Gears of War on the PC is one of the most maladroit computer ports I've
encountered since Halo 2. While that doesn't mean it is bad, I think
Epic Games should of done a whole lot more for their former target
audience of Unreal fans when you put a number of things into
consideration. Primarily, Epic Games didn't even handle the conversion.
It was left in the hands of Polish developers People Can Fly who
previously had some success with their cult classic, Painkiller. It wasn't professionally a bad move but picking People Can Fly was an
unnecessarily risky choice given Gears of War's repute on the consoles.
This is a very big game and for a longwhile the most worthwhile 360
exclusive. It deserved no margin for error by any standpoint. And you
have to also bear in mind that Epic Games had themselves a long repute
on computers for their Unreal series, which progressively took computer
hardware to it's limits.
That isn't to say Gears of War doesn't push your PC like it should. It
could have been so much more had it been optimised properly by Epic
Games for ATI/Nvidia hardware rather than made to imitate what was
capable of the 360's chips instead. Gears of War was originally released
in late 2006 following a year's worth of hype and being the vocal point
of the Xbox 360's capabilities during much of it's development. It
hasn't a revolutionary story and on first impressions you'd call the
protagonists: Dom and Fenix, to be your regular take on the gruff, buff
and grizzled war veterans you're typically used to in shooters of it's
type. However Gears of War was anything but by having likeable characters, a
variety of plot twists and a compelling narrative. As a shooter, Gears
of War parades the cover and fire mechanics of Kill.Switch and Operation
Winback. Epic Games had the sense to modify covering to such a degree
that it is more slick and easy to use in times of reloading and
tactically overthrowing enemies than anything else before it.
Epic made it possible to link jumps between each piece of cover with
smooth slide mechanics and wall bounces. It makes combat an absolute
blast and slick as ever. This feature alone I'd argue makes Gears of War
the addictive multiplayer game it is additionally. There isn't actually
much to say in the way of weapons or levels in Gears of War. You really
get what you expect - shotguns, pistols, sniper rifles however the
torque bow does bring back explosive darts impressively. Gears of War is
paced fantastically, there is a surprise around nearly every corner you
turn. Gears of War is able to succeed
by being rounded off and perfect in a way and that combines the better
elements and conventions of a third person shooter, and some of Unreal
games, into developing a truly outstanding gameplay experience. But
ofcourse, the presentation and visual cues of Gears of War are what
takes centre stage in this action-adventure.
The camera turns at precise moments, coming out bold, as something
different whenever a cinematic moment occurs during gameplay. The
cutscenes themselves are carefully prepared too, mostly using the game's
engine to great effect with action movie camera controls, facial
expressions and scripted sequences looking as genuine as can be. If you
thought they looked good on the 360, you'll be mesmerised by how the PC
is able to do this almost constantly at sixty frames per second with
little to no pop-up. Despite the ill talk of this port, I will admit that playing a game like
Gears of War works remarkably better on a custom rig over a retail
console. You only need to ask the players of Unreal Tournament 3 to
understand why. And atleast People Can Fly noticed this by restoring the
usual editor modes alongside the shooter itself. But ofcourse that
isn't without Microsoft insisting on the use of it's own sub-par "Games
for Windows Live" service conjunctively.
I've talked very little about the online experience of Gears of War on
the computer for a very good reason. It isn't very Good. It has nothing
to do with the game's own flaws online particularly: Gears of War is a
hardcore shooter online that relys heavily on reflexes and knowledge of
weapon spawns in order to gain the upperhand with each map. The problem
is the former reflexes are severly made limited by the use of peer to
peer, rather than dedicated, servers while playing online. This makes connections sporadically unstable and the host will always be
one of the better players on the leaderboard because they'll have the
best speed playing on their own server. Simple. Additionally The Games
For Windows service insists on splitting servers between ranked and
player matches, making ranked the only recorded games on leaderboards
and only available through paid subscription. This is highly restrictive
considering few games like Gears of War require subscription otherwise.
It is bad enough of Microsoft having players on peer-to-peer servers but
making them pay for it is unacceptable by all regards. Although the
service might have had success via such a service on the Xbox 360,
computer gamers have much higher standards of network play and if a game
doesn't have free dedicated servers - it is ultimately doomed online.
Which is a shame because Gears of War online could of succeeded on the
computer. It has a great list of maps; warzone and execution are
exciting last man standing game modes and annex/king of the hill are
reminiscent of the domination game modes featured in Unreal Tournament.
Yet Microsoft did have the sense to leave co-op alone as it were. And
that is the saving grace to Gears of War online because it makes the
Xbox 360 AAA title all the more tactically intense. A similar minded
human player by default outwits any braindead team AI. And like it or not, Gears of War also features
achievements. Fortunately Gears of War's achievements are accessibly
unlocked with ease in single player and co-op but annoyingly a good
number exist exclusively for competitive netplay. If you do wish to
brave the multiplayer mode, there are still servers on the player
lobbies that'll reward your successes but enter at your own risk.
So Gears of War on the PC. While it is still a highly commendable
release on the computer, it beckons to be more. Epic Games had the
opportunity to fill the gaps they left with the console version and the
fact they gave so little regard to their original PC audiences is
insulting to say the least. Even so, you'll have a lot of fun playing
Gears of War, despite being a year old third person shooter at the time;
it didn't (perhaps debatably still doesn't) have much competition at
all.
