The Gears of War series always did inspire me, which is interesting as when the game was first announced I did not pay much attention to it, with its gray scale tones and my short attention to new games at the time.
It was only when I had been given a go at Gears of War that I realised the vast lore and in-depth story it possessed, the environment shifted so much that it kept me interested throughout playing it.
Especially along with the fact that the genre is playable co-operatively with two players (Eventually moving onto four with the final game.) you really get to experience the story together.
Having the gameplay like this really strengthened the bond of story and character for me and my 2 friends. (Who we jokingly call eachother "Brothers" whenever we refer to playing this game, which you will find out why later on.
The first installment of the series admittedly had a very heavily grey and brown pallet of colours.
But this was rather new for games in this generation, so it did intrigue a spark of interest from their audience for their display of grit.
Only for the game to further prove that it had much more going for it, as the players eventually carried on through more and more beautiful and locations eventually reaching areas in which defied its usual grey/brown pallet.
Venturing underground where rivers and waterfalls of bright yellow and gold "Imullsion" illuminated the world you occupied.
It was a moment that really wowed me and my "Brothers".
Despite Gears being set in a "Futuristic" game world, it is set on a different planet to Earth, meaning they had to create and entirely new world and history. No references to Earth or any acknowledgement to it even existing.
This made "Sera" a new world to explore, but an eerily familiar one.
The architecture is very "aged" to today's standards, but they still have an air of individuality and modernism in their shape and form. But the finer details and engravings show history and civilization.
As the series progressed, Epic continued to push the environments in which the player traveled in.
Heading through mountainsides to a snowed in village like town that had been abandoned for many years, to ancient temples of a sacred engraved civilization situated in the underground, going as deep as the planet's core then being devoured by a titan sized creature as you traverse it's insides, eventually making your way out (I'll leave how to your imagination), then onto an abandoned research facility, revealing deep and dark secreats to the story as you then take a vehicle though colossal ice caverns and chasms.
Only though making your way across enemy territory you reach your stronghold which is in the process of being attacked/.
This is a brief outline of the sequence of environments that you encounter through Gears of War 2.
In the recent Gears of War 3, the season has turned to Summer, meaning the colour pallet had become significantly brighter. Most of the game is centered on human environments, it also shows how the main antagonist force has split apart and how they have evolved in different situations.
Some who had become stranded and left behind, meaning they have salvaged weapons, equipment and armour.
Not only looking different, but playing differently making it fresh for players of the previous two games.
The original enemy returns from the first two games, meaning that it caters to the original veteran player and new audiences to the series.
Despite the setting of the game being on a different planet, humans are set in the story, most likely to affiliate with the player.
The main story revolves around two focused characters, Marcus Fenix, the fallen hero and Dominic Santiago, the man who has seemed to of lost everything, but is still struggling on.
Throughout playing and developing your way through the story you discover how deep and trusted the camaraderie is between Marcus and Dom actually is. Considering onto each other to be close like "Brothers".
Another two characters that create the main four are Cole and Baird. Cole being a former celebrity superstar before the war and entirely driven by his vast ego and Baird, a cocky, selfish, narrow-minded, rude, snide, sarcastic, sexist, insulting, stubborn but brilliant Mechanic. (Who for some reason is more popular with the female fans of the series.)
These four are routinely split up and separated throughout the course of the 2 games, usually keeping Marcus and Dom together from the other twp, further strengthening their bond and showing their trust to one another.
As the Trilogy progressed, Epic (The developers of Gears of War) became bolder with their characters.
The third and final installment being the most distinct.
In the first game, characters could still act dynamically and individual, although they do usually remain in a military stature. In the sequel, Epic introduced three new characters. A conscript named Dizzy, with a thick redneck accent and a cowboy hat, wearing slapdash and salvaged together armour, he has a lot more flare visually and verbally.
Tai is a giant of a man with deep spiritual and religious beliefs, but that does not stop him from fighting for what is right. (Or restrain his vast potential to wreak vast amounts of violence upon the enemy.)
The third being Benjamin Carmine, a green as grass new recruit who the player (Marcus) has to train.
But things go awry and he ends up being dragged along onto the highly dangerous missions with little to no training. He becomes the audience to some extent, having the main cast training him for the tutorial and asking questions through out the story that the player would be asking if they were there.
As the season shifted to summer in the third and final installment of the series, every character's appearance has changed to suit the weather conditions.
Stricken with grief, Dom had lost the will to take care of himself, growing a beard as his hair grown out.
Their armour is now sleeveless with more skin showing, looking older to show they were having to salvage what they can together. As their military operation has dwindled and gone to shambles, the characters have a lot more freedom. This being shown with Carmine writing messages of advice to his fellow soldiers and words of hate to his enemies, all over his armour.
Gears of War 3's position of writer had been given to Karen Traviss, who wrote the books that bridged the gaps between the games. She managed to get the characters interacting much more and on a grander scale of depth.
They spoke and shared much more moments with each other rather than speaking directly to either Marcus or Dom, but this may of been mostly due to the first two games been restricted to just two players.
Overall, this series has proven to me that a developer is capable of evolving their character rosters and their previously existing ones.
It's embracing story, deep characters, unique art style and design that it used for it's environments, assets and characters kept me raring for more and inspired my own path of development even strengthening a powerful friendship to me, explaining one of the reasons I hold the series so close to me.
