5 Ways Gears of War Could Actually Make a Great Non-Shooter Game

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. 

Gears of War as…an Interactive Drama

No one would’ve thought that Borderlands would make a good interactive drama, yet Telltale proved them wrong. It stands to reason that they can do the same thing with Gears of War. This can be another game set during the Human/Locust War. Marcus Fenix’s father, as it turns out, has done a good amount of sketchy shit in the lead up to his official appearance in Gears 3, not limited to shelling a museum and cutting off fuel supplies to millions of neutral citizens.

As such, it makes complete sense to focus a Telltale style game on him. Hypothetically, it could cover his life, showing how he met his wife Elain, tried to raise Marcus on his own and failed at not being like his father, along with trying to establish peace with the Locust. All of these are foregone conclusions, sure, but that doesn’t take away from the fun of it all.

Gears of War as…an RTS

Leadership is a big thing in the Gears of War universe. Even though the COG don’t all love their leaders, the Locust all existed in the name of the Queen, Myrrah. Even in multiplayer, there was a game mode built around kidnapping the leader for each faction and holding them for as long as possible. Epic even once toyed around with the idea of a Halo Wars-type RTS set in the Gears universe before scrapping it. Given how much of a success that ended up being (look at the incoming release of Halo Wars 2), it may be time to bring a Gears RTS into the world.

Not much needs to be said about this: it’d literally just be Gears of War, but you’re viewing everything from way up top. Build units, mobilize the troops, all that good stuff. COGs get the Hammer of Dawn to use as their ultimate move when it’s available, and the Locust get Seeders as the rough equivalent. To help keep it in the style that fans are used to, taking inspiration from the recent XCOM game and letting players “fight” as the soldiers would be ideal. But if we go that route too, we have to be able to name our Gears and Locusts, permadeath included.

Gears of War as…an Action Game

Our previous suggestions have talked all about the humans, but this one would focus exclusively on the Locust. There’s a lot about them that we still don’t know, but one has to assume that some sort of hierarchy exists worth exploring among all the growls and guttural roars. Starting out as a lowly grunt who later evolves into Raam would be one hell of an origin story.

Failing that, there is always Skorge from Gears 2. He’d probably have more weight to his skillset, since Raam really has nothing but a big knife and a horde of bats flying around him. With Skorge, you’ve got a guy who’s fast and nimble, can summon Tickers and revive enemies, plus wields a double-ended chainsaw staff. A hack and slash title or stylish action game in the vein of Bayonetta with a chainsaw staff? Yeah, that’d be dope.

Gears of War as…an Arena Battler

This one seems pretty obvious. Gears of War was conceived by Epic, the people behind Unreal Tournament, once one of the biggest arena shooters out there. The Coalition is made up of ex-Epic employees, and old school arena shooters are making a bit of a comeback with Doom and Quake Champions. Instead of just doing the COG/Locust/Swarm war route, there’s a better solution: machine v. beast.

Gears of War 4’s got two new enemy factions, the Swarm and the DeeBees. The latter robots take different forms and have a variety of weapons, and it’d be easy to come up with some reason for why only those two are fighting. Previous Gears games have let you play as the Locust and their various types, and even mechs, on some occasions. Having mechs go up against giant monsters in bloody, Unreal Engine 4 glory would be pretty sweet.