It's time for another round of Pick One! This week, to celebrate the ninth anniversary of Gears of War 3 (Sep 20, 2011), we're looking back at the series' rich history on Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC.
There have been seven games released for these platforms over the past 16 years (eight if you include the Ultimate Edition of the original game), and we want to know your favourite of the bunch.
Remember you can only pick one!
Let's take a look at what we're working with:
Gears of War (2006 & 2015)
The Locust Horde has risen, and they won’t stop coming. They won’t stop killing. The Coalition is desperate for soldiers. The sick, the wounded, the imprisoned are all that remain. An inmate named Marcus Fenix, once left to die, is now charged with keeping humanity alive. He can take comfort in but one fact: The human race isn’t extinct. Yet.
Gears of War 2 (2008)
Winter approaches. War rages on. Entire cities are sinking, swallowed by a new threat from below. Soon humanity will have nothing left to defend. Only one option remains: an all-out attack on the Locust Horde.
Gears of War 3 (2011)
Eighteen months after the fall of the last human city, the war against the Locust rages on. Meanwhile, deep beneath the surface, a fearsome new threat is infecting the planet from within. With survivors scattered and civilization in ruins, time is running out for Marcus and his comrades as they fight to save the human race.
Gears of War: Judgement (2013)
In the immediate aftermath of Emergence Day, the fate of the world rests on the shoulders of young COG lieutenant Damon Baird and his team - Kilo Squad. As the world of Sera is destroyed around them, Kilo must rise up, break the rules and take the fight to a horrifying new enemy.
Gears of War 4 (2016)
A new saga begins for one of the most acclaimed video game franchises in history. After narrowly escaping an attack on their village, JD Fenix and his friends, Kait and Del, must rescue the ones they love and discover the source of a monstrous new enemy.
Gears 5 (2019)
The world is crumbling. The Swarm has corrupted the Coalition’s robot army and is descending upon human cities. With danger closing in, Kait Diaz breaks away to uncover her connection to the enemy and discovers the true danger to Sera – herself.
Gears Tactics (2020)
Gears Tactics is the fast-paced, turn-based strategy game set 12 years before the first Gears of War. Play as Gabe Diaz, recruiting, equipping and commanding your squads on a desperate mission to hunt down the relentless and powerful leader of the Locust army: Ukkon, the evil mastermind who makes monsters.
Let us know which of these Gears of War games is your favourite below.
Comments 23
Gears of War is my favorite game series of all time, and I instinctively was going to vote for the first or second game..but if I'm being completely honest it has to be Gears 5. The campaign in that game is phenomenal. A real step up from the writing of the past games. It adds some nuance and maturity that wasn't there before. The new characters are all very good, and having the OG characters still play a huge role is satisfying as hell, and a lot of fun. The multiplayer also feels the best than the others, a few issues aside.
Gears Of War 1 is my personal favorite game of all time, The campaign was amazing but the multiplayer was legendary.. The best online multiplayer game ever in my opinion..
Wow, surprising. I'm a massive Gears fan and I never realised Gears 3 was held in such high esteem?
Personally, the Original (Ultimate) is my favourite.
I went back and played the entire series before Gears 5.
I always said Gears 2 was my favourite but after playing it again it definitely isn't. Great of course, but not my number 1.
I'm very happy to see Gears 5 get some love. I thoroughly enjoyed it but only ever hear hate about the game.
Looking forward to playing Gears 5 again on Series X
I haven't played Judgement or tactics, but for those I have played I chose 2. But all of them are great. 5 is close second in my books.
I think my favourite is still Gears 3 simply because of how grandiose the game was due to it being the ending to a trilogy. I still remember the ending vividly and the song that was playing as well. Gears 5 is the only game since then that has managed to get close to Gears 3. I liked that game a lot because of how many bold and different decisions to the story, the gameplay and the level design that the developers decided to take. It made for an overall refreshing experience after having played 5 fairly similar games.
In my opinion, gears of war 2 man what a GEM! I still enjoy it.
I remember the feeling of playing gears 1 for the 1st time. Man oh man, that game was so great and different from anything that I had ever played. I couldn't put the controller down. Gears 1 is my personal favorite but gears 2 is the one I spent the most time on with multi-player. Hoping to play through 5 and tactics on the series x.
The one I remember the most of is Gears of War 1 so that is the one I went with. I haven't played Judgement or Gears 5 yet though!
Going to get a Series S always thought gears looks decent. Where’s best to start? Straight in at 1? What’s the best Multiplayer to play also?
Tough choice between 1-3. I went for 3 but only because it's what I remember enjoying the most of all of them.
Gears of War is one of those series with barely a bad game to its name. I really really love God of War, but Gears of War will always be the better GoW acronym in my eyes.
