E3: Cliffy B 'doesn't get' people writing off Gears story

I was in the presence of the esteemed Cliff Bleszinski to get a preview gawp at Gears of War 3's campaign this week. The narrative mode of Gears is what attracted to me to the series in the first place, and I feel it odd that so many gamers write it off. I said this to Cliff, who expressed his own surprise at the situation.

"Yeah, I don't get it either," he said. "People say, 'yeah, I tried the campaign, but whatever.' Gears of War 3's campaign is very important to us, and we're going to have the longest damn campaign of the series in Gears 3. With these Pulp Fiction elements we're adding, you get a better perspective of characters like Cole and Baird.

[MinusTheBear]

It's crap. I don't care what some die hard fan will say but Gears' story is a joke and most people I know buy it just to play online.

[omi25p]

How can you say the storys bad when the third game isnt out, Its like reading a book and leaving the last few chapters.

[Washington-Capitals]

Same can be said about Killzone 2 & 3 story. That i also considered crap. I still enjoyed the campaign (stuff like radec fight) but the cliffhanger ending, character development etc is very subpar. Watch this comment get disagrees even tho im sure a lot of people know how bad the story is in KZ.

just want to add, the people who disagree, you are clearly just proving my point that N4G is mainly visited by PS3 fanboys. Cause if you agree with the comment that says Gears story is crap but disagree with this comment that is saying KZ story is crap which it clearly is, only thing to explain that is your fanboyism.

[-Alpha]

@Washington

Quite honestly most damn shooters have crap stories

Everybody plays for the MP.

I remember one of the biggest faults of COD4 reviewers had was a short story. Yet these days, short, uninspired stories with mediocre gameplay is expected for shooters.

COD4 and Killzone 2 are my exceptions in terms of having a solid single player this gen. But storywise, there isn't much room in such an oversaturated genre

[lil Titan]

@Washington Killzone story is weak BUT its interesting and thats what gears is missing, its a story filler except the filler is the main story which is bad

@Alpha yeah most are, makes me wonder how well Battlefield 3 story is gonna be when i think about it

[Active Reload]

That's your opinion, but I like the Gears story arc. I love the first Gears of War's story, but Gears 2 wasn't that good. I think Cliff and Epic reads the same kind of stuff that I read, like: Defending Sacred Ground by Alex Collier or Dr. Malaki York's literature. They definitely seem to have grew up on the same type of movies I did, like: Predator and Night Breed. On the topic of Night Breed, I've never seen or heard anyone bring that movie up during interviews with Cliff. Cliff actually got the Berserker from that movie, lol. If you've never seen it, I definitely recommend it and look up those authors I mentioned too. But back to Gears story, it's good and I like the background of the franchise so I don't pay attention to anyone who says that it doesn't have a story. Hell, even Uncharted 2 has a throwaway story that I can barely remember, and damn sure can't remember what the first one was about. Don't get me wrong though, Uncharted 2 is the most polished game I've played so far this gen, but I really don't remember the whole plot twist or anything, besides looking for a certain treasure.

[fghsjdfghjdfhgkjdf]

@Washington-Capitals indeed you'll get disagrees but you don't deserve them. I loved both killzone 2 and 3 but the characters are boring and stereotypical, the universe has a fantastic story but the campaigns just don't do it justice. I still adored both games, online and offline, and although I've never played any GoW game all the way through I suspect I'd enjoy them in a similar fashion.

If a game, especially a shooter, has a good enough atmosphere and good enough gameplay then I can forgive a sub par storyline.

[HeavenlySnipes]

The KZ's OVERALL story is intriguing and well thought out. KZ2's was pretty well put and the pacing of the game was great.

You were part of a elite unit within the army (you were one of the vets along with Rico, Garza etc..) and helped lead troops through Helghan to overthrow the Helghan gov't that was basically preventing Earth (the planet was overpopulated and without many resources in the KZ universe) from passing to Vekta to extract resources by all of a sudden DEMANDING higher fees to pass. Earth, the mother planet, basically told them no and then had to attack Helghan because they could not bargain with the people there (they aren't really called Helghast, they are slightly altered humans who adapted to the environment over time. Visari used that term as a way to unify them and rally the Helghast to win the war)

There is some filler in KZ1 (didn't play it) but in 2 you are in the middle of the war. After a large fleet of troops is destroyed by a mysterious wave of electricity, your squad then escorts that lady in the desert to find the source of it.

They kidnap everyone, you save them and then proceed with your original mission to overthrow the gov't by arresting the leader, Visari. After the epic fight with Radec, you meet Visari and Rico....

You know the rest. The story is actually well thought and perfectly paced. Can't ay the same for KZ3 though, they hired some Hollywood writer to make the script.

