I love Gears of War – but that’s mostly because its cover-based third person, co-operative shooter mechanics are sublime – and certainly not because of the game’s narrative or exposition. Though the overarching story – especially all the stuff filled in by sci-fi writer Karen Traviss through her Gears of War novels – is an epic tale of overcoming the odds, the game’s actual cliché-ridden dialogue and character interaction is the very definition of fratboy “Dudebro” cheesiness.
Thing is, it was never meant to be that way.
“I didn’t always make these dude-bro games at Epic,” CliffyB – that’s Clifford Bleszinski to his mom – admitted to IGN. “The intent was to make it a lot more Band of Brothers and take it a lot more serious.”
Epic – not exactly known for its story-based games – wasn’t quite sure how to do that – and then got hung up on how cool and badass the sock-full of walnuts in armour Marcus Fenix was. It’s something they want to remedy with potential future Gears of War games – by replacing some of the overt machismo with a more cerebral bent.
“If we get around to ever doing more Gears games, I hope we can continue to drift back more towards a Christopher Nolan type dialogue as opposed to a Tim Burton or Joel Schumacher Batman,” Bleszinski said, in reference to the Batman films. “But that’s way down the line.”
This isn’t the first time Cliffy B seems to slightly embarrassed by the series his name will forever be attached to – or the first time he’s tipped his hat to Nolan. I have no doubt that Epic will be making more games set in the Gears of War universe – but I’m not entirely convinced that I want Gears of War to become a thinking man’s shooter.
I kinda like it as it is, bro.
Last Updated: March 27, 2012