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* BladeBrake: General RAAM does one after falling from his [[spoiler: first]] Reaver in ''RAAM's Shadow''.
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Zero Context Example, aside from that, Myrrah is human, thus, her Locust speaking Tyran isn\'t implausible.
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* [[AliensSpeakingEnglish Locust Speaking Tyran]]
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Natter.
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*** Unless they are a highly-skilled StopHavingFunGuy who is only playing as Kim ''because'' it makes them a target. Since they're so good at the game they're pretty much unkillable it just results in more kills for them.
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*** Unless they are a highly-skilled StopHavingFunGuy who is only playing as Kim ''because'' it makes them a target. Since they're so good at the game they're pretty much unkillable it just results in more kills for them.
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* [[AliensSpeakingEnglish Locust Speaking Tyran]]
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* DesignatedVillain: The Locust Horde can be seen as this, once their motive for invading the surface is revealed. [[spoiler: They had hoped to live peacefully underground, but were forced out of their homes by a devastating war with the Lambent Locust, mutated versions of their own kind (which, by the way, they had no hand in creating). They tried to enlist Adam Fenix's help in creating a weapon to wipe out the Lambent, so they wouldn't have to invade the surface; but he didn't have enough time to complete it because he was busy helping out with the Pendulum Wars, between two factions of humans. As a result, the Locust were forced to invade the surface for their own survival. So not only was their reason for starting the war completely understandable, but if humanity hadn't been at war when the Locust needed Adam's help, the Locust War would never have happened. And the third game ends with the Locust completely extinct.]] ''Ouch''.
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* DesignatedVillian: The Locust Horde can be seen as this, once their motive for invading the surface is revealed. [[spoiler: They had hoped to live peacefully underground, but were forced out of their homes by a devastating war with the Lambent Locust, mutated versions of their own kind (which, by the way, they had no hand in creating). They tried to enlist Adam Fenix's help in creating a weapon to wipe out the Lambent, so they wouldn't have to invade the surface; but he didn't have enough time to complete it because he was busy helping out with the Pendulum Wars, between two factions of humans. As a result, the Locust were forced to invade the surface for their own survival. So not only was their reason for starting the war completely understandable, but if humanity hadn't been at war when the Locust needed Adam's help, the Locust War would never have happened. And the third game ends with the Locust completely extinct.]] ''Ouch''.
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* DesignatedVillian: DesignatedVillain: The Locust Horde can be seen as this, once their motive for invading the surface is revealed. [[spoiler: They had hoped to live peacefully underground, but were forced out of their homes by a devastating war with the Lambent Locust, mutated versions of their own kind (which, by the way, they had no hand in creating). They tried to enlist Adam Fenix's help in creating a weapon to wipe out the Lambent, so they wouldn't have to invade the surface; but he didn't have enough time to complete it because he was busy helping out with the Pendulum Wars, between two factions of humans. As a result, the Locust were forced to invade the surface for their own survival. So not only was their reason for starting the war completely understandable, but if humanity hadn't been at war when the Locust needed Adam's help, the Locust War would never have happened. And the third game ends with the Locust completely extinct.]] ''Ouch''.
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* DesignatedVillian: The Locust Horde can be seen as this, once their motive for invading the surface is revealed. [[spoiler: They had hoped to live peacefully underground, but were forced out of their homes by a devastating war with the Lambent Locust, mutated versions of their own kind (which, by the way, they had no hand in creating). They tried to enlist Adam Fenix's help in creating a weapon to wipe out the Lambent, so they wouldn't have to invade the surface; but he didn't have enough time to complete it because he was busy helping out with the Pendulum Wars, between two factions of humans. As a result, the Locust were forced to invade the surface for their own survival. So not only was their reason for starting the war completely understandable, but if humanity hadn't been at war when the Locust needed Adam's help, the Locust War would never have happened. And the third game ends with the Locust completely extinct.]] ''Ouch''.
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The second game received similar accolades, with many complaints of the first game addressed. The graphics are better than ever, a larger weapon variety is given and the story is epic while more personal. However, it still holds many slight flaws, but that doesn't reduce the amount of fun there is in playing the game. The multiplayer set-up has also been cheered, with the new "Horde" mode receiving the most attention.
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The second game received similar accolades, with many complaints of the first game addressed. The graphics are better than ever, a larger weapon variety is given and the story is epic while more personal. However, it still holds many slight flaws, but that doesn't reduce the amount of fun there is in playing the game. The multiplayer set-up has also been cheered, with the new "Horde" mode receiving the most attention.
attention; while it didn't invent the concept, ''Gears 2'' is the reason [[FollowTheLeader most shooters have a wave-based mode now]].
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* FakeLongevity: The first game has achievements for 100 multiplayer games with a kill with each weapon and 10,000 multiplayer kills in total. ''Gears of War 2'' takes it to ludicrous extremes with "Party Like It's 1999" for playing that many multiplayer rounds (with or without bots, and with or without even being online) and "Seriously 2.0", which requires ''100,000'' total kills across all game modes. For reference, playing through the campaign once gets you about 1000 kills. The third game takes this BeyondTheImpossible, introducing ''several'' longevity awards with absurd requirements: the "Doorman" medal requires you to grind ''opening doors'', which would take dozens if not hundreds of campaign run-throughs to achieve; the "Allfathers" medal requires you to play '''15000''' matches (not rounds, matches) of multiplayer; the Founder ribbon requires you to be the one who founds the first base in Horde 2.0 hundreds of times, and so on. In addition, [[http://kotaku.com/5845476/the-toughest-xbox-360-achievement-you-can-get-we-think this article]] details how "Seriously 3.0" in ''Gears of War 3'' might be the toughest achievement to ever unlock.
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* FakeLongevity: The first game has achievements for 100 multiplayer games with a kill with each weapon and 10,000 multiplayer kills in total. ''Gears of War 2'' takes it to ludicrous extremes with "Party Like It's 1999" for playing that many multiplayer rounds (with or without bots, and with or without even being online) and "Seriously 2.0", which requires ''100,000'' total kills across all game modes. For reference, playing through the campaign once gets you about 1000 kills. The third game takes this BeyondTheImpossible, UpToEleven, introducing ''several'' longevity awards with absurd requirements: the "Doorman" medal requires you to grind ''opening doors'', which would take dozens if not hundreds of campaign run-throughs to achieve; the "Allfathers" medal requires you to play '''15000''' matches (not rounds, matches) of multiplayer; the Founder ribbon requires you to be the one who founds the first base in Horde 2.0 hundreds of times, and so on. In addition, [[http://kotaku.com/5845476/the-toughest-xbox-360-achievement-you-can-get-we-think this article]] details how "Seriously 3.0" in ''Gears of War 3'' might be the toughest achievement to ever unlock.
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** The achievement for beating the entire campaign in four-player co-op is called "[[Theatre/HenryV We Few, We Happy Few...]]"
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***In multiplayer if a COG soldier or one of the Carmines receives a headshot it can cause the head to split in two down the middle. You can see their faces using the Ghost Camera.
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* BondVillainStupidity: In ''3'' Myrrah discovers Delta Squad emerging from the underground corpser nest while she is riding her flying, death-dealing beetle. This thing is so vicious that it is ultimately the big boss fight of the game. Instead of attacking them with it while they are cornered in a box canyon, she calls some piss-weak Shriekers to do it and flies away.
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Hand Cannon already has an entry on this page.
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* HandCannon: The only in-game sidearms available are the [[RevolversAreJustBetter Boltok pistol]] and the semi-automatic Snub pistol which looks like it came from {{Warhammer40000}} (with the magazine ''in front of the grip''). The sequel throws in the Gorgon pistol, a spiked semi-automatic burst fire weapon bigger than any playable character's head and is reloaded with ''two'' clips. ''Gears of War 3'' doesn't bring in any new sidearm, but reiterates the Gorgon into a fully-automatic submachine pistol.
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* ReallyBigGun: The only in-game sidearms available are the [[RevolversAreJustBetter Boltok pistol]] and the semi-automatic Snub pistol which looks like it came from {{Warhammer40000}} (with the magazine ''in front of the grip''). The sequel throws in the Gorgon pistol, a spiked semi-automatic burst fire weapon bigger than any playable character's head and is reloaded with ''two'' clips. ''Gears of War 3'' doesn't bring in any new sidearm, but reiterates the Gorgon into a fully-automatic submachine pistol.
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* ReallyBigGun: HandCannon: The only in-game sidearms available are the [[RevolversAreJustBetter Boltok pistol]] and the semi-automatic Snub pistol which looks like it came from {{Warhammer40000}} (with the magazine ''in front of the grip''). The sequel throws in the Gorgon pistol, a spiked semi-automatic burst fire weapon bigger than any playable character's head and is reloaded with ''two'' clips. ''Gears of War 3'' doesn't bring in any new sidearm, but reiterates the Gorgon into a fully-automatic submachine pistol.
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* DeathOrGloryAttack: The Sawed-Off Shotgun. It has only one shot per reload and one of the longest reloads in the game. And it's kill range is shorter than the Gnasher. So if you miss your shot, you are really in a deep, deep trouble.
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* DeathOrGloryAttack: The Sawed-Off Shotgun. It has only one shot per reload and one of the longest reloads in the game. And it's game, and its kill range is shorter than the Gnasher. So if you miss your shot, you are really in a deep, deep trouble.
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* CampUnsafeIsntSafeAnymore: In ''Gears of War 2'', a soldier says the surface isn't safe anymore. The Locust, Kryll-infested, razor hail suffering surface.
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* CampUnsafeIsntSafeAnymore: In ''Gears of War 2'', a soldier Stranded says the surface isn't safe anymore. The Locust, Kryll-infested, razor hail suffering surface.
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* DeathOrGloryAttack: The Sawed-Off Shotgun. It has only one shot per reload and one of the longest reloads in the game. And it's kill range is shorter than the Gnasher. So if you miss your shot, you are really in a deep, deep trouble.
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in-universe detail
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** Colonel Hoffman, to a lesser extent, as he's on the same level as the rest of Delta Squad, but when you consider how much of an achievement it is in this universe to even make it to your mid-thirties (the fact the old bastard is reaching his late-forties or early-fifties by ''Gears of War 3'') and he's no coward or stranger to frontline fighting makes him pretty hardcore.
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** Colonel Hoffman, to a lesser extent, as he's on the same level as the rest of Delta Squad, but when you consider how much of an achievement it is in this universe to even make it to your mid-thirties (the fact the old bastard is reaching his late-forties or early-fifties by (WordOfGod has him at age 60 in ''Gears of War 3'') and he's no coward or stranger to frontline fighting makes him pretty hardcore.
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* SquadControls: You can order your team to either hold back or advance.
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* SquadControls: You can order your team to either hold back or advance. These controls were dropped for the sequels.
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* StoryToGameplayRatio: Fairly low, especially in the first game.
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* StoryToGameplayRatio: Fairly The first game was fairly low, especially it had a solid story with a beginning, middle and end but the gameplay didn't have much bearing on the story (Once Marcus and Dom do a game-enforced split-up to "cover more ground" but all it does is force you to play alone for a minute before coming back together on the same path). Gears 2 had a lot stronger storyline but carried a few similar "irrelevant to the story but cool anyway" set-ups (the deployable cover you find in the first game. Nexus doesn't really do much). By Gears of War 3 almost all scenarios and gameplay shifts were designed to facilitate the story.
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* MaleGaze: Sam gets the sexy pan-up shot while a Stranded ogles her.
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* 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.
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*** ''Gears of War 2'' contains another ShoutOut to the same movie; one of the chapters late in the game is called "Have Fun Storming the Castle", a line from ThePrincessBride.
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*** ''Gears of War 2'' contains another ShoutOut to the same movie; one of the chapters late in the game is called "Have Fun Storming the Castle", a line from ThePrincessBride.Film/ThePrincessBride.
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*** ''Gears of War 2'' contains another ShoutOut to the same movie; one of the chapters late in the game is called "Have Fun Storming the Castle", a line from ThePrincessBride.
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* FakeLongevity: The first game has achievements for 100 multiplayer games with a kill with each weapon and 10,000 multiplayer kills in total. ''Gears of War 2'' takes it to ludicrous extremes with "Party Like It's 1999" for playing that many multiplayer rounds (with or without bots, and with or without even being online) and "Seriously 2.0", which requires ''100,000'' total kills across all game modes. For reference, playing through the campaign once gets you about 1000 kills. The third game takes this BeyondTheImpossible, introducing ''several'' longevity awards with absurd requirements. The "Doorman" medal requires you to grind ''opening doors'', which would take dozens if not hundreds of campaign run-throughs to achieve. The "Allfathers" medal requires you to play '''15000''' matches (not rounds, matches) of multiplayer. The Founder ribbon requires you to be the one who founds the first base in Horde 2.0 hundreds of times. And so on.
** [[http://kotaku.com/5845476/the-toughest-xbox-360-achievement-you-can-get-we-think This article]] details how "Seriously 3.0" in ''Gears of War 3'' might be the toughest achievement to ever unlock.
** [[http://kotaku.com/5845476/the-toughest-xbox-360-achievement-you-can-get-we-think This article]] details how "Seriously 3.0" in ''Gears of War 3'' might be the toughest achievement to ever unlock.
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* FakeLongevity: The first game has achievements for 100 multiplayer games with a kill with each weapon and 10,000 multiplayer kills in total. ''Gears of War 2'' takes it to ludicrous extremes with "Party Like It's 1999" for playing that many multiplayer rounds (with or without bots, and with or without even being online) and "Seriously 2.0", which requires ''100,000'' total kills across all game modes. For reference, playing through the campaign once gets you about 1000 kills. The third game takes this BeyondTheImpossible, introducing ''several'' longevity awards with absurd requirements. The requirements: the "Doorman" medal requires you to grind ''opening doors'', which would take dozens if not hundreds of campaign run-throughs to achieve. The achieve; the "Allfathers" medal requires you to play '''15000''' matches (not rounds, matches) of multiplayer. The multiplayer; the Founder ribbon requires you to be the one who founds the first base in Horde 2.0 hundreds of times. And times, and so on.
**on. In addition, [[http://kotaku.com/5845476/the-toughest-xbox-360-achievement-you-can-get-we-think This this article]] details how "Seriously 3.0" in ''Gears of War 3'' might be the toughest achievement to ever unlock.
**
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* FakeLongevity: The first game has achievements for 100 multiplayer games with a kill with each weapon and 10,000 multiplayer kills in total. ''Gears of War 2'' takes it to ludicrous extremes with "Party Like It's 1999" for playing that many multiplayer rounds (with or without bots, and with or without even being online) and "Seriously 2.0", which requires ''100,000'' total kills across all game modes. For reference, playing through the campaign once gets you about 1000 kills. The third game takes this BeyondTheImpossible, introducing ''several'' longevity awards with absurd requirements. The "Doorman" medal requires you to grind ''opening doors'', which would take dozens if not hundreds of campaign run-throughs to achieve. The "Allfathers" medal requires you to play '''15000''' matches (not rounds, matches) of multiplayer. The Founder ribbon requires you to be the one who founds the first base in horde mode hundreds of times. And so on.
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* FakeLongevity: The first game has achievements for 100 multiplayer games with a kill with each weapon and 10,000 multiplayer kills in total. ''Gears of War 2'' takes it to ludicrous extremes with "Party Like It's 1999" for playing that many multiplayer rounds (with or without bots, and with or without even being online) and "Seriously 2.0", which requires ''100,000'' total kills across all game modes. For reference, playing through the campaign once gets you about 1000 kills. The third game takes this BeyondTheImpossible, introducing ''several'' longevity awards with absurd requirements. The "Doorman" medal requires you to grind ''opening doors'', which would take dozens if not hundreds of campaign run-throughs to achieve. The "Allfathers" medal requires you to play '''15000''' matches (not rounds, matches) of multiplayer. The Founder ribbon requires you to be the one who founds the first base in horde mode Horde 2.0 hundreds of times. And so on.on.
** [[http://kotaku.com/5845476/the-toughest-xbox-360-achievement-you-can-get-we-think This article]] details how "Seriously 3.0" in ''Gears of War 3'' might be the toughest achievement to ever unlock.
** [[http://kotaku.com/5845476/the-toughest-xbox-360-achievement-you-can-get-we-think This article]] details how "Seriously 3.0" in ''Gears of War 3'' might be the toughest achievement to ever unlock.
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* FakeLongevity: The first game has achievements for 100 multiplayer games with a kill with each weapon and 10,000 multiplayer kills in total. ''Gears of War 2'' takes it to ludicrous extremes with "Party Like It's 1999" for playing that many multiplayer rounds (with or without bots, and with or without even being online) and "Seriously 2.0", which requires ''100,000'' total kills across all game modes. For reference, playing through the campaign once gets you about 1000 kills. The third game takes this BeyondTheImpossible, introducing ''several'' longevity awards with absurd requirements. The "Doorman" medal requires you to grind ''opening doors'', which would take dozens if not hundreds of campaign run-throughs to achieve. The "Allfathers" medal requires you to play 1500 matches (not rounds, matches) of multiplayer. The Founder ribbon requires you to be the one who founds the first base in horde mode hundreds of times. And so on.
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* FakeLongevity: The first game has achievements for 100 multiplayer games with a kill with each weapon and 10,000 multiplayer kills in total. ''Gears of War 2'' takes it to ludicrous extremes with "Party Like It's 1999" for playing that many multiplayer rounds (with or without bots, and with or without even being online) and "Seriously 2.0", which requires ''100,000'' total kills across all game modes. For reference, playing through the campaign once gets you about 1000 kills. The third game takes this BeyondTheImpossible, introducing ''several'' longevity awards with absurd requirements. The "Doorman" medal requires you to grind ''opening doors'', which would take dozens if not hundreds of campaign run-throughs to achieve. The "Allfathers" medal requires you to play 1500 '''15000''' matches (not rounds, matches) of multiplayer. The Founder ribbon requires you to be the one who founds the first base in horde mode hundreds of times. And so on.
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* FakeLongevity: The first game has achievements for 100 multiplayer games with a kill with each weapon and 10,000 multiplayer kills in total. ''Gears of War 2'' takes it to ludicrous extremes with "Party Like It's 1999" for playing that many multiplayer rounds (with or without bots, and with or without even being online) and "Seriously 2.0", which requires ''100,000'' total kills across all game modes. For reference, playing through the campaign once gets you about 1000 kills.
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* FakeLongevity: The first game has achievements for 100 multiplayer games with a kill with each weapon and 10,000 multiplayer kills in total. ''Gears of War 2'' takes it to ludicrous extremes with "Party Like It's 1999" for playing that many multiplayer rounds (with or without bots, and with or without even being online) and "Seriously 2.0", which requires ''100,000'' total kills across all game modes. For reference, playing through the campaign once gets you about 1000 kills. The third game takes this BeyondTheImpossible, introducing ''several'' longevity awards with absurd requirements. The "Doorman" medal requires you to grind ''opening doors'', which would take dozens if not hundreds of campaign run-throughs to achieve. The "Allfathers" medal requires you to play 1500 matches (not rounds, matches) of multiplayer. The Founder ribbon requires you to be the one who founds the first base in horde mode hundreds of times. And so on.
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* ArmorIsUseless: In ''3'', there are unarmored skins of Marcus, Dizzy, Anya, Jace (campaign only), and one of Cole in Thrashball pads, who can take just as much damage as the armored COG characters and the rock-skinned locust.
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* HolidayMode: Several of the multiplayer events in ''3''. Halloween saw the players with Pumpkin heads, Thanksgiving unlocked an exploding turkey / chicken launcher, Christmas gave everyone snowmen heads, and SuperBowl week unlocks a Locust Drone in football pads.
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http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Gears_Of_War.jpg
[[caption-width:425:Brothers to the end.]]
''Gears of War'' is a tactical ThirdPersonShooter video game developed by EpicGames and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game uses a [[TakeCover "stop and pop" approach that heavily emphasizes the use of cover]]. There isn't a jump button and everything is angled towards making the combat as personal and violent as possible (the main gun used has a chainsaw built into the grip, called the [[ChainsawGood chainsaw]] [[BayonetYa bayonet]]).
The general story centers on the soldiers of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from a relentless subterranean enemy known as [[BugWar the Locust Horde]]. The [[FunWithAcronyms Coalition of Ordered Governments]] (COG) is fighting back with their own soldiers they call "Gears" ([[DontExplainTheJoke hence the name]]). The Locust are relentless, vicious, can pop out of the ground almost anywhere and seem to be numberless, but the COG have superior technology and the capital city of Jacinto is located on a plateau of solid granite, making it the one place the Locust can't tunnel up.
The player assumes the role of Marcus Fenix, a battle-hardened former war hero. When in cooperative play, the second player takes control of Fenix's best friend and fellow soldier Dominic "Dom" Santiago. Alongside them are fellow soldiers from another squad who they seem to frequently join with: Augustus "Cole Train" Cole and Damon Baird.
Besides dealing with the humanoid footsoldiers there is a great deal of focus on monstrous creatures you have to face such as the dinosaur-like Brumak (with a cannon on its back and chainguns on each arm), the crab/spider-like Corpser and the "monkey-dog" [[ZergRush Wretch]]. Alongside that, the games are about building atmosphere and drawing you into the moment, investigating abandoned warehouses and exploring a labyrinth of underground tunnels. These are not games to [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel play in the dark]].
On the way, they do [[RatedMForManly manly things]] like [[MadeOfExplodium blowing stuff up]], [[BondOneLiner delivering one-liners]] and growing beards.
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!'''Gears Of War'''
[[quoteright:189:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gears_of_war_001_1432.png]]
-->'''Dominic Santiago:''' Welcome back to the army, soldier.
-->'''Marcus Fenix:''' Shit.
Released on November 12, 2006, the Locust Horde has been rampaging across the planet for about 14 years. Marcus Fenix was imprisoned for dereliction of duty four years earlier, but was pardoned when the Locust assaulted Jacinto Plateau and invaded the prison. Marcus was reinstated and assigned to Delta Squad alongside Dominic Santiago. His first assignment involves a priority mission to assist another group, Alpha Squad, to deploy a device that would help deliver a final strike against the enemy.
The game was praised for its beautiful visuals and innovative gameplay system. The most common complaints were a dull color palette but most especially an uneven storyline.
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!'''Gears Of War 2'''
[[quoteright:193:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gears_of_war_2_001_4392.png]]
-->'''Marcus Fenix:''' This is it, Dom. This is everything we've been fighting for.
-->'''Dominic Santiago:''' Yeah, well Maria is everything ''I've'' been fighting for.
Released on November 7, 2008, the Locust re-emerge several months after the events of the first game, except more desperate and far more dangerous, while on the surface, many human refugees and Gears have fallen sick with a disease known as Rustlung, an Imulsion sickness. COG forces return to action in an attempt to make an assault on the enemy's home turf, while Dom embarks on a personal mission to find his missing wife Maria, putting him in conflict with his other responsibilities as a member of Delta Squad.
The second game received similar accolades, with many complaints of the first game addressed. The graphics are better than ever, a larger weapon variety is given and the story is epic while more personal. However, it still holds many slight flaws, but that doesn't reduce the amount of fun there is in playing the game. The multiplayer set-up has also been cheered, with the new "Horde" mode receiving the most attention.
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!'''Gears Of War 3'''
[[quoteright:190:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gears_of_war_3_001_5924.png]]
-->'''Augustus Cole:''' "Do you ever feel like you're dead, but nobody ever told you?"
Released on September 20, 2011, the ending of the second game has left both sides decimated, with Marcus and Delta Squad trying to keep their head down as there's no place left on Sera that is safe. [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Anya]] [[MissionControl Stroud]] has [[ActionGirl joined the team as a soldier]], Dom has grown a BeardOfSorrow and the approaching summer has the squad wearing lighter versions of their normal armor. The story picks up 18 months later when the COG leadership (what is left of it) approaches Marcus with some new discoveries about the Locust. Unfortunately, the Gears don't just have to contend with the Locust Horde: a new faction, the Lambent Locust, have emerged from the underground and are hostile to both sides.
