Gears of War can be another GTA or Mario - Rein

360 News | Epic VP wants more than a trilogy for Gears.

With the likelihood of Gears of War becoming a trilogy now stronger than ever, Epic vice president Mark Rein has poured yet more fuel on the fire, by claiming he can see Gears of War developing in to a long-running franchise. In fact, Rein reckons Gears could even end up matching the likes of Grand Theft Auto, Mario, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid in terms of longevity.

"Gears is a trilogy? If we can keep making quality games that fans obviously want then why would we have to stop at three," said Rein on the Epic forum. "I don't see the Metal Gear Solid, Mario, Grand Theft Auto or Final Fantasy series (among others) stopping at three and they're still delivering compelling entertainment content that's easily worth the money (see Unreal Tournament as well). There's definitely, as many of you have pointed out, a lot more to learn about what's really happening on the planet Sera and in the lives of the members of Delta Squad."

Looks like a sequel is going to be the very least we'll be getting, then. Not that we're complaining.

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30 Comments

Crestfallen

5 years ago

it won't and can't hold up like those aforementioned titles

GroovySamurai

5 years ago

^ I would say that Shooters dont go to well as big series but then look at Call of Duty, Battlefield and all the Half Life games. As long as they can keep up the great detail and expand on the world more I think it could turn out like all these other great series.

Frozencry

5 years ago

Epic have managed to sustain huge popularity with the Unreal and UT franchise, and it's been around since 98/99. Gears can definitely be made as a larger franchise.

Ellegarden

5 years ago

I dont see it, I do see a cult following not a mainstream one. I just see it with flaw of these games, they hardly ever for light hearted gamers, one reason games like Mario, Sonic do well cause it appeals to everyone.

Kaboth

5 years ago

Honestly I don't get the appeal of all these muscle bound Space marines. Doom had them, Quake had them, Unreal Tournament had them and now Gears of War.

Doom, Quake and Unreal Tournament were all successful for their unique gameplay they offered at release. Gears of War isn't so unique so I can't really see it getting many sequels. Then again I would have said the same for Halo...

GroovySamurai

5 years ago

^ Well its better than having a punny fragile little girl of a man

ObsoletE

5 years ago

tbh, i think a GoW franchise could come about, provided Epic are smart about designing their games, and establish it as a quality franchise, why not?

the sure-fire way to kill the series is to pump out barely different sequels until we're sick of them, and given that they seemed to have taken their time in delivering the first installment, and not to mention their Unreal franchise, it shows promise that they'll maintain the Quality > Quantity mantra.

David

5 years ago

"In fact, Rein reckons Gears could even end up matching the likes of Grand Theft Auto"

LOL, GTA didn't really take off until it was re-born in GTA3, and that was only five years ago. I'd hardly call that a long time!

ObsoletE

5 years ago

David wrote

heh - it seems strange to me that that is true.

strange because i've been playing GTA since the first title, i used to love playing it multiplayer. fragging people and burping and farting on them (push Horn while out of a car) was incredibly funny when you're drunk.

definitely the main thing i miss from the 3D GTAs: Multiplayer.

GURANGA!

David

5 years ago

Yeah, the 3D GTAs were such different games I'm surprised they kept the name.

ObsoletE

5 years ago

well, from my experience, GTA had quite a large cult following, so there was somewhat of an installed fan-base for the first 3D title.

i can remember when i first heard it was going to be of that nature, and being incredibly skeptical of it's quality/playability, given GTA1 and 2. skepticism unfounded, imo.

anyway, back to GoW i suppose.

Matt

5 years ago

The first GTA was moderately successful, second was a million seller in the US on the PlayStation and put up reasonably good numbers elsewhere, and we all know the rest of the story.

That said, Gears of War won't sell 12 million copies. Halo 2 did 6-7 million, and I can't see Gears doing much more.

realitybites

5 years ago

It depends Halo and Half Life are shooters and they still have a "franchise" image.

Depends where the developers go with the series. If they head in a direction that gamers want I can't see why it cannot become a big name. But the problem I see is major grandiose claims but typically it dies off becase of lack of direction and how fast the publsiher wants revenue.

F.E.A.R had an opportunity but I think it may have dropped the ball with Extraction Point.

But Mario is a a funny situation as its a Mascot also. Mario is synonymous with Nintendo. Mario is typically aligned itself with younger audiences (or young at heart). So you have Mario everything.

Maybe GTA is a better example for Gears.

Unfortunately my copy of Gears is wrapped in Christmas paper at present so I won't be playing till 25th December.

ugh the boot

5 years ago

Finishing Gears of War on the weekend I had this awful feeling inside me that this was to be the end of my experience with the beautiful world of Sera. I honestly think that there is a lot more history and wonder to be fleshed out from Sera and hearing that the game designers are in the same state of mind is awesome news!
Personally I thought that Gears of War had one of the best settings i've ever seen in a game mainly because ruins and monsters are my fave things in games and I suppose this game visually had that covered. Sure the story in the actual game wasn't too fleshed out or indepth....but I think the world of Sera has a lot of potential and i'm just glad there will be more Gears of War to come.

