Gears of War as…a Walking Simulator/Horror Game
Yeah, okay, it sounds crazy. Gears of War is a game with mobility as one of its founding principles, and the idea of walking around in this world is likely to end with you losing an arm or being turned into red, pulpy mulch. Couldn’t be any more of a jarring genre shift, and yet, there’s also some merit to it. Games like Gone Home and Journey have shown that just the act of walking around can be compelling all on its own, and the Gears world is built on the idea of “destroyed beauty” for its art style.
The entire Human/Locust War left a lot of casualties and destruction in its wake. It’d be easy to justify the story through this: after the early days of Emergence Day, when the COG used the Hammer of Dawn, people came out of the rubble to find their families. This can serve as an origin story for the Stranded, along with giving the franchise something it’s skirted around with in the past: horror. With Gears 4, The Coalition said they went back to two player co-op to bring intimacy and suspense to the series. A one or two player walking sim could definitely do that.