With the added benefit of a multiplayer beta to iron out the kinks (including [[AndTheFandomRejoiced dedicated servers]]), ''Gears of War 3'' ended up the best reviewed of the trilogy with a very bright color palette, crisp visuals and fluid gameplay. A very full game release, it has a very long campaign where you can play with four characters at all times (including a co-op online arcade version), Horde Mode 2.0 (with some TowerDefense-like strategy), Beast Mode (a reversed Horde Mode where you play as Locust creatures attacking the COG), loads of features to track your gaming history and a single leveling system that works under all modes. The game was also built to be heavily modifiable, with a DownloadableContent pack called "RAAM's Shadow" containing an entire mini-campaign.
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!'''Gears of War: Exile'''
Nothing is known of the title, save its [[http://www.gamestooge.com/2011/05/29/e3-11-microsoft-unveiling-halo-hd-gears-exile/ unveiling]] at {{E3}} 2011. Strong rumors have pegged it as Cliff Bleszinski's hinted ''Gears of War'' Kinect-based game.
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A film adaptation is currently in the works, though plagued with DevelopmentHell, and the third game will be the last to feature Delta Squad. A series of comic books [[ExpandedUniverse expand on the backstory and what happens between the games]], alongside a collection of four novels, with a fifth to be released in 2012.
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!!The games provide examples of:
* AbandonedHospital: The New Hope facility and the multiplayer level "Blood Drive".
* AbnormalAmmo: Nemacysts are huge, [[FlyingSeafoodSpecial flying, squid-like creatures]] who constantly vent toxic sludge, and are fired as flak or hunter-killer missiles from Seeder arthropods. The Ink/Smoker grenades are actually baby Nemacysts tied to a Bolo Grenade handle. The Digger Launcher in the third game fires a small burrowing creature which digs through the ground ignoring any cover in its path, popping out from the ground if there's any enemy in its trajectory then detonating itself.
* ActionBomb: Several. Most Lambent enemies, as well as Reavers, explode upon death. Tickers are a straighter example, as they deliberately blow themselves up.
* ActionGirl
** Locust Berserkers are really female Drones. They're far more dangerous and deadlier than the males and more feared by the Gears. They're also invulnerable until you hit them with an orbital bombardment or set them on fire.
** In the third game, Anya has ditched her MissionControl role in order to fight on the battlefield with the male Gears, alongside another female gear, Samantha Bryne, as well as a veteran of the Pendulum Wars who fought with Colonel Victor Hoffman, Bernadette "Bernie" Mataki. Alicia Valera in "RAAM's Shadow" rounds out the gender ratio in Zeta Squad.
* AdaptationalBadass: In a variation, each succeeding Carmine in each game is more badass than the previous one, or at least lives longer. [[spoiler: Clayton Carmine goes so far as to survive the entire game]]!
* AdrenalineMakeover: Anya
* AfterTheEnd: The visual design is built like this, the story is about what has to happen for something ''to be'' AfterTheEnd. Before Emergence Day, human civilization endured the Pendulum wars. After about 85 years of destructive, sometimes nuclear war, Sera could be described as post-apocalyptic; the people left are just fighting for the ashes. ''Gears of War 3'' embraces it in full, and it's likely to the point that even if the fighting stopped today there wouldn't be an infrastructure left to rebuild the civilization they once had.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Niles Samson's "semi-sentient security program", which is a ''little'' bit obsessed with cleaning up "filth"., though it doesn't seem to actively attempt to kill you, and even makes an effort to protect you by advising you not to mess around with the main computers, which [[spoiler: wakes the Sires. NiceJobBreakingItHero]].
* AllThereInTheManual: The first game throws you right into the conflict with little elaboration, in fact the opening cinematic doesn't play when you press start; it kicks in if you idle on the title menu for a while making a lot of people eager to play the game missing it altogether. The most comprehensive backstory detailing is ''in the concept art book that comes with the collector's edition''. The key events that are not explained within the game involve: this is not Earth but a planet called Sera, the Pendulum Wars was a world-wide conflict over control over a super-fuel called Imulsion (started before the characters were born), Emergence Day was so devastating that the COG turned the Hammer of Dawn on their own cities just to fry the Locust and keep them at bay and leaving pockets of survivors called the Stranded. Fortunately, the current comics and novels are doing this job for everything, although for those who haven't read those, Epic was nice enough to put a "Previously on Gears..." video in ''Gears of War 3'', which describes the relevant events over all the games, books, and comics, though in the end, Epic resorted to posting explanations for some of the unanswered questions from ''Gears of War 3' on their official forums.
* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: '''A'''nthony Carmine, '''B'''enjamin Carmine, and '''C'''layton Carmine. Since there are four Carmine brothers in total, the last one will most likely be D. Carmine.
* AlwaysOverTheShoulder
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Samantha looks vaguely Hispanic, but her accent is ClaudiaBlack's own British/Australian mix. Otherwise the games are pretty good with being clear about various character's ethnicity.
* AndThisIsFor: [[spoiler: See ThisIsForEmphasisBitch; used by Marcus [[PreMortemOneLiner after he stabs Myrrah]]]].
* AnticlimaxBoss: The final boss of ''Gears Of War 2'', [[spoiler: the Lambent Brumak]], ''literally'' dies in 2 or 3 seconds. ClimaxBoss Skorge himself puts up a reasonable fight, but is nowhere nearly as tough as General RAAM was back in the first.
* AnyoneCanDie: The games make an effort to introduce major characters and have them die along the way, as this is an unrelenting war. It was invoked by Cliff Bleszinski regarding ''Gears of War 3'', as being the final game all bets were off and even the core characters were at risk.
* ApocalypseHow: Class 2 in the backstory. All major civilization is knocked out besides the COG and a few pockets of stranded civilians living in the ruins of cities. ''Gears of War 3'' indicates that things are coming dangerously close to a Class 3. [[spoiler: Firing Adam Fenix's superweapon at the end pushes it close to a Class 4, though some humans remain]].
* ArtificialStupidity
** In the first game, combined with SuicidalOverconfidence: your A.I. teammates will often vault over a perfectly good piece of cover to charge straight into enemy fire, resulting in them being shot full of holes. Locust Drones also do this sometimes, but they can pull it off since they're MadeOfIron, whereas your teammates are not.
** By the second game the friendly A.I. has been vastly improved and can hold its own even without your help, and it's possible for you to sometimes play whole sections without expending a single round of ammo!
** In the third game, [[spoiler: during the fight with the Lambent Beserker]] at the point where it starts leaking Imulsion, the first thing Marcus says is to avoid said Imulsion. Your AI teammates will ignore this piece of advice and spend the rest of the fight walking into the Imulsion and screaming for help. Especially frustrating on Insane difficulty.
* AscendedExtra: Of a sort, while not technically the same character the Carmine brothers through the three games have identical personalities and much more screentime in each installment.
* AscendedMeme
** The third game actually features the characters reacting with joy to see backup and saying, "It's Carmine!"
** One of the Stranded in Char asks "Show me that two piece again!" Two-piecing was the FanNickname for the melee -> shotgun combo that dominated the original ''Gears of War'' multiplayer.
** When playing as Adam Fenix in multiplayer, and beating the crap out of someone with the extended face punch, he'll sometimes say: [[PennyArcade "Your mother is a classy lady!"]]
** Lieutenant Kim's "I've got the code" shows up twice in ''Gears of War 3'': as the Onyx medal for interacting with objects and as a ContinuityNod in "RAAM's Shadow".
--->'''Barrick''': Do you have the code?\\
'''Kim''': Heh, just help me with the door.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: Plenty
** Flamethrower-equipped Locust carry their unfortunately bullet-vulnerable fuel packs.
** The Locust have yet another developmental oversight, what with their warbeasts having soft, unarmored bellies ripe for crosshair focus.
** The expediency of a helmetless Corpser takes a sudden drop [[GoForTheEye when they can't see]].
** The bigger Lambent foes broadcast their soft and soon-to-be bullet-ridden weak spots with glowing tumors, and in the case of the more mutated Drudges, shoot the tentacles.
** The otherwise nigh-invulnerable Armored Kantus is kind enough to pause and heal its fellow Locust with its screams, giving you ample time to stuff its mouth full of lead.
* TheAtoner:
** Marcus...sort of. He's more concerned with proving himself a reliable soldier once more than trying to apologize. Chairman Prescott in ''Gears of War 3'' comes back after being AWOL for almost 2 years, and delivers the MacGuffin that gets the game going.
** Adam Fenix is revealed to be like this, since he was the driving force of the Hammer of Dawn, which is what the COG used to scorch their own cities. [[spoiler: Of course, he still ends up commiting genocide in his attempts to atone, but he makes it very clear there was just wasn't enough time...]]
-->Adam: "Don't worry, I'm an old hand when it comes to weapons of mass destruction."
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking
** General RAAM personifies this trope. Skorge, a bit less so, but cutting a tank in half is still pretty badass.
** Colonel Hoffman, to a lesser extent, as he's on the same level as the rest of Delta Squad, but when you consider how much of an achievement it is in this universe to even make it to your mid-thirties (the fact the old bastard is reaching his late-forties or early-fifties by ''Gears of War 3'') and he's no coward or stranger to frontline fighting makes him pretty hardcore.
** Marcus plays with this: prior to the games, he was a decorated soldier and war hero, but after abandoning his post to try and rescue his father, he gets sent to prison. At the start of the trilogy, he's technically only a private, though within an hour, he gets back up to sergeant.
* AxCrazy: Anthony's very popular character for multiplayer, likely because of his ''very'' enthusiastic quotes while fighting, practically to the point of this trope. The tendency of many players to use the chainsaw bayonet at every possible opportunity also counts.
* {{Badass}}: Pretty much every plot-important character.
* BadassBeard: An EasterEgg in ''Gears of War 3'' allows everyone to have a beard, [[GirlsWithMoustaches even Anya]].
* BadBoss: In ''Gears of War 3'', Aaron Griffin is the former CEO of an Imulsion energy corporation, now the leader of a Stranded group taken up residence in the high rise Griffin tower. Within the campaign he talks a lot about keeping his "employees" safe and doesn't like the COG because they tend to bring the Locust war with them. But an in-game collectible carries a note from one of his Stranded members who comments that Griffin ''always'' refers to them as Employees, which many resent because they were obviously not getting health insurance anymore. Plus he largely kept the best stuff for himself (gold plated weapons can be seen in his office) and everyone was afraid of being chosen for the next near-suicidal Imulsion run.
* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Griffin in the third game. Former energy magnate, current ruler of a post-apocalyptic city, always ruthless.
* [[BannedInChina Banned In Germany]]: The violence alone might have been enough, but the fact they built the COG's look and much of its ethos on the Third Reich must have cinched it. Averted with ''Gears of War 3''; [[AndTheFandomRejoiced And The German Fandom Rejoiced]].
* BashBrothers:
** All of Delta Squad, but especially since cooperative play allows you to be Marcus and your friend be Dom.
** In-universe, Baird and Cole were really tight before they ever met Marcus or Dom, and still are as far as can be seen.
** ''Gears of War 3'' takes this to the logical extreme, where there's four player co-op for the entire campaign.
* BayonetYa: The third game features the "Retro Lancer", first-generation Lancers from the Pendulum Wars with much higher recoil and a heavy bayonet. The blade itself doesn't do much more damage in melee strikes than other weapons, but it allows for a ''nasty'' charge attack that can impale any regular infantry.
* BeardOfSorrow: The new beard Dom's sporting in ''Gears of War 3'' is this. In the "Ashes to Ashes" trailer, the way he just lies back and waits for the Drone to finish him off shows he doesn't give a shit about anything anymore since [[spoiler: having to MercyKill his wife Maria]]. Overlaps with DeathSeeker.
* BeePeople: The Locust Horde society is structured with a Queen at the top, and lots and lots of [[WeHaveReserves disposable drones]].
* BenevolentArchitecture: As [[ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] stated, chest-high walls are the key to victory in the war.
* TheBerserker
** Naturally, Locust [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Berserkers]]. Your first time through the game, this creature is absolutely terrifying. The kicker? A Berserker's really a big, normal drone...[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel only]] [[ActionGirl female]].
** ''Gears of War 3'' introduces the Lambent Berserker. Everything that is makes the originals tough is there, only it is capable of surviving multiple Hammer of Dawn attacks, has tentacles that gives it a longer reach, will ''jump'' and land like an Imulsion bomb and eventually start leaving Imulsion trails and toxic vapors limiting your movement. All the while still screaming and rushing at you.
** Cole has tendencies toward exhibiting a few traits, but is more in tune to the BoisterousBruiser.
* {{BFG}}: Virtually every gun in the game is oversized, and it wouldn't do to list every gun that isn't a sidearm here, so we'll just list the most notable:
** The [[http://vaultlol.com/?p=334 Retro Lancer]], (the one on the right) a rifle with a bayonet the size of a cutlass that looks like a hybrid of an FN-SCAR-H and an M60, which could double as a mounted machinegun turret.
** The Boomshot, an enormous grenade launcher with a 60mm bore that shoots grenades in four-round bursts,
** The One-Shot, which can only be described as a sniper cannon,
** The Mulcher and Vulcan Cannon, which are both man-portable miniguns.
* BigBad: Myrrah. Note that Epic Games use the term "BigBad" to refer to the final bosses of each game (General [=RAAM=] in the first, and Skorge in the second), but they are more like [[TheDragon Dragons]] in trope-speak.
* BiggerBad: [[spoiler: Imulsion itself, which is really a single, planet-wide parasitic organism]].
* BigDamnHeroes:
** Cole has a ''one man'' BigDamnHeroes moment in ''Gears of War 2''. Dom has one in ''Gears of War 3'', [[spoiler: albeit one that doubles as a HeroicSacrifice]].
** [[spoiler: Clayton shows up during the final battle of ''Gears of War 3'' in a King Raven and starts tearing into the Lambent and Therons with a gatling gun. He gets shot down by Myrrah's Tempest [[ScrewDestiny but survives]]]].
** The Command Center fortification for Horde 2.0 gives you the opportunity to call in support, starting with a quick sniper support and being able to upgrade through mortars and the [[KillSat Hammer of Dawn]]. Unsurprisingly it is quite satisfying to call in for help and see the screen light up with kills.
* BittersweetEnding: The second and third games feature victory and ultimately survival, but at a great cost. [[spoiler: Myrrah is dead, the Lambent are destroyed for good, and the last stand of organized Locust falls, yet Marcus has lost his best friend Dom and his father Adam Fenix in the struggle. Cynically lampshaded by him in his final line of dialogue]].
* BlackAndGrayMorality: The more the ExpandedUniverse sheds light on the COG, the less light you want shed on them.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Although subverted and never stated outright, Marcus is seemingly paranoid of this in the first game. Every time he orders Delta Squad to split up, he never tells Cole to come with him. By the second game he appears to be over this and does have Cole come with him. [[spoiler: In fact, Cole, Jace Stratton and Samantha, all dark-skinned people of color, make it out of the trilogy alive. Dom doesn't]].
* BlatantItemPlacement: The game ''is'' based around cover after all, but there are times when [[ZeroPunctuation bombs specifically reducing buildings to chest-high walls]] becomes very obvious.
* BloodSport
** The fictional Thrashball is more tame than most examples, but it still requires players to wear some fairly heavy armor, and management discourages but does not ban acts like "accidentally" stomping on prone opponents or "accidentally" punching opponents in the face, neck, or groin when diving for a catch. It's worth noting that Cole broke nearly every record the sport offered, including the most number of injuries in one play.
** In ''Gears of War 3'', there is a small Easter egg where you can peek in through a window and see a group of Savage Locust watching a cockfight between Wild Tickers.
* BobHaircut: Anya and Samantha both sport cuts similar to these in ''Gears of War 3''.
* BodyCountCompetition: At one point in ''Gears of War 2'', Marcus and Dom see a long line of Locust drones walking far below them. Dom makes a comment about practicing with their sniper rifles, and for each successive kill, Marcus numbers his kills.
--> '''Marcus: BLAM!''' "That's one." '''BLAM!''' "That's two." '''BLAM!''' "That's ''three''." '''BLAM!''' "That's four!" '''BLAM!''' "That's ''five'', [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch motherfuckers]]!''
* BondOneLiner: "[[YourHeadAsplode Look, ma, no face...]]" and ''many'' more.
* BookEnds:
** The opening of ''Gears of War 3'' is very similar to the opening scene of ''Gears of War'', only Dom's role is filled by Anya instead and there are Lambent Polyps instead of Locust Wretches. [[spoiler: It turns out this is simply a FlashbackNightmare]].
** In another case, spanning outside of the games, the original advertisement for ''Gears of War'' features [[DonnieDarko Gary Jules' cover of]] "[[TearsForFears Mad World]]". Fast forward several years to ''Gears of War 3'' and an instrumental version of the song plays [[spoiler: during Dom's HeroicSacrifice]].
* BreakingTheFourthWall
** After losing a multiplayer match on the COG side in ''Gears of War 2'', Chairman Prescott will deride you. He might say: "Reload, refocus, ''respawn''!".
** Failing an active reload and causing the gun to jam as Griffin in multiplayer in ''Gears of War 3'' may have him say "Fuckin' noob!", clearly at you.
* BullfightBoss: Berserkers
* BulletproofHumanShield: Anyone can take an enemy as one if they have been downed (see CriticalExistenceFailure). The game considers an enemy dead by all means, meaning there's no way to help them while they are being held (in multiplayer, their respawn timer starts), and when they are no longer held, they're practically a corpse. ''Maybe'' [[JustifiedTrope justified]] due to the armor all Gears wear, as well as the Locust being naturally tough.
* CallingYourAttacks: Boomers and their many variants (Grinders, Maulers, Flamers and Butchers) always yell out an attack-related phrase (i.e. "Boom!" for Boomshot-wielding Boomers and "Grind!" for Mulcher-wielding Grinders) before opening fire. This is a good tell that lets you know when to TakeCover.
* CampUnsafeIsntSafeAnymore: In ''Gears of War 2'', a soldier says the surface isn't safe anymore. The Locust, Kryll-infested, razor hail suffering surface.
* CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker: In ''Gears of War 2'' you can hear Myrrah spouting Locust propaganda in the later Nexus levels. Once Delta Squad finds a microphone, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trOiSsnRWUc they offer a rebuttal]].
* CanonImmigrant: Jace was an ExpandedUniverse character who got an audio cameo in ''Gears of War 2'' and apperances in the graphic novels. He shows up as part of Delta Squad in ''Gears of War 3''. Likewise Samantha and Bernie first appeared in the novels, and are fully playable in the ''Gears of War 3'' campaign. In a variation, Michael Barrick, [[spoiler: who was KilledOffForReal in the comics]], is available via DownloadableContent. Surprisingly, ActionGirl Alex Brand has no planned appearance, much to some fans' disappointment.
* CaptainObvious: Dom becomes this in ''Gears of War 2''. This is the title that goes with the onyx "Spotter" medal in ''Gears of War 3''.
* CelebritySurvivor: Cole. In the third game, you go back to his hometown and even fight through his old stadium.
* ChainsawGood: The games so far have always had the Lancer assault rifle, with the aforementioned chainsaw bayonet. Not to be outdone, Skorge in ''Gears of War 2'' wields a staff with chainsaws on both ends. The canon reason for this is the natural toughness of Locust hides led to bayonets being worthless. The RealLife reason is Cliff Blezinski had always had a dream of a gun with a chainsaw on it.
* ChekhovsGun
** Imulsion irradiated wretches called "Lambent Wretches" in the first game return with a new angle in the second.
** [[spoiler: Dom's combat knife]] in ''Gears of War 3''.
* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler: Adam Fenix]]
* ChunkySalsaRule
* ClippedWingAngel: The final boss of ''Gears of War 2'' is [[spoiler: a regular Brumak who walks into Imulsion and mutates into a massive Lovecraftian Lambent Brumak]]. It's basically a giant tree that stands still in one spot, and lasts all of 2 or 3 seconds as you vaporize it with the Hammer of Dawn.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: COG forces have subtle blue highlights on their armor, and have blue lights on their weapons. The Locust focus more on reddish and bloody colors, and have red lights on their weapons. What makes it really funny is the colored lights on the weapons and even on vehicles immediately change color depending on whether a COG or Locust is using it. Justified in fluff as the lights are called "COG Identification Markers" and since the Locust are ripping off COG technology as much as they can, the lights on the weapons would be changed by them too.
* TheComicallySerious: Marcus. The guy ''never'' cracks a smile. He does smirk occasionally, but it certainly isn't meant to be a "nice" smirk. WordOfGod states Marcus pretty much never smiles. Even at his birthday party, he didn't smile when they gave him the cake.
* CommandRoster: Technically, until the third game most of the group consists of multiple squads, largely Alpha and Delta. But they still come together sometime into the story and stay together as though they were one group.
** The First Game
*** TheCaptain - Marcus, [[spoiler: after Lieutenant Kim is killed]].
*** NumberTwo - Dom
*** MrFixit - Baird
*** The Marine - Cole
*** MissionControl - Anya
*** TheNeidermeyer - Colonel Hoffman, who doesn't get along well with Marcus but they come to respect each other by the end
*** RedShirt - Carmine (Anthony)
** The Second Game
*** TheCaptain - Marcus
*** NumberTwo - Dom
*** NewMeat - Carmine (Benjamin)
*** The Scientist - Baird (In-game collectibles of various kinds are provided with some text commentary by Baird)
*** MrFixit - Baird and Dizzy
*** The Marine - Cole
*** The Security Officer - Tai
*** AcePilot - Dizzy
*** MissionControl - Anya, Hoffman when they get into ''really'' top secret areas
*** ReasonableAuthorityFigure - Hoffman
*** ObstructiveBureaucrat - Chairman Prescott
** The Third Game
*** TheCaptain - Marcus
*** NumberTwo - Dom, Cole also takes on a leadership role when out looking for supplies
*** The Scientist - Baird again
*** MrFixit - Baird and Dizzy
*** The Marine - Cole, Jace and Carmine (Clay)
*** ColdSniper - Sam
*** TheMedic - Anya
*** Communications Officer - Anya
*** MissionControl - Switches up depending on who is out in the action. Anya, Bernie, Baird, Dizzy and [[spoiler: Adam Fenix]] all take on this role.
*** ReasonableAuthorityFigure - Hoffman, Marcus also seemed to have a lot of respect for Captain Michaelson
*** ObstructiveBureaucrat - Prescott, although in this case he was trying to undo all the government secrets he had been hiding
* CompilationRerelease: The ''Gears of War'' Triple Pack, which bundles the first two games, as well as the "All Fronts" map pack.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard:
** Skorge is a fairly tough boss ''only'' because he's unaffected by any form of attack other than a chainsaw duel. It's certainly there to show off the new chainsaw duel feature but it comes across as a frustrating GameplayAndStorySegregation. It's not a terribly difficult fight otherwise, unless you're [[spoiler: bad at dodging falling pillars, ink grenades, and Tickers]]. The pillars don't just fall in a straight line: you have to run to the other side of the hall, because these things will ''alter the direction of its fall to the point that it will somehow fall completely horizontally from a vertical position to kill you''.
** Insane difficulty is just a license for the game to be a cheating bastard.
** This can actually be used to the player's advantage in campaign. AI squadmates never run out of ammo and can trade weapons with the player. This means that players can trade empty power weapons like the Torque Bow and Boomshot to an NPC, wait for the NPC to reload it, then take it back. Alternately, just give all your squadmates Boomshots and watch the carnage.
* ContinuityNod[=/=]CallBack:
** ''Gears of War 2'' explicitly refers to things said in the last game as jokes to ''each other''. [[LampshadeHanging Therefore...]]
** It seems like half the dialogue with Benjamin are nods to his brother Anthony's death.
*** Clayton himself is one towards his brothers. [[spoiler: During the trek at Hanover, he gets shot in the helmet by a sniper rifle, but survives unlike Anthony; ironically, he tells the shooter he's lucky that he wears a helmet]].
