Gears Of War Concerns

Submitted by James Munn on September 30, 2006 – 11:23 am15 Comments

Take a few minutes and watch through these videos of Gears of War. The first vid has impressions from the crew over at 1up, they don’t look too enthused at all and who can blame them. There really hasn’t been anything displayed in these videos to force me to want to toss down the cash for this on my 360. Before you start flaming, let me try to explain.

Example 1:

First off, Duck and Cover. You duck to pick an opportune time to attack. This works great in games like GRAW or even Syphon Filter, because if you take a few hits you’re in serious trouble if not dead. From these videos it seems they’re all super-soldiers in the vein of UT and Doom, as-in you can take a massive amount of damage before dying. For further proof, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to duck at all in these videos, except to prove that…yeah….you can duck and it looks neat.

You’ll also notice that the enemies hardly react when you’re right next to them. You’d think they’d dodge or run or scramble or SOMETHING. I don’t see any AI here besides the targets sliding left and right from one cover to the next without rhyme or reason.

Example 2:

If you watch the combat in this video, it just seems like there’s no reaction from the enemies to the impact of bullets. Sure, they flip and die in the end but they’ll stand there and take a beating and do nothing but duck way too much later after you hit them.

How about 3/4 of the way through the video, Marcus Phoenix walks up to an enemy covering behind a small stone block. He jumps over the block and fires at him then there’s this awkward moment of nothing, until finally the enemy about 10 feet away, swings his gun. This just looks really lame and I’m surprised to see it in an officially released video.

Example 3:

Take a look at this one. I save the best for last, this is the most glaring of all the videos. Skip about halfway through the video. Phoenix will duck into a waist-high stone cover with an enemy a few yards away in cover. Phoenix pops up and attempts to fire on the exposed body behind the wall….but he can’t hit him. He fires round after round into the guys HEAD and he doesn’t even scratch him. Next Gen is more than graphics, it’s got to be gameplay as well.

But that isn’t all, the next one is even worse. About 3/4 of the way through, Phoenix actually walks up to another wall (when they first walk outside) with an enemy covered against the other side of it. He sneaks around the side and tries to attack with the butt of his weapon. While it looks like he should be hitting his target, we hear the *thunk thunk* of cement. He has to walk back, turn to the front of him and fire on him. Good thing the AI is nonexistent, because the guy just stood there and let him do it.

I know these are demo videos, but what I see here is very late production. I have a hard time believing problems such as this getting cleaned up before release. If you’re fine with these really annoying issues, that’s fine. I’m expecting more from such a hyped title for the 360.

Hugh

While I see what you mean James I have to disagree with a few of those. First of all the enemies seem to react fine to being shot, its not a Hollywood movie where every shot knocks the person five feet backwards. The locust are soldiers that are built like tanks, I think they would be less intimidating if they acted different when being shot.

Next gen brings a lot of things but small glitches will always exsist in games with the scope of Gears of War, this is just a fact of games and this will never change, so get used to it.

I think that people see video and get way to picky of a game they have never played! Oh and there is nothing lame about GEOW.
Parafia

If u compare this “AI” to the HL2 or F.E.A.R. GoW looks more like American Laser Games production of tomorrow.
Gwar

idiot. It’s Fenix, not Phoenix. And the game is pimp tight.
Doug

I don’t know about you guys but I completely agree with this blog thingy. “Next Gen” is a label for idiots. With each jump in generations the gameplay got better up until this “next” one. I’ve played Dead Rising and Oblivion and I think they both suck major di*k. The gameplay in those is so terrible and annoying. This game looks to follow suit. *sighs* No matter what you believe, Nintendo is winning this generation, hands down.
James (Author)

Gwar: Thanks for the post! I just got called an idiot by a guy who described a game as, “pimp-tight”
James (Author)

Doug: While I don’t agree with your opinion of Nintendo’s console, considering their lack of a quality online scheme (friend codes suck and don’t make sense to the masses) or a system capable of carrying 3rd Party titles across all genres, I’m glad you agree with the article.

