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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5495 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Released on: 2006-11-17
• Platform: Xbox 360

Manufacturer's Description:

Gears of War, an Xbox 360 exclusive game that blends tactical action with survival horror, thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing tale of humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. The storyline plays out like a Hollywood blockbuster -- lead character Marcus Fenix pits advanced human technology against the overwhelming Locust Horde. Built around a revolutionary third-person tactical combat system and breathtaking, high-definition visuals from the Unreal Engine 3, Gears of War immerses you in a horrifying tale of war and survival.

Gears of War is harrowing tale that pits humankind against the Locust Horde.

Marcus Fenix and his team battle nightmarish creatures. View larger.

In Gears of War, you must take cover to survive. View larger.

Gears of War presents a focused and well-paced cinematic experience. View larger.

The gameplay is focused on a fire team co-op so advanced that your A.I. teammates are indiscernible from human players. Voice recognition and real-time lip synching heighten the absorbing experience. The Unreal Engine 3 technology brings out the smallest details in the largest of battles. With GOW you're sure to experience a rich, dynamic world where characters spring to life. Speaking of life, the battlefield is a lethal place. To survive, you must suppress your enemy with blindfire, take cover in interactive environments, and use weapons and teammates to outwit your dreaded, inhuman foes. And with a title like GOW, it would be shame if you couldn't get online and challenge live gamers. With the next-generation of Xbox Live, you'll be able to experience individualized matchmaking, view player statistics, earn player achievements, customize games, and build personalized gamer profiles.

Gears of War shined bright at Microsoft's pre-E3 press briefing, but a deeper demo at Microsoft's E3 booth revealed many of the game's mechanics. GOW is built with both the hardcore and casual gamer in mind. But, instead of selecting a difficulty level at the start of the game, GOW offers a choice at the beginning of each level. In the vein of choose your own adventure, you can select between a difficult or easy path. And it's not just a simple choice of battling tougher enemies; each path (explained by a comrade) represents additional content that is crucial to the storyline. After easing your way into the experience of the gameplay with the simpler paths, you can go back and test your skills on the more difficult routes and never feel like you've played through the areas before.

Standing around in the open is likely to get you killed in GOW. You must use cover to survive. With a context sensitive A button function, you won't have to sweat memorizing cumbersome button combos. The A button will:

• Slam you into cover. As you approach cover in GOW simply tap the A button to slide and make immediate use of cover.
• Vault you over the cover. Once you're in cover, pressing up and A will vault you over your cover to engage the opponent or next cover opportunity.
• Evade enemy fire. When you're forced to be out in the open, tapping the A button will engage a roll maneuver to evade enemy fire.
• Activate a "Swat Turn." When taking cover on the side of a doorway, pressing the A button will spin your character from one side of the doorway to the other, helping avoid fire.

Ripping a magazine free and replacing it in the midst of bloody combat is no easy task. GOW simulates this difficult action by forcing you to perfect your reloading skills. To be effective in combat you'll need to allot for time to successfully reload your weapon. Do it well and the battle is yours; do it poorly and you may actually jam your gun. Time it perfectly and you'll earn a bonus with a temporary damage boost. Though GOW clearly showcases a sci-fi experience, its roots are in tactical, realistic combat scenarios. Therefore, running and gunning makes for seriously erratic shooting. Think about what you're doing. Unless wasting ammo is your goal, you better stop, aim, shoot, and then move on. Otherwise, the Locust Horde might swarm you and take your life.

Gears of War presents a focused and well-paced cinematic experience, and nothing ruins that faster than a time-consuming exploration of every switch or button to find the elusive trigger to open a door. This game introduces a "point of interest" button that comes up on the screen so you can immediately interact with the necessary item to move forward in your gameplay. GOW certainly offers drool-worthy graphics, but the mechanics have also received equal attention. Keep your eyes and ears on high alert for a release date, as Microsoft hasn't let the cat out of the bag on when gamers will be able to tackle this great-looking and great-playing title.