** At the Lethia Imulsion Facility in ''Gears of War'', Marcus tells Cole, "I'll take that under advisement". In the sequel, when Delta Squad starts debating on rescuing the Stranded in Mount Kadar, Cole tells Baird, "This is the part where he tells you he'll take it under advisement".
** "Don't start with that juice shit again!"
** "Hey, Colonel, I guess we ARE the support, huh."
** "Yeah, but he [Skorge] made RAAM look like a goddamn pushover."
** The third game's campaign opens with a scene almost identical to the prologue of the first, down to identical dialogue, with Anya in place of Dom.
** One of the earliest collectable pickups in the third game is twenty bucks that Dom owed Marcus from when they bet on a Thrashball game Cole was in. The money is a few years too late, and currency is pretty valueless with no governments left to honor it, but the thought still counts.
** Dom wears a combat knife on his armor during all three campaigns. It isn't used until [[spoiler: Mercy, when Dom lets Marcus borrow it to un-jam a lever. Marcus stabs Myrrah with it in the final scene of ''Gears of War 3'', saying it was for Dom, and everyone else she killed]].
** A RAAM's Shadow achievement "Foreshadowing" requires players in multiplayer to execute opponents playing as Kim while using General RAAM as a skin, calling back to the same event in ''Gears of War''.
* ConvenientColorChange: Gun color changes depending on the holder.
* CopyProtection: Cliff Bleszinski has stated with no small amount of vitriol that piracy of ''Gears of War'' stopped any chance of ''Gears of War 2'' on the PC.
* CorpseLand: The area where the Hammer of Dawn was used on the Locust to halt their attacks. In a disturbing mirror of Pompeii, there are ashen remain of every man, woman and child who were unable to reach the safe zone.
* CrapsackWorld: Sera is reduced to a total hellhole in the aftermath of the Human-Locust War; the planet's surface has been scorched to cinders and its water sources contaminated by orbital Hammer of Dawn bombardment, nerve gas killed whatever the satellites didn't, fallout from the end of ''Gears of War'' causes terminal respiratory illness in the survivors, all the human cities have been destroyed, and according to the official tie-in novels, [[spoiler: 99% of the human population was killed in the war]]. Becomes a WorldHalfFull at the end of Gears Of War 3 though. [[spoiler: The Locust and Lambent are all dead, the parasite in Imulsion is destroyed, and the world actually has a ''future'' now, as it is implied that humanity can now recover.]]
* CriticalExistenceFailure:
** Played straight to an extent, as explosives will blow apart someone when it kills them, but not if the damage isn't enough. The games use invisible HitPoints, and when characters lose them, they become "down, but not out" in multiplayer, meaning they can only lay on the ground to bleed to death unless someone revives them, or they are finished off. Enemies can be downed in the campaign (though not always); likewise, so can characters. In ''Gears of War 2'', downed players can crawl away instead of being totally immobile. Curiously, bots that manage to get chainsawed in the campaign will generally be downed. The same is not true of players who are chainsawed. This is likely to compensate for ArtificialStupidity.
** Generally, any explosive that is in range to damage a downed player will gib them.
** Troika gun turrets cut the player off at the knees or otherwise splatter them into LudicrousGibs in two seconds. Just getting grazed by one is OnlyAFleshWound, however. Fortunately, this is averted by the turrets in the third game, and you'll go down first before dying to them.
* CrossPlaying: EnforcedTrope for male gamers, as ''Gears of War 3'' has playable female characters for the first time and a medal for playing as them in a very large number of matches (required for OneHundredPercentCompletion). Also, Queen Myrrah is the Locust leader in the Capture the Leader mode.
* CustomUniform: There are some slight variations in the armor designs between major characters (regular COG Gears look exactly like [[RedShirt Carmine]]), but in the first two games they were all similar enough that it was likely there was some mild customizable options (Dom has a shoulder light and combat knife to [[DistinctiveAppearances distinquish him from Marcus]]). In ''Gears of War 3'', everyone has made significant alterations to their armor that takes it further away from being a uniform, including [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience color coding]]. Marcus has orange highlights, Cole green and Baird blue as always. Hoffman has several medal-like markings on his suit to represent his command authority.
* CuteMonsterGirl: Heavily subverted with the female Locust Berserkers, vicious and fugly 10-foot tall stone-skinned monsters. Played straight in ''Gears of War 2'' with the Locust Queen, who strangely looks like a human woman wearing a squid on her back. Although this appears to be a plot point, as Delta Squad remarks several times on her human-like appearance compared to the rest of the Locust, [[spoiler: [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse it is ultimately not completely explained]]]].
* DarkActionGirl: ''Myrrah'', [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething the Locust Queen]], takes to frontlines in ''Gears Of War 3'', heaving stripped herself of her [[BuffySpeak squid-dress]] from the second game. In fact, her combat outfit looks very nice, too. She acts as the Locust leader in multiplayer.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Gears of War 2'' carries a darker, more personal story than the last, with various named characters dying, though none of them came from the original game, but were advertised as being in the sequel. ''Gears of War 3'' takes this UpToEleven.
* DarknessEqualsDeath: The Kryll in the first game are a race of near-unstoppable flesh-eating bats who swarm anything not covered in light. It made this true for pretty much anywhere dark.
* DeadlyFireworksDisplay
** [[spoiler: The Lambent Brumak in the second game]].
** Most of the large Lambent in the third game, particularly Lambent Berserkers and Gunkers.
* DeadpanSnarker: Marcus, though his general attitude is TheComicallySerious and exacerbated with a voice that occasionally sounds like [[WinnieThePooh Eeyore]]. Baird plays this trope the straightest. By the third game, it escalates into WorldOfSnark, with ''everyone'' throwing insults and one-liners at each other.
* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler: Adam Fenix makes one with Queen Myrrah before the events of the trilogy. Myrrah promised Adam that she would not invade Sera should he find a way to destroy the Lambent. He fails to do so, thus Myrrah is forced to kick-start the Human-Locust War.]]
* DeathFromAbove:
** The Hammer of Dawn [[KillSat satellite laser]], required to use with a laser marker.
** In Horde 2.0 the Command Center fortification allows you to upgrade to calling in a mortar or Hammer of Dawn strike. Since you have no direct control over where it drops, it can surprise both you and your teammates.
* DeathWorld: Sera. Even the ''weather'' is trying to kill you.
* DegradedBoss: Gameplay-wise, Grinders are essentially weaker versions of General RAAM with less health and no Kryll protecting it. ''Story''-wise, they're two entirely different beasts (RAAM's an ascended Theron Guard while Grinders are Boomers with a Mulcher), yet their tactics are more or less the same.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: WordOfGod states the reason Anya and other 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.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Not only is Marcus' abandoning his post ''to save his father'' considered the worst form of treason, but the manual states Dom was ''demoted'' for daring to defend him in his trial. Justified as disobeying orders and what not is generally a bad thing in the military for a variety of reasons, as well as the fact Marcus leaving his post with the [[KillSat Hammer of Dawn targeting laser]] lost a good chunk of Jacinto.
* DoAnythingRobot: JACK is a much more subtle version. It's equipped with various devices for communications and repairs but is primarily used to burn the locks off doors and hacking terminals. [[spoiler: In ''Gears of War 3'', Baird gives it an upgrade late in the game allowing it to shock and stun enemies]].
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Niles of the top-secret New Hope outpost is obsessed with cleanliness, despite the place being very unclean, and seems to be practicing some rather amoral experiments for [[WellIntentionedExtremist the good of our future]]. Sounds very much like the "[[StupidJetpackHitler scientist]] devoted to a [[ThoseWackyNazis certain fascist government's]] advancement" type; even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Dom, saying the place looks like "...an internment camp."
* DoubleEntendre: "RAAM's Shadow" has a particularly snicker-worthy one.
-->'''Valera''': Thanks for the assist.\\
'''Barrick''': You know me, Val... I'm always watching your ass.
* DressingAsTheEnemy: Subverted. Marcus briefly mentions doing this to sneak into the Nexus in ''Gears of War 2'', but he and Dom decide to go in guns blazing instead [[spoiler: as revenge for Maria]]. Can be played straight in the "Deleted Scene" DLC if you can take the sneaky option.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Tai Kaliso was captured by the Locust in ''Gears of War 2''. When he's found, we see him covered in large cuts and wounds. Marcus hands him a shotgun to arm himself so they can move on, but Tai shoots himself in the head with it]]. [[GoryDiscretionShot The damage is not seen]].
* DynamicEntry: In the first two games locust can enter the game space via Emergence Holes, stable channels to their tunnel network. However in the third game, they do away with that and practically explode out of the ground. There is an award for taking out a locust while it's airborne.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Some of the Locust were seen in promotional renders of the Unreal Engine 3 before the game was announced. Likewise, some of the character designs in UnrealTournamentIII are close enough to be predecessors of the various Gears.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:In ''Gears of War 3,'' despite Marcus' cynicism at the end of the game, Anya heartwarmingly tells him mankind has earned its tomorrow]].
* EasterEgg: There are a bunch of silly gags that can be found, such as a toaster ("Who wants toast!"), a cowboy hat wearing Corpser and a giant Lambent chicken!
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The Hollow and Nexus
* ElevatorFloorAnnouncement:
-->'''Baird:''' Bottom floor! Sporting goods, lingerie, and [[HiveQueen one bitch-ass queen!]]
* EliteMooks: In the first game it was Theron Guards, tougher Locust Drones with the Torque Bow. In the second game it is the Kantus Priest, wielding a semi-auto pistol, can [[ShootTheMedic heal]] enemy troops and can summon explosive Tickers. In the third game it is the Armored Kantus, immune to virtually any small arms fire and thus requiring explosives to take down
* EnemyCivilWar: ''Gears of War 2'' reveal the struggle of the Locust Horde against the insane Lambent Locust mutants. Not much use to the player, as the game mostly has them both trying to kill you instead of fighting each other. This is made MUCH more prevalent in the third game.
* EpicFlail:
** Bolo Grenades are really explosive maces. EpicFlail indeed, though they can only be used to blow things up, and the melee animation to stick grenades onto enemies looks like a swing, but it doesn't do any damage aside from sticking the grenade and watching them explode spectacularly.
** Played absolutely straight with [[PersonalSpaceInvader Maulers]]. These Boomer variants with Boomshields and heavy armor carry what appear to be larger versions of Bolo Grenades. ''Much larger''...and reusable...and they don't throw them: they simply run up and hit you explosively with it.
* EscapistCharacter: Any playable Gear who wears a [[TheFaceless face-concealing helmet]] is an [[EnsembleDarkhorse incredibly popular choice]] online likely for this reason, or because people want to be [[{{Halo}} Master Chief]] (who is also this trope).
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Nearly everyone of Delta Squad gets their moment, but no one beats Cole's introduction in the first two games. The first game has him challenging an entire squad of Locust by himself until he gets reinforcements. In the second game, well, he ''is the reinforcements''. ''Nobody'' stops the Cole Train, baby!
* {{Expy}}:
** Cole is the soldier version of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzToNo7A-94 Terry Tate, Office Linebacker]], a joke character from a series of Reebok commercials. Of course, they're [[HeyItsThatVoice played by the same person.]]
** The Kryll bear more than a little resemblance to the nocturnal creatures in ''PitchBlack''.
* TheFaceless:
** The Locust Queen Myrrah, [[spoiler: up until 75% of the second game, that is]].
** The Carmines play the straighter example: each bear a striking family resemblance... considering their tendency to wear helmets. The third game actively teases us with it: [[spoiler: the final scene actually shows Clayton picking up his helmet, dusting it off, and putting it on... ''without showing his face'']].
* FaceRevealingTurn: In ''Gears of War 3'', the group enters Mercy, which is mysteriously desolate and the sole survivor they find is quickly killed by unseen monsters. Eventually in the sewers, they find a sobbing woman, and when Marcus approaches [[spoiler: she turns and screams, revealed to be a [[ItGotWorse Lambent human]], setting the level as a ZombieApocalypse.]]
* FakeLongevity: The first game has achievements for 100 multiplayer games with a kill with each weapon and 10,000 multiplayer kills in total. ''Gears of War 2'' takes it to ludicrous extremes with "Party Like It's 1999" for playing that many multiplayer rounds (with or without bots, and with or without even being online) and "Seriously 2.0", which requires ''100,000'' total kills across all game modes. For reference, playing through the campaign once gets you about 1000 kills.
* FiveManBand
** TheHero - Marcus
** TheLancer - Dom, Jace [[spoiler: after Dom's death]].
** TheBigGuy - Cole, Clayton in ''Gears of War 3'' at times. Some Stranded even refer to Cole as "the big guy," during one mission.
** TheSmartGuy - Baird, who lampshades this by explicitly identifying himself as "the smart guy".
** TheChick - Anthony and Benjamin in their respective games, Samantha and Anya in ''Gears of War 3''.
** TeamPet - Jack
** Done again with a different band in "RAAM's Shadow":
*** TheHero - Michael Barrick
*** TheLancer - Jace
*** TheBigGuy - Tai
*** TheSmartGuy - Minh Young Kim
*** TheChick - Valera
*** Team Pet - Jack
* FiveTokenBand: It's actually pretty well done to where it doesn't seem like marking off a checklist. Cole, Franklin, Jace and Griffin are all black, Dom and Maria are Hispanic, Tai is Samoan, Kim is Asian, and Sam is AmbiguouslyBrown. The majority of other characters wear helmets.
* FinishingMove: Characters who've lost their HitPoints will often be incapacitated instead of killed, allowing for a stress relieving curb stomp. The second game introduced unique finishers with individual weapons. The third [[UpToEleven takes it up to eleven]] where you can ''continue'' them to gain more experience as well as giving each weapon an unlockable special execution.
* FollowTheLeader: ''Gears of War'' inspired a wave of third-person shooters and/or TakeCover games that is still ongoing, like ''ArmyOfTwo'', ''MassEffect'' and ''TransformersWarForCybertron''. Similarly, it's also almost unthinkable these days to play a shooter without a "Horde"-inspired 'endless waves of enemies' mode.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: In ''Gears of War 3'', a shot of Adam from behind in his lab zooms out and lingers on a vial of Imulsion and a syringe behind him before the game returns to Delta Squad. Adam states later he had to inject himself with Imulsion in the creation of his superweapon, and knows fully well that activating it will kill him]].
* ForMassiveDamage: The Lambent have glowing tumor-like growths of Imulsion in their chests or stomachs that serve as targets to quickly kill them. Shooting Drudges in their growths is the only way to take one down without it metamorphing into a nastier variant after taking enough damage.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Marcus is Choleric, Dom is Melancholy, Baird is Phlegmatic, Cole is Sanguine.
* FungusHumongous: The Inner Hollow in ''Gears Of War 2'' has mushrooms that are slightly shorter than Delta Squad, and some slimy stuff on the walls that might be fungi.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: A Black Comedy example. In "RAAM's Shadow", Zeta team discovers the remains of an evacuation center in a high school gym. Among the carnage is a charred body jammed in a basketball hoop.
* GameBreakingBug: A bug currently making the rounds in ''Gears Of War 3'' will accidentally dump a 5-man Horde team into Wingman mode. Since Wingman's typically played by 4 teams of 2 in a free-for-all setting, dumping an ''entire'' group of 5 onto a single team is '' slightly'' unbalancing.
* GatlingGood: The hand-cranked Mulcher is man-portable and can... well, ''mulch'' soft targets at close range. The Silverback mounts what seems to be a more powerful variant, and gatling turrets appear occasionally in COG bases. There's also the Vulcan Cannon, which is more like an actual modern-day gatling gun and sounds like a cross between a chainsaw and thunder.
* GenderIsNoObject: The first two games and the novelizations subvert this. Only men do the fighting; all fertile women are used for reproductive purposes, while non-fertile women serve in support roles. The third game, however, plays this straight. Almost all women fight alongside the men. Totally justified because humanity is down to its last throes and needs every available body to fight.
* GeniusBruiser:
** When Baird is asked to improvise a bomb with few parts available, he replies, "Regular or extra strength?"
** Marcus, too, was meant to be an "intelligent badass" by the design team. Even though he doesn't show it as much as Baird, he seems to be able to come up with complicated military tactics on the fly in stressful situations, and he definitely has motivations beyond those of the average SpaceMarine action hero.
** In fact, most of Delta Squad applies according to Baird himself, as he states the reason he sticks with them is because they're the only people he knows who have above a single-digit IQ.
** Then there's Adam Fenix, the man himself. Back-story shows he's both a super-genius OmnidisciplinaryScientist (generally considered "The Smartest Man On The Planet"), as well as a former military officer and war hero. Granted, he's aged quite a bit and by the time he's mentioned in the games, he's more of a BadassBookworm.
* GenocideBackfire: It's been revealed by WordOfGod (namely David Nashty and Karen Traviss) that Myrrah was [[spoiler: one of the New Hope children. Which goes a long way towards explaining her actions and attitudes towards humanity throughout the series.]]
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: A medal that can be earned in ''Gears of War 3'' multiplayer is "Loot Courtesan".
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Myrrah
* GorgeousGorgon: Myrrah
* {{Gorn}}: It certainly goes into this trope at times... and then there's chainsawing your enemies... and then there's ''chainsawing your enemy simultaneously with your allies''. The games THRIVE on its extreme violent content. There's hardly a death in this game that doesn't end in copious amounts of blood, meaty chunks or bones cracking, not to mention the way blood splatters on the camera. Special note of a certain line from the second game:
-->'''Baird:''' "Oh man... this is just ''wrong''. I'm coughing up blood that ain't mine."
* GogglesDoNothing: Played straight with Baird until the second game, where he wears them on two occasions, once when he repairs the tank, and once when he pilots a Reaver, as well as when he wears them for intimidation in the books. Played straight again in ''Gears of War 3''.
* GreenRocks: Imulsion. Originally not that bad, but ''Gears of War 2'' starts to elevate it to this status pretty quickly [[spoiler: as it's implied that not only does Imulsion turn living beings into explosive versions of themselves, they mutate them. ''Gears of War 3'' further implies that Imulsion overexposure and mutations forced the Locust to invade the surface, starting the war]]. It also acts as a super-fuel and is used in the construction of death rays from space, though as it turns out it isn't a mysterious magical substance. [[spoiler: It's a parasite and the mutations are its primary purpose.]] The fact that it can be used as a super fuel is just incidental.
* GunAccessories: Chainsaw bayonets!
* GunshipRescue: Used several times with the King Raven helicopters, but subverted just as much. Notable in that King Ravens are gunships even without the specific "gunship" upgrade appearing in ''Gears of War2''; of the actual King Raven gunships (distinguished by their stub wings mounting gatling guns and missile launchers) you see in action in ''Gears of War 2'', one is lost ''after'' its GunshipRescue moment, one causes as much trouble as it cures but can later be seen in the background being a GunshipRescue for other Gears, and the other survives.
* HandCannon: The Boltok revolver is obviously high-caliber (it can ''blow off limbs!''), and the Gorgon SMG is basically a fun-size one-handed automatic rifle, but surprisingly the champion of this trope in this series is the humble Snub pistol, which is chambered for .50cal and possesses both a high rate of fire and a 12-round magazine. No wonder it can decapitate armoured Boomers and Therons.
* HannibalLecture: In ''Gears of War 3'', Myrrah calls out on humanity being a bunch of genocidal monsters, just like how they view the Locust. It almost sounds [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]], considering Emergence Day, [[spoiler: until you realize Myrrah had no choice because of the Lambent]].
* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Have we mentioned Dom's married today? To a ''woman''? With ''breasts''? And other ''lady parts''? Who's not ''a guy''? Making Dom ''not gay''? Meaning he and Marcus ''aren't like that''? [[OverlyLongGag Because Dom's married to a woman]]? Oh, Marcus looks at [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Anya]] longingly, too.
* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: The easiest way to see if someone is going to die? He wears a helmet. [[spoiler:Except Clayton Carmine. His helmet actually ''saves'' him from friendly fire.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: Sadly, ''Gears of War 3'' has [[spoiler: ''Dom'']] of all people pulling one of these at the end of [[spoiler: Act 3 to save Marcus, Anya, Sam, Dizzy and Jace from the never ending hordes of [[TheVirus Lambent]]. Adam Fenix dies not long after reuniting with his son by using himself as a test subject in his quest to eliminate Imulsion, then activating a world-affecting bomb that he knows will kill him as well as all Lambent and Locust]].
* HeterosexualLifePartners:
** Marcus and Dom. Long time friends who always stay close together. The novel ''Aspho Fields'' give a bit of backstory of Marcus and Dom growing up, as well as shedding light on quite a bit of angst between Marcus and Anya prior to their RelationshipUpgrade. Their argument in ''Gears of War 2'' comes close to a break-up. [[ZeroPunctuation Yahzee]] made a joke of this part. "[Marcus] is aided by his best friend - AND NOTHING ELSE - Dominic."
** There's also indications in the ''opposite'' direction; more than one scene in ''Gears of War 2'' and production interview gave us signs that Marcus and Anya [[ShipTease have more than a strictly professional relationship between them]]. Naturally, the novelizations and subsequent ''Gears of War 3'' outright confirms this.
** Baird and Cole are also very close, to the extent that Cole was the only person Baird really cared about before he met Marcus and Dom.
* HeyItsThatVoice: Plenty, if you know who's playing who.
** Ice-T lends his voice in Gears 3 as the COG-hating Griffin.
* HideYourChildren:
** Lampshaded by Baird, who remarks in one of the collectible intel items that it's strange despite fighting straight into the heart of the Locust civilization, there are no Locust children running around to shoot. Presumably a case of assumed HumanAliens - if they're BeePeople, they ''wouldn't'' have children, just hatch fully-formed from eggs.
** Averted in ''Gears of War 3'' while visiting Char. ''Many'' of the ash-corpses are too small to be adults.
** Averted again in the "RAAM's Shadow". A fair chunk of the campaign takes place in a high school which has been attacked by the Locust. Many corpses of civilians who are at the very least teenagers are shown in several rooms.
* HighPressureBlood: In ''Gears Of War 2'', it seems as if the characters lose blood that would be enough to kill someone when they go into a downed state ''alone'' from the impact of bullets against them. Not to mention the extra pints they lose from crawling around.
* HonorBeforeReason: There are several scenes, especially in the second game, of Marcus taking the extra effort to ensure the safety and well-being of civilians even when it complicates the mission. Baird calls him out on this, but Marcus always gets the final say.
* HopelessWar: The games have a very strong feel of this trope [[spoiler: until the end of the trilogy, which presumably ends the war once and for all]].
* HulkSpeak: The Boomer family of Locust all speak in this. "Boom!" "Grind!" "Meat!" "Bash!"
* HurricaneOfPuns: It's not ''that'' many, but there's a few: the soldiers of humanity are called Gears, the largest government on Sera is called the '''C'''oalition of '''O'''rdered '''G'''overnments, and there are COG tags instead of dog tags. The Pendulum Wars count as well. In fact, one track on the first game's soundtrack is entitled "I Will Kryll You".
* ImmuneToBullets: Berserkers require a satellite laser cannon to kill, although when its skin is hot and toasty it's just as squishy as the rest of them. The Seeder is this fully; it can't be killed at all except via Hammer of Dawn.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: In several cutscenes you can see Gears and Locust standing completely out in the open with no cover, exchanging full-auto fire at distances of less than 50 feet, and completely failing to hit each other with even a single bullet. Kim's last stand and the helicopter evac from Ilima City are both particularly egregious. Also applies in game as, by design, the typical combat ranges and effectiveness of weapons in Gears is very, very short.
* InferredHolocaust: [[spoiler: Collateral damage caused by The Lightmass Bomb after ''Gears of War''. The bomb evaporated a lot of the Imulsion in the Locust tunnels; on the surface, it causes a fatal disease called "rustlung"]].
* ImprovisedWeapon:
** In the novelization "Jacinto's Remnant", a brief flashback reveals a battle taking place in a department store, where Tai grabs a circular saw to fight with after his old-school Lancer bayonet breaks. This inspired the creation of the chainsaw bayonet, so if you think the chainsaw is cheap, blame Tai.
