Gears of War
A third-person shooter where you crouch behind waist-high walls and leapfrog between them, firing a gun with a chainsaw bayonet at an underground species called the Locust Horde. Gears of War was the killer app that proved the Xbox 360 had arrived.
Epic Games, led by designer Cliff Bleszinski, released Gears of War exclusively for Xbox 360 on November 7, 2006, built on Unreal Engine 3. The cover system — shooting from behind waist-high walls, moving between positions in a coordinated dance — became the template that reshaped the entire third-person shooter genre. The Lancer, an assault rifle with an extended chainsaw bayonet, became the weapon everyone remembered. Players command Marcus Fenix and the COG — the Coalition of Ordered Governments — soldiers fighting the Locust Horde, a subterranean species that emerged during Emergence Day.
The game sold three million copies in its first ten weeks, the fastest-selling game of 2006. It became the second-most-played game on Xbox Live during 2007, cementing the 360 as the console for online shooters. The cover mechanic became the grammar for a generation of shooters that followed.
The "Mad World" television spot, directed by Joseph Kosinski with visuals rendered in the game's own engine, became one of the most iconic game trailers ever made. It's Gary Jules' melancholy cover of the Tears for Fears song, accompanied by footage of the grey Emergence Day landscape — a stark departure from the loud, comedic game advertising of the time. The ad was so powerful it sent the song, recorded five years earlier, to No. 1 on iTunes. LAN couch co-op became a weekend ritual; the red omen symbol a universal identifier.
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