Gears of War: Ultimate Edition (Xbox One)

When the original Gears of War hit the Xbox 360, it ushered in a new era of shooting games. Winning multiple awards and selling insanely well, it helped propel the cover shooter into prominence during the seventh generation of consoles and helped popularize using overwhelming greys and browns to try and make the graphics appear more gritty and realistic. It was one of the Xbox 360’s killer apps and helped propel developer Epic Games to blistering new heights. The name Gears of War carries the same weight as other shooting game greats like Doom and Halo, so when Microsoft acquired the full rights to the franchise, it’s little surprise they’d want to remaster such an important game, and that’s what lead to the creation of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. Beyond just a visual touch-up and a tightening of game mechanics, it includes the previously PC exclusive chapters, new multiplayer modes, and extra unlockables to find. While it may not be a huge step up from the game it is remaking, it certainly does enough to justify playing it over the well-lauded original release.

While many shooting games can have their gameplay blend in with the crowd, there is definitely something special to Gears of War: Ultimate Edition’s gun play that makes it incredibly satisfying. One part is definitely the game trying to make all its weapons feel like powerhouses with the player animation, sound design, and visual effects that accompany a shot, but this game even manages to make reloading an engaging experience. When you start to reload a gun, a meter shows how long it will take, a line moving across it to indicate how far along the process is. However, a decently sized sweet spot exists in the meter where, if you press reload again, you can quickly pop in the ammo and get right back to shooting. An even tinier part of the meter can be hit to even get a damage boost on top of the quick reload, so even when you’re not actively shooting at a foe, you have something to focus on that can contribute to the fight.

The cover system is rather strong, as the game doesn’t encourage just hunkering behind waist-high walls waiting for your chance to fire a few bullets and then go back to hiding. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition makes popping out of cover usually safe enough to justify until you need to reload but not so safe that the hiding spots become pointless. Stay in the open and you’ll be chewed up by enemy fire easily, but in the same manner, if you’ve got a bead on somebody, your bullets can often end them if they don’t quickly get out of the line of your fire. Fast reload also means you don’t need to hunker down too long before opening fire again, but cover also plays into how you recover from damage. So long as you avoid injury for a short period of time, any damage you’ve taken can be healed up. Pushing forward or moving between cover is easier to justify when you know you all those injuries you took getting to your new position can fade away. Dodge rolls also make it easier to get across open space or out of the line of fire if you suddenly find yourself in danger, and the game includes something called the Roadie Run that allows you to crouch down and bolt forward to really make covering ground accessible and quick. The strategy becomes about calculated risks, smart use of cover, and trying to have the better damage output to eventually overwhelm your enemies while they do the same, and the weapons are a great mix for supporting this style of play.

Most of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition’s weaponry are variations on the typical weapons you find in shooters but beefed up to match the mountains of muscle that are the main characters. Nothing better embodies that ethos than the Lancer Assault Rifle, a gun that not only puts out plenty of automatic fire, but has a chainsaw built into it that you can use to slice your foe in half if you manage to reach them. The Longshot sniper rifle requires more aim to use than most and its hard to use steadily if you’re under fire, but find the right perch and account for the enemy’s position properly and most foes will die to a single shot from it. The shotgun is surprisingly strong even at a decent distance, and you can even finds pistols like the Boltok that hit incredibly hard. In multiplayer where everyone can conceivably hide and recover from most gunfire, the incredible strength and efficiency of the weapons balance out that feature, and things like the Longshot, the rocket launcher known as the Boomshot, and frag grenades still offer you the ability to instantly take out foes who are relying too much on cover or trying to run from conflict. The game only has two weapons that don’t feel like they’re just stronger versions of genre staples, one being the Torque Bow that is hard to line up and land a shot with accurately but the bolt it fires detonates with enough force to kill some of the strongest enemies in the single-player campaign. The Hammer of Dawn is a step higher, this weapon calling down a satellite laser to immolate anything it touches, although it’s mostly saved for huge boss monsters who can handle it better. Still, when there are other enemies near those tougher foes, it’s certainly satisfying to see the beam of heat obliterate them with ease.

Many people will understandably be drawn to test all these mechanics and weapons in multiplayer, and the competitive modes certainly come in many different stripes for what are essentially two different flavors of play. One of the main types, spread across modes like Warzone, Execution, and Team Deathmatch, is a competition to completely wipe out the opposing team’s store of lives. Warzone and Execution both have each player go in with a singular life whereas Team Deathmatch you have a shared set to draw from so you can respawn, but the importance of lives encourages smart weapon and cover use instead of brazen or thoughtless play. King of the Hill and Blitz are both focused on completing objectives instead of survival, the players needing to be in the right areas to earn credit and needing to try and hold ground that is often poised to be assaulted from multiple angles to make it rough. Respawn isn’t limited in these modes, but again, if you aren’t thinking about how you’re approaching your goal, you’re bound to lose as smarter players snag the points for approaching objectives properly. A mode that doesn’t fit the formulas quite as cleanly is Assassination where one player of each team is the designated target, other players respawning as much as they like as they try to either protect their VIP or go after the other team’s leader. The rule variations can certainly allow the players to find fresh new ways to play even though many of them are strong enough to last for quite a while on the strength of the shooting alone, and with maps built with many different lines of sight and cover opportunities, the variety is certainly assured no matter which mode strikes you most.