Kaboth wrote

So you can't see why they are sending combat hardened soldiers into combat zones? Lol! Yea maybe they should send the princess of mushroom kingdom or a plumber

And yea....doom, quake and unreal were sooooo unique when they came out... Lol! Every single one of those games had been done before. Quake was the first fps to be completely in 3d so I guess that was it's one unique feature. So would you mind explaining to me how Doom was different to Wolfenstein and how Unreal was different to Quake?

ObsoletE

5 years ago

-Wolfenstein was an Ally Soldier vs. The Third Reich - including fictional elements based on actual nazi involvement in the occult.
-Doom was the Space Marine vs. Demons, not humans (unless you count Zombies as Humans).
-Quake was Space Marines vs. the Old Gods (Call of Cthulhu mythos inspired).
-Quake 2/4 was Space Marine vs. the Meat Grinder cyborg aliens.
-Unreal was Space Marines vs. Aliens. (and was the first game to require a 3D Card).
-Half-Life was scientist vs. Alien vs. Black-Ops.
-Halo was Space Marine vs. Alien vs. Alien.

Pedant @ me.

yeah - Space Marines are fairly common in FPS, but like Ugh said, who else would you send, in the event of an intergalactic/interdimensional war? Half-Life is probably the only exception.

also, there's the "Research Facility experimenting on some form of teleportation device accidentally opens a portal to <insert nasty place>, causing an invasion of the <insert nasty monster from said nasty place>" storyline.
Doom
Quake 1
Half-Life

---
i agree with FEAR. it could've had such an awesome collection of stories, but when the original developers lost the licence to make more games in that universe, it all kinda went Pear-shaped. Extraction Point doesn't have the right feel to it, compared to the orginal, not to mention containing several elements in direct opposition to the original plot. (which may get explained. i have barely played it.)

ugh the boot

5 years ago

^ Basically you failed to miss my point (although "Pedant @ me" goes some ways to ammend this)...I wasn't talking about the stories in these games or hardware requirements ....more the gameplay....so like I said....everything had been done before. Also your point about those 3 games having the almost exactly the same stories make them even less viable as standalone series.

If we're to use your reasoning...well I could name heaps of reasons why Gears of War is 'unique' compared to Unreal, Quake or Doom....the main character being called Marcus Fenix for one, it uses Unreal 3 engine (none of those other games used that), there was a funny shaped rock on Chapter 3 - Act 1....(I bet that rock wasn't in those other games)....like I said if we're gonna use your reasoning we could pick 1 small feature in the game and compare it to one in the other game. What Kaboth was saying is that Gears of War has been done before so no reason it would survive as a series because it's not 'unique' enough.....I say Kaboth got his conclusions from the glue stick he had for lunch.

Although I disagree about FEAR....had the first one actually had a story....yea it could've maybe continued into another game/series....too bad all they did was copy the little girl from the Ring....and the dream sequences from Max Payne and Ta Dah....they thought they had a story....but infortunately the really strong game engine and mechanics is what kept people playing. Honestly after barley being able to hear the 4th phone message in a row I thought f#@k this....all i'm doing is following around a guy who keeps moving...Yay!

ObsoletE

5 years ago

nah, i got your point initially, i actually started the post with the intention of going into the differences between Wolf3d and Doom, but i kinda got distracted by something and ended up writing something fairly stupid, on retrospect.

anyway:
Wolf3d - 90 degree angles only, 1 plane of levels, 1 lighting per level
Doom - variable angles for walls, muliple planes of levels, ability to alter lighting within a level.
Duke Nukem 3D - as Doom, but also allowed over/under movement, as well as pseudo-water. the up/down looking was technically redundant, but looked cool.

problem is, that as a genre becomes more refined, the ways in which they can be changed are few and far between, basically they rely on minor, usually cosmetic, changes. FPS are no exception.

from 2.5D (Wolf3D, Doom, Duke3D) to true 3D was a huge leap. since then we've really only had, what?
damage locations (head shots etc.)
vehicles
destructable environments
degrees of cover (ie: that curtain in the hospital level shouldn't deflect bullets)
item/body Physics.

everything else is pretty much cosmetic, or refining the details on the above.

Infested Jibbs

5 years ago

^more sophisticaed weapons.......but even then that's stretching it.The only gameplay changing weapon i can immediately think of that is now a staple in all fps's is the sniper rifle.I was gunna say time/proxy/trip mines but duke nukem had laser mines anyways.

ugh the boot

5 years ago

ObsoletE wrote

Yea don't forget i'm also a d!ckhead who doesn't have a nice way of saying anything!

