It’s been almost a decade since Microsoft released the first Gears of War game on the Xbox 360. With Gears of War 4 recently announced at E3 2015 and to introduce the series to new generation of gamers who never had a chance to play the first game on the Xbox 360, Microsoft decided to remaster the game with the help of the Canadian developer, The Coalition.
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is the same game that Epic Games released several years ago. It remains as one of the best third person shooters to date and has all of the content they previously released on the Xbox 360 and PC versions, except the graphics are much nicer and the gameplay is smoother on the Xbox One. From many remastered games that have released so far in this generation, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was done exceptionally well as the game has been reworked from the ground up. Comparing the original title to the Ultimate Edition, the changes are evident and gamers can see that The Coalition did a very good job in remastering Epic Games’ masterpiece on the Xbox platform.
For those who never played the first Gears of War before, the game follows the story of Marcus Fenix, a soldier who was released from prison to help the on-going conflict with the Locusts that want to invade the world. With the help of his friend Dominic Santiago or Dom, and the rest of the COG squad, gamers will go through a lot of hardships and challenges in fending off the the Locusts as they figure out their intentions and find a way to eliminate them once and for all. Story-wise, it’s not what you will consider as very good as the story has a straightforward plot, though there are interesting moments that will keep you engaged in the roughly six to eight hour campaign.
One of the big selling points of Gears of War series is the co-operative gameplay in both offline or online. In the five acts that are available in the single player campaign, gamers can team up with a friend and play through the acts. Since the game is almost a decade old, gamers will notice that the gameplay has somewhat aged though the fun factor is still there. Those who are used to shooting games where you have to solve a puzzle first before you proceed to the next area, Gears of War doesn’t do that. Instead, simply killing what’s in front of you in the main objective in this game. Is it bad? Not really as the game’s intense action makes up for all of it. To fully enjoy what the game has to offer, playing the game with a friend is a must.
The campaign mode offers five acts that contain several chapters plus an additional act that adds an hour to the total playthrough. The length of the game is somewhat decent but those who really want to do everything in the game, there are things that you can do to extend that playthrough and that’s through finding dog tags. In every act, there are COG tags or dog tags that you can collect. Each tags that you collect unlocks a comic book in the extras menu that you can read. Finding all 33 is not that hard as there are hints for you when you are walking around a certain area. Simply look at every nook and cranny to find all of them.
In addition to the co-operative gameplay, another selling point of the Gears of War series is the multiplayer portion. Yes, back then, Gears of War multiplayer was a big hit and to give everyone a chance to experience it, The Coalition added a lot of new maps in the game. To be exact, there are roughly nineteen to be found and they are all remastered to make it look good on the Xbox One. Maps like the Old Bones, Bullet Marsh, and Raven Down are among the maps that you will find in the game. With so many maps, players are sure to enjoy the diversity given to them, unlike before where players are restricted to three to five maps only. As for the multiplayer modes, there are eight of them. The classic modes from the original game were brought to the remastered edition such as Warzone, Assassination, Annex, Execution and King of the Hill. Those who have played Gears of War 3 before will be pleased to hear that Team Deathmatch makes a come back. The other two modes are somewhat like mixed modes called: Blitz and Gnasher Execution.
Those who enjoy the multiplayer portion of the game will have an opportunity to progress through ranks and unlock items. One of the good things about the multiplayer in Gears of War is the level-based system. As you play through the online matches, players will gain experience. When players level up, character skins, weapon skins and many more are unlocked. To keep the incentives going and to keep players from playing the game, there are a lot of items that can be unlocked if players dedicates themselves in playing the online portion.
The visuals in the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition has gone a long way compared to the original. Comparing the game side by side, players will see that The Coalition did a total makeover in terms of the visuals. Aside from increasing the game’s resolution from 720p to a native 1080p, textures and character models are also revamped. When watching cutscenes, one of the things that are noticeable right away is the lip syncing. Unlike in the original version where the lip syncing was bad, the Ultimate Edition improves on this area perfectly. As for the textures, maps are redesigned to make it stand out. In terms of the frame rate, it’s a lot stable and players will not notice any slow downs. For the multiplayer portion, the frame rate has been increased and locked to 60 frames per second.
If there’s one thing I wish The Coalition brought over to this remastered edition, that would be the Horde Mode. As a huge fan of the series, I highly enjoyed Horde Mode with friends and playing through it again will be a pleasure, but unfortunately, it’s been omitted which is a big let down in my book.
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is highly recommended to those who have never played the first game in the series before or want to get started before the fourth game comes out next year. The game is ultimately the same as the first game with improved graphics that are very noticeable to those who have played the game before. For fans of the series who want to revisit Marcus Fenix’s first journey, you might as well consider buying the game as the improvements are phenomenal. What the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition offers is worth every money – with nineteen new multiplayer maps, the best remastered edition to date, and fun co-op campaign, who wouldn’t want to experience it?
[Editor’s Note Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was reviewed on the Xbox One platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