[-Alpha]

@Snipes

I did not like K3's story either. K2's was sort of not emphasized, but I liked the gameplay so much more. K3 felt more generic, K2 was raw and visceral. But storywise, there are tons of games similar to what you are describing in Killzone. Shooters just are moulded to a shape that doesn't account for what matters in a story, especially things like character development.

@Titan

Well that's more or less your opinion, I'm sure many enjoy Gears' universe. It looks no less interesting than Killzone to me.

Space Nazis vs. Alien invasion.

Anyway, stories are hard to genuinely do, and shooters don't focus on them. It's all about gameplay, and sadly, a lot of games share similar mechanics. The shooter genre is so oversaturated that it's hard to play shooters that dont start to feel familiar

I was disappointed in stories for Reach, MW2, and Killzone 2 + 3 but gameplay was good enough that I enjoyed the SP (K2's SP was the best out of these IMO)

As for Battlefield, Bad Company 2's story was worse than MW2's IMO. But even if it's bad, BF3 has the more refreshing gameplay. MW3 will be exactly what you played in previous COD games

[ReservoirDog316]

The story in Gears 1 was a joke. Literally nothing happened. Break out of jail, get bomb to place, doesn't work, use bigger bomb, over. Was 4 hours long and my latest playthrough of it was torture now that the next gen graphics thing wore off.

Gears 2 had an enjoyable summer blockbuster type of story. No art there but it's hard to say it's bad. Also that worm piece is the bloodiest moment ever* in games.

Gears 3 looks to have a similar story to 2. Hopefully anyways.

It's just a fun game with a fun story. Doesn't take itself too* seriously so you shouldn't take it too seriously either.

KZ2's story had potential but was kinda dumb.

CoD4 had one of the best singleplayer's of the generation. Seriously, one of the best games ever and the series hasn't got right since.

Either way, looking forward to Gears 3 on my not-connected-to-the-internet 360.

[TheCampfireSong]

I actually liked both gears1 and 2's story. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it kept my attention throughout my playtime.

[gamingdroid]

I liked it too for the most part. Leaves a lot of questions, so I can't wait to see what is going on with Marcus father and why the queen appear human.

[lil Titan]

the story is nothing amazing its just a filler to play the game...compared to MGS story telling gears so called story is a badly written fable.

[Tony P]

Because shooters in general are the equivalent of summer blockbuster movies.

And stupid, thoughtless action sells better to the masses.

Sure, some games try to have good stories, but what does it matter to customers who just sign into PSN/Live deathmatches as soon as they get the game?

[iHEARTboobs]

I love Gears, but the story isn't really anything special. And sometimes the story tries to take itself too seriously. That's what I don't like. ("Maaaarrrriiiiaaa!" )

The campaign is still fun though.

[TheDivine]

I play for the campaign. Ive never played gears online actually, hoard mode but mostly campaign and co-op campaign. Its no shakespear but the first gears was decent i thought.

[Cajun Chicken]

That's because it has a truly horrible story. It's not even tongue in cheek, it's just over-dramatic with dire character interaction and dialogue.

[Urmomlol]

WHERES MAAAAAAAAAAH WIFEEEEEEEE!?!?!?!? MAAAAAAAAAAAAARIAAAAAAAA!?!?!? !?!? WHAT AM I GONNA DO, MARCUS, WHAT AM I GONNA DO!?!?!??!?!

[jerethdagryphon]

cause its a bad story cliffy

[Foxgod]

Its story is average, i wouldnt call it bad cause that an exaggeration.
However, the great action makes up for the average story.

[Kee]

I "don't get" Why this idiot keeps making the news.

[BubbleSniper]

I don't care about defending gears, but.. it's a game?

I didn't think GAMES had to have good stories.

maybe this gen is changing that though. i still don't think it should matter.

you're playing a game to PLAY, usually.

Cliffy should just suck it up and accept his game is going to sell millions. he must be hurt over people not giving two shits about the story.

[mastiffchild]

We also had Mark Rein among others lauding the acting in Gears as "the best in gaming" so i do detect a sensitive spot at Epic over the story side of Gears getting the same criticism EVERY dumb, blockbuster shooter gets. I think they protest WAY too much.

Gears is an adrenaline rush with a testosterone chaser and has little to no need for a different or interesting story beyond one that functionally links the violence. Killzone's story is pretty weak too and only has a slightly different angle because Visari's speech and a fewbits of dialogue in KZ3 are way above the level of it's actual story-that's down to good actors having a crappy script but Gears doesn't have even that pretension and shouldn't be hammered for it as it doesn't NEED it. b the same yardstick, though, Cliffy is DIM as shit if he doesn't get why people don't think Gears is Shakespeare. Seriously, I like Cliffy but he's been talking cack the past couple of weeks. I think trying to make out his company ruining the creativity at PCF with the risible crap that was Bulletstorm has sent him potty!

