam has created a device known as the Imulsion countermeasure that could neutralize both the Lambent and Locust. However, the island was attacked and is now occupied by Queen Myrrah and the remaining Locust forces. Marcus and his allies reach Azura after Dominic sacrifices himself to rescue his friends from imminent demise. Adam is rescued and releases his anti-Imulsion weapon but reveals he infected himself with the Lambent contagion to develop the weapon. The Imulsion countermeasure vaporizes all Lambent, including Adam, and the crystallizes the Locust. Marcus personally kills Myrrah and dedicates her demise to his fallen friends, family, and comrades.

Gears of War: Judgment, focuses on Baird and Cole during the early months after Emergence Day. With military cadet Sofia Hendrick and Garron Paduk, a former UIR soldier, they comprise the Kilo Squad. Baird disobeys orders to use a Lightmass Missile to destroy Locust forces and save survivors at Halvo Bay. Despite also killing the powerful Locust leader Karn, the squad is court-martialed because they disobeyed orders. But because they saved Col. Ezra Loomis and killed Karn, they avoid execution or imprisonment, with Baird demoted from lieutenant to private. A separate campaign, "Aftermath", portrays Baird, Cole, and Paduk in the hours before the activation of the anti-Imulsion energy wave.

Following the end of the Locust War and Lambent Pandemic, the humans of Sera began to rebuild and started with reorganizing the Coalition of Ordered Governments. Led by First Minister Anya Stroud, wife of Marcus Fenix, the humans begin to rebuild civilization with the assistance of robotic engineers created by Damon Baird. The COG was successful in creating New Ephyra and other walled cities known as Settlements outside of New Ephyra. Following fertility treatment, Anya was able to bear Marcus Fenix's son, James Dominic "JD" Fenix. However, Anya later died from birthing complications and the COG began a more authoritarian rule - prompting many civilians to abandon the COG and live off the land, known as Outsiders. JD was then sent to boarding school and met best friend Delmont "Del" Walker. After joining the military, both JD and Del were forced to execute civilians during a protest in Settlement 2, prompting them to leave the COG and becoming Outsiders. They joined a village led by Reyna Diaz and her brother-in-law, Oscar. Reyna's daughter, Kait, became close with JD and Del.

Gears of War 4 takes place 25 years after the original Gears of War trilogy. JD, accompanied by Kait and Del, conduct frequent raids on COG fortifications to acquire various supplies. The three successfully fend off a COG counterattack only to have their encampment devastated by a new foe, called the Swarm. Kait's mother, Reyna, is captured during the chaos. JD, Kait, and Del reach out to Marcus, now a disgruntled COG expatriate, who reluctantly agrees to help them. The COG, led by First Minister Mina Jinn, pursue the group after erroneously believing they are behind a string of mass-kidnappings. The four reach a Locust mass-burial site, where they uncover evidence suggesting that Adam Fenix's countermeasure caused the Locust Horde to enter a cocooned metamorphosis state. Their fears are confirmed when various Locust Horde soldiers attack them in conjunction with the Swarm. The group receives assistance from Damon Baird along with Augustus Cole and Samantha Byrne. They battle their way to the Swarm's hive and defeat multiple Swarm and Locust monstrosities. However, they reach the hive to learn that Swarm's hive-mind has forcefully integrated with Reyna. Kait frees her mother, knowing she will die but will no longer suffer. Reyna gives Kait a parting gift that belonged to her mother – a necklace bearing the insignia of the Locust Queen, Myrrah.

Kait, JD, Del, and Marcus rejoin the COG and offer their intelligence to Jinn in order to help fight the Swarm. However, Kait begins to have nightmares and visions related to her mother, the Swarm, and the Locust - but refuses to tell the others about it. Marcus and Baird believe they will need the Hammer of Dawn back online to help defend against the upcoming war with the Swarm. Baird then uncovers additional Hammer of Dawn satellites at Azura.

In Gears 5, JD, Kait, Del, and Marcus travel to Azura to launch the Hammer of Dawn satellites. Afterwards, they assist in the evacuation of Settlement 2 as the Swarm have begun their attack on COG Settlements. Four months later, Kait is captured by the Swarm and connects her to the Swarm hivemind, allowing her to control the Swarm to kill the humans, including her uncle. She's freed by Marcus and JD, but in her grief reveals that she's been having visions and nightmare and believes them to be messages by the Swarm, as evidenced by her amulet which bears the Locust symbol. Marcus then has Kait and Del find answers at the New Hope facility. After discovering New Hope and an additional lab in Mount Kadar, Kait and Del learn that the Locust were the result of genetic experiments done to human children sick with Rustlung and splicing them with the DNA of creatures in the Hollow. The mutant children, known as Sires, were then used to fertilize the stem cells of Myrrah, who was born with a genetic immunity to Imulsion. Kait then discovers that Myrrah was Reyna's mother, making Kait the next in line for Queen of the Swarm. She manages to disconnect herself from the Swarm hivemind, but in doing allowed Reyna to be awoken and become queen of the Swarm. The Swarm becomes stronger and more intelligent now that they have a queen and launch an attack against New Ephyra. Using the Hammer of Dawn, the COG is able to repel the Swarm attack, and Kait vows to kill Queen Reyna before she can attack again.

