Gears of War: E-Day Review

When the name Gears of War comes up, many things may come to mind. After all, we are dealing with a franchise whose debut turned cover-based shooters into one of the mainstream subgenres of video games. A success that, in the seventh generation, led to titles

When the name Gears of War comes up, many things may come to mind. After all, we're dealing with a series whose rise made the cover-based shooter one of the mainstream video game subgenres. The success that made many titles try to approach this formula and offer similar experiences in the seventh generation. Now, after a long time, Gears of War E-Day has arrived with the aim of returning to the roots; A version that, instead of continuing the story of the fifth version, takes us back to the past and the starting point of everything, that is, Emergence Day.

Note that in this article we will only review the story part of the game and the online and multiplayer parts will not be discussed.

The story of the game starts from the zero moment (E-Day); When, after the Pandoli Wars and years of human conflict over Imulsion resources, the world finally seems to have reached peace and one can live without worries. The situation has even progressed to the point where Dom thinks about retiring from the army and living a quiet life with his family; An idea he shares with Marcus: "The war is over, we're not going to be soldiers forever."

But it doesn't take long for strong earth tremors and terrible sounds to shatter all these notions. A war has just begun, this time not with humans, but with completely different enemies. Ferocious creatures that tear through the earth rise to the surface and slaughter any humans in their path. This is our first encounter with Locusts; Enemies who become the main threat of this game and the next versions of the series and make life hell for the inhabitants of the planet.

As I mentioned, E-Day takes the story back to before the events of the first edition; Specifically, up to date with the advent of Locusts. This time, we are on the side of young Marcus Phoenix, who must face a new threat and fight for survival.

If I had to sum up what Gears of War E-Day has to offer, it would be pretty much what the series has always been known for, shooting with cover. The main core of the gameplay has not changed much and you still have to take shelter behind the trenches and open fire at the enemies.

As always, the variety of weapons is one of the strengths of the game. From small arms and rifles to grenades and explosives, you have different tools at your disposal to start a fire; Exactly what you would expect from Gears! However, the gameplay of E-Day is neither as heavy as the old versions nor as light as the last few versions. It seems that the game has succeeded in creating a balance between the speed and the weight of the fights and has reached a pleasant experience.

Along with this familiar structure, the equipment upgrade system has also been added to the game. By finding various materials in the environment, you can add new capabilities to your armor and four portable weapons and improve their performance.

The weapon and armor upgrade system in the game The purpose of the upgrade system is to allow the player to enter the fight more calculatedly with a little exploration and planning, rather than shooting non-stop. However, E-Day is not meant to be a deep exploration experience or a role-playing work; Its core identity still boils down to combat, and in the end, it's your marksmanship that determines the outcome, not weapon upgrades.

One of the important challenges in works that go back to the past is to remove features that have been added to the collection over time. Gears 5 was so far ahead in the timeline that an important part of its equipment and capabilities depended on the technological advancements of that era. For example, the flying robot Jack (Jack) in the fifth version had become a useful tool for you that could be upgraded, add to its abilities and use its capabilities to make changes in the game experience. But as the story goes back in time, many of these facilities are not available and the creators have to fill in the blanks.

To replace some of Jack's capabilities, the manufacturers have gone to a new system called Tactical Gear. You can find and upgrade these tools in the environment and use them during battles. Capabilities such as injecting adrenaline to restore health and improve performance, marking enemies and healing teammates are among the uses of this equipment.

In this way, the creators have tried to recreate the missing features of the newer versions with the familiar formula of the old versions in a modern format; An approach that preserves the core gameplay while adding new details and mechanics.

One of the most important changes of E-Day is related to the improvement of movements. Options such as jumping and sliding have been added and character movements are smoother. Despite the gap of more than a decade between the first and fifth editions, the movements in this series had not changed much; Heavy and tank-like movements and the lack of an independent option to jump were seen in almost all versions.

E-Day wants to make the experience more presentable for new audiences and smoother for old fans. Now you move more freely, you can move between obstacles and trenches more easily and you can even escape from some attacks by dodging and rolling.

E-Day wants to make the experience more presentable for new audiences and smoother for old fans.

These changes are among the most prominent improvements of E-Day. Mobility is no longer as painful as it used to be; You can easily slide from one bastion to another and reach your destination with clean and smooth animations. However, improved movement is only the outer layer of changes. Due to the development of technology and the experience of the creators, E-Day is expected to have improvements in the deeper layers of the gameplay.

In the next layer, the developers have tried to take a step towards improving the design of stages and battlefields. One of the things that caught my attention the most in E-Day is the enlargement of the battlefields and action sequences. Fights are no longer limited to a few rooms and corridors, and many times put you in vast environments full of obstacles and details to deal with enemies.

The expansion of environments thanks to the advancement of technology fascinates me. The realistic sense of combat doesn't just come from lots of gunfire and noise; Being in the middle of a large battle, with relatively realistic dimensions and a lot of detail, can act like an adrenaline bomb alone.

However, the expansion of the dimensions of the game is not limited to the environments and the creators have tried to make the experience bigger in different sectors. The problem is that growth does not always mean progress; Sometimes, as a game grows, its weaknesses also expand. This is exactly what happens in parts of E-Day, gradually revealing its design flaws.

At the beginning of the text, I mentioned one of the characteristics of the seventh generation; A time when seven- or eight-hour linear shooters were not so strange. The creators of that time had a good understanding of the nature of their works and their potential and knew what idea they were investing in. A cinematic action adventure game has a certain capacity to expand its different parts; Just as an open world role-playing game requires a different scale. Gears of War, as an action shooter, should be made on a scale that is appropriate to its nature, so that it does not exceed the necessary limit and the result is damaged.

