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I arrived somewhat late to the Gears of War party, only playing through half of GOW 2 but loving the entirety of GOW 3 in 2011. Now the franchise is in the hands of People Can Fly -now pretty much a subsidiary of Epic Games- and about to release Gears of War: Judgment to what I can only describe as complete and utter apathy on my part.
It's not that I no longer love what Gears of War does, believe me it does that 'it' very well. Always has. Gears of War 3 is probably one of the most polished and best balanced game I've ever played. I, for one, enjoyed the story and really didn't find the 'feels' moments as ham-fisted as many other people did. No, there is something else going on here, and I feel that it goes beyond Judgment and involves other titles we've been seeing recently. It explains why God of War: Ascension did meekly in recent reviews and also embodies our fundamental issue with the new Tomb Raider. Many of these franchises, once classic and heralded, are now just treading water. Innovation has been replaced with risk-adverse gameplay solutions which is causing a homogenization of games of the likes we've never seen before.
To put it simply, it's just getting boring.
Look at the trailer released for Judgment today below. It's Gears of War, alright. The same Gears of War we've played for the past two years. Multiplayer has been enhanced but these are slight variations on the source materials, not new and engaging ideas. It's an amazing statement to make, but chainsawing someone in half has gotten so dull. So is this what is necessary now? Is this where we are? A new game, no matter what, every one to two years...no matter what. And how long will we as consumers put up with this?
Thankfully we're not at a totally loss. Dishonored, Dragon's Dogma and XCOM: Enemy Unknown have shown -both critically and commercially- that there's still life in those old bones yet, and I look forward to a day when more open experience take the place of the hand-holding cinematic conga-line gaming we've been seeing more of recently.
The tepid reaction to the new God of War (not Gears of War...yes there is a lot of war in gaming) gives me hope as well, and maybe it'll take this new generation to give both developers and publishers a kick in the ass. Something needs to get motivated....maybe it's us.
Comments
11 years, 8 months ago
I came late to the Gears party too, only started playing the Gears games after seeing Gears of War 3 shown at E3. Yes, part of this newfound interest in the series was because Ice-T, my favorite rapper, was announced to be voicing a role in the game, but that's besides the point. I played Gears 1, 2, and 3 all within the same year, and they each got better. I didn't feel burned out on Gears after playing them almost back-to-back, and Gears 3 is definitely a game I can see myself playing again. It did so many things right that I wanted it to do.
But I'm not hyped for Judgement at all, either. Maybe it's because Gears 3 just knocked it out of the ballpark and Judgement just feels like leaving the stadium to go looking for the fucking ball, maybe it just took 4 games for me to finally get burned out, maybe it's because the main character of this game is Baird, my least favorite COG. Whatever it is, I'm just not feeling this game at all.
11 years, 8 months ago
People cry like babies about how the new Tomb Raider is not like the classics ones. They say things like they've changed the platforming, it is no longer puzzle based, the tombs are too small!, etc. Why is it so violent and gritty? Wah Wah.
Well there's your answer, if you do not reboot and make dramatic changes to your game series after a while people will become apathetic about it.
Without the dramatic changes people would say oh it's just another Tomb Raider, like how it's just another Madden, Call of duty, Fifa, etc.
11 years, 8 months ago
May pick it up later down the line as a "rent" but I jumped off the Cole Train in GoW3. Good luck Gears~