** A lot of Locust weaponry and "vehicles" are kitbashed gear made from animals living in the Hollow, looted COG weaponry, and Locust-engineered small arms. Tickers, for example, are just normal animals with bombs strapped to their backs, Locust "Siege Beasts" are some kind of turkey-like animal converted to launch artillery, and so on. The heavier Locust weapons like Brumaks and Seeders are just massive animals bred for combat with weapons strapped on them; even Corpsers are fitted with helmets to protect their eyes. Locust in the third game make crude Troika turrets out of multiple Retro Lancers strapped together and attached to a Troika mount to make a surprisingly effective suppression weapon.
* InformedAbility: The Onyx Guard are supposed to be the most absolutely elite of the COG forces, yet they get slaughtered every single time they're deployed in the games and novels.
* InkSuitActor: Each voice actor for the four core members of Delta Squad and Anya could very easily be mistaken for the character in RealLife. ''Especially'' [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0711529/ Lester "The Mighty Rasta" Speight as Cole]].
* InMediasRes: The first game opens with Marcus being busted out of jail. The war and some small details are sprinkled throughout the rest of the game.
* InstantDeathBullet: Invoked with the weapon in ''Gears of War 3'' called the "One Shot". It will shred any enemy in [[CaptainObvious one shot]] and bypasses some forms of cover, including a Boomshield. In addition, it has a sniper zoom, but only has one round per clip, long reload time and is a heavy weapon, meaning it will slow you down like a Mulcher or mortar.
* InsufferableGenius: [[TallDarkAndSnarky Baird]] could be one of the poster boys for this trope, with Cole as his {{Foil}}.
* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: Generally averted, except on the multiplayer map "Jacinto," where small flowerbeds prevent you from mantling some critically-important walls.
* ItGotWorse: Living on Sera ''sucks''.
* {{Jerkass}}: Baird. He gets better in the sequels, becoming more of a DeadpanSnarker. It's explained that he was initially resentful that Marcus was given command over him or Cole who, at least at the beginning, ranked higher than either Dom or Marcus.
* JigsawPuzzlePlot:
** The second game has a major case of this, introducing multiple unexplained plot elements (the secret COG experiments creating the Sires, a lot of what the Locust Queen was yammering about, [[spoiler: Adam Fenix being alive and ticked off you sunk Jacinto]], etc.) that are not resolved. Most of these are covered in ''Gears of War 3'', but the [[spoiler: origin of the Sires]] remain a mystery.
** It's also never explained why the Locust Queen [[spoiler: looks human]], even after they keep dropping the topic into conversation.
* JitterCam: The perfect use of this. Your normal pace is at a quick march but the roadie run is a "keep your head down and run" maneuver. Putting the camera angle lower and with a slight shake to it turns it into a documentary-like experience.
* JustBeforeTheEnd: The "RAAM's Shadow" DLC to ''Gears of War 3'' takes place before the first game, early in the Human-Locust War. Though it chronologically takes place after the Hammer of Dawn strikes that destroyed much of Sera (Barrick refers to his old Stranded camp in past-tense; Stranded camps didn't exist before this event), Ilima City's mostly undamaged, the government is still functional, the military well-equipped, and there are active attempts to evacuate civilians wherever possible.
* KickTheDog: '''''And how''''' in the second game, particularly [[spoiler: Tai and Maria]]. It gets worse in ''Gears of War 3'' with [[spoiler: Dom's death]].
* KillItWithFire: The Berserker is only vulnerable to damage when her skin is hot and toasty, and the prefered method is using the [[KillSat Hammer of Dawn]] to do so. Otherwise the only other method of getting her to take damage is to use the Scorcher flamethrower or Incendiary Grenades, which is a much slower and dangerous tactic.
* KillSat: Now in convenient tactical-usage size, the Hammer of Dawn.
* LargeAndInCharge: The Locust leaders are much taller than their counterparts. RAAM, a Theron, is even bigger than a ''Boomer''. Even Myrrah is fairly tall for a (apparently) human woman.
* LargeHam: The Cole Train, baby!
* TheLastDance: ''Gears of War 3''. Ominously, the "Brothers To The End" tagline fades to just "The End" in trailers and commercials.
* LastLousyPoint:
** A number of Onyx medals in ''Gears of War 3'' take a lot of time to get, even if you boost them in private matches. To claim the "Seriously 3.0" achievement, you need to have them all.
** The "Foreshadowing" achievement added by "RAAM's Shadow": to get it, you must execute players playing as Lieutenant Kim while playing as General RAAM. This ''cannot'' be done privately, only in public multiplayer, where nobody ever played as Kim to begin with, even in the last two games, and certainly won't now since doing so will make them a highly sought-after target.
* LeftHanging: ''Gears of War 3'', confirmed by WordOfGod to be the last game in the series, has a definite GrandFinale vibe to it, and ends with a big question mark regarding [[spoiler: who or what Myrrah really was. This even gets lampshaded by Baird during one of the final levels. The New Hope Facility[=/=]Sires sub-plot from ''Gears of War 2'' is also left unaddressed]]. WordOfGod is that the developers found several of the fan-speculated explanations to be incredibly lame, which may explain their decision to just leave it a mystery.
* LoweredMonsterDifficulty:
** The Locust have become gradually weaker as the series has progressed. In the first game it took almost a full 60-round mag of Lancer assault rifle fire to kill a single basic Locust drone, making them one of the toughest basic FPS mooks ''ever''. In the second game, it only takes about two dozen assault rifle rounds to kill a Locust drone. By the time of the 3rd game, they can be dropped with only about a dozen bullets on Normal difficulty (about 15-20 rounds on Hardcore), making them on par with "standard" FPS soldier mooks.
** Boomers are somewhat weaker in ''Gears of War 2'', going down after only 1-2 clips from the Lancer (even on Hardcore) instead of 3-4 clips like in the first game. They're even weaker in ''Gears of War 3'', going down after only a little over 2/3rds of a full mag from the Lancer. This is largely due to the fact that in the first game they were basically BossInMooksClothing and always showed up in pairs. The sequels would have more "Boomer" types (including the Mauler, Grinder and Butcher) and more would appear at one time.
* LuckBasedMission: The final battle against General RAAM in the first game. There are so many random factors in this fight (Reavers shooting at you, randomly appearing Kryll, plus RAAM himself and his own pet Kryll) that winning is as much luck as skill, unless you abuse the AI-block glitch.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: With the previously mentioned meat shields and with the Mauler's indestructible Boomshields (that also double as roadblocks for larger enemies in Horde Mode). A Boomshield will actually protect you from ''a charging Berserker'' in the third game, although the recoil makes you drop it.
* LudicrousGibs: Not so ludicrous in the amount of gibs, just ludicrous in how much the average multiplayer match in it will have.
* MacGuffin: The Resonator in ''Gears of War'', [[spoiler: Maria]] in the sequel and [[spoiler: Adam]] in the last game. Some moreso than others.
* MadeOfExplodium: All Lambent creatures explode when killed with varying degrees of force, [[spoiler: which is used by the team when they needed a big bomb and there was a Lambent Brumak in front of them]]. Regular drones don't harm you much, drudges sometimes run ''after'' you when about to explode, wretches are like grenades, Grunkers and Lambent Berzerkers look like a tactical nuke.
* MadeOfIron:
** In the first game it takes close to a full magazine of assault rifle fire just to kill a single Locust Drone on every difficulty setting except the very easiest. Bear in mind that Lancer assault rifles have 50 rounds per magazine!
** A bit less so in the second game, which has a) a Normal difficulty that falls between Casual and Hardcore, with appropriate enemy strength and b) an improved Hammerburst assault rifle that's actually stable and accurate enough to score headshots at mid-range.
** Played straight in ''Gears Of War 2'', as everyone seems to lose pints of blood from being hit by bullets alone, but it takes time for it to affect them by having them go into a "down but not out" state.
** Played straight to this trope's extreme with the Meatflag in ''Gears of War 2'', an unarmored civilian who cannot die whatsoever. You could drop a mortar on his head, blowing everyone around him into meaty chunks, and he'll just be crawling around and complaining afterwards. Makes sense, considering he's the objective for that particular game mode "Submission". Likewise, Prescott and Myrrah are this for the game mode "Capture The Leader" in ''Gears of War 3''.
** In the cutscene leading up to the final boss fight of the "RAAM's Shadow" campaign, RAAM casually brushes off a chainsaw attack and several dozen assault rifle rounds at point blank range even ''before'' he puts up his Kryll shield.
* MadeOfPlasticine: A lucky shotgun blast can blow a target to LudicrousGibs.
* MauveShirt:
** The game series embodies this through the use of the Carmine brothers (Anthony, Ben and Clay), where the original was a [[RedShirt faceless member]] of the team who got killed early on while complaining about his gun jamming. Due to [[EnsembleDarkhorse his unexpected popularity]] they brought him back as his brother in Gears 2, still faceless but lasting longer through the campaign and a more fully developed character. Bringing in the third Carmine, still helmeted, they actually allowed the fans to choose whether he lived or died in the end through an X Box marketplace charity drive. As such most fans were wondering when/if he would die.
** Other characters in this mold include [[spoiler: Kim and Tai]].
* MayorOfAGhostTown: [[spoiler: Griffin, after your trip to Char.]]
* MeleeATrois: The second game introduces the Lambent, mutant Locust [[EnemyCivilWar who are fighting against the original Locust]]. By the third game, humans, Locust and Lambent are all duking it out with each other on the planet's surface.
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: The first two games and the novelizations play this straight. Only men do the fighting, while fertile women are used for reproductive purposes and non-fertile women serve in support roles. The third game, however, subverts this. The women fight alongside the men due to humanity being down to its last throes and needing every available body to fight.
* MercyKill:
** [[spoiler: Dom to Maria]]
** When you fight the [[spoiler: Lambent humans]] in Mercy, some can be clearly heard screaming "Kill me!" when they attack you.
* MillionMookMarch: The beginning of ''Gears of War 2''
* MiniMecha: The Silverback, which doesn't actually have a back so that Gears can climb in and out easily. Size-wise, it's very close to being a PoweredArmor.
* MissionControl: Features prominently in both games. Normally, Anya's the one providing intel, advice, orders and even [[UnresolvedSexualTension comfort]]; there are times where other characters take on the role, though they are distinctly lacking the comfort aspect. Delta Squad loses contact with MissionControl a depressing number of times throughout both games, though. In ''Gears of War 3'', a variety of characters take on the role, from Anya to Dizzy to [[spoiler: Adam Fenix]].
* {{Mooks}}: It's raining Locust!
** GiantMook: Boomers and their variants; Grinders, Maulers, Butchers, Flamers, etc.
** EliteMooks: Theron Guards; smarter, faster, tougher and armed with one-hit-kill Torque Bows.
** PraetorianGuard: The Palace Guards in the second game, who guard the Nexus Palace instead of regular drones, and are just as tough as Theron Guards. The third game has Chairman Prescott's Onyx Guard, elite Gears personally loyal to him, although you only fight them as the "final boss" of Beast Mode when playing as the Locust.
** MookMaker: Emergence Holes in the first two games, Kantus priests from ''Gears of War 2'' onwards can summon Tickers from out of nowhere, [[MookMedic revive downed Locust from long range]], and are overall just extremely annoying buggers (remember to ShootTheMedicFirst).
*** ''Gears of War 3'' feature [[spoiler: Lambent Stalks that sprout from the ground, changing the landscape but also depositing any number and multiple types of Lambent Locust in your path]] while also doing away with Emergence Holes, presumably because the Locust have [[spoiler: lost control of the underground to the Lambent]].
** MooksAteMyEquipment: Wild Tickers
* MoreDakka: ''Gears Of War 2'' has a man-portable Mulcher minigun. To help realism slightly, it requires you to set it down to fire it with anything that vaguely resembles accuracy, and you are unable to sprint, roll or mount over cover with it.
* MusclesAreMeaningless: The average male COG and Locust Drone has chest and arm girth that would put most Olympian power lifters to shame. This, of course, offers them no advantage over the normally proportioned (ie. literally ''half'' their size) female gears in terms of hand-to-hand combat or in carrying heavy weaponry from the hip (or their armor, for the matter). Emphasized at the end of ''Gears of War 3'' when [[spoiler:Anya and Marcus sit next to each other and hold hands, and you see how much bigger Marcus is compared to her]].
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Marcus ''Fenix'', Augustus "The Cole Train" Cole, RAAM, Corpser, Berserker, Skorge, '''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Chainsaw Bayonet]]'''.
* NecessaryDrawback: The Hammer of Dawn is easily a GameBreaker if there wasn't a few things holding it back. The target has to be outdoors and not under cover so that "[[HandWave the satellites can be aligned]]". In multiplayer, there's a limit to how long you can use it.
* NeverTrustATrailer: The "Ashes to Ashes" trailer. Features the group fighting in Char. [[spoiler: Dom never made it there in the game.]]
* NewMeat: Benjamin in the second game, who also stands out as a RedShirt by being the only main character who wears the face concealing helmet. The tutorial has the {{Player Character}}s training him.
* {{Nerf}}:
** Smoke Grenades in multiplayer; at launch for ''Gears of War 2'', these grenades instantly drop players to the ground, much like the Kantus scream, to allow for an easy kill. Following title updates, they momentarily stun players to stop them from firing or moving away, but recover much faster than the former effect.
** A "Stopping power" feature from firearms was programmed into Gears 2 in order to encourage players to play more strategically rather than just rushing at the enemy. In particular with the Gnasher players developed a tactic where they run into a forward dive then fired the Gnasher at the tail end of the roll, which was ridiculously effective (using grenades was also done similarly). Thus trying to rush at someone would end up with you coming up short.
** The Gnasher Shotgun, according to some players, was the only gun to use in multiplayer. Nowadays, it's a shadow of its former self, due to a few things such as the stopping power and the tightening of its spread. This was to give it a better medium range while still giving it the "gibs" effect at close range. The last title update to ''Gears of War 2'' returned the Gnasher to a point where it balances, if not outmatches, the assault rifles at medium range.
** The Torque Bow in the sequel is somewhat weaker, as it no longer kills Boomers in one shot (around on par with the Boomshot grenade launcher in terms of damage). It still {{One Hit Kill}}s Drones and Theron Guards, and also kills ''you'' in one shot on Hardcore (but not on Normal, where a direct hit doesn't even down you).
** Like the Gnasher, the chainsaw bayonet isn't as effective anymore, as taking more than a handful of damage will prevent you from keeping it revved up and take a few seconds before you can rev it up again. Of course, certain players ''really'' hate getting chainsawed, so in their eyes it still hasn't been nerfed enough.
*** Gears of War ''3'' rectifies it - getting hit while reving the chainsaw up will mess it up, but after you've managed to rev it, you'll keep it up despite getting damaged.
* NintendoHard:
** 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.
** You don't go "down but not out" in ''Gears of War 3'' on Insane: you just DIE. This includes co-op, meaning you have to load a checkpoint if ''anyone'' is downed.
** This is mitigated somewhat in ''Gears of War 3'' with the addition of Arcade Mode, in which you respawn on a 30-second timer in co-op (even on Insane; you don't get a game over unless everyone's dead). You still earn every campaign achievement and reward while playing Arcade, too.
* NoBloodForPhlebotinum: All the bloody conflict has been because of the wonder-fuel Imulsion [[spoiler:which turns out to be an living, mutating parasite! The series ends with all Imulsion being destroyed.]]
* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Averted in "RAAM's Shadow", which has several segments where you play on the side of the Locust horde.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: If you "down but not out" a Locust Drone, you can wait for his buddies to run out of cover to rescue him and shoot THEM as they rush in.
* NoobCave: "Casual" multiplayer for ''Gears of War 3'' is just straight-up Team Deathmatch. Notably, those who have earned certain achievements in the first two games or participated in the beta on their profile are locked out of "casual" and are forced into "standard" multiplayer. Somewhat justified by Epic Games, as they cite ''Gears of War 3'' being the most accessible title, thus giving newcomers to the series a place to practice before joining the "big leagues".
* [[OnceAnEpisode Once A Game]]: Every game so far has featured one "horror movie" level, with plenty of tense atmospheres, foreboding scenery, and nonstandard enemies. It was in the Lethia Imulsion Facility in the first, the New Hope Research Facility in the second, and Mercy in the third.
* OneHitKill:
** In the first game, the Torque Bow kills anything any all difficulties that isn't a boss in one hit, including you. It even works on Boomers, who can take multiple rounds from the Boomshot or 3 full magazines of assault rifle fire. {{Nerf}}ed in the sequels, where it's no longer this trope. The third game does still allow single kills with it on Boomer-class Locust, but only with [[BoomHeadshot headshots]].
** The One Shot in the third game; [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin it's faithful to its name]].
** In multiplayer, Boomshots, One Shots, Torque Bows, Mortars and Frag and Incendiary Grenades will OneHitKill if impacting close enough to a player. BoomHeadshot is a guaranteed kill with the Longshot sniper rifle.
* OneManArmy:
** Technically a squad of four, but just two of the squad still ended up practically ''single-handedly deploying the destruction of the enemy'', [[spoiler: twice]], barring the occasional need for transportation (although they end up transporting themselves more often then not).
** [[spoiler:The consistency of the trope towards the final missions in the third installment is somewhat averted with it being clear that supportive elements are on the island - though not right with you - probably stopping the entire rest of the Horde from getting to you, which you'd assume Myrrah would probably be trying to do in such a desperate situation]].
* OneWingedAngel:
** [[spoiler: The Imulsion turns the Brumak you've hijacked into a Lambent Brumak, which serves as the final boss for ''Gears of War 2'']].
** ''Gears of War 3'' introduces Drudges, a Lambent creature that mutates once it takes enough damage (unless you consistently hit the glowing Imulsion "belly"). It sometimes sprouts a flame throwing snake head, turns into a tree with three branches throwing Imulsion fireballs at you, or remains mobile but has two arms throwing smaller Imulsion fireballs.
* TheOtherDarrin: Jace goes from having an Australian-sounding voice in his cameo in ''Gears of War 2'' to being played by Michael B. Jordan in ''Gears of War 3''.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Cliff Bleszinski once said in an interview that the inspiration for the Locust Horde came from [[TheLordOfTheRings the Uruk-hai.]] He explains this by saying that the Uruk-hai tend to be smarter and tougher than regular orcs. As such, he designed the Locust to be smarter than the usual average bunch of "horde" monsters in other settings, via taking cover, not rushing into COG fire, etc.
* [[spoiler: OurZombiesAreDifferent]]: [[spoiler: Formers, who show up in Act 3, are ''Lambent humans'', who act similar to stereotypical zombie fashion. It doesn't help that all they seem to be focused on is attacking the living and that one guy even seems to have been eaten alive. [[{{Redshirt}} Poor bastard]]]].
* PardonMyKlingon: "Suck my blithe!"
* PersonalSpaceInvader: Lots, though [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the fact this is a cover-based game. Since you're supposed to hide from your enemies, ones that just run up and melee you will be considerable threats. The first game has Wretches, [[GoddamnBats Kryll]] and Grenadiers. The sequel removes the Kryll, but adds Maulers, Butchers, Tickers, Sires, Beast Riders on Bloodmounts, [[IncendiaryExponent anything with a flamethrower]]...yeah. Also, low-level Locust will randomly charge and melee you. This can range from irritating (when they have a Boltok pistol) to terrifying (when they have a Lancer). The third game adds Lambent Polyps to the mix.
* PlayingWithSyringes: Niles Samson and New Hope. Though unconfirmed, the notes in the research facility and the recordings indicate that [[spoiler: whatever they were working on was connected to the Locust, and may have been related to Myrrah]].
* PlotHole: In ''1'', the Kryll will eat anything, Locust or Man, that falls into darkness. RAAM is the only one able to walk among them, and his ability to do this is never explained. In "RAAM's Shadow" for ''3'', even normal Locust can avoid the Kryll and RAAM's lieutenants can control them as he does.
* PoweredArmor: Theorized to be the reason Gears can do all the acrobatics the game allows them, but it has yet to be stated.
* PreAssKickingOneLiner: "[[KillItWithFire Let's turn up the heat!]]"
* PyrrhicVictory:
** In spades with ''Gears of War 3''; [[spoiler: sure, the Locust and Lambent are finally gone, but the vast majority of humanity is dead, their cities destroyed and ruined and their primary source of energy used to build them up in the first place no longer exists because it was mutating beyond its control. The future is going to be very, very hard, but at least there IS a future for humanity]].
** Surprisingly, the events of "RAAM's Shadow" turn out as one for the Locust. Yes, the COG has lost hundreds of Gears and civilians, but the evacuation of Ilima City was largely successful and RAAM was nearly killed by Zeta Squad.
* QuadDamage: The Mutators in ''Gears of War 3'' has one called "Super Reload". If you manage a perfect active reload you get several powerful effects: the affected ammo from the reload does not drain from your primary ammo cache, once the affected ammo is depleted it still gives you a full clip of regular fire (single shot clips like the Boomshot basically gives you two shots back to back), there is no time limit on using the affected bonus and instead of a 10-20 percent damage increase it does literally about a '''500 percent''' damage increase. It's so powerful it makes regular assault rifles (especially the Lancer due to high firing rate and clip size) more valuable than the Silverback minigun.
* RatedMForManly:
** Everyone is absolutely enormous, and spouts {{OneLiner}}s without irony. They have ''chainsaw machine guns''. If you hit a button at the right time, they can reload their gun '''hard''' and make the bullets come out stronger. This game will make a man out of you, even if you're a woman.
** Anya and Samantha are every bit as manly as their male teammates. Seeing Anya scream and cuss as she chainsaws a Locust in half will remove whatever doubt you may have that her upgrade from [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection control operative]] to ActionGirl may be a plot contrivance.
** A cutscene in ''Gears of War 2'' has Cole and Marcus reuniting and bumping their chainsaw-equipped machine guns together. A manlier greeting has never been seen, before or since.
* ReallyBigGun: The only in-game sidearms available are the [[RevolversAreJustBetter Boltok pistol]] and the semi-automatic Snub pistol which looks like it came from {{Warhammer40000}} (with the magazine ''in front of the grip''). The sequel throws in the Gorgon pistol, a spiked semi-automatic burst fire weapon bigger than any playable character's head and is reloaded with ''two'' clips. ''Gears of War 3'' doesn't bring in any new sidearm, but reiterates the Gorgon into a fully-automatic submachine pistol.
* RealIsBrown: The original ''Gears of War'' was practically the TropeCodifier; nearly everything was a shade of brown and it felt like a straight ColorWash, making it almost impossible to tell your side from the enemy. The sequels improve on it significantly, with ''Gears of War 2'' making the lights on the armor more vibrant and the colors of the two sides more distinct (blue for COG, red for Locust). Since it's winter, there's a lot of snow on the surface, and down in the Hollow, glowing flora luminates the dark caverns. ''Gears of War 3'' completely averts it with colorful environments and brighter colors. Justified because it's summertime at the onset of the game.
* RecklessGunUsage: The loading screens in three show a contemplative Fenix resting his hands on the muzzle of his rifle.
* RedShirt: Aside from the two Carmine brothers already mentioned, the "We're fucked! We're fucked!" Gear who is mauled by the first Berserker in the first game is listed in the credits as "Redshirt Gyules". The Carmines lampshade their RedShirt-edness in the multiplayer.
-->'''Anthony Carmine''': *gets a headshot* "NOW who's expendable?!"
* RefugeInAudacity:
** Chainsaw bayonets?! Are you serious?! They actually make sense given how much armor almost everyone wears. A normal bayonet is only useful against unarmored targets.
** The sequel has ''chainsaw duels''. TheDragon can only be damaged by this because he has a ''[[XOnAStick double-edged chainsaw staff]].'' [[RuleOfCool Hell yeah]].
** Numerous points in the second game have Delta Squad being forced into using this trope.
--> '''Fenix''': Control! We've hijacked a Brumak and we're-\\
'''Anya''': You ''what''?\\
'''Fenix''': ''We're riding a Brumak''!
