History VideoGame / GearsOfWar

* RealityEnsues: At the end of ''Gears of War 3'', [[spoiler:the Serans seem relatively united and the threat of Imulsion is gone forever]]. Come ''4'', [[spoiler:even one victory isn't going to erase all animosity overnight, and the loss of the Imulsion miracle fuel has led to a fuel crisis as people scramble for alternatives, and the death of a PlanetaryParasite like Imulsion has caused the entire planet's ecology and environment to go haywire, resulting in the new [[HostileWeather windflares]]. By 25 years after the Locust War, humanity's numbers have therefore dwindled to a couple of hundred thousand]].
** JD figures that he can speed up the funicular his squad is riding by cutting the counter balance slowing them down. Without anything holding it back the car goes flying and crashes into the station.
** WordOfGod says that the Ragers encountered in ''Judgement'' died out early in the Locust war due to their insane recklessness.

* RealityEnsues: Bernie's account of actually using a chainsaw bayonet. It takes quite a bit of effort, shes covered in blood, and has a few pieces of the victim's bone stuck in her eyes.

** Don't buy the third game if you expect any sort of explanation for the [[spoiler: Sires]]. [[spoilers:They are explained in Gears 5.]]

** [[spoiler: What's with the disk Adam gives to Baird? One thing's for sure, you won't find out in the same game]]. [[spoilers:Instead the disk is revisited in Gears 5.]]

** Don't buy the third game if you expect any sort of explanation for the [[spoiler: Sires]].

** [[spoiler: What's with the disk Adam gives to Baird? One thing's for sure, you won't find out in the same game]].

** The "Architect" medal has a picture of the skull from the Crimson Omen wearing a white suit, like the Architect from ''Film/TheMatrix''.

Announced at E3 2015 with a release date of October 11, 2016, it is the first original work of official ''Gears'' developer, The Coalition. Like ''Gears 3'', it will have a multiplayer beta, which will be available on April 18 to anyone who has played ''Ultimate Edition'', April 25 to the general public, and will end on May 1.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: WordOfGod states the reason women typically weren't COG infantry is because fertile women were needed for a [[MandatoryMotherhood more important duty]] vital to the [[MateOrDie survival of the human species]]. Infertile women, on the other hand, were sent straight to combat duty; if Alex Brand is any example, they make sure they ''really are'' infertile first. The dissonance also applies in-universe as Marcus clearly states to Alex that some of the practices implied by this trope are not one he agrees with by any means. Brand, for her part, decides while she should and is justified in being judgemental and pissed, when the fate of what remains of humanity is on the line, holding a grudge is probably not the best thing for everyone; she'll wait until after. It's implied (but never outright stated) in the novels that Anya can't have children, but never mentioned one way or the other for Sam, with both women being in their early-to-mid 30's (Sam 32, Anya 35 or 36) during ''Gears 3''.

* DifficultButAwesome: Wallbouncing (using the speed boost from “sliding” into cover to move around much more quickly than running and to dodge bullets) along with the hideously overpowered Gnasher is the epitome of GameplayDerailment, but it’s hard to argue with its effectiveness. It takes a lot of practice and the right controller settings, as a single mistimed press will launch you into a dive and leave you wide open, but if you master it, you will be nigh ''untouchable'' as your ridiculous movement speed makes it borderline impossible for other players to keep weapons trained on you and by the time they figure out what to do, you can close the gap between them and deliver a OneHitKill time and time again. Seriously, [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uSujc8Fooz8 just look at the crazy shit you can do when you master the mechanic]].

* RedShirtArmy: Counter-intuitively, Gears with helmets tend to die as quickly as they're introduced, [[Irony often by being shot in the head]].

* OrwellianEditor: The games released after officially dropping "of War" from the title lean into the COG being an explicitly fascist regime. ''5'' and ''Tactics'' both have storylines revolving around COG war crimes and its tendency to use government control of media and frequent use of the UriahGambit to make unflattering incidents (and those who know about them) go away. For example, Act 3 of ''Gears 5'' centers on assembling and launching a Hammer of Dawn satellite, using the technology of the UIR, the COG's enemy during the pendulum wars. The system is so advanced that it still works mostly automatically nearly 40 years later...and most COG citizens don't even know the UIR ''had'' a space program.

** Several characters throughout the franchise (Adam Fenix and the Onyx Guard in ''3'', and Marcus in ''5'') will occasionally say,[[Webcomic/PennyArcade "Your mom's a classy lady!"]] after a kill in multiplayer.

* MechaMook: ''Gears of War 4'' introduces the Deebees; the new rank and file soldier for the COG, and common enemy for JD and friends.

* RunningGag: First Minister Jinn uses a [[MechaMook Deebee]] proxy to communicate with the main characters in ''Gears of War 4'' at several points in the story. They each have the life expectancy of a Carmine -- the ''first'' one.

** When playing as Adam Fenix in multiplayer, and beating the crap out of someone with the extended face punch, he'll sometimes say: [[Webcomic/PennyArcade "Your mother is a classy lady!"]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: A medal that can be earned in ''Gears of War 3'' multiplayer is "Loot Courtesan".