Good points about those earlier 2.5 fps though, but did it change the way any of them were played? I remember playing Wolfenstein 3d exactly like I played Doom....and then I found out the wonders of the 'strafe' button and it became a different game. See with Doom you did have a different playing level but you would still only aim your gun straight....so technically you weren't actually doing anything different. I remember Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem 3d, Shadow Warrior and Heretic had almost identical gameplay just different stories/settings/graphics/weapons....the underlyng mechanics didn't change at all. I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy every last one however!

Also I read the plot details of F.E.A.R in Wiki and it turns out there were a couple of little details that I missed seeing that actually fleshes out the story ALOT more. Basically it's very close to the story that was in "The Ring" but with more of a military theme. I just wish i'd seen this while playing although I think it revelas itself right near the end where things were getting more confusing for me.

Also as far as I know Kill.Switch is one of the only games that has a cover sstem similar to Gears of War...so there should be enough originality there.

Hey Obs have you actually played Gears of War? I have a feeling it might be right up your alley. Very solid game....no glitches to speak of, drop dead gorgeous visuals and the cover system works. Did I mention the graphics?

Jim Dash

5 years ago

I have nothing constructive to say, but what funny rock are we talking about ugh? I don't remember seeing any funny rock..

ObsoletE

5 years ago

Jibbs:
i was going to mention sniper rifles too, but Quake had a zoom button as well, so really it was only a big-damage and HUD change that came with the proper sniper-rifle in games.

Ugh:
yeah, in terms of gameplay, you're right that those 2.5D games really didn't change. the only real exception was from Wolf3D -> Doom, where you could be shot from something above you, without being able to see it.

and yeah, i think FEAR owes a lot to Japanese Cinema (especially Horror) on the whole in general, and Alma was definitly on par with The Ring girl (i've forgotten her name... Sadako, or something...), including the whole telepathic/telekinetic ability thing.
the rest is more conspiratorial in nature.
i wish there was a count at the end on how many phone messages/laptop hacks i got, i went hunting for them, and found a heap of them, but i've no idea how many i actually found. i did pretty much decipher the story before the final revelation, although there were some points i didn't get.
kinda off-topic i guess, except that Monolith are continuing the FEAR story themselves (as opposed to Extraction Point, which Vivendi commisioned from another source.), except it won't be called FEAR due to Vivendi holding the name rights, while Monolith hold the IP rights.

i haven't played GoW, though i really want to. i haven't played Kill.Switch either, so i can't compare that cover system to anything else i've played.
the only FPS game i can think of with proper cover (ie: being able to hide from stalking enemies) really is FarCry. in that the AI doesn't immediately know where you are from a single gun-shot.
as well as hard vs soft cover. (ie: curtains are no longer lead, and twig-huts can be shot through.)

Kaboth

5 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

So you can't see why they are sending combat hardened soldiers into combat zones? Lol! Yea maybe they should send the princess of mushroom kingdom or a plumber

Well I'm not suggesting they send Mario or a thin elfy-eared fellow named Link but perhaps some guys with some more ordinary body shapes and less of this extreme macho language.

Well Doom offered a variety of vastly different weapons, each of which still largely form the basis of the arsenal of every sci-fi shooter released since. Doom also offered a more 3D world with multiple levels and more varied level design. Its enemies were varied but the key thing was the introduction of Lan play and deathmatch. If any of this had been done in a shooter before it was never as recognised as with the launch of Doom.

Quake whilst essentially very similar to Doom was the first true 3D FPS with horizontal and vertical aiming. An important point. It introduced the mouse aiming that's become the standard. It also pushed online play which may have been introduced with Doom earlier but wasn't available at Doom launch, I think...

Unreal Tournaments main claim to fame is its entirely multiplayer focus and its many different modes that had never been seen in an FPS before. It also had a few new suprises in its arsenal. It might have been the first to add secondary fire also. Well it beat ID to the punch anyway.

Gears of War has what? A neat little context sensitive cover command? Cool but hardly revolutionary and its been done in action games before though perhaps never so well. Perfect Dark 0 had something similar, Resident Evil 4 even Time Crisis. To me Gears of War just doesn't differ enough from the competition to offer a future for a long series. That explained my views well enough ugh

Frozencry

5 years ago

UT was the first to add secondary fire, pioneered the "HEADSHOT" announcement, introduced new ways in using weapons (shock combo, etc), and added Assault in which was never done before. That's all I can think of atm.

Ellegarden

5 years ago

Kaboth wrote

Gears of War has what? A neat little context sensitive cover command? Cool but hardly revolutionary and its been done in action games before though perhaps never so well. Perfect Dark 0 had something similar, Resident Evil 4 even Time Crisis. To me Gears of War just doesn't differ enough from the competition to offer a future for a long series. That explained my views well enough ugh

Resident evil 4 was hardly revolutionaly, most of the concept was already in other games, but what it was, it was very well produced and excellent excuited. Same could apply with Gears of war, I didnt personally like it though, but I can see it doing well even if they dont bring new ground, like episode 1 they expand and make the gameplay more solid.

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