* RetCon: The second game switched the names of the Grenadier and Grenadier Elite. The third game gave the Beast Rider a Drone body type instead of a Grenadier body type (although the Grenadier variants still show up in Horde). Myrrah also now has a Caucasian skin tone instead of being grey like she was in the second game.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: While the Boltok pistol (which is obviously a revolver) used to have a slower firing rate and more damage compared to the standard Snub pistol, achieving its active reload allows it to fire faster. It even makes for an impromptu sniper rifle in a pinch, due to all pistols having a zoom-in function.
* RingOutBoss: The Corpser in the first game has to be knocked into the Imulsion by the recoil from your attacks.
* RoarBeforeBeating: Wretches and [[TheBerserker Berserkers]].
* RockBottom: The whole human race.
* RobotBuddy: Delta Squad has a floating robot following them called JACK (that frequently utilizes a cloaking device to avoid damage from their firefights), in reference to the phrase "[[MeaningfulName Jack-of-all-trades]]". Some wonder if it's something of an {{Expy}} of [[StarWars R2-D2]], claiming to see some scenes which indicate emotion, such as waving its arms as if it's frightened. In the third game, JACK even gets an electrical self-defense mechanism.
* RuleOfCool: Many, many (if not all) things, but most notably '''Chainsaw''' '''''Bayonets'''''
* RuleOfFun:
** Canonically, the chainsaw bayonet was developed because the traditional blade bayonets break on Locust skin. In ''Gears of War 3''. the Retro Lancer is integrated into the gameplay, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation yet the blades don't ever break]].
** The "active reload" mechanic within the game consists of a minigame while reloading: press the reload button within a specific and small window of time and the weapon will reload faster. Press it within an even smaller, more specific window will give the weapon a temporary stat bonus (increased range, firing rate, damage...) and reloads the weapon instantly if pressed correctly. However, missing it causes the weapon to jam and ends up taking much longer to reload. This minigame is never explained, not even {{HandWave}}d, and is quite obviously just there to make reloading more fun.
* SadClown:
** Dom intially, even more so in the third game.
** Cole gets some moments suggesting this early in the third game when he visits the ruins of his DoomedHometown. He may be a BoisterousBruiser [[TheBigGuy Big Guy]] who loves the adrenaline rush of sports and combat, but he is also clearly haunted by memories of happier times which will never come again.
* SandWorm: The Riftworm
* ScaryBlackMan: Twice averted with Cole. "The Cole Train" looks to be the most musclar character in a game full of bulky-armoured men, and one probably wouldn't want to fight him, but he's probably also among the nicest characters as well. Jace is black, and pretty big (although by comparison to Marcus and Cole, he's notably small) and has cornrows, yet he's written as the sweetest character in the games and ExpandedUniverse (notably, Michael B. Jordan portrays Wallace in ''TheWire'', who's known for playing that type of character). Probably the straightest example of this trope is [[{{Jerkass}} Aaron Griffin]], who even seems to frighten the men under him.
* SceneryPorn: ''3'' really shows off just how good the Unreal engine can be with the proper amount of time and effort. From the beautifully-rendered and colourful daytime maps like Mercy and Sandbar to the gloomy and soaking wet remake of Bullet Marsh, it's clear that Epic didn't cut ''any'' corners.
* ScoreMultiplier: In ''3'', you can play an "Arcade" version of the campaign where your score is recorded in which enemies you kill. So many points reaches another multiplier level where you get more points for each kill and the multiplier goes down when a player character goes down, if a player is killed the score resets to X1.
* ScreamingWarrior: Pretty much everyone, especially when chainsawing, executing, or retro charging an opponent. Special mention goes to Tai, the Carmine brothers and Savage Drones.
* SergeantRock: Marcus, when Benjamin's part of Delta Squad. Hoffman counts, as well.
* 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.
* SequelEscalation: In spades. Each game seems to aim to be manlier, gorier and darker than the last.
* SequelHook: The ending narration of the first game is a bona-fide hook. Wait until the end of the credits of the second game for another sequel hook. [[spoiler: The data disk Adam gives to Baird is possibly another hook on the LeftHanging segments for ''Gears of War 3'']].
* ShootTheMedicFirst: Those damn Kantus Priests!
* ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon: The Longshot sniper rifle fits this trope well, except for one particular sequence in ''Gears of War 2'' (see ThisIsForEmphasisBitch below).
* ShortRangeShotgun: Averted in ''Gears of War 2'', as the raw damage the Gnasher can inflict in close range was toned down from the first game but was balanced out by actually being an average weapon for medium range. ''Gears of War 3'' introduces a double-barrled SawedOffShotgun to give you a choice between the balanced Gnasher and this overspecialized shotgun. In fact, the Sawed Off's range is so short, [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108020-Gears-of-War-3-Interview.2 the developers nicknamed it the "Bad Touch" gun]] since you'll need to be in that range to use it right.
* ShouldersOfDoom: Pretty much the whole Gear armor kit should prevent any kind of movement whatsoever if it were even vaguely realistic.
* ShoutOut: Several to many sources.
** The Kantus has the same ability and trademark pose as {{Doom}}'s Arch-ville.
** The nature of the Kryll turns the game into a {{Homage}} of ''PitchBlack'' for part of the Act 2 of the first game.
** There's an achievement for killing 10000 and 100000 enemies in the first two games, respectively, called "Seriously!?", alluding to one of [[JohnDiMaggio Marcus's]] [[KimPossible other roles]].
** In ''Gears of War 3'', earning the Onyx medal for the number of times you executed a nemesis (Someone who kills you 5 times without you killing them) will award you with the title "[[Film/ThePrincessBride My Name Is Inigo Montoya]]".
** In ''Gears of War 3'', the medal for 500 MVP awards is BrutalLegend.
** The "Architect" medal has a picture of the skull from the Crimson Omen wearing a white suit, like the Architect from ''TheMatrix''.
* ShrugOfGod: As explained by David Nashty and Karen Traviss, the writers actually ''did'' have a confirmed backstory for Myrrah, New Hope, and the Sires. However, Epic went to the effort of deleting the Q&A post by Nashty revealing this backstory, leaving its "canon" status up in the air (see the Discussion section for details).
* SigilSpam: The Crimson Omen. ''Gears of War 1'' and ''3'' both use it as a marker inexplicitly to let you know a COG Tag is nearby. The other collectibles in ''3'' don't get them, unfortunately, and in ''2'' the COG Tags don't even get them.
* SillinessSwitch:
** The mutators in added in ''3'' are divided into 'easy' 'hard' and 'fun' categories. The latter is composed of BigHeadMode, Flower Blood (which, sadly, disables ''all'' gore as well), Laugh Track (which is INCESSANT, like a terrible sitcom), Headless Chicken (which causes decapitated enemies to run around in a berserk rampage for a short time) and Pinata (which adds a collection minigame of sorts).
** There are several multiplayer events that ramps up the silliness. Two prominent examples are the Halloween event that turns everyone's head into a jack-o'-lantern, and the "Thanksgibbing" playlist, where everyone starts with a Cluckshot that shoots explosive chickens!
* SimultaneousArcs: ''Gears of War 3'' does this in the first act, half of which you play as Cole and his squad as they attempt to aid Marcus.
* SincerestFormOfFlattery: The developers point to ''ResidentEvil4'' as an influence, which then came full circle, as the developers of ''ResidentEvil5'' bragged about their "[[http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/906/906950p1.html Gears of War controls]]".
* SmallGirlBigGun: Anya, Samantha and Bernie in the third game. Though not petite, they are smaller than the male Gears.
* SophisticatedAsHell: The "Young Adam Fenix" multiplayer skin has quips like this, since he's probably the smartest individual in the ''Gears Of War'' universe. "Kiss my highly educated ass!" indeed.
* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil:
** Fairly blatantly used in ''2.'' While talking about Skorge, Marcus states he "makes RAAM look like a Goddamn pushover". Somewhat justified by [[spoiler: linking the emergence of a "GIANT WORM!!!" to the Lightmass Bomb]].
** Played with in ''3''- you start off against the new and explode-y Lambent, and fight them and the Locust in varied intervals. By the end of the game, though, the Locust you fight are loads and loads of Myrrah's Guards along with the bigger Boomers, Grinders, Armoured Kantus, etc. Possibly a JustifiedTrope that Myrrah only managed to get her elite forces to keep up with her and the main Locust force is kept at bay on Azura by the COG reinforcements.
* SoundtrackDissonance:
** Joseph Kosinski's famous commercial for the first game where scenes of carnage are set to the tune of "Mad World". The sequel's commercial has Delta Squad drilling into Locust territory as "How It Ends" plays in the background. The main trailer for ''Gears of War 3'' has ''Into Dust'' playing in the background.
** [[spoiler: Just to show how things are going full circle, "Mad World" gets an instrumental DarkReprise as Dom sacrifices himself in ''Gears of War 3''. The calm piano melody is offset by the carnage of the act]].
* TheSquad: Delta Squad
* SquadControls: You can order your team to either hold back or advance.
* TheSquadette: Three in the third game; Anya, Sam, and Bernie.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Subverted in ''Gears of War 3''. Delta Squad gets a total of three [[TheSquadette female Gears]].
* SssssnakeTalk: [[EliteMook Theron Guards]]
* TheStoic: Marcus
* StoryToGameplayRatio: Fairly low, especially in the first game.
* {{Stripperific}}: Averted in the third game, where this trope was mentioned in an interview. Female Gears will be wearing the same bulky armor on their upper-bodies, although they do wear skin-tight leggings instead of wearing baggy pants like the men, and by virtue of character design, they are still physically smaller than the men. They do manage to show at least some skin as Delta Squad switches to summer, sleeveless uniforms, but the game series is certainly gender balanced in {{Fanservice}}.
* SuicidalOverconfidence:
** In the first game, your teammates' propensity for vaulting over a perfectly good piece of cover in order to charge straight into enemy fire and get shot full of holes is absolutely ridiculous. Almost certainly a form of FakeDifficulty designed to make the player do all the work instead of letting the A.I. do most of the fighting. Rectified in the sequel with smarter squadmates less likely to break cover and do this (and who also can soak much more damage).
** Locust in Gears 3's Horde mode are prone to doing this. It's rather interesting to watch a sniper of all things trying to rush at a primed and ready Mulcher.
* TakeCover: THE TropeCodifier for the genre. The way Epic Games made it work compared to similar shooters was by shortening the distances you'd engage enemies (making the fighting generally more frantic) and evening out the durability of both sides (Locust are just as durable as you are). They also pointed towards playing paintball as an inspiration, as much of the game is trying to replicate the adrenaline rush you'd get in a RealLife combat situation and patiently waiting for an enemy to expose themselves. {{Lampshaded}} perfectly in the second game by Marcus:
-->'''Marcus''': The Golden Rule of Gears: TakeCover or die.
* TakenForGranite: ''Gears of War 3'' features the city of Char filled with crowds of people who have been flash-fried into statues of ash, the first real depiction in the games of the absolute hell the Hammer of Dawn counterattacks have caused.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Marcus and Baird do not get along very well, though they do gradually get on friendlier terms. By the second game, they mostly throw friendly insults at each other. Explained in-universe that Baird was initially resentful of Marcus given command over him or Cole, considering at the start of the games, he and Cole outranked him or Dom and, despite Marcus being a decorated Gear and war hero, Marcus was also discharged and imprisoned who is only active again because the military doesn't have a choice.
** Brought back in ''3.'' While Marcus and Baird are now getting along, there is considerable friction between Baird and Sam in the first Acts, with them throwing all sorts of sarcastic quips at each other. The nature of their rivalry is implied to stem from Sam being Dom's new LoveInterest. [[spoiler: They ease up considerably after Dom's HeroicSacrifice.]]
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: Marcus sometimes shouts "Now I'm pissed!" upon being revived, and some Locust in Campaign may shout "RRRRRAAAAAGE!" while attacking you.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: ''Gears Of War 2'' allows characters to use mortars, miniguns and a multitude of over-the-top weaponry to kill mere infantry. Not to mention multiple characters can chainsaw a single enemy at the same time. That's not counting the ludicrous amount of overkill inherent to [[spoiler: using a Brumak]] against hapless Locust.
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch:
** One segment in ''Gears of War 2'' gives you free reign to snipe Locust from a ridge. Achieving five kills in a row with the sniper rifle, and Marcus will yell: "That's one. That's two! [[LargeHam That's THREE! THAT'S FOUR! THAT'S FIVE, MOTHERFUCKERS!"]]
** Delivered straight by Marcus [[spoiler: when he guts Myrrah in ''Gears of War 3'']]:
--> '''Marcus''': "[[spoiler: You feel that? That's from Dom... and everyone else you killed you bitch!]]"
* TokenMinority: Averted, as the series is very racially diverse, since the humans of Sera are shattered remnant of dozens of nation.
* TookALevelInBadass:
** The Carmine family name, via the introduction of Clayton in ''Gears of War 3''.
** JACK gets upgraded to be helpful in combat late in the third game.
* TropeCodifier: ''Gears of War'' didn't invent cover-based shooters (that honor goes to the PS2 games ''Kill.Switch'' and ''Win Back''), but it unquestionly took the gameplay mechanic from the realm of obscure Japanese widget to mainstream Hollywood blockbuster.
* TrueCompanions: This is ''BandOfBrothers: The Game''. In fact, the tagline for ''Gears of War 3'' is "Brothers to '''The End'''". In the ExpandedUniverse, the enitre COG army is pretty much this both before and after Emergence Day. If you are a Gear, you know you can always count on every single other Gear to have your back, no matter what, even if they don't like you. Since the army is so small after Emergence Day, a large majority of Gears know every other Gear still alive.
* UncleTomfoolery: ''ALL ABOARD THE COLE TRAIN, BABY!''. Cole is the {{Expy}} of Terry Tate, Office Linebacker, except with a very big gun. Aside from the flamboyant, boisterous actions of Cole (the "Cole Train" multiplayer skin in ''Gears of War 3'' being the prime example), all other blacks, such as Jace, are written very 21st century.
* UnexpectedGameplayChange: After spending the entire game skulking cover to cover, ''Gears of War 2'' ends in an unstoppable juggernaut section, followed by a point-and-click FinalBoss. The earlier Reaver-piloting RailShooter sections certainly count. Likewise, the trip to the town of Mercy in ''Gears of War 3'' and the beautiful submarine segment to Azura, albeit somewhat boring.
* UnflinchingWalk: While not entirely unflinching, Tai's walking out of the debris of his squad's grindlift rig when it is destroyed has him looking quite unconcerned with the fact it just happened.
* UpdatedRerelease: The PC version of ''Gears of War'' features several new levels in the last act that make the overall plot flow more coherently, as well as a new boss battle against a Brumak. If it's any consolation to console gamers, these levels are unoptimized and tend to lag even on bleeding edge hardware.
* VehicularAssault: Although they're technically more of a mount, all the [[spoiler: non-Lambent]] Brumak fights go this way. Likewise on the various occasions that Delta has to fight Reavers on foot.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Downed characters crawl on the ground in the sequels until death. In the first game, you could leave them there, unmoving, until death via blood loss. In every game, executions are possible and encouraged, with the second game introducing weapon-exclusive executions that look excruciatingly painful. Oh, and then there's the [[KillItWithFire Scorcher flamethrower]].
* VillainousBreakdown: Towards the end of ''Gears of War 3'', Queen Myrrah loses a lot of her previously cool and composed demeanor and becomes increasingly rabid and hysterical... fairly understandable, considering she's facing the complete annihilation of her species.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Baird and Cole. Baird and Marcus too, prevalent throughout the first game, and while toned down in the second and third it's still there.
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Anya
* WalkItOff
* WeaponizedAnimal: Most of the Locust "vehicles" and some of the weapons are actully enslaved creatures from the Hollow.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler:The first two Carmine brothers]]. Averted with Kim and Tai, who are now primary characters in "RAAM's Shadow" for ''Gears of War 3''.
* WeHaveReserves: The Locust Horde is described this way in supplementary material, being willing to sacrifice a hundred Drones just to kill one Gear. This is less so in ''Gears of War 2'', where the Locust military exhibits some self-preservationist behavior, e.g. retreating and falling back, but only when on the receiving end of bad mojo, like [[spoiler: being chased by a goddamn ''Brumak'']] or the Lambent Locust, which is justified since overexposure to Imulsion would turn them into Lambent.
* WellDoneSonGuy:
** Marcus [[AllThereInTheManual in the extended universe]].
** Shades of this appear in the actual game when ''Gears of War 3'' rolls around: "It was always his work my father cared about... his research." Poor Marcus.
* WeWillMeetAgain: Griffin vows revenge against Marcus towards the end of ''Gears of War 3'' before pulling a VillainExitStageLeft. Somewhat odd, given that this is the last game in the trilogy.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** Don't buy the third game if you expect any sort of explanation for the [[spoiler: Sires]].
** [[spoiler: The strangeness of the queen, looking much like a human unlike the rest of the Locust, and even surviving the anti-Imulsion and Locust superweapon, is noted by Baird before it happens, and it is never explained]].
** [[spoiler: What's with the disk Adam gives to Baird? One thing's for sure, you won't find out in the same game]].
* WolfpackBoss: The Armoured Kanti in Gears of War 3.
* WombLevel: The Rift Worm in the second game.
* WorldHealingWave: [[spoiler: Adam Fenix's machine, while neutralizing the Lambent parasite. In true Gears fashion, this doubles as an InferredHolocaust, as anything irradiated enough by Imulsion, human or Locust, will be destroyed. Indeed, all the Lambent die, including the Locust and some humans, such as Adam himself]].
* WouldHitAGirl: Berserkers; you'd better hit them HARD or else they'll rip you to shreds. In the third game, the Locust and Lambent have no qualms about shooting, downing and executing female Gears.
* XMeetsY: Horde 2.0 in ''Gears of War 3'' is Horde Mode from the second mixed with TowerDefense elements.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Marcus
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Marcus' reaction to having to fight a Berserker onboard a train.
* YourHeadAsplode:
** Done by headshots from almost all weapons in ''Gears of War'' if they hit your head when [[CriticalExistenceFailure it does enough damage]] to deplete your HitPoints. They even sell ''an action figure'' of a Drone with its head a-sploding.
** ''Gears of War 3'' hilariously introduces a "Mutator" for Arcade Mode and Horde 2.0. What does it do? Enemies victim to would-be-fatal headshots frantically run around the map attacking anything without mercy. Makes for funny moments when all that's left of their craniums is a bloodied stump while managing to continue screaming.
* YourMom: Prescott gets furious if you lose a multiplayer round.
-->'''Prescott''': ''I wish your indigent fathers had never met your indulgent mothers!''
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: [[spoiler: The Resonator fails. Even after that, the Lightmass Bomb is insufficient to wipe the Locust out. In the sequel, sinking Jacinto isn't enough to stop the persistent creatures permanently]].
* [[spoiler: ZombieApocalypse]]: The Lambent, [[spoiler: more so once the infection is discovered to spread to humans]].
!!The Books provide examples of:
* AnimalReactionShot: Bernie's dog Mac gets a few of these.
* AteHisGun: General Bardry Salaman, who was unable to live with himself after having helped carry out the Hammer of Dawn counterattack.
* TheAtoner: Hoffman. He feels horrible about leaving Marcus to die in prison, but can't bring himself to apologize. He makes up for it by ignoring Marcus and Anya breaking regulations and having a relationship.
* BadAss: A ton, just like the games, but some notable ones are Captian Miran Trescu and Major Helena Stroud, both of whom most of the other characters really admire for their fighting skills.
* ChildSoldiers: Delta captures a fifteen-year old Stranded insurgent on Vectes, though Baird insists that his age makes him an adult.
* ContinuityNod: Many between all the books. Considering that each is written by the same author and each has a flashback storyline and one set in the present that relate to each other, it really isn't any surpise.
* CrapsackWorld: If the games didn't make it clear, the horrible event in the books really will show how terrible a place Sera is, even before the Locust emerged.
* DeadpanSnarker: A lot of the characters, but Baird does it the most.
* DecemberDecemberRomance: Hoffman and Bernie.
* FantasticRacism:
** While the townspeople of Pelruan and the Gorasini have every reason to hate Stranded, thats no reason to be mean to and attack Dizzy and his daughters.
** The COG also heavily discriminated against any non-COG ethnic groups, and even some of those allied with them.
* GunshipRescue: Many times, just like in the games. Subverted once as well: during a Lambent assault on Pelruan, KR-33 attempts to take out a mutated Leviathan. It's quickly destroyed by the Leviathan shooting explosive polyps at it.
* HeroicBSOD: FriendlySniper Padrick Salton begins suffering one after the death of his spotter. It becomes even worse after he scouted the areas hit by the Hammer of Dawn counterattack that killed most of the human population.
* HeroicSacrifice: During the Battle of Aspho Fields, [[spoiler:Helena Stroud, Anya's mother,]] sacrifices herself to take out an Indie anti-aircraft vehicle so COG air support could assist in the battle. Somewhat averted in that she didn't mean to die on the Asp; her armor just caught on the vehicle, which exploded before she could cut herself free.
* HumansAreBastards:
** After E-Day and the Hammer of Dawn counterattack, all civilization outside of the COG except for two instances devolved into gangs of Stranded fighting each other over territory and supplies. Rape, murder, and other crimes are the normal behavior among a lot of Stranded tribes, and are often regarded as worse than the Locust by the COG because they have the capicity to be civilized, but aren't. On the other hand, there are also plenty of Stranded who are not complete bastards, and simply can't bring themselves to join the COG because of the Hammer strike and just want to be left alone.
** Also counting the Hammer strikes themselves, the COG breeding farms, and what the Indies did to Tai's home village, this trope is hammered home many times.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Baird. However much he may claim he doesn't care about anyone else but himself and [[HoYay maybe Cole]], he sure takes a lot of risks he doesn't need to for others, and even attempts to comfort them in his own unique JerkAss way.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Helena Stroud, Rory Andresen, Bai Tak, Carlos Santiago]]
* LudicrousGibs: Whats happens to [[spoiler:Helena Stroud]] and [[spoiler:Carlos Santiago]].
* MacheteMayhem: The Pesanga scouts are fond of this.
* ProfessionalButtKisser: Major Aleksander Reid will do anything to get in Chairman Richard Prescotts good graces.
* RapeAsBackstory: Bernadette Mataki, with AngstWhatAngst in regards to it on her part. Or so she claims.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Bernie went on one against her rapists. She got real good with using her knife during it.
* SkeletonGovernment: Basically all that is left of the government 15 years after E-Day is Prescott.
* WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis: At one point Queen Myrrah remarks that the Locust could have cooperated with the Humans to save both species, but decided to go to total war instead because supposedly HumansAreBastards who "only understand dominance and ownership". Not to mention violent to an extreme. Then again, if you first encountered the Seran humans after 100 years of war (and untold years before hand of unrest) which included nukes and kill sats on their own species, you might be a little wary of approaching them as a completely different species altogether.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In hindsight, knocking the Corpser into Imulsion probably wasn't the greatest idea. Good thing the Lightmass Bomb took care of it.
* YouSayTomato: Bernie is questioned about her accent several times, mostly about saying "arse" instead of "ass".
!!The Comics provide examples of:
* BadAss
* DisposablePilot: Delta's Raven pilot gets blown up in his cockpit, prompting Jace Stratton to take the controls and sort-of land the chopper.
* DoesNotLikeMen: Most members of the Grievious Bodily Love, with good reason.
* EyepatchOfPower: Lt.Draper
* GunsAkimbo: Happens several times, most notably with Michael Barrick and shotguns.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** [[spoiler:Michael Barrick]] stays behind in the Hollow to allow the rest of Delta Squad to escape.
** [[spoiler:Matron]] detonates a bomb in Jilane to allow Delta to escape with the survivors of a Locust massacare.
* SamusIsAGirl: Alex Brand, which surprises Delta after she saves them from a sniper nest.
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[[caption-width:425:Brothers to the end.]]
