It’s been a while since a Microsoft Game Studios title has been as hotly anticipated as Gears of War. In fact, it’s safe to say that only the mighty Halo franchise has matched the hype surrounding the upcoming third-person shooter from Epic Games.

Much has been made of the intense single-player campaign, but things have been hush-hush on the multiplayer front...until today. Behind closed doors at Microsoft’s booth, team-based deathmatches were unveiled as the first multiplayer aspect of Gears of War. This may only be scratching the surface, but at least we were able to take back with us some initial impressions that shows how Gears is much more than a single-player experience.


Our matches consisted of four-on-four team DM in a ransacked section of the planet Sera. It appears as if some of the Delta Company characters found in the single-player game will be playable for multiplayer combat. As part of the COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments) forces, the character I was automatically given was none other than Dom – the close friend of main hero Marcus Fenix. Versus multiplayer pits the COG against that of the Locust Horde – yep, you can play as the evil race that threatens the planet in the single-player campaign.

The controls are fairly common for shooters, including character movement being mapped to the left analog stick, while aim/look controls are handled on the right stick. The right stick is also clickable to enable the zoom of the sniper rifle. Weapons, like the Lancer Rifle (with handy-handy chainsaw attachment), shotgun, and bolo grenades can be easily selected via the D-pad. The Right trigger causes your character to unleash a hail storm of bullets, and the right bumper reloads the currently armed weapon. A unique mechanic that Epic has implemented is a faster reload sequence, if you time the second press of the bumper correctly. Do so and you not only are in a better situation with a fully stocked weapon, but the initial batch of ammo will also have heightened killing power.

Even though Gears of War is played completely from a third-person perspective, pulling the left trigger moves the camera to a close, over the shoulder targeting mode. Blind firing and popping at enemies in a hasty manner is all well and good, but most ranged killing threats will come from using over the shoulder targeting.

The grenade aiming arc is easy to use and has quite a range. It seemed as though only smoke grenades were enabled in our demo, but that didn’t stop us from polluting the area with think clouds. When in the midst of a smoke cloud, you are blind, but the targeting reticule will still glow red if an enemy happens to come in range.

The A button is a catch-all action ability that is used for fancy moves like diving away from a heated skirmish, moving into cover, SWAT turns, and more. Holding the button down also puts Marcus into a crouched sprint, with the camera pulling in tight along his side. Taking cover takes a little while to get used to, only because of its extensive use. This means it is imperative to move from place to place while staying protected or risk getting your dome popped off. It felt like our character would some times inadvertently move away from his covered position, but this could simply have been from being a n00b.


The favorite action of the demo was the melee combat of the Lancer Rifle’s chainsaw. You could tell that the various press types in the room were simply maneuvering throughout the environments, just to get a chance to rip through a foe with the chainsaw (executed by holding the B button).

After taking so much damage, your character will become incapacitated for a short time before finally biting the big one. In that time, a teammate can make an attempt to revive a fallen comrade. There’s a definite risk/reward factor, especially since in this particular game mode, there were no respawns. A savvy opponent will put the finishing touches on a downed foe, by pumping a few more rounds into them, or using a crushing stomp.

The design of the map was tailored to team deathmatch, consisting of an arc that leads both teams from their spawn to a combat point, right in the dead center. The architecture of the buildings fall right in line with the “fallen from grace” look that Gears of War has displayed throughout its development. The landscape was staggered to include plenty of staircases and high ground levels, which many gamers immediately tried to capture. Those maneuvering through the archways aren’t always at a disadvantage, because Epic has implemented plenty of objects for cover.

Much like the single-player campaign, it seems that lone rangers won’t get too far in the multiplayer portion of Gears; at least in the Versus mode. Those teams that stick together, live together – simple as that. Bounding and maneuvering tactics should play a vital role in the team-based multiplayer modes.

Into Perspective

Epic Games is showing that it can handle the pressure of being the touted as the killer app for the Xbox 360. We’ve seen that the single-player campaign is already headed in the right direction and now the multiplayer is following suit. The camera takes some getting used to, but does track the action for the most part. The visuals are nothing short of staggering and we hope to learn more in regards to other types of multiplayer game modes in the near future.

9.8%