I recently took it upon myself to play the original Gears of War and see why this series exploded into the phenomenon it is today. This series has always been written off as nothing more than a good 3rd person shooter with no story but the franchise has somehow ended up with 3 games, 4 books, graphic novels, DC comics and a wiki with over 1500 pages. There has to be something about the first game that caused all this. So I drove down to the video game store and bought the terribly named "Triple Pack" after being unable to find a copy of the original (It would look way nicer on my shelf that way but whatever....). I've reached the part where you drive the APC at night and decided to write down some of my thoughts about this ancient game.

The music

One of the first things that jumped out at me was the music in the game. This aspect never stood out to me in Gears 2 and 3 but here it's almost impossible to ignore. Yes it does have the usual "battle gong" or whatever the bombcast called it but the combat music is way better than anything in the sequels, or at least more memorable. The aspect that really stood out was during the quiet moments. When night falls and you're walking through an empty city the ambient music really enhances the post-apocaliptic feeling. The sequels, from what I remember, had no ambient sounds or music during their limited quiet moments.

The graphics

For a game that came out in 2006, I must admit that it doesn't look dated. It's not on the levels of Unchated or The Witcher but whatever lighting trick Epic used makes the game still totally presentable in 2012.

The Kryll

I haven't finished the game but I really want to know why the Kryll aren't around in the sequels. Getting through that city at night was really fun. It made the combat much more interesting in spots. When you can't stay in the dark for more than 5 seconds it really makes you think about where to take cover and where to retreat.

The difficulty

This is the one aspect that feels dated. This game has only 3 difficulty options. Can you believe this? Your options are "Casual", "Hardcore" and "Insane". I sat at the menu for a few minutes wondering what I should play it on. Where was the "normal" option? I was seriously wondering why my only options were easy or hard (insane is only unlocked later). Luckily the "hardcore" option provides you with plenty of challenge, and the combat puzzles really feel like...well....puzzles. Gears has always been good at this so I wasn't to surprised. Some people (Brad Shoemaker) say that the end boss is a pain in the ass but that's for later.

So those are the few of my thoughts on the original game so far. I really appreciate the set up; the military posters on the wall, the stranded, the destroyed cities, all of that really sets up a world where humans are really on the verge of loosing it all. They are still holding on to some weird military regiment but eventually you can see it all about to fall apart and turn into a true post-apocalypse. I'm too early into the game to recomend you to play it (if you're like me and somehow missed out) but so far I'm really having a blast.