STACK #179 Sept 2019

GAMES FEATURE

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before learning that Adam had to infect himself, Lambent-style, to develop his weapon. He died an honourable death – Myrrah did not. Gears of War: Judgment Released: March 2013 Trilogy second fiddles Damon Baird and Augustus Cole back in time to soon after the fateful events of E-Day where, along with a cadet and former soldier, the duo make up the Kilo Squad. It’s all played out via flashback, as each team member recalls events involving their wiping out a bunch of Locust forces with the secret Lightmass weapon of mass destruction. It worked a treat and saved a bunch of survivors, however Baird cops it for disobeying orders, being court-martialed and sentenced to death for his troubles. take on starring roles as we take a quick diversion from the numbered entries in the Gears canon. We also go

In 2006, Epic Games unleashed third-person sci-fi shooter Gears ofWar , and many Locust-slaying legends of the planet Sera were born.With the series still going strong, and the release of the sixth main iteration this month in Gears 5 , we take a quick look back at the franchise. Words Adam Colby

system of tunnels, in preparation for their last hope – to hamstring the scourge with a form of weaponised Imulsion in ‘Lightmass’ bombs. They end up facing serious Locust opposition, and sustain multiple casualties, but naturally our guys ultimately prevail.

Gears of War 4 Released: October 2016

A new era commences, set some 25 years after the events of the original Gears trilogy. The star of the show here is JD Fenix, and yes, he’s the son of

Gears of War 2 Released: November 2008 What’s left of the Locust Horde regroups in the bowels of Sera to mount a counteroffensive, as ordered by their leader

Following several interplanetary wars over the valuable fuel Imulsion, the Coalition of Ordered Governments – or COG – emerged as a militarised political force. You can probably work out who the ‘Gears’ are – yep, the COG soldiers. They’re the brave types who stepped up to protect humanity from the Locust following their invasion on what became known as Emergence Day, or E-Day. The battle rages on…

original hero Marcus. The COG is back in action after quite the hiatus, bolstered by the advent of robot soldiers to do much of the dirty, potentially-getting-killed-in-the-field grunt work. Meanwhile, together with pals Del Walker and Kate Diaz, JD pulls off regular supply raids on COG instalments. One day, however, our threesome manages to thwart a counterattack, only to end up facing a wholly new foe in the Swarm, an evolution of those Locust and Lambent foes. Gears 5 Released: September 2019 Now we’re up to date, but

Myrrah. The plan? Bring down the cities around the COG stronghold until it sinks slowly into the ground. Our COG heroes are onto her though, deploying troops deep underground to thwart the giant tunnelling wormy creature at the heart of the plan. But they don’t count on Locusts that are exposed to Imulsion mutating into a new form, Lambent, with aims to completely usurp the remaining COG forces and go overground. New plan, Marcus – flood ‘em out! Gears of War 3

what of the future? This one sees Kait Diaz taking the lead. You know those robotic COG soldiers that we mentioned? Well, the Swarm has somehow managed to

Released: September 2011 18 months after events of GoW2 , the initial Gears trilogy winds up. The COG has folded, and despite a Locust retreat, what humanity remains on the

Gears of War Released: November 2006 Things aren’t looking good for the planet Sera. It’s now 14 years after the Locust Hordes first decimated

corrupt them for their own ends, co-opting them to attack Sera’s remaining human cities. But Kait has more on her mind, needing to discover the connection that she shares with her enemy before it’s too late... That’s just the story mode, too. With four others – the co-op mayhem of Escape, relentless waves in Horde, the arcade fun of Versus and the more cerebral construction of Map Builder – there’s plenty of new Gears to get deeply immersed in.

surface of Sera faces a huge threat from the far more antagonistic Lambent. You can rely on the Fenix family to come through, however, with Marcus presumed dead and Adam reporting in alive and well from the island of Azura, complete with a newly-designed weapon of mass Locust and Lambent destruction. Our lads pick him up and wipe out their enemies,

its human population, and the COG is getting desperate. Eager to do something at any cost, they re-admit disgraced veteran Marcus Fenix back into their diminished ranks. Seen as expendable, he and his best mate Dom Santiago are tasked with mapping the Horde’s

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SEPTEMBER 2019

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