''Gears of War'' is a tactical ThirdPersonShooter video game developed by EpicGames and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game uses a [[TakeCover "stop and pop" approach that heavily emphasizes the use of cover]]. There isn't a jump button and everything is angled towards making the combat as personal and violent as possible (the main gun used has a chainsaw built into the grip, called the [[ChainsawGood chainsaw]] [[BayonetYa bayonet]]).
The general story centers on the soldiers of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from a relentless subterranean enemy known as [[BugWar the Locust Horde]]. The [[FunWithAcronyms Coalition of Ordered Governments]] (COG) is fighting back with their own soldiers they call "Gears" ([[DontExplainTheJoke hence the name]]). The Locust are relentless, vicious, can pop out of the ground almost anywhere and seem to be numberless, but the COG have superior technology and the capital city of Jacinto is located on a plateau of solid granite, making it the one place the Locust can't tunnel up.
The player assumes the role of Marcus Fenix, a battle-hardened former war hero. When in cooperative play, the second player takes control of Fenix's best friend and fellow soldier Dominic "Dom" Santiago. Alongside them are fellow soldiers from another squad who they seem to frequently join with: Augustus "Cole Train" Cole and Damon Baird.
Besides dealing with the humanoid footsoldiers there is a great deal of focus on monstrous creatures you have to face such as the dinosaur-like Brumak (with a cannon on its back and chainguns on each arm), the crab/spider-like Corpser and the "monkey-dog" [[ZergRush Wretch]]. Alongside that, the games are about building atmosphere and drawing you into the moment, investigating abandoned warehouses and exploring a labyrinth of underground tunnels. These are not games to [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel play in the dark]].
On the way, they do [[RatedMForManly manly things]] like [[MadeOfExplodium blowing stuff up]], [[BondOneLiner delivering one-liners]] and growing beards.
----
!'''Gears Of War'''
[[quoteright:189:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gears_of_war_001_1432.png]]
-->'''Dominic Santiago:''' Welcome back to the army, soldier.
-->'''Marcus Fenix:''' Shit.
Released on November 12, 2006, the Locust Horde has been rampaging across the planet for about 14 years. Marcus Fenix was imprisoned for dereliction of duty four years earlier, but was pardoned when the Locust assaulted Jacinto Plateau and invaded the prison. Marcus was reinstated and assigned to Delta Squad alongside Dominic Santiago. His first assignment involves a priority mission to assist another group, Alpha Squad, to deploy a device that would help deliver a final strike against the enemy.
The game was praised for its beautiful visuals and innovative gameplay system. The most common complaints were a dull color palette but most especially an uneven storyline.
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!'''Gears Of War 2'''
[[quoteright:193:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gears_of_war_2_001_4392.png]]
-->'''Marcus Fenix:''' This is it, Dom. This is everything we've been fighting for.
-->'''Dominic Santiago:''' Yeah, well Maria is everything ''I've'' been fighting for.
Released on November 7, 2008, the Locust re-emerge several months after the events of the first game, except more desperate and far more dangerous, while on the surface, many human refugees and Gears have fallen sick with a disease known as Rustlung, an Imulsion sickness. COG forces return to action in an attempt to make an assault on the enemy's home turf, while Dom embarks on a personal mission to find his missing wife Maria, putting him in conflict with his other responsibilities as a member of Delta Squad.
The second game received similar accolades, with many complaints of the first game addressed. The graphics are better than ever, a larger weapon variety is given and the story is epic while more personal. However, it still holds many slight flaws, but that doesn't reduce the amount of fun there is in playing the game. The multiplayer set-up has also been cheered, with the new "Horde" mode receiving the most attention.
-----
!'''Gears Of War 3'''
[[quoteright:190:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gears_of_war_3_001_5924.png]]
-->'''Augustus Cole:''' "Do you ever feel like you're dead, but nobody ever told you?"
Released on September 20, 2011, the ending of the second game has left both sides decimated, with Marcus and Delta Squad trying to keep their head down as there's no place left on Sera that is safe. [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Anya]] [[MissionControl Stroud]] has [[ActionGirl joined the team as a soldier]], Dom has grown a BeardOfSorrow and the approaching summer has the squad wearing lighter versions of their normal armor. The story picks up 18 months later when the COG leadership (what is left of it) approaches Marcus with some new discoveries about the Locust. Unfortunately, the Gears don't just have to contend with the Locust Horde: a new faction, the Lambent Locust, have emerged from the underground and are hostile to both sides.
With the added benefit of a multiplayer beta to iron out the kinks (including [[AndTheFandomRejoiced dedicated servers]]), ''Gears of War 3'' ended up the best reviewed of the trilogy with a very bright color palette, crisp visuals and fluid gameplay. A very full game release, it has a very long campaign where you can play with four characters at all times (including a co-op online arcade version), Horde Mode 2.0 (with some TowerDefense-like strategy), Beast Mode (a reversed Horde Mode where you play as Locust creatures attacking the COG), loads of features to track your gaming history and a single leveling system that works under all modes. The game was also built to be heavily modifiable, with a DownloadableContent pack called "RAAM's Shadow" containing an entire mini-campaign.
-----
!'''Gears of War: Exile'''
Nothing is known of the title, save its [[http://www.gamestooge.com/2011/05/29/e3-11-microsoft-unveiling-halo-hd-gears-exile/ unveiling]] at {{E3}} 2011. Strong rumors have pegged it as Cliff Bleszinski's hinted ''Gears of War'' Kinect-based game.
----
A film adaptation is currently in the works, though plagued with DevelopmentHell, and the third game will be the last to feature Delta Squad. A series of comic books [[ExpandedUniverse expand on the backstory and what happens between the games]], alongside a collection of four novels, with a fifth to be released in 2012.
----
!!The games provide examples of:
* AbandonedHospital: The New Hope facility and the multiplayer level "Blood Drive".
* AbnormalAmmo: Nemacysts are huge, [[FlyingSeafoodSpecial flying, squid-like creatures]] who constantly vent toxic sludge, and are fired as flak or hunter-killer missiles from Seeder arthropods. The Ink/Smoker grenades are actually baby Nemacysts tied to a Bolo Grenade handle. The Digger Launcher in the third game fires a small burrowing creature which digs through the ground ignoring any cover in its path, popping out from the ground if there's any enemy in its trajectory then detonating itself.
* ActionBomb: Several. Most Lambent enemies, as well as Reavers, explode upon death. Tickers are a straighter example, as they deliberately blow themselves up.
* ActionGirl
** Locust Berserkers are really female Drones. They're far more dangerous and deadlier than the males and more feared by the Gears. They're also invulnerable until you hit them with an orbital bombardment or set them on fire.
** In the third game, Anya has ditched her MissionControl role in order to fight on the battlefield with the male Gears, alongside another female gear, Samantha Bryne, as well as a veteran of the Pendulum Wars who fought with Colonel Victor Hoffman, Bernadette "Bernie" Mataki. Alicia Valera in "RAAM's Shadow" rounds out the gender ratio in Zeta Squad.
* AdaptationalBadass: In a variation, each succeeding Carmine in each game is more badass than the previous one, or at least lives longer. [[spoiler: Clayton Carmine goes so far as to survive the entire game]]!
* AdrenalineMakeover: Anya
* AfterTheEnd: The visual design is built like this, the story is about what has to happen for something ''to be'' AfterTheEnd. Before Emergence Day, human civilization endured the Pendulum wars. After about 85 years of destructive, sometimes nuclear war, Sera could be described as post-apocalyptic; the people left are just fighting for the ashes. ''Gears of War 3'' embraces it in full, and it's likely to the point that even if the fighting stopped today there wouldn't be an infrastructure left to rebuild the civilization they once had.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Niles Samson's "semi-sentient security program", which is a ''little'' bit obsessed with cleaning up "filth"., though it doesn't seem to actively attempt to kill you, and even makes an effort to protect you by advising you not to mess around with the main computers, which [[spoiler: wakes the Sires. NiceJobBreakingItHero]].
* AllThereInTheManual: The first game throws you right into the conflict with little elaboration, in fact the opening cinematic doesn't play when you press start; it kicks in if you idle on the title menu for a while making a lot of people eager to play the game missing it altogether. The most comprehensive backstory detailing is ''in the concept art book that comes with the collector's edition''. The key events that are not explained within the game involve: this is not Earth but a planet called Sera, the Pendulum Wars was a world-wide conflict over control over a super-fuel called Imulsion (started before the characters were born), Emergence Day was so devastating that the COG turned the Hammer of Dawn on their own cities just to fry the Locust and keep them at bay and leaving pockets of survivors called the Stranded. Fortunately, the current comics and novels are doing this job for everything, although for those who haven't read those, Epic was nice enough to put a "Previously on Gears..." video in ''Gears of War 3'', which describes the relevant events over all the games, books, and comics, though in the end, Epic resorted to posting explanations for some of the unanswered questions from ''Gears of War 3' on their official forums.
* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: '''A'''nthony Carmine, '''B'''enjamin Carmine, and '''C'''layton Carmine. Since there are four Carmine brothers in total, the last one will most likely be D. Carmine.
* AlwaysOverTheShoulder
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Samantha looks vaguely Hispanic, but her accent is ClaudiaBlack's own British/Australian mix. Otherwise the games are pretty good with being clear about various character's ethnicity.
* AndThisIsFor: [[spoiler: See ThisIsForEmphasisBitch; used by Marcus [[PreMortemOneLiner after he stabs Myrrah]]]].
* AnticlimaxBoss: The final boss of ''Gears Of War 2'', [[spoiler: the Lambent Brumak]], ''literally'' dies in 2 or 3 seconds. ClimaxBoss Skorge himself puts up a reasonable fight, but is nowhere nearly as tough as General RAAM was back in the first.
* AnyoneCanDie: The games make an effort to introduce major characters and have them die along the way, as this is an unrelenting war. It was invoked by Cliff Bleszinski regarding ''Gears of War 3'', as being the final game all bets were off and even the core characters were at risk.
* ApocalypseHow: Class 2 in the backstory. All major civilization is knocked out besides the COG and a few pockets of stranded civilians living in the ruins of cities. ''Gears of War 3'' indicates that things are coming dangerously close to a Class 3. [[spoiler: Firing Adam Fenix's superweapon at the end pushes it close to a Class 4, though some humans remain]].
* ArtificialStupidity
** In the first game, combined with SuicidalOverconfidence: your A.I. teammates will often vault over a perfectly good piece of cover to charge straight into enemy fire, resulting in them being shot full of holes. Locust Drones also do this sometimes, but they can pull it off since they're MadeOfIron, whereas your teammates are not.
** By the second game the friendly A.I. has been vastly improved and can hold its own even without your help, and it's possible for you to sometimes play whole sections without expending a single round of ammo!
** In the third game, [[spoiler: during the fight with the Lambent Beserker]] at the point where it starts leaking Imulsion, the first thing Marcus says is to avoid said Imulsion. Your AI teammates will ignore this piece of advice and spend the rest of the fight walking into the Imulsion and screaming for help. Especially frustrating on Insane difficulty.
* AscendedExtra: Of a sort, while not technically the same character the Carmine brothers through the three games have identical personalities and much more screentime in each installment.
* AscendedMeme
** The third game actually features the characters reacting with joy to see backup and saying, "It's Carmine!"
** One of the Stranded in Char asks "Show me that two piece again!" Two-piecing was the FanNickname for the melee -> shotgun combo that dominated the original ''Gears of War'' multiplayer.
** When playing as Adam Fenix in multiplayer, and beating the crap out of someone with the extended face punch, he'll sometimes say: [[PennyArcade "Your mother is a classy lady!"]]
** Lieutenant Kim's "I've got the code" shows up twice in ''Gears of War 3'': as the Onyx medal for interacting with objects and as a ContinuityNod in "RAAM's Shadow".
--->'''Barrick''': Do you have the code?\\
'''Kim''': Heh, just help me with the door.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: Plenty
** Flamethrower-equipped Locust carry their unfortunately bullet-vulnerable fuel packs.
** The Locust have yet another developmental oversight, what with their warbeasts having soft, unarmored bellies ripe for crosshair focus.
** The expediency of a helmetless Corpser takes a sudden drop [[GoForTheEye when they can't see]].
** The bigger Lambent foes broadcast their soft and soon-to-be bullet-ridden weak spots with glowing tumors, and in the case of the more mutated Drudges, shoot the tentacles.
** The otherwise nigh-invulnerable Armored Kantus is kind enough to pause and heal its fellow Locust with its screams, giving you ample time to stuff its mouth full of lead.
* TheAtoner:
** Marcus...sort of. He's more concerned with proving himself a reliable soldier once more than trying to apologize. Chairman Prescott in ''Gears of War 3'' comes back after being AWOL for almost 2 years, and delivers the MacGuffin that gets the game going.
** Adam Fenix is revealed to be like this, since he was the driving force of the Hammer of Dawn, which is what the COG used to scorch their own cities. [[spoiler: Of course, he still ends up commiting genocide in his attempts to atone, but he makes it very clear there was just wasn't enough time...]]
-->Adam: "Don't worry, I'm an old hand when it comes to weapons of mass destruction."
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking
** General RAAM personifies this trope. Skorge, a bit less so, but cutting a tank in half is still pretty badass.
** Colonel Hoffman, to a lesser extent, as he's on the same level as the rest of Delta Squad, but when you consider how much of an achievement it is in this universe to even make it to your mid-thirties (the fact the old bastard is reaching his late-forties or early-fifties by ''Gears of War 3'') and he's no coward or stranger to frontline fighting makes him pretty hardcore.
** Marcus plays with this: prior to the games, he was a decorated soldier and war hero, but after abandoning his post to try and rescue his father, he gets sent to prison. At the start of the trilogy, he's technically only a private, though within an hour, he gets back up to sergeant.
* AxCrazy: Anthony's very popular character for multiplayer, likely because of his ''very'' enthusiastic quotes while fighting, practically to the point of this trope. The tendency of many players to use the chainsaw bayonet at every possible opportunity also counts.
* {{Badass}}: Pretty much every plot-important character.
* BadassBeard: An EasterEgg in ''Gears of War 3'' allows everyone to have a beard, [[GirlsWithMoustaches even Anya]].
* BadBoss: In ''Gears of War 3'', Aaron Griffin is the former CEO of an Imulsion energy corporation, now the leader of a Stranded group taken up residence in the high rise Griffin tower. Within the campaign he talks a lot about keeping his "employees" safe and doesn't like the COG because they tend to bring the Locust war with them. But an in-game collectible carries a note from one of his Stranded members who comments that Griffin ''always'' refers to them as Employees, which many resent because they were obviously not getting health insurance anymore. Plus he largely kept the best stuff for himself (gold plated weapons can be seen in his office) and everyone was afraid of being chosen for the next near-suicidal Imulsion run.
* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Griffin in the third game. Former energy magnate, current ruler of a post-apocalyptic city, always ruthless.
* [[BannedInChina Banned In Germany]]: The violence alone might have been enough, but the fact they built the COG's look and much of its ethos on the Third Reich must have cinched it. Averted with ''Gears of War 3''; [[AndTheFandomRejoiced And The German Fandom Rejoiced]].
* BashBrothers:
** All of Delta Squad, but especially since cooperative play allows you to be Marcus and your friend be Dom.
** In-universe, Baird and Cole were really tight before they ever met Marcus or Dom, and still are as far as can be seen.
** ''Gears of War 3'' takes this to the logical extreme, where there's four player co-op for the entire campaign.
* BayonetYa: The third game features the "Retro Lancer", first-generation Lancers from the Pendulum Wars with much higher recoil and a heavy bayonet. The blade itself doesn't do much more damage in melee strikes than other weapons, but it allows for a ''nasty'' charge attack that can impale any regular infantry.
* BeardOfSorrow: The new beard Dom's sporting in ''Gears of War 3'' is this. In the "Ashes to Ashes" trailer, the way he just lies back and waits for the Drone to finish him off shows he doesn't give a shit about anything anymore since [[spoiler: having to MercyKill his wife Maria]]. Overlaps with DeathSeeker.
* BeePeople: The Locust Horde society is structured with a Queen at the top, and lots and lots of [[WeHaveReserves disposable drones]].
* BenevolentArchitecture: As [[ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] stated, chest-high walls are the key to victory in the war.
* TheBerserker
** Naturally, Locust [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Berserkers]]. Your first time through the game, this creature is absolutely terrifying. The kicker? A Berserker's really a big, normal drone...[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel only]] [[ActionGirl female]].
** ''Gears of War 3'' introduces the Lambent Berserker. Everything that is makes the originals tough is there, only it is capable of surviving multiple Hammer of Dawn attacks, has tentacles that gives it a longer reach, will ''jump'' and land like an Imulsion bomb and eventually start leaving Imulsion trails and toxic vapors limiting your movement. All the while still screaming and rushing at you.
** Cole has tendencies toward exhibiting a few traits, but is more in tune to the BoisterousBruiser.
* {{BFG}}: Virtually every gun in the game is oversized, and it wouldn't do to list every gun that isn't a sidearm here, so we'll just list the most notable:
** The [[http://vaultlol.com/?p=334 Retro Lancer]], (the one on the right) a rifle with a bayonet the size of a cutlass that looks like a hybrid of an FN-SCAR-H and an M60, which could double as a mounted machinegun turret.
** The Boomshot, an enormous grenade launcher with a 60mm bore that shoots grenades in four-round bursts,
** The One-Shot, which can only be described as a sniper cannon,
** The Mulcher and Vulcan Cannon, which are both man-portable miniguns.
* BigBad: Myrrah. Note that Epic Games use the term "BigBad" to refer to the final bosses of each game (General [=RAAM=] in the first, and Skorge in the second), but they are more like [[TheDragon Dragons]] in trope-speak.
* BiggerBad: [[spoiler: Imulsion itself, which is really a single, planet-wide parasitic organism]].
* BigDamnHeroes:
** Cole has a ''one man'' BigDamnHeroes moment in ''Gears of War 2''. Dom has one in ''Gears of War 3'', [[spoiler: albeit one that doubles as a HeroicSacrifice]].
** [[spoiler: Clayton shows up during the final battle of ''Gears of War 3'' in a King Raven and starts tearing into the Lambent and Therons with a gatling gun. He gets shot down by Myrrah's Tempest [[ScrewDestiny but survives]]]].
** The Command Center fortification for Horde 2.0 gives you the opportunity to call in support, starting with a quick sniper support and being able to upgrade through mortars and the [[KillSat Hammer of Dawn]]. Unsurprisingly it is quite satisfying to call in for help and see the screen light up with kills.
* BittersweetEnding: The second and third games feature victory and ultimately survival, but at a great cost. [[spoiler: Myrrah is dead, the Lambent are destroyed for good, and the last stand of organized Locust falls, yet Marcus has lost his best friend Dom and his father Adam Fenix in the struggle. Cynically lampshaded by him in his final line of dialogue]].
* BlackAndGrayMorality: The more the ExpandedUniverse sheds light on the COG, the less light you want shed on them.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Although subverted and never stated outright, Marcus is seemingly paranoid of this in the first game. Every time he orders Delta Squad to split up, he never tells Cole to come with him. By the second game he appears to be over this and does have Cole come with him. [[spoiler: In fact, Cole, Jace Stratton and Samantha, all dark-skinned people of color, make it out of the trilogy alive. Dom doesn't]].
* BlatantItemPlacement: The game ''is'' based around cover after all, but there are times when [[ZeroPunctuation bombs specifically reducing buildings to chest-high walls]] becomes very obvious.
* BloodSport
** The fictional Thrashball is more tame than most examples, but it still requires players to wear some fairly heavy armor, and management discourages but does not ban acts like "accidentally" stomping on prone opponents or "accidentally" punching opponents in the face, neck, or groin when diving for a catch. It's worth noting that Cole broke nearly every record the sport offered, including the most number of injuries in one play.
** In ''Gears of War 3'', there is a small Easter egg where you can peek in through a window and see a group of Savage Locust watching a cockfight between Wild Tickers.
* BobHaircut: Anya and Samantha both sport cuts similar to these in ''Gears of War 3''.
* BodyCountCompetition: At one point in ''Gears of War 2'', Marcus and Dom see a long line of Locust drones walking far below them. Dom makes a comment about practicing with their sniper rifles, and for each successive kill, Marcus numbers his kills.
--> '''Marcus: BLAM!''' "That's one." '''BLAM!''' "That's two." '''BLAM!''' "That's ''three''." '''BLAM!''' "That's four!" '''BLAM!''' "That's ''five'', [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch motherfuckers]]!''
* BondOneLiner: "[[YourHeadAsplode Look, ma, no face...]]" and ''many'' more.
* BookEnds:
** The opening of ''Gears of War 3'' is very similar to the opening scene of ''Gears of War'', only Dom's role is filled by Anya instead and there are Lambent Polyps instead of Locust Wretches. [[spoiler: It turns out this is simply a FlashbackNightmare]].
** In another case, spanning outside of the games, the original advertisement for ''Gears of War'' features [[DonnieDarko Gary Jules' cover of]] "[[TearsForFears Mad World]]". Fast forward several years to ''Gears of War 3'' and an instrumental version of the song plays [[spoiler: during Dom's HeroicSacrifice]].
* BreakingTheFourthWall
** After losing a multiplayer match on the COG side in ''Gears of War 2'', Chairman Prescott will deride you. He might say: "Reload, refocus, ''respawn''!".
** Failing an active reload and causing the gun to jam as Griffin in multiplayer in ''Gears of War 3'' may have him say "Fuckin' noob!", clearly at you.
* BullfightBoss: Berserkers
* BulletproofHumanShield: Anyone can take an enemy as one if they have been downed (see CriticalExistenceFailure). The game considers an enemy dead by all means, meaning there's no way to help them while they are being held (in multiplayer, their respawn timer starts), and when they are no longer held, they're practically a corpse. ''Maybe'' [[JustifiedTrope justified]] due to the armor all Gears wear, as well as the Locust being naturally tough.
* CallingYourAttacks: Boomers and their many variants (Grinders, Maulers, Flamers and Butchers) always yell out an attack-related phrase (i.e. "Boom!" for Boomshot-wielding Boomers and "Grind!" for Mulcher-wielding Grinders) before opening fire. This is a good tell that lets you know when to TakeCover.
* CampUnsafeIsntSafeAnymore: In ''Gears of War 2'', a soldier says the surface isn't safe anymore. The Locust, Kryll-infested, razor hail suffering surface.
* CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker: In ''Gears of War 2'' you can hear Myrrah spouting Locust propaganda in the later Nexus levels. Once Delta Squad finds a microphone, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trOiSsnRWUc they offer a rebuttal]].
* CanonImmigrant: Jace was an ExpandedUniverse character who got an audio cameo in ''Gears of War 2'' and apperances in the graphic novels. He shows up as part of Delta Squad in ''Gears of War 3''. Likewise Samantha and Bernie first appeared in the novels, and are fully playable in the ''Gears of War 3'' campaign. In a variation, Michael Barrick, [[spoiler: who was KilledOffForReal in the comics]], is available via DownloadableContent. Surprisingly, ActionGirl Alex Brand has no planned appearance, much to some fans' disappointment.
* CaptainObvious: Dom becomes this in ''Gears of War 2''. This is the title that goes with the onyx "Spotter" medal in ''Gears of War 3''.
* CelebritySurvivor: Cole. In the third game, you go back to his hometown and even fight through his old stadium.
* ChainsawGood: The games so far have always had the Lancer assault rifle, with the aforementioned chainsaw bayonet. Not to be outdone, Skorge in ''Gears of War 2'' wields a staff with chainsaws on both ends. The canon reason for this is the natural toughness of Locust hides led to bayonets being worthless. The RealLife reason is Cliff Blezinski had always had a dream of a gun with a chainsaw on it.