This limited edition, highly collectible embossed metal box includes the following additional content:

• Destroyed Beauty, the Gears of War hardbound art book
• Bonus special features DVD, including:
• An inside look at the making of Gears of War
• The "Art of Gears of War" trailer
• Gears of War: The Race to E3

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Customer Reviews

Is the tin worth it's weight in gold? (Arf)
I thought it might be worthwhile to supply a review based more around the Special Edition of 'Gears Of War' for those unsure about shelling out the extra cash. Mostly because everyone knows how great the game is already; the tense atmosphere, the thrilling gun fights, the unapologetic levels of gore, all this has been well documented. It's a killer app, make no mistake.
Secondly, whether or not you should spend the extra cash is important because, well, money's always tight, especially with the strong range of games available on the 360.
What you get is, first up, a pretty if not unfortunately throwaway little hardback artbook, with conceptual artwork and hi-res models that had been knocking around games mags a few months before release date.
The tin itself is pretty nice, though mine came scuffed straight out of the shrink-wrap somehow, but it'd make a pretty nice box for tobacco, rolling papers and...er...lighters. Ahem.
But the DVD is where you'll decide whether the expense was worth it. This is, perhaps surprisingly, really good, and served as a great accompaniment to the game both before and after I palyed it. While "A Look Inside Epic Games" (a short film about the company filmed and starring the team's kids) is a twee oddity, overly saccarine and ill-placed, the "The Road to E3" is a real eye-opener into the workings of the studio, the title, and Microsoft's role and reliance on it.
Interviews with the game's programmers, producers, concept artists and specifically the Lead Designer give a great insight into how the finished product became just that. It's a tense ride, made so by the passion and lustre the team have for 'Gears', and the honesty with which Microsoft's position was shown. While the guys at Epic seem fatigued, they're still relatively relaxed. The Microsoft guys look like their jobs are really on the line; they're at war with PS3, make no mistake. And without titles like 'Gears Of War', come March (if that really is Sony's release date) it's exclusive titles like 'Lost Planet', 'Mass Effect' and 'Halo 3' that will turn the tide...and 'Gears Of War' sits comfortably in such company. This short film is an effective snapshot of the modern games industry, and is almost worth the price of the Collector's Edition alone.
Other extras include some really well presented and unseen concept artwork (with a great mural from E3), some cool trailers and a series of passionate talking heads that sum up why the game works; despite it's serious undertones, this hulking warmonger is built for fun.
Of course, playing the game pretty much tells you all that in itself. So, to summise, it's a great bit of product. Worth another £5? Undeniably. Worth another £10? Depends if you read 'Edge' or not. Worth another £15? Splash it on 'Rockstar Table Tennis' instead. And sorry it took a long time to get round to that. Epic must've spurred my 'Gears of Inspiration'. Arf.

An amazing next gen game
It is very rare when one day you think halo 2 is the best game in the world then this happens.... Gears of War comes out.
Now the most online played game of this year, it has become one of the best games ever played.
The story line you follow is great where you fight Sera, a planet much similar to that of Earth, until emergence day, a day where the creatures that haunt you in your sleep rise from the ground.... the locust, who are hell bent on making human kind extinct.
I recommend the purchase of the limited editon box set as it comes with the extras of how the game was created and it gives a lot of background info.
After you complete the intense 5 acts of non stop shooting, blood, guts and chainsaws, you will surely become addicted to the online matchmaking. Do you have the skill to chainsaw 100 opponents? hard as it sounds but fun to do. If your not online for achievements then its still a generally amazing game to play with friends and people all over the world.
enjoy its not a game that gets boring easily.

Eat lead alien scum
I only bought my 360 a couple of weeks ago and Gears Of War looked like the 'must by' game so I duly purchased a copy.

First impressions, well funnily enough average, the first 5-10 minutes not to much happens, then BANG! LETS KILL ALIENS!!
The control system is fantastic, so easy to aim, hide and jump for cover, graphics the type you might get on a £2000 pc, stunning visuals and sound, hook this up to your HD TV, as I have, and the clarity is awesome.


I also bought four other games for my 360, put it this way, G.O.W hasn't been ejected from the machine for nigh on a fortnight.Also a quick mention for Xbox live, easy to get online for a game, great fun, though if you're as mediocre as me then you'll spend most of the time getting a chainsaw up your jacksy!