Gears of war 1, mainly because I played it in uni with my friend Dom.
@BigP Yeah definitely start with 1, or the Ultimate Edition, which is a remaster of the first. I'd just go in order of release for the first time through. As for the best multiplayer, I'd say it's Gears 5. Ultimate Edition is still active and a ton of fun, but once you play 5 it's hard to go back.
@BigP Yeah I'd recommend starting with 1, although be sure to play the Xbox One remake (the one that ends with Ultimate Edition) for the best experience. Then 2 and 3 and if you want you can play Judgement as well since it serves as a prequel to the first game, but people don't regard it as good as the rest of the trilogy because it has bite-sized levels (for some reason). Still worth experiencing though! And Gears 4 and 5 after that of course.
My favorite Gears of War Game is the one with the Bear and Bird Collecting jigsaw pieces.
What, no Gears Pop?
This was a relatively easy choice for me - Gears 2. I loved the first, but 2 took it to another level and improved upon the first. The first was great because it was 'new' but 2 set the benchmark.
I liked 3 too but Judgement disappointed and is my least favourite of all. 4 was 'good' but perhaps too safe, too predictable. The second half was certainly better and more what I would think of from a Gears game. I liked the weather effects and how that played into the game but at the end, I was left feeling 'is that it?' It certainly set up Gears 5.
Gears 5 was certainly better than 4 and tried to be a bit more ambitious than 4 had. You could certainly miss things on a playthrough if you just followed the story objective but some of the 'open world' did feel a bit too empty.
Its definitely worth playing in order - of 1-5 and skip Judgement. If you want to play them all, start with Judgement and then play 1 to 5. Also play the Ultimate Edition of Gears 1 as that has an extra mission (or 2) that was missing from the Original 360 release.
I don't think any are 'bad' games at all. Some of it comes from expectation because of preceding games. 2 was so good that 3 may have suffered because of that. 4 suffered because it was the first on a 'new' generation and the Coalition perhaps played it a bit too safe - having also to start fresh after the way 3 ended (no spoilers).
I haven't played Tactics myself and don't think I will bother as I am not a fan of turn based games - in fact I dislike them a LOT. As such I can't comment on its place in the franchise or be fair because of the gameplay.
Tough choice, but I went with 3. There are some great choices and entries I haven't played. I haven't played 5 or Tactics (waiting to play them on Series X) but both look good. In any case, it's a solid series.
@VenomousAlbino
Haha! Well played!
I have beaten every Gears Of War (I hate that they took out the “Of War” for Gears 5) game (some of them multiple times) & I had to go with Gears Of War 2.
Gears 2 (dammit, I just did it now. Lol) took everything awesome about the original, made it better, & added Horde mode.
I hate Gears multiplayer except for Horde, so I play them, mostly, for the campaigns. And they have all been excellent.......
Well....maybe not Judgement. 😂
Never played any but still voted for #2.
There is a short history there: on my first Chirstmas with my former spouse, they gave me that game as a gift. It was funny, because they hated seeing me play gory games, but they went to a GameStop and asked about what game would be a good gift and was sold on that one.
They got it for me without realizing I was getting the goriest game they could had possibly bought me at the time 😅
(BTW, we divorced but in good terms, so not a bitter memory in any way.)
I still have to play it, didn't really had the first one and didn't want to spoil the story, if there was one... I been meaning to do a marathon for the series soon, though.
I love all of the ones I've played, even Judgment, but I'll go with the first as my favorite. More specifically Ultimate Edition, which cleaned up some technical aspects and added the extra campaign content that wasn't in the original 360 release. I just had my favorite levels and stories and the team building between Marcus, Dom, Cole and Baird was great.
How I'd rank the games:
1. Gears of War/GoW: Ultimate Edition
2. Gears of War 3
3. Gears 5
4. Gears of War 4
5. Gears of War 2
6. Gears of War: Judgment
Easily one of my favorite series in modern gaming and I'm very hyped for the next entry. If I don't buy Series S this Holiday season I'll get one the day Gears 6 launches.
I've only actually played the Ultimate Edition of the first game, so that one wins by default. Didn't really do anything for me though, so I haven't gone on to play any of the others.
For me Gears 2 is my favourite. I got into the Xbox late(one s was my 1st ever Xbox console) Gears was always the one franchise of Xbox that I wanted to play, but didn’t get around to getting an Xbox. But after playing the gears games, I’m hooked. Forza is the best driving game ever made, halo is great also. But for me Gears is a truly unique game. Great fun, great action just a brilliant franchise altogether. And nothing compares to getting a headshot either. In truth, I’m not a fan of gears 4,5 & judgement. But the original trilogy is amazing. Gears is also the one reason moving forward that I will always have a Xbox now & in the future. Brilliant games.
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