Whenever you grow a franchise, there’s a certain level of betrayal. If you don’t betray the customer a little bit, then it’s not changing enough and people feel like it’s becoming stagnant. But if you betray them too much then you lose them. You always got to keep it fresh. By being outside the Marcus Fenix story, we’re going to have more opportunities to do new things.
-Rod Fergusson, Epic Games Director of Production
Gears of War: Judgment is ambitious in its quest to dazzle gamers with fresh storytelling and gameplay. Set years before the events of the Gears of War trilogy we’ve been playing since 2007, fans and newcomers alike will follow the adventures of Baird and Kilo Squad. The game starts with Kilo Squad members, which include Augustus “Cole Train” Cole, being charged with desertion, cowardice, trespassing, treason, and theft of experimental military tech. The game’s campaign will follow events proceeding the charge and what lead to their incarcerations.
Since Judgment is set before the existing trilogy, we can expect to be fighting Locusts. A LOT of Locusts. We can also look forward to the return of that “destroyed beauty” look that was so prevalent in the first Gears of War. I don’t know about you, but I miss the gloomy and frighting tones that came hand in hand with the first Gears of War. With Judgment taking place not long after E-Day, one can only hope it will make a return.
With this new installment in to the Gears of War Universe, we’re going to see more than a little change, in a good way. A Smart Spawn System (S3) will be implemented in campaign and multiplayer. This system allows the game to generate a different experience every time you fall victim to Locust bullets or fists. The types, timing, and locations of enemies will all change so there are no exact similarities in each gameplay scenario.
Perhaps the biggest and most noticeable change are the controls. In an effort to make gameplay more intense and fast-paced, switching weapons are now at the push of the “Y” button, while special abilities can be used by pressing “LB.” Special abilities you ask? Multiplayer in Judgment will be based on classes chosen by the player. Classes include Soldier, Engineer, Sniper, and Medic.
Announced at E3, OverRun is a brand new game mode that puts COG and Locusts in an objective-style match. Think of it as a combination of Beast and Horde modes. In each match, classes of Locusts will attempt to destroy a generator at the center of the map before time runs out. COGs will have to defend it using their special abilities and ol’ fashion beatdowns. There’s no question that these 5-on-5 matches can provide some of the most intense experiences you’ll have in a Gears of War title.
Each class on both COGs and Locusts have special abilities as well as jobs they need to do in order to help their team succeed. For example, a Wrench could hop into the middle of a group of COGs and screech to stun them. At that moment, a Grenadier can lob a ‘nade into the center and blow them all up. Sound fun?
I admit, I was skeptical at first also, it’s only natural for any Gears of War fan. Here we are with a new Gears title being co-developed by another studio (People Can Fly), and our beloved controls are different. Even so, after a couple of playthroughs of OverRun, I was blown away. As a Soldier class, I was dropping ammo left and right while retaining a healthy amount of Boomshot ammo. You may think of that system as unbalanced, unfair even. To get straight to the point, you’re wrong. The map design allows Locusts to quickly move around to get to the generator in a number of different ways. Since there’s only one Soldier class per team, there’s only one Boomshot on the field at any given time.
All in all, I couldn’t be more excited for Gears of War: Judgment. Judgment is slated for an early 2013 release on the Xbox 360.