If you’d rather tackle a story mode, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is no slouch either. Playable solo or in co-op, the campaign involves the planet Sera, once a world of humans much like our own, being overrun with monstrous humanoids who one day emerge from underground. Known as Locusts and coming in many shapes other than their standard weapon-wielding humanoids, their invasion lead to the world falling into ruin, only The Coalition of Ordered Governments left to try and repel this force and save humanity. The COG’s army, known as the Gears, is at a turning point in the battle where they might be able to wipe out the enemy menace if they can successfully map out and destroy the underground tunnels the Locust inhabit, but to do so, they need the assistance of the game’s main character Marcus Fenix. Marcus is an angry mountain of muscle bitter about being kicked out of the military, but the locust threat means he has no issue picking up a gun and joining the cause when they come calling. Part of his willingness comes from his closest friend Dom Santiago being the one to ask him to rejoin, this Gear being the player two character during the campaign and being a much friendlier and personable counterbalance to Marcus’s serious and gruff nature. While you encounter a few other characters along the adventure, the main squad of four are the ones that stand out the most. Marcus and Dom are joined by two characters who really flesh out a fun group dynamic. Augustus “Cole Train” Cole is bombastic, funny, and full of energy, joking around and celebrating the group’s successes more enthusiastically than the others. Damon Baird, on the other hand, is a frequently irritated pessimist who frequently gets on Marcus’s nerves or gets poked at by Cole Train. Rather than being a band of forgettable soldiers, they’re actually a fun and memorable squad that help string together the story events quite well.

Having the four heroes to focus on is especially important, as the world of Gears of War certainly doesn’t explain itself as well as it should. Throwing a bit too much information at you without explanation, it can be difficult to determine what’s going on or the importance of objects and locations to the plot. Sera is definitely a well thought out world with plenty of history, but you’re more likely to get that from the unlockable comics rather than exposition during the story, and it can undermine some the story because of the lack of clarity. The plot does string together plenty of interesting settings though, such as ruined cities, an abandoned mansion, an old chemical plant, a train, and even the Locust tunnels underground. Many single player areas are also used for multiplayer maps so their spacing on things like cover is quite strong and there are definitely some interesting set pieces to be found, but the greys and browns of the world can make spotting the way onward difficult. Perhaps worse though is the fact since everyone is also pulling from a pretty similar color palette, you can easily mistake a Locust for one of your squadmates and either open fire on a friend pointlessly or get ambushed by someone you thought was friendly. Most characters don’t blend in the environment too much so you can at least find them, but the enemy AI isn’t always top notch. It’s pretty good at punishing unintelligent play and knows how to use its numbers advantage, but then some foes will stay behind cover while you’re unloading right into them from above or they’ll come running out into the open with just a pistol while you’re rather far away. They do know to back away if you’re running forward with your chainsaw revving though, so for the most part the AI does its job and just loses a few Locusts to the moments it makes them accidentally stupid.

Special enemy types also prevent the campaign from getting too stale. The humanoid Locusts are most common and are spiced up with whatever weapons they happen to be toting, but special foes can really change how firefights unfold. Wretches are small and quick, relying on physical attacks as they scramble across any available surface to reach you and overwhelm you with their speed and numbers. Kryll are bat-like creatures that come out at night and swarm anything that’s not adequately lit, meaning an entire section of the game becomes about managing gun fights with staying in the proper lighting to avoid instant death. Larger enemies like the Berserker require you to lure them to their doom, but the monsters that can be consider bosses are often a touch underwhelming. A titanic creature called the Brumak dominates a few chapters due to how supposedly dangerous it is only for its fight to be about targeting a few weak points as it tromps around firing missiles ineffectively, and a Locust leader named General Raam is the final boss and mostly seems to very difficult until you realize certain weapons can easily speed up the fight. The regular shooting or ones altered by enemies like the Wretches are certainly the better part of the experience because bosses don’t often pack the expected punch, but the campaign still does manage to entertain considerably thanks to mostly consisting of the game’s excellent shooting on show.

THE VERDICT: Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is more of a touch up of the original game than a remake, but that means it’s just as good if not better than an already supremely satisfying third-person shooter. Plenty of thought went into making the guns thrilling to fire, and even though they all pack quite a punch, the cover system and gradual healing allow for firefights where you aren’t screwed over if you want to be aggressive. You can’t be brainless either, the game achieving a good balance when it comes to intelligent play and visceral fun. Multiplayer and single-player both play good host to the action, although the story and visual design can certainly use some more clarity. The main four characters definitely give it plenty of personality still and the level design is strong, so Gears of War: Ultimate Edition certainly provides plenty of varied shooting action to enjoy.

And so, I give Gears of War: Ultimate Edition for Xbox One…

A GREAT rating. While the upgrades might not do much to polish up areas like the story’s script nor does it help overcome issues with visual similarities between partners and enemies, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition has plenty of what made the original so important. The cover shooting is done so much better than what many of its imitators would attempt, the game providing hiding spots for when you need to stay out of the line of fire but incentivizing involved action with the special Active Reload system, multiple movement options, and weapons that can do their job well if your aim is true. Even with multiple sequels after to inform how the remake was designed there are still little things baked into the first game’s design that ensure the remake of the first outing isn’t top of the line. However, most of the experience is a mix of solid game mechanics and satisfying action, the game having the right amount of location and weapon diversity even if many aren’t breaking the mold. With a fun set of main characters and some variety to the multiplayer options, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is undoubtedly a great game, but since this is a fairly faithful remake, it didn’t implement all of the interesting ideas later members of the series would explore.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition brings back a massively influential game in a more palatable modern form. The original game hasn’t aged much due to the era of its release, but seeing the game world in greater detail and having some mechanics tweaked for the better definitely benefits this remake. For a game that was already well crafted to be adjusted into something even cleaner, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was always destined for greatness, the legacy of such an important third-person shooter continuing on through this souped up title. Once you get your hands on the game’s satisfying gun play, it’s fairly easy to see why the game its remaking inspired a paradigm shift in the industry. Considering the Ultimate Edition has everything the original game had and then some, it’s safe to say the remake does its job in creating a superb new way to play an already excellent game.