Nobody wants,expects or cares about a story in Gears-and getting upset about it shows a weird kind of insecurity that he need not have. Honestly-who cared about the lack of artistic merit in Gears1 and 2 beyond having a giggle at Dom's out of place emoting.

[thebudgetgamer]

for a guy that talks a lot of crap he sure is sensitive.

[STIKUP ARTIST]

I like it, at least I i know whats going on. I played all halo's except part 1 and I don't know what the hell I was fighting for really. Killzone I couldn't tell you a single characters name but I still liked the campaign.

[HeavenlySnipes]

just not original or memorable. All I know is that the Locust are taking over the world. Don't know why or how. We play over-sized characters you make dick jokes that go around the remaining cities with life exterminating the Locust there. Overall its just about aliens evading Earth and you take them out.

At least Resistance (pretty similar story) was made out to be more of a survival game. The Chimera are a race living underground that are more advanced than humans. They kidnap them and turn them into chimera. There motive is to try to take over the land and freeze over the Earth because they can't stand heat. I believe its before WWII so there are no atomic bombs. Humanity is all but wiped out and is slowly pushed back to one spot on the Earth as all of the Eastern side of the world is taken over.

Insomniac focused more on the survival of humanity when telling the story. I think Gears 3 should have more of that if they want their story to be more memorable. The characters are so gungho and act as if everything is fine. (PS that Maria thing was crap because Dom wasn't an emotional guy so him all of a sudden crying and Marcus being empathetic was awkward and misplaced in the story)

Just my two cents :)

[blackburn10]

Because the dialogue was garbage. Seriously when I played the Gears games the dialogue and attempt at emotion were laughable at best. This is one of the reasons I hate this guy. So damn full of himself. His characters are so cliche 'Oh look everyone, we are the giant steroid soup drinking marines who talk about football, cars and women because we are so macho but because we pause every now and again from stomping a living creature' s head onto the pavement or chainsawing it's head off to shed a tear or lament about our love ones that makes us good guys and not violent brainless apes' Oh please Cliffy. Just because you nade a few games that sold well that makes you a good story teller? Just stop talking.....please.

[soundslike]

Where was this effort in establishing a story in UNREAL? A game that once upon a time, was known for single player...

When I think gears I think TPS multiplayer, 1-life, executions, brutality, and teamwork

[Brixxer600]

There's nothing wrong with the story , i'd liken it to a 1980's "B" sci-fi action movie , you're not expecting it to be "The Godfather 2" , it's a simple tale of the proverbial "Good guys" v "The Bad Guys" set in space , doesn't need to have a "killer" script , it just needs enough to keep the game ticking along , which it does a very good job of doing.

[mastiffchild]

Being fair it does a TERRIBLE job of setting up the good and bad guys cos the story ACTUALLY makes the Locust seem the victims of visiting, alien, human aggression if you think about it for a nanosecond.

I will confess to wanting to finally have a clue what the point of the whole research facility/Squires bit of Gears2 was, though, but i'm not holding my breath for it making much sense!

[Brixxer600]

"Proverbial" was probably the wrong word , i've been working on the assumption that the Humans are possibly more at fault than the Locust , kind of like the ISA v Helghast , everyone asssumes that the ISA are the good guys but if you go into the whole backstory then it's not so clear cut.

[baodeus]

i don't know how the story gonna end in Gears 3, but the 1st two aren't nothing to brag about, especially Gears 2. It was just the acting that kills it for me. I love gears game, but the story isn't it strong point (maybe i'm spoiled by some good RPG/fps with great story like Half Life, KOTOR, ME, Witcher, Lost Odyssey, etc.....) so i don't see anything interesting about gears story.

Their gameplay is top notch though. Most fun i ever had was playing gears hord mode (intense and require some skills). But again, their story isn't anything spectacular to say the least.

[ColinZeal]

After Cliff´s comments I fully expect to get an explanation of why the fish-tentacle continues eating asfalt while the fist-bumping bro´s keep shooting the it in the eyes... I could write a better (and FUNNIER story)

Cliff, msg me.

[Tikicobra]

The problem is that it's hard for me to care about a bunch of guys who look like chunks of meat wrapped in truck metal. It's so ridiculous that its attempts at drama are laughable.

[Excalibur]

I haven't written it of Cliff, the story is what I'm most looking forward to.

[Louis_Guzman]

"Gears of awesome" sums up the story nicely. Might be on youtube even.

[sj44]

whats not to get? Gears story sux, and people are tired of it. Deal with it and move on.

[InTheLab]

Gears one had a great story because it was straight forward. Fenix is a badass and the world needs that sort of badassery to defeat the locust.

Gears 2 story was just horrible simply because they actually tried to give a back story to characters that were 2008's version of action stars from the 80's. That business with Dom's wife...laughable.

Gears 3...let me guess, Dom has a kid that he must find somewhere out in Gears land before the locust get to her. Not heartbreaking enough? She's also autistic and has a peg leg...