Gears of War was one of a handful of titles I played on my shared X Box 360 back in my college days. Unreal Engine 3 looked amazing, and Gears was one of the last titles with graphics that truly impressed for the time. The Ultimate Edition is a Unreal Engine 4 makeover of the original title, and I played through it on PC. The porting process was not perfect; I had to cap my frame rate to 60 in order for the game to feel smooth. I'm not sure if it's a CPU bottleneck or what. Still, the game look impressive remade in a newer version of Unreal and much closer to my memories of it. Gears of War utilizes the Half-Life 2 strategy of making a single player game: always give the player something new to do. It establishes a very strong gameplay loop of finding cover, peaking out to aim, and the retreat back behind to reload or let your health regenerate. The guns are meaty, punchy-sounding things, and there is plenty of audio feedback, like the wonderfully wet pop a Locust's head makes when you nail a headshot. The art style is top-notch, with Sera's Romanesque cities crumbling and beautiful, providing a perfect background for the war. The Locust are toothy brutes who display a surprising amount of AI. They'll rush you from cover and pop back behind a wall when you aim at them. They're quite satisfying to shoot.
As I mentioned, Gears of War will mix up its basic loop very often. You'll have to dodge a huge Locust called a Berserker, who is invulnerable to conventional weapons, and lure it outside to be destroyed by the Hammer satellite by rolling out of its way before it can reduce your body to a pile of gibs. You'll briefly drive a huge tank through the ruined streets, shining a spotlight on the Krill, flying piranhas that'll attack you in the dark. The ending sequence has you storming a runaway train, disconnecting cars and battling Locust as you race toward the final confrontation with General Ramm, a massive Locust surrounded by Krill who wields a turret like a machine gun. It's all good stuff, performed by manly men with football player sized necks and hands as big as dinner plates. The early-aughts were a time for testosterone, folks. Sometimes I actually miss it!
Gears of War Ultimate Edition is a good way to experience the original classic. If you have Game Pass, it's worth a playthrough. You might be surprised how well it holds up.
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