Gears of War on Playstation, if you told myself back during the late 00s and early 10s that this franchise would come to Playstation, I would tell you that's crazy talk. I never thought Microsoft dropping their Xbox exclusive ways would go as far as a their first party franchises coming to Sony would ever happen but here we are. I'm hoping the later Gears of War games also get modern ports and come to PS since 2-Judgment were always stuck on Xbox platforms. That said, Gears 1 might've been and a groundbreaking game back in 2006 but playing it now especially with how cover based shooting on it's own was never that interesting and usually needs to have other ideas to carry it. The Gears sequels at least had more going on mechanically, broke up the pace more often and had a lot more chaotic firefights.
What prevents Gears 1 from being aggressively mediocre is it's rather quick and brisk campaign, the soundtrack and how Act 1-3 especially Act 2 does have some interesting ideas going on.I'll start with some major issues I have. The controls with the idea of having one button be sprint, vault, cover and roll might've been novel at the time was never well design in the long run. You can just click the analog stick for sprint and the Y and triangle button can be used for vaulting since the point of interest command is contextual to begin with. This button system I described is fine when the game design favors the player but is infuriating when it doesn't particularly during the Berserker and Raam fights with Dom's AI being unbearably terrible during these parts.
There is also the famous chainsaw which in isolation to Gears 1 is too risky and never worth using. Trying to get the reving animation can get you shot at when trying to approach an enemy since Marcus can get staggered very easily after a few shots. At least in later Gears games, you can't get staggered out of the reving animation as easily. This can be a big issue since Gears 1 encourages you to flank the enemy and get some chainsaw kills in but due to the aforementioned issues as well as you getting shot at while the chainsaw killing animation happens and it heavily discourages it's use. Get Gnasher shotgun whenever possible, get close, get decent enough at the active reload mini game and it's much more reliable than the chainsaw.
The active reload mini game is decently realized, the timing hits the sweet spot of not being overly grueling to try but not being super easy.
Weapon feedback when it comes to using firearms and damage animations is fine when partnered with active reload.
Act 1-3 does actively introduce new ideas and enemies. You got enemies slowly being introduced like Grubs, Grenadier, Wretches, Boomers, Berserkers, and Theron Guard. There is also my favorite the Kryll. There is Act 1 which is just firefights with some Hammer of Dawn, some occasional turret sections and a Berserker fight.
Act 2 is where Gears 1's design reaches it peak and never reaches it again. It's where propane tanks have to actively be shot at and lit in order to create to light sources so the Kryll can't instantly kill you when in darkness for more than a few seconds. You also have to contend with locust shooting at you. So it's a game of killing enemies finding propane tanks to shoot and sprinting from light source to light source. There is also parts where you have to move cover and time moving light sources with your sprints. You might need to look for hidden tanks to shoot to progress furthur. This where is where the campaign is at it's best.
Act 3 is okay with some rather dull attempts at horror. It's a little too excessive on the body horror to be effective. You have an underground section with some interesting scenery and an epic fight with the Theron Guard which the background music helps elevate it.
That's it. Gears' campaign is monotony from here. It's easy to tell because the initial goal of activating the resonator underground didn't work and the characters all questioning the illogical writing of the script, they pretty much know it's nothing more than padding.
Act 4 and 5 is just one boring interchangeable cover shootout after another. The most you get is battles with a Berserker and Brumak. The former is the same as Act 1 and the latter is a scripted sequence where Dom's AI will slow you down.
Get the Gnasher and Hammerburst or Lancer and get getting active reloads right and keep shooting, get hit, wait for health regen rinse repeat.
Act 4 is spent getting to Adam Fenix' House and Act 5 is spent trying to lower a drawbridge. That mystery box of how Marus ended up in jail, who the Locust are or just anything resembling plot and drama all get washed away much like the game design after Act 3.
Raam is a very uninteresting villain since he has two scenes and neither of them is him doing anything of geniune note outside of killing two red shirt jobbers brutally. His boss is just RNG.
Overall, while revolutionary in 2006 is dull now.
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