With Gears of War: Reloaded releasing on multiple platforms, everyone is being reminded about how online multiplayer was for it. Still fun, yet messy.
Gears of War multiplayer has always been a fun part of going online with the Xbox 360 back in the day. As one of the marquee game releases for the console and an original franchise for Xbox, many people believed it was a big reason to get the console and be part of Xbox Live. Since the game came out in 2006, the series has grown exponentially, with more than five entries being released across multiple Xbox consoles. Now that Gears of War: Reloaded is finally out on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, even more people can dive into the gritty and harsh world of the Gears universe. But the multiplayer that began back then has changed very little since.
As much as I loved playing through the campaign of Gears of War alone or with a friend, multiplayer was always a major reason for me to boot up the game on my console. Matches were chaotic, bloody, and filled with tons of explosions and bullets flying through the air. It was a dark and gritty change of pace from multiplayer Xbox games like Halo, but one that was still just as fun, despite the many complaints I and others have shared over the years about it. And much of that hasn’t changed with the release of Gears of War: Reloaded on current-day consoles, but I still manage to enjoy diving into it as much as I did back then. Here’s how Gears of War multiplayer really hasn’t changed at all, and that’s OK because I still love playing it now.
The tone we love is still there
Even with color, Gears looks dark
The one aspect about Gears of War that has remained consistent with the series is how dismal and dark its tone has been since the beginning. The many sequels and prequel titles that have been released over the years manage to tell different stories with different characters, but the atmosphere of the universe has always remained the same. Even in multiplayer matches, where the plot of the games takes a back seat to squading up to chainsaw other players, the game manages to keep the same tone. Everything from the level design to the different characters you play in multiplayer exudes the grit that people love about this series. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The visuals may have gotten more colorful with Gears of War: Reloaded in ways that make things look better, but it still unapologetically looks like a dark game. The paths I take towards power weapons and use as flanking points against players still look intimidating enough to make me question if I should go that way.
