The Art and Design of Gears of War

Gears of War introduces its core conceptual contrast right away, when Marcus and Dom have their first run-in with the game’s pale, dinosaur-skinned Locust, a hard-charging enemy ferociously intent on getting as close to you as possible during firefights. The conceptual contrast is how gladiatorial the combat in Gears feels, even though everyone is armed with assault rifles and shotguns. Another conceptual contrast: Gears is a science fiction game that grounds its weapons in the technology of the Vietnam era and draws its architecture from Regency Britain. Another: Marcus and Dom are huge, ostensibly indestructible giants, and yet the vast majority of the game finds them diving toward cover with Nureyevian grace and cowering behind it like boys playing hide-and-seek. Finally, there is no conceptual contrast more Gearsian than getting blown into bloody pork chops by a Locust fragmentation grenade only to hear, during the failure screen, a lilting, plangent version of the Gears of War theme played on, of all things, a piano. Amazingly, none of these elements ever seems dissonant or self-negating; most barely become the object of conscious notice. This is because much in the world of Gears has an important video game quality that Chris Perna, Epic’s Art Director, described to me in this way: 'It just is.' Isness is a large part of what makes Gears of War effective.