Gears of War: X360 First Impressions

Epic's third-person shooter is one of the best-looking games on Microsoft's new console.

One of the first things Epic told us when we walked into the private meeting room, away the bedlam that is the E3 show floor, to see the company's new shooter Gears of War, was that the game is all about cover. But as much as we liked what we saw, we're going to have to disagree with Epic on this one, because it's clear that Gears of War is first and foremost the graphical benchmark for Xbox 360.

While several of the other Xbox 360 games in Microsoft's and Sega's booths showed promise, Gears of War was the game that showed the future. Here, finally, was a next generation game that we could get close enough to smell, but sadly not play.

The game is set on a battle-ravaged, Earth-like planet where a depleting natural resource, Emulsion, has led to ongoing civil war. When an alien presence descends on the planet, the citizens of the world put aside their differences to work together toward ridding their planet of the intruders.

The diverse array of alien invaders adds an extra element to the game, distinguishing it from a typical shooter. Epic describes the game as a mixture of third-person shooter and survival horror, and the ubiquitous tension, aided by the moody near-darkness that permeates the game, makes for an absorbing backdrop.

And yes, you read that part above right - Epic's debut Xbox 360 game is not the expected first-person shooter but rather a first-person shooter that just happens to be shown from a third-person perspective. Why, if the game plays like a first-person shooter, didn't Epic just make it one? Simple: Epic loved the characters so much they wanted you to be able to see them all the time.

You play as an ex-con, now part of a fire-squad crotch-deep in alien infestation. The character models are immediately striking in their vividness. Nuanced textures combine with realistic, ambient-based lighting (most of the stuff we saw took place at night) to create visuals that simply need to be seen to be believed (see the videos below).

Of course, this being an alpha dev kit-based build, there are some issues, most notably a stuttering induced by the two-thirds-too-low power of the hardware Epic had to work with in creating the demo. We were assured that these glitches will be taken care of, and with Epic taking a you'll-get-it-when-it's-ready approach to the game, we've no reason to believe that it won't run smoothly when it hits next year.

Okay, so it looks good, but does it bring any new gameplay with it?

As we mentioned above, cover is a big part of the Gears of War experience, and this is closely tied to the caged beast that is the Xbox 360. Environments and the detritus littered in them are destructible, wearing down as enemies try to bring you down. You can use elements of the surrounding for strategic advantage, but don't expect them to resist the spray of enemy fire forever. This means that you're going to be running a lot between safe harbours, which is a process made substantially more appealing by the apparent smoothness of character movement.

All that hardware power is also being used to control the AI routines of both your teammates and enemies - the latter will aggressively hunt you down, trying to outflank you and coax you out into the open. And if you're not getting along with your AI-controlled squad members, you'll be able to bring in a second player for co-operative multiplayer. This isn't a special mode made for co-op - rather the second player will assume a distinct character and play through the regular story mode with you.

The game is constructed with the time constraints of modern life built into it. According to our Epic handlers, gameplay segments will run in the 20 minute range - long enough for anyone to enjoy a session. From our experience, this is the sort of setup that usually results in lost nights, making it a devious move on the developer's part.

It's interesting that our private time with Microsoft involved two of the company's most controversial Xbox 360 games - Gears of War and Perfect Dark Zero. The latter is being developed with the launch window in mind, while Gears of War has a faraway (relatively speaking, of course) release date of sometime next year. While much attention is being given Perfect Dark Zero in the run up to the console entry later this year, Gears of War is the game that we're really excited to play.

Roll on 2006.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games