Gears of War - First Play - Emergence Day
About two months ago I walked into my local Gamestop to purchase NHL ’07 for the 360 when the clerk asked me if there were any games I would like to reserve. I had been contemplating it for a while so when he mentioned Gears of War I finally broke down and reserved my limited edition copy. It’s been a long two months for me, but Gears has finally arrived. I received the anticipated call from Gamestop the night of November 7th saying that my copy of Gears would be ready to pick up the next day.
It was a long wait because I had to work that day and knowing how the directs department at my big box retailer works, I waited until my lunch break to run over and pick it up. It was a long hard beginning to my workday but that night I knew that it would be all worth it.
“Hi, I’m here to pick up my reserve of Gears of War.”
“Collector’s or the normal version?”
“The collector’s edition,” I proudly replied.
“I’m sorry but our shipments of the Collector’s edition were left in Memphis.”
“But I got the call.”
“We sent out a second call earlier today explaining what happened.”
“Oh, I was at work.”
“They’ll be available tomorrow, should be in around 9 o’clock although we don’t open until 10.”
“Okay,” and I sadly left the store. It was then that I realized my store had received copies in as well. I returned to Gamestop and cancelled my pre-order; took the money to my store and purchased my copy. The rest of my shift could not have gone slower. As the hours dragged on I began to get antsy. I couldn’t wait to open up the metallic case, remove the game disc and watch the silver tray of my Xbox draw the game inside of it. I’d been drooling over the short video that Microsoft gave me on the marketplace. I think I actually drove my fiancée nuts with it. She had no problem with the video the first time, actually liked it although her taste is in games such as World of Warcraft and Oblivion.
“Honey I gotta show you this video!”
“Is it that video with the guy and the smashed face?”
“I showed it to you?”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t it cool?”
“Uh-huh,” She remarked, sadly disinterested.
The suspense was killing me and I couldn’t hurry home fast enough. As I got home I moved over to my Xbox while furiously unwrapping Gears and placed it in my Xbox. The game loaded up and I was treated to nothing but visual delight. Like many gamers around the world I knew Gears was going to look good. We knew it would be graphics beyond our wildest dreams. Yet the sheer shock of those graphics dropped my jaw to the ground. The picture came across my screen in a dark realism that was spread out before me. I’m fighting for my life here; Emergence Day had come.
Actually, E-Day came 14 years prior to the start of our story. I’ve been broken out of a decimated jail and placed in the middle of a war zone. I was given a choice once out of the jail which was to make a break for it or to take my time and get warmed up. I decided that taking the long way around and get a feel for the game mechanics. The mechanics of the game seem simplistic enough. Move to cover, pop out from behind it, and then completely obliterate your enemy and turn him into a pulsating puddle of goop. It’s not as easy as it sounds. I felt that I had it down, especially using the cool move which Epic calls the ‘roadie run.’ It is a crouched run that allows you to run, low to the ground, from cover to cover. Once in cover the on-screen cues are excellent and they tell you exactly what you are going to do when you hit the button. The button I’m referring to is the A button. One button controls how you enter and exit cover, if you roadie run or stand up and jog. It is a very simple but very excellent control scheme. It gives you a feeling of control. No messing with button combos to perform this move or that. It’s all automatic. It’s not just you that has these moves though. The Locust Horde are capable of performing all these moves and they do not hesitate. The first time I saw the Horde exit from an emergence hole and begin ducking and weaving from cover to cover trying to obliterate me was a feeling I’ve rarely experienced in a game. They use all the moves you have and attempt to flank, charge and retreat to get a better shot at you.
I found that the enemies did not go down fast, and it felt like I went down really fast. Over the course of the next few chapters I found myself living longer and longer and actually getting a feel for what would put down an enemy and how to keep myself alive. This helped to immerse me more into the world that I was in. I felt like a soldier trying to learn to deal with this threat. Trying to “get the rust off” so to speak and really start playing and moving like a soldier.
So far that has been the most excellent part of the game for me. I feel like a guy who’s just been broken out of prison with no idea what’s going on. Just that I am now in service to the Coalition of Ordered Governments or COG. This way of telling the story is kind of interesting. I say this because they don’t tell you too much. What they do is give you a seemless cut scene. These break flawlessly into action as well as the action breaks flawlessly into the cut scenes to supply you with the information that you are ‘allowed’ to know. The lack of information helps to keep you entrenched in the warfare as you keep pushing forward to find out more.
My initial experiences with the game have been excellent. I can’t help but find myself wrapped up into this world. The visuals are so crisp, and the environment feels so engaging. There is cover everywhere and it’s been really fun watching my squad move from cover to cover, flanking and retreating to engage the enemy. It’s like a ballet of bullets and blood. Stay tuned for my next play rating where I tackled the meat and potatoes as well as Co-op mode.
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