rough draft..so far..

In 2006, Epic Games revealed a third person shooter game that helped satisfy the need for those who sought video games with a passion for action and cooperative team play. This popular game is soon to be a trilogy with two of the three games already successfully developed. The game was noted as the highest and fastest selling game of 2006 when the first of the two Gears of War sold over 3 million copies in the first ten weeks which set a high standard for other game developers to follow. Gears of War consists of realistic graphics provided by the Unreal Technology which will be explained furthermore and a similar character view to that of the “Resident Evil” franchise. Gears of War known as GoW, is a third person shooter with the “over the shoulder” look which allows the character to be moved in many ways when compared to other shooter games. For example, the characters can roll, duck, hide behind most objects, deliver a powerful thrust to the opponent when in need and climb. The versatility of the characters allow for a more intense and enjoyable game instead of the boring “hide and shoot” technique limited by past technology. The Gears of War realistic graphics are based off of the Unreal Engine created by Epic Games which was soon published by Microsoft Game Studios. There are three advancements of the Unreal Engine with each one setting a new standard of virtual graphics. It was first illustrated in 1998 in a number of award-winning games such as: Unreal Tournament, Mass Effect, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, America’s Army and many more to list. The first Unreal Engine was put into the Unreal Tournament video game which was released in 1999. Unreal Engine 2.0 was used by Bioshock 1 and 2 and also, America’s Army. Gears of War used the Unreal Engine 3.0 pushing the limits slightly further. This advanced technology used for GoW made fantasy look ever closer to reality.






The story sets place in a planet similar to Earth known as the planet Sera. Shortly after the humans have colonized the planet they discover that there is a highly valued power source called “Imulsion.” The planet, sought after by many led the humans into a long and cold war for 79 years known as the “Pendulum Wars.” The Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) was formed although it was minor and only an obscure world-government philosophy, it evolved into a legitimate political party during the wars. A corrupt day known as “Emergence Day” was the beginning of the tragedy that had befallen the human race. A civilization called the “Locust Hordes” were mutant-like creatures with certain human characteristics such as similar physical appearance (arms, legs, neck…) have begun their attack on humanity in order to extinct the human race. In the Hordes attempt to destroy humanity, they have managed to leave the COG as the only human government left on Sera.
Fourteen years after Emergence Day, a former COG soldier, Marcus Fenix had been reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison. Marcus Fenix has a right hand man by the name of Dominic Santiago who later introduces Fenix to the Delta Squad in which Fenix will be leading. In the first series of Gears of War, the objective of the Delta Squad was to obtain a powerful weapon called the “light mass bomb” in order obliterate all the Locust Hordes dwelling within the planet. During co-op story mode you play as Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago in order to successfully retrieve the bomb while the game deeply engages you in the never-ending action against the Hordes. With the ability dodge, hide, use team work and do almost anything to stop the Hordes in your way, the thrill leaves you wanting to play more and more.

The game play for gears of war is very unique. There are different types of modes you can do. For example for every game mode(exception wingman) there are two teams of five. One team is the COG (humans) and the other is the locust(monsters). The most popular game mode for gears of war is execution in which you try to eliminate the other players from the other team. However, you cant just shoot them and watch them die. You must shoot the enemy enough times so that the enemy ends up crawling on the ground. The opponent will remain on the ground until he is revived by another teammate or killed by an execution move by your character. Another way to kill the opponent is to get a one shot kill. This happens by either getting a headshot or blowing up the opponent with a boomshot (similiar to a grenade launcher). Another game type that is quite fun is called Annex. In this gametype the objective of the game is for both teams to capture a specific location on the map. Usually the point to capture will be located by a weapon. When a team captures the location and hold that location they start to collect points for each second they last. The maximum amount of points a team can get is 60 points per each position. After a team has captured 60 points, a new location is shown. Teams get infinite lives while playing annex. The first team to get to 180 points wins the round and the first team to win two rounds wins the match. Guardian is also another game type which consists of a leader in each of the teams. This game mode has the same rules as execution except for one factor. As long as the leader is alive, each teammate gets infinite lives. So the best thing to do in this mode is to kill the leader and then kill the rest. The first to win three rounds wins the match. An interesting capture the flag mode is called submission . It basically combines the modes execution and annex but with a twist. Both teams rush to get the “flag” which in this case it is actually an AI-controlled player. The "flag" will wander the map and attempt to kill anyone who gets near. To "capture" him, you'll have to first down, then escort him as a meat shield all the way back to your base, all while your opponents are trying to kill you and shoot at the "flag". Because, if shot at enough, your meat shield flag will break free, go berserk and deal out the pain. Infinite respawns are also included in this game type. The first team to win two rounds wins the match. Wingman is when you and a buddy team up, sharing a single character model in this five teams of two game mode. It has the same rules as execution but the first team to get 15 kills or more first wins the match. The last game mode which I think is the best one is horde mode. This is basically a mode where you can have up to five people playing and trying to survive the hordes of locust. When a level is chosen, everyone must start out in wave one. As you progress further into the waves, the enemies get smarter, tougher, and more accurate. The basic goal here is to make it all the way to wave 50 without losing. Yet as long as one person survives a wave, the whole team can still advance to the next wave. This is by far the most challenging since teamwork is needed in order to win and advance all the way to the very last wave of locust.
The campaign mode in Gears of War 2 allows for a single player or two players playing cooperatively to complete the game's story mission as Marcus or Dominic(Main characters in GOW). There is a variety of difficulty for the experience veterans and for the novice gamer. There is also an 'Insane' difficulty which is unlocked after the player completes the game at least once. Players in co-op mode can select different difficulties depending on their skill level. For example if one player chooses hard and the other easy, the AI will adapt to those difficulties. So when the AI shoots the player with the easy difficulty, it wont do as much damage as to the player that choose hard difficulty. Also whats neat about the Co-op is that there is sometimes a double forked path in which both players would have to split up and try to help each other advance. For instance, One player might have to pull on a lever to help the other player open the door so that they can both be reunited.