Gears of War is a third-person shooter game, with its core concepts being derived from Resident Evil 4's "over the shoulder" perspective, Kill Switch's cover system, and Bionic Commando's swinging action akin to moving between points of cover. The series focuses on using cover to tactically engage the enemy in battle to avoid taking damage. While behind cover, the player can fire blindly and inaccurately at their opponent, or can look around the cover and aim carefully, though exposing himself to enemy fire; the player can also slide along cover, move between nearby cover, or vault over cover to race to a new point of cover. As the player takes damage, the "Crimson Omen" appears on the HUD, becoming more defined as the player nears low health levels. The player can regenerate their health by staying out of harm's way for a short while. Should the player take too much damage, they will become incapacitated unless revived by a teammate; depending on game mode, the player may be able to recover from this state on their own, or may die after a short amount of time if not revived. When a combatant is down, a member of the other side may also attempt to execute the downed player via a "curb stomp" or other brutal methods. As well, some types of damage will immediately kill the player with no chance of revival, such as explosive damage. There are five levels on the first two games, but they are referred to as "acts" and each act is formed into a certain amount of chapters.

Players in Gears can only carry four different weapons, with the exception of the fourth game, allowing two primary weapon slots that can carry weapons which include, but are not limited to: assault rifles, shotguns, a sniper rifle, grenade launchers and an explosive bow; one grenade slot, which may be filled with up to four grenades of a specific type (Fragmentation, Smoke, Ink and Incendiary), and one pistol-type weapon. Players can either obtain ammo or swap out their current weapons with any weapon dropped by a downed foe or from those scattered around the various maps. Most weapons feature the "Active Reload" ability: either after a weapon has depleted an ammo magazine or when the player starts a manual reload, a meter is shown on screen, and the player can attempt to stop the meter in a certain marked area. If the player stops the meter in the marked area, their reload will be completed faster than if they did not attempt an Active Reload, and if the player can stop the meter at a specific section of the marked area, they will gain a temporary slight damage boost with each reloaded shot and a faster reload. If the player stops the meter outside this area, their gun will become temporarily jammed and slow down the reload time. While most of the weapons are based on standard shooter archetypes, Gears's signature weapon is the Lancer, an assault rifle that has a mounted chainsaw bayonet which can be used in close quarter combat to instantly kill a standard foe. Most other weapons also can be used to bash opponents in melee, or in the case of grenades, can be stuck to a foe, exploding a few seconds later. In Gears of War 2 and 3, all four types of grenades can be planted on any reachable surface, detonating when an opponent comes close to it. If the opponent spots the grenade, they can detonate it from a safe distance by shooting it.

All Gears games feature a campaign mode that can be played cooperatively with one other player. The two players take the roles of two COG soldiers, Marcus Fenix and Dominic "Dom" Santiago, as they fight the Locust. In the third game the campaign allows for up to four players to play together at the same time. The campaign mode features several levels of difficulty. At various times, the campaign will offer a choice of paths the first player can select; if the second player is present, they will be forced to take the other path. The third and fourth players in Gears of War 3 will be separated between the paths of the first and second players. In these areas, all players generally have to work together to get them through the section, such as by one player providing covering fire while the second player opens a switch that allows the first player to then proceed.

The competitive multiplayer mode in Gears 1 features 8 players while in Gears 2 features up to ten players split between COG and Locust forces in a number of gameplay types. Modes include "Warzone" and "Execution", both similar to a typical deathmatch, and "Annex" and "King of the Hill" where teams have to control a marked zone on the map. In the mode "Guardian,"(only in Gears 2) one member of each team is designated as the leader. As long as the leader is still alive, his or her teammates can respawn indefinitely. As soon as the leader is executed, his or her teammates can no longer respawn.

Gears of War 3 features better AI, as in past games the AI went around the obstacle even if it had been destroyed. However, in Gears 3 the AI will recognize that the obstacle has been destroyed and are free to walk over it.

Backwards compatibility

Microsoft announced on August 3, 2015 that the four Gears of War titles that launched on Xbox 360 — Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3, and Gears of War: Judgment — will be available on Xbox One through the backwards compatibility program.

Music

The video game music for Gears of War was composed by Kevin Riepl, who had previously worked with Epic Games on soundtracks for Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal Championship 2. The music for Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3 was composed by Steve Jablonsky. The music for Gears of War 4 is composed by Ramin Djawadi. Furthermore, Ramin Djawadi continued to compose the music for the next title in the series, Gears 5.

Additionally, the franchise has inspired music from other artists. American thrash metal band Megadeth recorded a song for the first game's release, first as an instrumental then with lyrics. For the third game, rapper Ice-T, who was cast as Griffin, reunited his metal band Body Count to record a song centered around the Gears universe.