The main problem is that the creators have expanded everything, but some parts have not grown along with others, and some others did not need such expansion at all.

In a game like Gears, whose gameplay identity is almost dependent on shooting and has no other core mechanics, it is difficult to extend the experience even beyond 10 hours; Because of this, many old shooters could be finished in an afternoon.

In such a situation, the designer has two options: to create such an exciting and high-quality experience that the battles remain interesting for all 14 hours, or to make the game more compact and show its full potential in half of this time.

In the past, the second way was usually more popular; But today, as many players have become more sensitive to the length of games, developers are less willing to offer an experience shorter than 10 hours. But what does this decision cost?

To expand the experience, the designers leave you several times in the urban and semi-open world environments to go to the goal by your desired path and along the way, by doing side activities, kill a few other lokasts. The problem is that these activities usually do not have specific content or diverse goals; In most cases, you'll have to kill a wave of enemies and eventually you'll probably get a new mod for your weapon or armor.

Of course, we should not forget that E-Day is ultimately a linear game. Even in the semi-open sections, you don't have many options and choices; Only a larger environment stands between you and your target. Is this approach wrong? Not necessarily. I have no problem with these parts; Especially since I don't like the over-compression of the stages and an opportunity to wander and breathe between the main objectives can be useful.

The problem is not in the semi-open world of these parts, but in the essence of the content that the creators have put in them and other parts of the game. To better understand the problem, we must first look at the tools that the stage designer has at his disposal to create an action sequence. In a work like Gears, these tools are mainly limited to the environment, the composition of the enemies and how these two are used in the design of the battlefield. Resource management, unlike many other games, does not play a central role in the design of the stages of this series; On the contrary, the game should provide the player with enough ammo to keep shooting without worrying about running out of bullets. E-Day also follows this rule and weapons and ammunition are found in abundance throughout the stages.

Therefore, the main burden of diversifying the fights falls on the shoulders of the environment design and the composition of the enemies. Enemies can be divided into several categories: small and fast creatures that attack mainly suicidally; Normal Locusts with a variety of weapons, from shotguns to snipers; And the giant enemies that play the role of mini-bosses are hard to defeat and sometimes they send smaller creatures to the field. In total, there are about seven or eight truly distinct enemy types, and the rest are mostly rehashes of the same patterns. With such a limited variety, the design of the enemies is not too arbitrary; The problem is exacerbated when this lack is coupled with repetitive combat scenarios.

In many parts, you will face situations as if you have experienced them many times; The same entrenchment, the same enemies and the same challenges. Some stages are so simple that you can repel the wave of attacks by sitting behind the barricade and shooting. There is no special challenge and no need to think or change position; These passive fights, along with the repetition of enemies, quickly become boring.

But what does this issue have to do with the open half of the world? And why did I say that such a problem is repeated in different parts of the game?

E-Day has no consistency in the creativity of the stage design. Sometimes you pass a simple and superficial stage and immediately enter a complex and multi-layered fight in which you have to frequently change the trench, change the angle of attack and use all your offensive capacities to deal with different combinations of enemies. This difference shows that the game has the ability to create engaging battles, but it does not always use this capacity.

Semi-open sections also suffer from the same problem. To reach the goal, you have to go through paths where several waves of enemies are waiting for you; Less creative conflicts that mostly play the role of filler between the main parts. To the extent that sometimes you don't even feel like fighting because you see the same scenario that you experienced ten minutes ago.

This fluctuation is present for most of the game, but in the final two chapters it is largely resolved and the quality of the experience changes. These two parts are exactly what we expect from a top-notch Gears of War; Busy and creative action sequences, cinematic set pieces, challenging boss fights and unique environments.

The final two seasons aren't perfect, but their quality is clearly higher and they offer a more engaging experience than the previous installments. It's a pity that this quality only makes up about four hours of the game and you have to go through a lot of problems to get to it.

If you look at Gears of War from the outside, you might see some muscular men who know nothing else but shooting; So it is unlikely to expect a special story from it. But this series is somewhat story-driven and has detailed Lore. Even in the fourth and fifth editions, despite the many problems, part of the criticism was directed at the story and narration. What is the place of E-Day in this?

If I want to be honest, we are not dealing with a very special story; Of course, this is not strange, because from the name of the game, you can guess what we are going to see. During the game, we follow a series of events in the early days after Emergence Day. On the other hand, the history and Lore of the Gears series is clear to a large extent, and there are not many ambiguous points that this game wants to clarify with its narrative. The important events of this period, if they are present in the game, are mainly shown in a simple and direct way, and the story passes through them. Like showing the reason for making the first Lancer equipped with a chainsaw, the most iconic weapon of the collection.

The most important story point of the game is the introduction of new characters; Especially Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes, two members of Bravo Squad alongside Marcus and Dom. Other characters – mostly COG commanders or supporting characters – are also introduced, but the creators seem to have bigger plans for Megs and Lucas.

These two are given a lot of attention by the writers and we see more details of their past, but the game doesn't do much to pay them off. Megs is a suffering character who has lost loved ones and has asthma. Lucas is also an inexperienced and cold-blooded soldier; Someone who is mostly called Rookie by others during the game.

Both are supposed to have painful pasts, but the writers gloss over their suffering so superficially that it's hard to take them seriously. For example, after about 10 hours, only part of Lucas' past is revealed to us, that is when we are near the end of the game and he is called Rook enough, you probably don't even remember his real name at that time!

In the meantime, the main characters of the series are also gradually marginalized. Only in the final act do we remember that Dom has a wife and children who are in danger away from him. This story arc, which was one of the important parts of the original Gears of War trilogy, gets less opportunity for new and shallow characters to be dealt with in E-Day.