* OrwellianHistory: The games released after officially dropping "of War" from the title lean into the COG being an explicitly fascist regime. ''5'' and ''Tactics'' both have storylines revolving around COG war crimes and its tendency to use government control of media and frequent use of the UriahGambit to make unflattering incidents (and those who know about them) go away. For example, Act 3 of ''Gears 5'' centers on assembling and launching a Hammer of Dawn satellite, using the technology of the UIR, the COG's enemy during the pendulum wars. The system is so advanced that it still works mostly automatically nearly 40 years later...and most COG citizens don't even know the UIR ''had'' a space program.

** Wrestling/{{Batista}} is also playable as a COG soldier. Continuing the wrestling theme, Wrestling/TheNewDay ([[Wrestling/BigELangston Big E]], Wrestling/KofiKingston and Wrestling/XavierWoods) were added as COG soldiers in a late 2020 update.

** Wrestling/{{Batista}} is also playable as a COG soldier.

** Developers have said the difficulty, particularly at the lower difficulties, turned out a lot harder than they had wanted for the first game. This is what led to ''Gears of War 2'' getting a SequelDifficultyDrop.

* SequelDifficultyDrop:
** The second game is much less insanely difficult than the first, even if you still play on Hardcore instead of the newly added Normal difficulty. You can take noticeably more damage before going "down but not out", Locust are slightly less durable, the range and accuracy of the Hammerburst assault rifle has been increased to make it a viable long-range weapon, and the overall level design is more user-friendly and forgiving than before. Most notably, your A.I. squadmates are ''MUCH'' smarter and more useful, actually capable of holding their own even in heavy firefights, compared to the first game where they would charge the enemy suicidally and end up going down in the first 10 seconds, leaving you all alone and surrounded by Locust.
** Also worth noting is that A.I. squadmates gained the ability to revive other characters in ''2,'' while downed characters gained the ability to crawl. In the first game, reviving a downed character involved running straight to whatever (presumably dangerous) spot he had been in when downed, and caused a game over if all the human players dropped (which was especially frustrating when playing solo). In ''2'' and ''3,'' this is no longer the case, as a downed character can slowly crawl away from the action and be revived by player and A.I. alike. The "down=dead" rule was brought back on Insane difficulty in ''3,'' but playing campaign in Arcade Mode swaps out the automatic mission failure for a 25-second respawn counter, with the defeat only triggering if all human players are dead simultaneously.
** ''Gears Of War 3'' continues the trend, at least on the Normal difficulty, which is even easier than the Normal difficulty of the second game. You can survive a lot of damage, especially compared to the previous 2 games, and can even "rambo" your way through many areas. Your A.I. teammates are also a lot more competent, which helps a lot.
** It should be noted that WordOfGod is that the NintendoHard nature of the first game was completely unintended, and the sequels are a result of the developers making the single-player campaign more balanced.
* SequelDifficultySpike: ''Gears of War 3'' is the most difficult of the games to play on Insane, especially in key locations, as the inclusion of a dedicated four player campaign mode means that the enemies are more numerous and tougher. This holds true mostly for the basic Campaign Mode, Arcade Mode makes things both more difficult with enemy health being higher but also easier in that you don't need to restart if one person dies, they are put on a respawn timer, allowing the remaining players to simply take cover and wait for them to come back.
** ''4'' may perhaps be harder than ''3'', since Insane difficulty removes the ability to get downed, instead just killing the player (although Snatchers can still down you since their entire gimmick revolves around it). This was true in ''3'' as well, but ''4'' lacks an Arcade mode that allows players to respawn. It also has multiple sections which become extremely difficult on Insane, almost all of which involve [[ZergRush large packs of Juvies]] (which on Insane can kill you in two normal hits or one leaping attack).
** Further adding to 4's increased difficulty is the huge improvement over the enemy AI. Scions and Dr-1 Protectors will actively duck shots from your power weapons and standard Swarm troops KNOW that a melee strike will OneHitKill you on Insane and will constantly try to flank you by running straight at you and around your cover for an easy kill. There are also no Mutators to help you out and there are a few set piece encounters that are ridiculously difficult, like the chase of Jinn's gunship on Marcus' motorcycles, leaving you to dodge all sorts of hell at high speeds with only an Enforcer to fight back and the dreadful Fabricator segments which spawn huge amounts of enemies with only minimal fortifications to assist you. There is also no 4 player co-op, so you'll either have to tackle Insane alone, or with a really experienced friend.

* BabiesEverAfter: Going by the story and trailers for ''Gears 4'', this happened for Marcus and Anya. A flashback features Marcus planting trees at their homestead while Anya and their son watch. In fact, their son, JD, is the main character of the game.

* MultiplayerDifficultySpike: While the single-player and co-op experiences of the ''Gears of War '' franchise are standard third-person cover-based shooter fare, the competitive multiplayer modes completely invert this as extremely fast-paced fragfests where any such tactics associated with the genre are made irrelevant. You’ll quickly find out the hard way that unless you learn to love the [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome Gnasher,]] you won’t have a chance in hell of taking on other players.