Dead Rising’s controls turned me off but it didn’t suck at all. Oblivion is excellent for what it is, a Single Player RPG. Not my cup of tea, but that doesn’t make it any less excellent.
Richard

Damn Doug you must not know much about games!
JamesBee

I think, that until we have the game it’s going to be really hard to judge how well the pop and gun method works. It’s impossible to tell what difficulty level the game is being played on. In most games of this genre it drastically changes the tactics require. Using GRAW as an example, playing on hard requires you to be much more careful about running around in the open. I am hoping that GEARS has a really hard difficulty level that forces you to use the cover system to your advantage.

I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
Doug

I find it funny how xbox fans and the such fail to see the problems that their games suffer from and yet they rate them highly. Take for example, Ninja Gaiden. The camera in the game is utterly horrible, the plot is near retarded, none of the weapons do nearly enough damage, you die way too easily, and the difficulty makes the game so frustrating that you would never want to play it again. Yet xbox lovers couldn’t get enough of it. Gears of War just looks like a poor excuse for a game. “ooh pretty graphics!” isn’t enough to sell a game anymore. You need to actually design a fully functional, fun game for people to like it. And oh yeah, Oblivion is so fuc&ing boring I’d rather play Mahjong with Teri Shaivo then ever go near that train wreck again.
Peter

Doug, just because you didn’t like some games does not nessecarily mean that they are crap. Likewise, it isn’t fair to just sigle out xbox owners; what makes them so different from the rest of gamers?
I happened to enjoy Ninja Gaiden, Oblivion and Dead Rising very much. Yes, there are problems with each one, but remember (excluding Ninja Gaiden), that they are launch games for the 360. Have nay of the launch games for any console been completely fool-proof for everyone? (please don’t bring up super mario 64)
Even if you may not like a game doesn’tmean that other people can’t and shouldn’t. Maybe when you comment next you should back up your argument instead of presenting your opinions as fact.
8bucks

Doug, have you ever considered you just might not be very good at video games? Good luck in your future, hobby, whatever it turns out to be.
As for GoW I’m glad I read this article, because it’s the first I’ve seen of it’s kind. I’ve read a lot hyping this game and I’ll admit I’m excited for it because it looks “pimp-tight” to me as well… but the issues discussed in this article do make me concerned. One thing that might need to be considered is the difficulty setting. I don’t know where those videos came from but I heard that when the game has been demoed it’s been on an easy setting… maybe someone else can clarify this. So hopefully those AI issues are just from the easy setting dumbing down the enemies, but that those glitches will be fixed before release.
Doug

Party people, cry me a river. It still doesn’t change the fact that these glaring problems go unnoticed just because it is a “hot” game and everyone is excited about it. If you like walking through forests for hours, repeatedly attempting to aim a gun at a zombie’s head, or fight with your camera and enemy at the same time, be my guest. From a design standpoint, these problems need to be edged out if it truely is to become “next gen”. Case closed.
Doug

That is an example of what I was talking about.
Peter

Hmm, fair enough, and I agree that games do have certain desgin flaws. But flaws don’t make a game a bad game; if the overall design can overcome such problems then it truly is a good game; for me, Ninja Gaiden had such a strong design to it, I was able to look past… well, actually, I couldn’t find that many flaws. Whilst I would agree that the difficulty was high, it offerd a challange and was almost refreshing after so many modern games that seem to cater to even the most unskilled gamer. And the camera couldn’t have been easier to control; one button press and it swings in behind you.
It isn’t that people don’t notice such issues. You aren’t the only one out there who can see problems with games. But whilst you may sit there for a few hours before declaring a game crap due to the fact that you find yourself not getting on with the controls, others are sitting and enjoying the game. Gaming doesn’t have to be about having everything single thing perfect. Gaming is about enjoying what is there and what is right. Case closed :p

About Gears of War; I think that there are a few issues there that need to be addressed. Whilst graphically it’s looking very good, the collision detection system really needs some work; I just hope that the rest of the game compensates for it. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding.
8bucks

I’m about to throw some pudding all up in Doug’s face. Walking through forests and repeatedly aiming a gun at zombies heads are parts of the games you were referring to (Oblivion and Dead Rising)… I don’t see how it makes them bad games. Like I said you may want to rethink your hobby, or start getting good at videogames.