
Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games (the creators of the Unreal Tournament series) using Unreal Engine 3.0 technology and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Released for the Xbox 360 on November 7, 2006 in select stores in the United States, it was broadly released in major U.S. retailers on November 12, 2006. The game was released on November 17, 2006 in Europe outside of Germany, where Microsoft Game Studios did not publish the game after it was denied a rating.[1] A limited collector's edition was also released, which included a disc of bonus content and an art book titled "Destroyed Beauty" that detailed much of the game's backstory.
Gears of War centers on the soldiers of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from a relentless subterranean enemy known as The Locust Horde. The player assumes the role of Marcus Fenix, a former prisoner and war-hardened soldier. In cooperative play, the second player plays as Fenix's friend and fellow soldier Dominic Santiago, or "Dom". The two soldiers join Delta Squad, and battle the Locust Horde through the course of the campaign.
Multiplayer
Gears of War supports both split-screen, regular multiplayer over Xbox Live and System Link। There are two multiplayer modes in Gears of War, Cooperative and Versus mode. Multiplayer also adds the "downed" state, which works similar to down comrades the player must help in the single-player missions. When a player has taken too much damage from enemy, their character becomes incapacitated instead of dying instantly. The player remains in this state until they bleed out and die, other players can revive their teammates (in the Execution versus mode or as leader in Assassination only), or are revived by another player. A player can only be revived twice, and on the 3rd down they are dead instantly. However, in cases where the damage is severe as to cause mutilation or disintegration of the body (including chainsaw attacks, short range shotgun blasts, boomshot hits, sniper headshots, or grenade explosions), the player is dead instantly.
Film
On March 20, 2007, it was announced that New Line Cinema had purchased the rights to make the Gears of War film, with Stuart Beattie writing the script along with Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, who will be producing it। The film is scheduled to be released in the year 2009.[15] Producer Wyck Govrey said of the film adaptation, "I'm not a gamer, but what blew me away about Gears was how it captures the mythology of a war mission and how high the stakes are."
Future developments
News of the franchise's future has emerged multiple times since the game's release. PC Gamer accidentally released an image in its 2006 holiday issue where Gears of War can be seen in a Games for Windows display, which led to suspicion that Gears of War would be released for the PC; however, the image was later stated to be a mock-up.Possible leaked pictures were released on February 4, 2007, leading to more suspicion of Gears on the PC. In an interview with Xbox fansite Team Xbox, Mark Rein stated that the game would eventually come to the PC; Epic was not currently ready to release it on that format, but the upcoming release of Unreal Tournament is "helping (Epic) get optimization on the PC."
Gears of War lead designer Cliff Bleszinski said he hoped for the game to expand into graphic novels and eventually film. On November 21, 2006, Microsoft Corporate VP of Global Marketing and Interactive Entertainment Business Jeff Bell stated Gears of War is the first in a trilogy, through sequences on E-Day and the battle of Jacinto Plateau, as well as information on Adam Fenix and his research (which the character finds in Gears). Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein posted a message on the official Gears of War Internet forums, stating "It's not over until it isn't fun anymore", and, in his view, Gears of War may become the next Halo series in terms of popularity.
At the 2007 Game Developers Conference Bleszinkski confirmed that Epic Games does "intend to do a sequel" to Gears of War possibly set to be released in 2008.