* ChekhovsGun
** Imulsion irradiated wretches called "Lambent Wretches" in the first game return with a new angle in the second.
** [[spoiler: Dom's combat knife]] in ''Gears of War 3''.
* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler: Adam Fenix]]
* ChunkySalsaRule
* ClippedWingAngel: The final boss of ''Gears of War 2'' is [[spoiler: a regular Brumak who walks into Imulsion and mutates into a massive Lovecraftian Lambent Brumak]]. It's basically a giant tree that stands still in one spot, and lasts all of 2 or 3 seconds as you vaporize it with the Hammer of Dawn.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: COG forces have subtle blue highlights on their armor, and have blue lights on their weapons. The Locust focus more on reddish and bloody colors, and have red lights on their weapons. What makes it really funny is the colored lights on the weapons and even on vehicles immediately change color depending on whether a COG or Locust is using it. Justified in fluff as the lights are called "COG Identification Markers" and since the Locust are ripping off COG technology as much as they can, the lights on the weapons would be changed by them too.
* TheComicallySerious: Marcus. The guy ''never'' cracks a smile. He does smirk occasionally, but it certainly isn't meant to be a "nice" smirk. WordOfGod states Marcus pretty much never smiles. Even at his birthday party, he didn't smile when they gave him the cake.
* CommandRoster: Technically, until the third game most of the group consists of multiple squads, largely Alpha and Delta. But they still come together sometime into the story and stay together as though they were one group.
** The First Game
*** TheCaptain - Marcus, [[spoiler: after Lieutenant Kim is killed]].
*** NumberTwo - Dom
*** MrFixit - Baird
*** The Marine - Cole
*** MissionControl - Anya
*** TheNeidermeyer - Colonel Hoffman, who doesn't get along well with Marcus but they come to respect each other by the end
*** RedShirt - Carmine (Anthony)
** The Second Game
*** TheCaptain - Marcus
*** NumberTwo - Dom
*** NewMeat - Carmine (Benjamin)
*** The Scientist - Baird (In-game collectibles of various kinds are provided with some text commentary by Baird)
*** MrFixit - Baird and Dizzy
*** The Marine - Cole
*** The Security Officer - Tai
*** AcePilot - Dizzy
*** MissionControl - Anya, Hoffman when they get into ''really'' top secret areas
*** ReasonableAuthorityFigure - Hoffman
*** ObstructiveBureaucrat - Chairman Prescott
** The Third Game
*** TheCaptain - Marcus
*** NumberTwo - Dom, Cole also takes on a leadership role when out looking for supplies
*** The Scientist - Baird again
*** MrFixit - Baird and Dizzy
*** The Marine - Cole, Jace and Carmine (Clay)
*** ColdSniper - Sam
*** TheMedic - Anya
*** Communications Officer - Anya
*** MissionControl - Switches up depending on who is out in the action. Anya, Bernie, Baird, Dizzy and [[spoiler: Adam Fenix]] all take on this role.
*** ReasonableAuthorityFigure - Hoffman, Marcus also seemed to have a lot of respect for Captain Michaelson
*** ObstructiveBureaucrat - Prescott, although in this case he was trying to undo all the government secrets he had been hiding
* CompilationRerelease: The ''Gears of War'' Triple Pack, which bundles the first two games, as well as the "All Fronts" map pack.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard:
** Skorge is a fairly tough boss ''only'' because he's unaffected by any form of attack other than a chainsaw duel. It's certainly there to show off the new chainsaw duel feature but it comes across as a frustrating GameplayAndStorySegregation. It's not a terribly difficult fight otherwise, unless you're [[spoiler: bad at dodging falling pillars, ink grenades, and Tickers]]. The pillars don't just fall in a straight line: you have to run to the other side of the hall, because these things will ''alter the direction of its fall to the point that it will somehow fall completely horizontally from a vertical position to kill you''.
** Insane difficulty is just a license for the game to be a cheating bastard.
** This can actually be used to the player's advantage in campaign. AI squadmates never run out of ammo and can trade weapons with the player. This means that players can trade empty power weapons like the Torque Bow and Boomshot to an NPC, wait for the NPC to reload it, then take it back. Alternately, just give all your squadmates Boomshots and watch the carnage.
* ContinuityNod[=/=]CallBack:
** ''Gears of War 2'' explicitly refers to things said in the last game as jokes to ''each other''. [[LampshadeHanging Therefore...]]
** It seems like half the dialogue with Benjamin are nods to his brother Anthony's death.
*** Clayton himself is one towards his brothers. [[spoiler: During the trek at Hanover, he gets shot in the helmet by a sniper rifle, but survives unlike Anthony; ironically, he tells the shooter he's lucky that he wears a helmet]].
** At the Lethia Imulsion Facility in ''Gears of War'', Marcus tells Cole, "I'll take that under advisement". In the sequel, when Delta Squad starts debating on rescuing the Stranded in Mount Kadar, Cole tells Baird, "This is the part where he tells you he'll take it under advisement".
** "Don't start with that juice shit again!"
** "Hey, Colonel, I guess we ARE the support, huh."
** "Yeah, but he [Skorge] made RAAM look like a goddamn pushover."
** The third game's campaign opens with a scene almost identical to the prologue of the first, down to identical dialogue, with Anya in place of Dom.
** One of the earliest collectable pickups in the third game is twenty bucks that Dom owed Marcus from when they bet on a Thrashball game Cole was in. The money is a few years too late, and currency is pretty valueless with no governments left to honor it, but the thought still counts.
** Dom wears a combat knife on his armor during all three campaigns. It isn't used until [[spoiler: Mercy, when Dom lets Marcus borrow it to un-jam a lever. Marcus stabs Myrrah with it in the final scene of ''Gears of War 3'', saying it was for Dom, and everyone else she killed]].
** A RAAM's Shadow achievement "Foreshadowing" requires players in multiplayer to execute opponents playing as Kim while using General RAAM as a skin, calling back to the same event in ''Gears of War''.
* ConvenientColorChange: Gun color changes depending on the holder.
* CopyProtection: Cliff Bleszinski has stated with no small amount of vitriol that piracy of ''Gears of War'' stopped any chance of ''Gears of War 2'' on the PC.
* CorpseLand: The area where the Hammer of Dawn was used on the Locust to halt their attacks. In a disturbing mirror of Pompeii, there are ashen remain of every man, woman and child who were unable to reach the safe zone.
* CrapsackWorld: Sera is reduced to a total hellhole in the aftermath of the Human-Locust War; the planet's surface has been scorched to cinders and its water sources contaminated by orbital Hammer of Dawn bombardment, nerve gas killed whatever the satellites didn't, fallout from the end of ''Gears of War'' causes terminal respiratory illness in the survivors, all the human cities have been destroyed, and according to the official tie-in novels, [[spoiler: 99% of the human population was killed in the war]]. Becomes a WorldHalfFull at the end of Gears Of War 3 though. [[spoiler: The Locust and Lambent are all dead, the parasite in Imulsion is destroyed, and the world actually has a ''future'' now, as it is implied that humanity can now recover.]]
* CriticalExistenceFailure:
** Played straight to an extent, as explosives will blow apart someone when it kills them, but not if the damage isn't enough. The games use invisible HitPoints, and when characters lose them, they become "down, but not out" in multiplayer, meaning they can only lay on the ground to bleed to death unless someone revives them, or they are finished off. Enemies can be downed in the campaign (though not always); likewise, so can characters. In ''Gears of War 2'', downed players can crawl away instead of being totally immobile. Curiously, bots that manage to get chainsawed in the campaign will generally be downed. The same is not true of players who are chainsawed. This is likely to compensate for ArtificialStupidity.
** Generally, any explosive that is in range to damage a downed player will gib them.
** Troika gun turrets cut the player off at the knees or otherwise splatter them into LudicrousGibs in two seconds. Just getting grazed by one is OnlyAFleshWound, however. Fortunately, this is averted by the turrets in the third game, and you'll go down first before dying to them.
* CrossPlaying: EnforcedTrope for male gamers, as ''Gears of War 3'' has playable female characters for the first time and a medal for playing as them in a very large number of matches (required for OneHundredPercentCompletion). Also, Queen Myrrah is the Locust leader in the Capture the Leader mode.
* CustomUniform: There are some slight variations in the armor designs between major characters (regular COG Gears look exactly like [[RedShirt Carmine]]), but in the first two games they were all similar enough that it was likely there was some mild customizable options (Dom has a shoulder light and combat knife to [[DistinctiveAppearances distinquish him from Marcus]]). In ''Gears of War 3'', everyone has made significant alterations to their armor that takes it further away from being a uniform, including [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience color coding]]. Marcus has orange highlights, Cole green and Baird blue as always. Hoffman has several medal-like markings on his suit to represent his command authority.
* CuteMonsterGirl: Heavily subverted with the female Locust Berserkers, vicious and fugly 10-foot tall stone-skinned monsters. Played straight in ''Gears of War 2'' with the Locust Queen, who strangely looks like a human woman wearing a squid on her back. Although this appears to be a plot point, as Delta Squad remarks several times on her human-like appearance compared to the rest of the Locust, [[spoiler: [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse it is ultimately not completely explained]]]].
* DarkActionGirl: ''Myrrah'', [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething the Locust Queen]], takes to frontlines in ''Gears Of War 3'', heaving stripped herself of her [[BuffySpeak squid-dress]] from the second game. In fact, her combat outfit looks very nice, too. She acts as the Locust leader in multiplayer.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Gears of War 2'' carries a darker, more personal story than the last, with various named characters dying, though none of them came from the original game, but were advertised as being in the sequel. ''Gears of War 3'' takes this UpToEleven.
* DarknessEqualsDeath: The Kryll in the first game are a race of near-unstoppable flesh-eating bats who swarm anything not covered in light. It made this true for pretty much anywhere dark.
* DeadlyFireworksDisplay
** [[spoiler: The Lambent Brumak in the second game]].
** Most of the large Lambent in the third game, particularly Lambent Berserkers and Gunkers.
* DeadpanSnarker: Marcus, though his general attitude is TheComicallySerious and exacerbated with a voice that occasionally sounds like [[WinnieThePooh Eeyore]]. Baird plays this trope the straightest. By the third game, it escalates into WorldOfSnark, with ''everyone'' throwing insults and one-liners at each other.
* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler: Adam Fenix makes one with Queen Myrrah before the events of the trilogy. Myrrah promised Adam that she would not invade Sera should he find a way to destroy the Lambent. He fails to do so, thus Myrrah is forced to kick-start the Human-Locust War.]]
* DeathFromAbove:
** The Hammer of Dawn [[KillSat satellite laser]], required to use with a laser marker.
** In Horde 2.0 the Command Center fortification allows you to upgrade to calling in a mortar or Hammer of Dawn strike. Since you have no direct control over where it drops, it can surprise both you and your teammates.
* DeathWorld: Sera. Even the ''weather'' is trying to kill you.
* DegradedBoss: Gameplay-wise, Grinders are essentially weaker versions of General RAAM with less health and no Kryll protecting it. ''Story''-wise, they're two entirely different beasts (RAAM's an ascended Theron Guard while Grinders are Boomers with a Mulcher), yet their tactics are more or less the same.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: WordOfGod states the reason Anya and other 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.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Not only is Marcus' abandoning his post ''to save his father'' considered the worst form of treason, but the manual states Dom was ''demoted'' for daring to defend him in his trial. Justified as disobeying orders and what not is generally a bad thing in the military for a variety of reasons, as well as the fact Marcus leaving his post with the [[KillSat Hammer of Dawn targeting laser]] lost a good chunk of Jacinto.
* DoAnythingRobot: JACK is a much more subtle version. It's equipped with various devices for communications and repairs but is primarily used to burn the locks off doors and hacking terminals. [[spoiler: In ''Gears of War 3'', Baird gives it an upgrade late in the game allowing it to shock and stun enemies]].
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Niles of the top-secret New Hope outpost is obsessed with cleanliness, despite the place being very unclean, and seems to be practicing some rather amoral experiments for [[WellIntentionedExtremist the good of our future]]. Sounds very much like the "[[StupidJetpackHitler scientist]] devoted to a [[ThoseWackyNazis certain fascist government's]] advancement" type; even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Dom, saying the place looks like "...an internment camp."
* DoubleEntendre: "RAAM's Shadow" has a particularly snicker-worthy one.
-->'''Valera''': Thanks for the assist.\\
'''Barrick''': You know me, Val... I'm always watching your ass.
* DressingAsTheEnemy: Subverted. Marcus briefly mentions doing this to sneak into the Nexus in ''Gears of War 2'', but he and Dom decide to go in guns blazing instead [[spoiler: as revenge for Maria]]. Can be played straight in the "Deleted Scene" DLC if you can take the sneaky option.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Tai Kaliso was captured by the Locust in ''Gears of War 2''. When he's found, we see him covered in large cuts and wounds. Marcus hands him a shotgun to arm himself so they can move on, but Tai shoots himself in the head with it]]. [[GoryDiscretionShot The damage is not seen]].
* DynamicEntry: In the first two games locust can enter the game space via Emergence Holes, stable channels to their tunnel network. However in the third game, they do away with that and practically explode out of the ground. There is an award for taking out a locust while it's airborne.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Some of the Locust were seen in promotional renders of the Unreal Engine 3 before the game was announced. Likewise, some of the character designs in UnrealTournamentIII are close enough to be predecessors of the various Gears.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:In ''Gears of War 3,'' despite Marcus' cynicism at the end of the game, Anya heartwarmingly tells him mankind has earned its tomorrow]].
* EasterEgg: There are a bunch of silly gags that can be found, such as a toaster ("Who wants toast!"), a cowboy hat wearing Corpser and a giant Lambent chicken!
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The Hollow and Nexus
* ElevatorFloorAnnouncement:
-->'''Baird:''' Bottom floor! Sporting goods, lingerie, and [[HiveQueen one bitch-ass queen!]]
* EliteMooks: In the first game it was Theron Guards, tougher Locust Drones with the Torque Bow. In the second game it is the Kantus Priest, wielding a semi-auto pistol, can [[ShootTheMedic heal]] enemy troops and can summon explosive Tickers. In the third game it is the Armored Kantus, immune to virtually any small arms fire and thus requiring explosives to take down
* EnemyCivilWar: ''Gears of War 2'' reveal the struggle of the Locust Horde against the insane Lambent Locust mutants. Not much use to the player, as the game mostly has them both trying to kill you instead of fighting each other. This is made MUCH more prevalent in the third game.
* EpicFlail:
** Bolo Grenades are really explosive maces. EpicFlail indeed, though they can only be used to blow things up, and the melee animation to stick grenades onto enemies looks like a swing, but it doesn't do any damage aside from sticking the grenade and watching them explode spectacularly.
** Played absolutely straight with [[PersonalSpaceInvader Maulers]]. These Boomer variants with Boomshields and heavy armor carry what appear to be larger versions of Bolo Grenades. ''Much larger''...and reusable...and they don't throw them: they simply run up and hit you explosively with it.
* EscapistCharacter: Any playable Gear who wears a [[TheFaceless face-concealing helmet]] is an [[EnsembleDarkhorse incredibly popular choice]] online likely for this reason, or because people want to be [[{{Halo}} Master Chief]] (who is also this trope).
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Nearly everyone of Delta Squad gets their moment, but no one beats Cole's introduction in the first two games. The first game has him challenging an entire squad of Locust by himself until he gets reinforcements. In the second game, well, he ''is the reinforcements''. ''Nobody'' stops the Cole Train, baby!
* {{Expy}}:
** Cole is the soldier version of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzToNo7A-94 Terry Tate, Office Linebacker]], a joke character from a series of Reebok commercials. Of course, they're [[HeyItsThatVoice played by the same person.]]
** The Kryll bear more than a little resemblance to the nocturnal creatures in ''PitchBlack''.
* TheFaceless:
** The Locust Queen Myrrah, [[spoiler: up until 75% of the second game, that is]].
** The Carmines play the straighter example: each bear a striking family resemblance... considering their tendency to wear helmets. The third game actively teases us with it: [[spoiler: the final scene actually shows Clayton picking up his helmet, dusting it off, and putting it on... ''without showing his face'']].
* FaceRevealingTurn: In ''Gears of War 3'', the group enters Mercy, which is mysteriously desolate and the sole survivor they find is quickly killed by unseen monsters. Eventually in the sewers, they find a sobbing woman, and when Marcus approaches [[spoiler: she turns and screams, revealed to be a [[ItGotWorse Lambent human]], setting the level as a ZombieApocalypse.]]
* FakeLongevity: The first game has achievements for 100 multiplayer games with a kill with each weapon and 10,000 multiplayer kills in total. ''Gears of War 2'' takes it to ludicrous extremes with "Party Like It's 1999" for playing that many multiplayer rounds (with or without bots, and with or without even being online) and "Seriously 2.0", which requires ''100,000'' total kills across all game modes. For reference, playing through the campaign once gets you about 1000 kills.
* FiveManBand
** TheHero - Marcus
** TheLancer - Dom, Jace [[spoiler: after Dom's death]].
** TheBigGuy - Cole, Clayton in ''Gears of War 3'' at times. Some Stranded even refer to Cole as "the big guy," during one mission.
** TheSmartGuy - Baird, who lampshades this by explicitly identifying himself as "the smart guy".
** TheChick - Anthony and Benjamin in their respective games, Samantha and Anya in ''Gears of War 3''.
** TeamPet - Jack
** Done again with a different band in "RAAM's Shadow":
*** TheHero - Michael Barrick
*** TheLancer - Jace
*** TheBigGuy - Tai
*** TheSmartGuy - Minh Young Kim
*** TheChick - Valera
*** Team Pet - Jack
* FiveTokenBand: It's actually pretty well done to where it doesn't seem like marking off a checklist. Cole, Franklin, Jace and Griffin are all black, Dom and Maria are Hispanic, Tai is Samoan, Kim is Asian, and Sam is AmbiguouslyBrown. The majority of other characters wear helmets.
* FinishingMove: Characters who've lost their HitPoints will often be incapacitated instead of killed, allowing for a stress relieving curb stomp. The second game introduced unique finishers with individual weapons. The third [[UpToEleven takes it up to eleven]] where you can ''continue'' them to gain more experience as well as giving each weapon an unlockable special execution.
* FollowTheLeader: ''Gears of War'' inspired a wave of third-person shooters and/or TakeCover games that is still ongoing, like ''ArmyOfTwo'', ''MassEffect'' and ''TransformersWarForCybertron''. Similarly, it's also almost unthinkable these days to play a shooter without a "Horde"-inspired 'endless waves of enemies' mode.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: In ''Gears of War 3'', a shot of Adam from behind in his lab zooms out and lingers on a vial of Imulsion and a syringe behind him before the game returns to Delta Squad. Adam states later he had to inject himself with Imulsion in the creation of his superweapon, and knows fully well that activating it will kill him]].
* ForMassiveDamage: The Lambent have glowing tumor-like growths of Imulsion in their chests or stomachs that serve as targets to quickly kill them. Shooting Drudges in their growths is the only way to take one down without it metamorphing into a nastier variant after taking enough damage.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Marcus is Choleric, Dom is Melancholy, Baird is Phlegmatic, Cole is Sanguine.
* FungusHumongous: The Inner Hollow in ''Gears Of War 2'' has mushrooms that are slightly shorter than Delta Squad, and some slimy stuff on the walls that might be fungi.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: A Black Comedy example. In "RAAM's Shadow", Zeta team discovers the remains of an evacuation center in a high school gym. Among the carnage is a charred body jammed in a basketball hoop.
* GameBreakingBug: A bug currently making the rounds in ''Gears Of War 3'' will accidentally dump a 5-man Horde team into Wingman mode. Since Wingman's typically played by 4 teams of 2 in a free-for-all setting, dumping an ''entire'' group of 5 onto a single team is '' slightly'' unbalancing.
* GatlingGood: The hand-cranked Mulcher is man-portable and can... well, ''mulch'' soft targets at close range. The Silverback mounts what seems to be a more powerful variant, and gatling turrets appear occasionally in COG bases. There's also the Vulcan Cannon, which is more like an actual modern-day gatling gun and sounds like a cross between a chainsaw and thunder.
* GenderIsNoObject: The first two games and the novelizations subvert this. Only men do the fighting; all fertile women are used for reproductive purposes, while non-fertile women serve in support roles. The third game, however, plays this straight. Almost all women fight alongside the men. Totally justified because humanity is down to its last throes and needs every available body to fight.
* GeniusBruiser:
** When Baird is asked to improvise a bomb with few parts available, he replies, "Regular or extra strength?"
** Marcus, too, was meant to be an "intelligent badass" by the design team. Even though he doesn't show it as much as Baird, he seems to be able to come up with complicated military tactics on the fly in stressful situations, and he definitely has motivations beyond those of the average SpaceMarine action hero.
** In fact, most of Delta Squad applies according to Baird himself, as he states the reason he sticks with them is because they're the only people he knows who have above a single-digit IQ.
** Then there's Adam Fenix, the man himself. Back-story shows he's both a super-genius OmnidisciplinaryScientist (generally considered "The Smartest Man On The Planet"), as well as a former military officer and war hero. Granted, he's aged quite a bit and by the time he's mentioned in the games, he's more of a BadassBookworm.
* GenocideBackfire: It's been revealed by WordOfGod (namely David Nashty and Karen Traviss) that Myrrah was [[spoiler: one of the New Hope children. Which goes a long way towards explaining her actions and attitudes towards humanity throughout the series.]]
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: A medal that can be earned in ''Gears of War 3'' multiplayer is "Loot Courtesan".
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Myrrah
* GorgeousGorgon: Myrrah
* {{Gorn}}: It certainly goes into this trope at times... and then there's chainsawing your enemies... and then there's ''chainsawing your enemy simultaneously with your allies''. The games THRIVE on its extreme violent content. There's hardly a death in this game that doesn't end in copious amounts of blood, meaty chunks or bones cracking, not to mention the way blood splatters on the camera. Special note of a certain line from the second game:
-->'''Baird:''' "Oh man... this is just ''wrong''. I'm coughing up blood that ain't mine."
* GogglesDoNothing: Played straight with Baird until the second game, where he wears them on two occasions, once when he repairs the tank, and once when he pilots a Reaver, as well as when he wears them for intimidation in the books. Played straight again in ''Gears of War 3''.
* GreenRocks: Imulsion. Originally not that bad, but ''Gears of War 2'' starts to elevate it to this status pretty quickly [[spoiler: as it's implied that not only does Imulsion turn living beings into explosive versions of themselves, they mutate them. ''Gears of War 3'' further implies that Imulsion overexposure and mutations forced the Locust to invade the surface, starting the war]]. It also acts as a super-fuel and is used in the construction of death rays from space, though as it turns out it isn't a mysterious magical substance. [[spoiler: It's a parasite and the mutations are its primary purpose.]] The fact that it can be used as a super fuel is just incidental.
* GunAccessories: Chainsaw bayonets!
* GunshipRescue: Used several times with the King Raven helicopters, but subverted just as much. Notable in that King Ravens are gunships even without the specific "gunship" upgrade appearing in ''Gears of War2''; of the actual King Raven gunships (distinguished by their stub wings mounting gatling guns and missile launchers) you see in action in ''Gears of War 2'', one is lost ''after'' its GunshipRescue moment, one causes as much trouble as it cures but can later be seen in the background being a GunshipRescue for other Gears, and the other survives.
* HandCannon: The Boltok revolver is obviously high-caliber (it can ''blow off limbs!''), and the Gorgon SMG is basically a fun-size one-handed automatic rifle, but surprisingly the champion of this trope in this series is the humble Snub pistol, which is chambered for .50cal and possesses both a high rate of fire and a 12-round magazine. No wonder it can decapitate armoured Boomers and Therons.
* HannibalLecture: In ''Gears of War 3'', Myrrah calls out on humanity being a bunch of genocidal monsters, just like how they view the Locust. It almost sounds [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]], considering Emergence Day, [[spoiler: until you realize Myrrah had no choice because of the Lambent]].
* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Have we mentioned Dom's married today? To a ''woman''? With ''breasts''? And other ''lady parts''? Who's not ''a guy''? Making Dom ''not gay''? Meaning he and Marcus ''aren't like that''? [[OverlyLongGag Because Dom's married to a woman]]? Oh, Marcus looks at [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Anya]] longingly, too.
* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: The easiest way to see if someone is going to die? He wears a helmet. [[spoiler:Except Clayton Carmine. His helmet actually ''saves'' him from friendly fire.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: Sadly, ''Gears of War 3'' has [[spoiler: ''Dom'']] of all people pulling one of these at the end of [[spoiler: Act 3 to save Marcus, Anya, Sam, Dizzy and Jace from the never ending hordes of [[TheVirus Lambent]]. Adam Fenix dies not long after reuniting with his son by using himself as a test subject in his quest to eliminate Imulsion, then activating a world-affecting bomb that he knows will kill him as well as all Lambent and Locust]].
* HeterosexualLifePartners:
** Marcus and Dom. Long time friends who always stay close together. The novel ''Aspho Fields'' give a bit of backstory of Marcus and Dom growing up, as well as shedding light on quite a bit of angst between Marcus and Anya prior to their RelationshipUpgrade. Their argument in ''Gears of War 2'' comes close to a break-up. [[ZeroPunctuation Yahzee]] made a joke of this part. "[Marcus] is aided by his best friend - AND NOTHING ELSE - Dominic."
** There's also indications in the ''opposite'' direction; more than one scene in ''Gears of War 2'' and production interview gave us signs that Marcus and Anya [[ShipTease have more than a strictly professional relationship between them]]. Naturally, the novelizations and subsequent ''Gears of War 3'' outright confirms this.
** Baird and Cole are also very close, to the extent that Cole was the only person Baird really cared about before he met Marcus and Dom.
* HeyItsThatVoice: Plenty, if you know who's playing who.
** Ice-T lends his voice in Gears 3 as the COG-hating Griffin.
* HideYourChildren:
** Lampshaded by Baird, who remarks in one of the collectible intel items that it's strange despite fighting straight into the heart of the Locust civilization, there are no Locust children running around to shoot. Presumably a case of assumed HumanAliens - if they're BeePeople, they ''wouldn't'' have children, just hatch fully-formed from eggs.
** Averted in ''Gears of War 3'' while visiting Char. ''Many'' of the ash-corpses are too small to be adults.
** Averted again in the "RAAM's Shadow". A fair chunk of the campaign takes place in a high school which has been attacked by the Locust. Many corpses of civilians who are at the very least teenagers are shown in several rooms.
* HighPressureBlood: In ''Gears Of War 2'', it seems as if the characters lose blood that would be enough to kill someone when they go into a downed state ''alone'' from the impact of bullets against them. Not to mention the extra pints they lose from crawling around.
* HonorBeforeReason: There are several scenes, especially in the second game, of Marcus taking the extra effort to ensure the safety and well-being of civilians even when it complicates the mission. Baird calls him out on this, but Marcus always gets the final say.
* HopelessWar: The games have a very strong feel of this trope [[spoiler: until the end of the trilogy, which presumably ends the war once and for all]].
* HulkSpeak: The Boomer family of Locust all speak in this. "Boom!" "Grind!" "Meat!" "Bash!"
* HurricaneOfPuns: It's not ''that'' many, but there's a few: the soldiers of humanity are called Gears, the largest government on Sera is called the '''C'''oalition of '''O'''rdered '''G'''overnments, and there are COG tags instead of dog tags. The Pendulum Wars count as well. In fact, one track on the first game's soundtrack is entitled "I Will Kryll You".
* ImmuneToBullets: Berserkers require a satellite laser cannon to kill, although when its skin is hot and toasty it's just as squishy as the rest of them. The Seeder is this fully; it can't be killed at all except via Hammer of Dawn.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: In several cutscenes you can see Gears and Locust standing completely out in the open with no cover, exchanging full-auto fire at distances of less than 50 feet, and completely failing to hit each other with even a single bullet. Kim's last stand and the helicopter evac from Ilima City are both particularly egregious. Also applies in game as, by design, the typical combat ranges and effectiveness of weapons in Gears is very, very short.
* InferredHolocaust: [[spoiler: Collateral damage caused by The Lightmass Bomb after ''Gears of War''. The bomb evaporated a lot of the Imulsion in the Locust tunnels; on the surface, it causes a fatal disease called "rustlung"]].
* ImprovisedWeapon:
** In the novelization "Jacinto's Remnant", a brief flashback reveals a battle taking place in a department store, where Tai grabs a circular saw to fight with after his old-school Lancer bayonet breaks. This inspired the creation of the chainsaw bayonet, so if you think the chainsaw is cheap, blame Tai.
** A lot of Locust weaponry and "vehicles" are kitbashed gear made from animals living in the Hollow, looted COG weaponry, and Locust-engineered small arms. Tickers, for example, are just normal animals with bombs strapped to their backs, Locust "Siege Beasts" are some kind of turkey-like animal converted to launch artillery, and so on. The heavier Locust weapons like Brumaks and Seeders are just massive animals bred for combat with weapons strapped on them; even Corpsers are fitted with helmets to protect their eyes. Locust in the third game make crude Troika turrets out of multiple Retro Lancers strapped together and attached to a Troika mount to make a surprisingly effective suppression weapon.
* InformedAbility: The Onyx Guard are supposed to be the most absolutely elite of the COG forces, yet they get slaughtered every single time they're deployed in the games and novels.
* InkSuitActor: Each voice actor for the four core members of Delta Squad and Anya could very easily be mistaken for the character in RealLife. ''Especially'' [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0711529/ Lester "The Mighty Rasta" Speight as Cole]].
* InMediasRes: The first game opens with Marcus being busted out of jail. The war and some small details are sprinkled throughout the rest of the game.
* InstantDeathBullet: Invoked with the weapon in ''Gears of War 3'' called the "One Shot". It will shred any enemy in [[CaptainObvious one shot]] and bypasses some forms of cover, including a Boomshield. In addition, it has a sniper zoom, but only has one round per clip, long reload time and is a heavy weapon, meaning it will slow you down like a Mulcher or mortar.
* InsufferableGenius: [[TallDarkAndSnarky Baird]] could be one of the poster boys for this trope, with Cole as his {{Foil}}.
* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: Generally averted, except on the multiplayer map "Jacinto," where small flowerbeds prevent you from mantling some critically-important walls.
* ItGotWorse: Living on Sera ''sucks''.
* {{Jerkass}}: Baird. He gets better in the sequels, becoming more of a DeadpanSnarker. It's explained that he was initially resentful that Marcus was given command over him or Cole who, at least at the beginning, ranked higher than either Dom or Marcus.
* JigsawPuzzlePlot:
** The second game has a major case of this, introducing multiple unexplained plot elements (the secret COG experiments creating the Sires, a lot of what the Locust Queen was yammering about, [[spoiler: Adam Fenix being alive and ticked off you sunk Jacinto]], etc.) that are not resolved. Most of these are covered in ''Gears of War 3'', but the [[spoiler: origin of the Sires]] remain a mystery.
** It's also never explained why the Locust Queen [[spoiler: looks human]], even after they keep dropping the topic into conversation.
* JitterCam: The perfect use of this. Your normal pace is at a quick march but the roadie run is a "keep your head down and run" maneuver. Putting the camera angle lower and with a slight shake to it turns it into a documentary-like experience.
* JustBeforeTheEnd: The "RAAM's Shadow" DLC to ''Gears of War 3'' takes place before the first game, early in the Human-Locust War. Though it chronologically takes place after the Hammer of Dawn strikes that destroyed much of Sera (Barrick refers to his old Stranded camp in past-tense; Stranded camps didn't exist before this event), Ilima City's mostly undamaged, the government is still functional, the military well-equipped, and there are active attempts to evacuate civilians wherever possible.
* KickTheDog: '''''And how''''' in the second game, particularly [[spoiler: Tai and Maria]]. It gets worse in ''Gears of War 3'' with [[spoiler: Dom's death]].
* KillItWithFire: The Berserker is only vulnerable to damage when her skin is hot and toasty, and the prefered method is using the [[KillSat Hammer of Dawn]] to do so. Otherwise the only other method of getting her to take damage is to use the Scorcher flamethrower or Incendiary Grenades, which is a much slower and dangerous tactic.
* KillSat: Now in convenient tactical-usage size, the Hammer of Dawn.
* LargeAndInCharge: The Locust leaders are much taller than their counterparts. RAAM, a Theron, is even bigger than a ''Boomer''. Even Myrrah is fairly tall for a (apparently) human woman.
* LargeHam: The Cole Train, baby!
* TheLastDance: ''Gears of War 3''. Ominously, the "Brothers To The End" tagline fades to just "The End" in trailers and commercials.
* LastLousyPoint:
** A number of Onyx medals in ''Gears of War 3'' take a lot of time to get, even if you boost them in private matches. To claim the "Seriously 3.0" achievement, you need to have them all.
** The "Foreshadowing" achievement added by "RAAM's Shadow": to get it, you must execute players playing as Lieutenant Kim while playing as General RAAM. This ''cannot'' be done privately, only in public multiplayer, where nobody ever played as Kim to begin with, even in the last two games, and certainly won't now since doing so will make them a highly sought-after target.
* LeftHanging: ''Gears of War 3'', confirmed by WordOfGod to be the last game in the series, has a definite GrandFinale vibe to it, and ends with a big question mark regarding [[spoiler: who or what Myrrah really was. This even gets lampshaded by Baird during one of the final levels. The New Hope Facility[=/=]Sires sub-plot from ''Gears of War 2'' is also left unaddressed]]. WordOfGod is that the developers found several of the fan-speculated explanations to be incredibly lame, which may explain their decision to just leave it a mystery.
* LoweredMonsterDifficulty:
** The Locust have become gradually weaker as the series has progressed. In the first game it took almost a full 60-round mag of Lancer assault rifle fire to kill a single basic Locust drone, making them one of the toughest basic FPS mooks ''ever''. In the second game, it only takes about two dozen assault rifle rounds to kill a Locust drone. By the time of the 3rd game, they can be dropped with only about a dozen bullets on Normal difficulty (about 15-20 rounds on Hardcore), making them on par with "standard" FPS soldier mooks.
** Boomers are somewhat weaker in ''Gears of War 2'', going down after only 1-2 clips from the Lancer (even on Hardcore) instead of 3-4 clips like in the first game. They're even weaker in ''Gears of War 3'', going down after only a little over 2/3rds of a full mag from the Lancer. This is largely due to the fact that in the first game they were basically BossInMooksClothing and always showed up in pairs. The sequels would have more "Boomer" types (including the Mauler, Grinder and Butcher) and more would appear at one time.
* LuckBasedMission: The final battle against General RAAM in the first game. There are so many random factors in this fight (Reavers shooting at you, randomly appearing Kryll, plus RAAM himself and his own pet Kryll) that winning is as much luck as skill, unless you abuse the AI-block glitch.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: With the previously mentioned meat shields and with the Mauler's indestructible Boomshields (that also double as roadblocks for larger enemies in Horde Mode). A Boomshield will actually protect you from ''a charging Berserker'' in the third game, although the recoil makes you drop it.
* LudicrousGibs: Not so ludicrous in the amount of gibs, just ludicrous in how much the average multiplayer match in it will have.
* MacGuffin: The Resonator in ''Gears of War'', [[spoiler: Maria]] in the sequel and [[spoiler: Adam]] in the last game. Some moreso than others.
* MadeOfExplodium: All Lambent creatures explode when killed with varying degrees of force, [[spoiler: which is used by the team when they needed a big bomb and there was a Lambent Brumak in front of them]]. Regular drones don't harm you much, drudges sometimes run ''after'' you when about to explode, wretches are like grenades, Grunkers and Lambent Berzerkers look like a tactical nuke.
* MadeOfIron:
** In the first game it takes close to a full magazine of assault rifle fire just to kill a single Locust Drone on every difficulty setting except the very easiest. Bear in mind that Lancer assault rifles have 50 rounds per magazine!
** A bit less so in the second game, which has a) a Normal difficulty that falls between Casual and Hardcore, with appropriate enemy strength and b) an improved Hammerburst assault rifle that's actually stable and accurate enough to score headshots at mid-range.
** Played straight in ''Gears Of War 2'', as everyone seems to lose pints of blood from being hit by bullets alone, but it takes time for it to affect them by having them go into a "down but not out" state.
** Played straight to this trope's extreme with the Meatflag in ''Gears of War 2'', an unarmored civilian who cannot die whatsoever. You could drop a mortar on his head, blowing everyone around him into meaty chunks, and he'll just be crawling around and complaining afterwards. Makes sense, considering he's the objective for that particular game mode "Submission". Likewise, Prescott and Myrrah are this for the game mode "Capture The Leader" in ''Gears of War 3''.
** In the cutscene leading up to the final boss fight of the "RAAM's Shadow" campaign, RAAM casually brushes off a chainsaw attack and several dozen assault rifle rounds at point blank range even ''before'' he puts up his Kryll shield.
* MadeOfPlasticine: A lucky shotgun blast can blow a target to LudicrousGibs.
* MauveShirt:
** The game series embodies this through the use of the Carmine brothers (Anthony, Ben and Clay), where the original was a [[RedShirt faceless member]] of the team who got killed early on while complaining about his gun jamming. Due to [[EnsembleDarkhorse his unexpected popularity]] they brought him back as his brother in Gears 2, still faceless but lasting longer through the campaign and a more fully developed character. Bringing in the third Carmine, still helmeted, they actually allowed the fans to choose whether he lived or died in the end through an X Box marketplace charity drive. As such most fans were wondering when/if he would die.
** Other characters in this mold include [[spoiler: Kim and Tai]].
* MayorOfAGhostTown: [[spoiler: Griffin, after your trip to Char.]]
* MeleeATrois: The second game introduces the Lambent, mutant Locust [[EnemyCivilWar who are fighting against the original Locust]]. By the third game, humans, Locust and Lambent are all duking it out with each other on the planet's surface.
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: The first two games and the novelizations play this straight. Only men do the fighting, while fertile women are used for reproductive purposes and non-fertile women serve in support roles. The third game, however, subverts this. The women fight alongside the men due to humanity being down to its last throes and needing every available body to fight.
* MercyKill:
** [[spoiler: Dom to Maria]]
** When you fight the [[spoiler: Lambent humans]] in Mercy, some can be clearly heard screaming "Kill me!" when they attack you.
* MillionMookMarch: The beginning of ''Gears of War 2''
* MiniMecha: The Silverback, which doesn't actually have a back so that Gears can climb in and out easily. Size-wise, it's very close to being a PoweredArmor.
* MissionControl: Features prominently in both games. Normally, Anya's the one providing intel, advice, orders and even [[UnresolvedSexualTension comfort]]; there are times where other characters take on the role, though they are distinctly lacking the comfort aspect. Delta Squad loses contact with MissionControl a depressing number of times throughout both games, though. In ''Gears of War 3'', a variety of characters take on the role, from Anya to Dizzy to [[spoiler: Adam Fenix]].
* {{Mooks}}: It's raining Locust!
** GiantMook: Boomers and their variants; Grinders, Maulers, Butchers, Flamers, etc.
** EliteMooks: Theron Guards; smarter, faster, tougher and armed with one-hit-kill Torque Bows.
** PraetorianGuard: The Palace Guards in the second game, who guard the Nexus Palace instead of regular drones, and are just as tough as Theron Guards. The third game has Chairman Prescott's Onyx Guard, elite Gears personally loyal to him, although you only fight them as the "final boss" of Beast Mode when playing as the Locust.
** MookMaker: Emergence Holes in the first two games, Kantus priests from ''Gears of War 2'' onwards can summon Tickers from out of nowhere, [[MookMedic revive downed Locust from long range]], and are overall just extremely annoying buggers (remember to ShootTheMedicFirst).
*** ''Gears of War 3'' feature [[spoiler: Lambent Stalks that sprout from the ground, changing the landscape but also depositing any number and multiple types of Lambent Locust in your path]] while also doing away with Emergence Holes, presumably because the Locust have [[spoiler: lost control of the underground to the Lambent]].
** MooksAteMyEquipment: Wild Tickers
* MoreDakka: ''Gears Of War 2'' has a man-portable Mulcher minigun. To help realism slightly, it requires you to set it down to fire it with anything that vaguely resembles accuracy, and you are unable to sprint, roll or mount over cover with it.
* MusclesAreMeaningless: The average male COG and Locust Drone has chest and arm girth that would put most Olympian power lifters to shame. This, of course, offers them no advantage over the normally proportioned (ie. literally ''half'' their size) female gears in terms of hand-to-hand combat or in carrying heavy weaponry from the hip (or their armor, for the matter). Emphasized at the end of ''Gears of War 3'' when [[spoiler:Anya and Marcus sit next to each other and hold hands, and you see how much bigger Marcus is compared to her]].
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Marcus ''Fenix'', Augustus "The Cole Train" Cole, RAAM, Corpser, Berserker, Skorge, '''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Chainsaw Bayonet]]'''.
* NecessaryDrawback: The Hammer of Dawn is easily a GameBreaker if there wasn't a few things holding it back. The target has to be outdoors and not under cover so that "[[HandWave the satellites can be aligned]]". In multiplayer, there's a limit to how long you can use it.
* NeverTrustATrailer: The "Ashes to Ashes" trailer. Features the group fighting in Char. [[spoiler: Dom never made it there in the game.]]
* NewMeat: Benjamin in the second game, who also stands out as a RedShirt by being the only main character who wears the face concealing helmet. The tutorial has the {{Player Character}}s training him.
* {{Nerf}}:
** Smoke Grenades in multiplayer; at launch for ''Gears of War 2'', these grenades instantly drop players to the ground, much like the Kantus scream, to allow for an easy kill. Following title updates, they momentarily stun players to stop them from firing or moving away, but recover much faster than the former effect.
** A "Stopping power" feature from firearms was programmed into Gears 2 in order to encourage players to play more strategically rather than just rushing at the enemy. In particular with the Gnasher players developed a tactic where they run into a forward dive then fired the Gnasher at the tail end of the roll, which was ridiculously effective (using grenades was also done similarly). Thus trying to rush at someone would end up with you coming up short.
** The Gnasher Shotgun, according to some players, was the only gun to use in multiplayer. Nowadays, it's a shadow of its former self, due to a few things such as the stopping power and the tightening of its spread. This was to give it a better medium range while still giving it the "gibs" effect at close range. The last title update to ''Gears of War 2'' returned the Gnasher to a point where it balances, if not outmatches, the assault rifles at medium range.
** The Torque Bow in the sequel is somewhat weaker, as it no longer kills Boomers in one shot (around on par with the Boomshot grenade launcher in terms of damage). It still {{One Hit Kill}}s Drones and Theron Guards, and also kills ''you'' in one shot on Hardcore (but not on Normal, where a direct hit doesn't even down you).
** Like the Gnasher, the chainsaw bayonet isn't as effective anymore, as taking more than a handful of damage will prevent you from keeping it revved up and take a few seconds before you can rev it up again. Of course, certain players ''really'' hate getting chainsawed, so in their eyes it still hasn't been nerfed enough.
*** Gears of War ''3'' rectifies it - getting hit while reving the chainsaw up will mess it up, but after you've managed to rev it, you'll keep it up despite getting damaged.
* NintendoHard:
** 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.
** You don't go "down but not out" in ''Gears of War 3'' on Insane: you just DIE. This includes co-op, meaning you have to load a checkpoint if ''anyone'' is downed.
** This is mitigated somewhat in ''Gears of War 3'' with the addition of Arcade Mode, in which you respawn on a 30-second timer in co-op (even on Insane; you don't get a game over unless everyone's dead). You still earn every campaign achievement and reward while playing Arcade, too.
* NoBloodForPhlebotinum: All the bloody conflict has been because of the wonder-fuel Imulsion [[spoiler:which turns out to be an living, mutating parasite! The series ends with all Imulsion being destroyed.]]
* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Averted in "RAAM's Shadow", which has several segments where you play on the side of the Locust horde.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: If you "down but not out" a Locust Drone, you can wait for his buddies to run out of cover to rescue him and shoot THEM as they rush in.
* NoobCave: "Casual" multiplayer for ''Gears of War 3'' is just straight-up Team Deathmatch. Notably, those who have earned certain achievements in the first two games or participated in the beta on their profile are locked out of "casual" and are forced into "standard" multiplayer. Somewhat justified by Epic Games, as they cite ''Gears of War 3'' being the most accessible title, thus giving newcomers to the series a place to practice before joining the "big leagues".
* [[OnceAnEpisode Once A Game]]: Every game so far has featured one "horror movie" level, with plenty of tense atmospheres, foreboding scenery, and nonstandard enemies. It was in the Lethia Imulsion Facility in the first, the New Hope Research Facility in the second, and Mercy in the third.
* OneHitKill:
** In the first game, the Torque Bow kills anything any all difficulties that isn't a boss in one hit, including you. It even works on Boomers, who can take multiple rounds from the Boomshot or 3 full magazines of assault rifle fire. {{Nerf}}ed in the sequels, where it's no longer this trope. The third game does still allow single kills with it on Boomer-class Locust, but only with [[BoomHeadshot headshots]].
** The One Shot in the third game; [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin it's faithful to its name]].
** In multiplayer, Boomshots, One Shots, Torque Bows, Mortars and Frag and Incendiary Grenades will OneHitKill if impacting close enough to a player. BoomHeadshot is a guaranteed kill with the Longshot sniper rifle.
* OneManArmy:
** Technically a squad of four, but just two of the squad still ended up practically ''single-handedly deploying the destruction of the enemy'', [[spoiler: twice]], barring the occasional need for transportation (although they end up transporting themselves more often then not).
** [[spoiler:The consistency of the trope towards the final missions in the third installment is somewhat averted with it being clear that supportive elements are on the island - though not right with you - probably stopping the entire rest of the Horde from getting to you, which you'd assume Myrrah would probably be trying to do in such a desperate situation]].
* OneWingedAngel:
** [[spoiler: The Imulsion turns the Brumak you've hijacked into a Lambent Brumak, which serves as the final boss for ''Gears of War 2'']].
** ''Gears of War 3'' introduces Drudges, a Lambent creature that mutates once it takes enough damage (unless you consistently hit the glowing Imulsion "belly"). It sometimes sprouts a flame throwing snake head, turns into a tree with three branches throwing Imulsion fireballs at you, or remains mobile but has two arms throwing smaller Imulsion fireballs.
* TheOtherDarrin: Jace goes from having an Australian-sounding voice in his cameo in ''Gears of War 2'' to being played by Michael B. Jordan in ''Gears of War 3''.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Cliff Bleszinski once said in an interview that the inspiration for the Locust Horde came from [[TheLordOfTheRings the Uruk-hai.]] He explains this by saying that the Uruk-hai tend to be smarter and tougher than regular orcs. As such, he designed the Locust to be smarter than the usual average bunch of "horde" monsters in other settings, via taking cover, not rushing into COG fire, etc.
* [[spoiler: OurZombiesAreDifferent]]: [[spoiler: Formers, who show up in Act 3, are ''Lambent humans'', who act similar to stereotypical zombie fashion. It doesn't help that all they seem to be focused on is attacking the living and that one guy even seems to have been eaten alive. [[{{Redshirt}} Poor bastard]]]].
* PardonMyKlingon: "Suck my blithe!"
* PersonalSpaceInvader: Lots, though [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the fact this is a cover-based game. Since you're supposed to hide from your enemies, ones that just run up and melee you will be considerable threats. The first game has Wretches, [[GoddamnBats Kryll]] and Grenadiers. The sequel removes the Kryll, but adds Maulers, Butchers, Tickers, Sires, Beast Riders on Bloodmounts, [[IncendiaryExponent anything with a flamethrower]]...yeah. Also, low-level Locust will randomly charge and melee you. This can range from irritating (when they have a Boltok pistol) to terrifying (when they have a Lancer). The third game adds Lambent Polyps to the mix.
* PlayingWithSyringes: Niles Samson and New Hope. Though unconfirmed, the notes in the research facility and the recordings indicate that [[spoiler: whatever they were working on was connected to the Locust, and may have been related to Myrrah]].
* PlotHole: In ''1'', the Kryll will eat anything, Locust or Man, that falls into darkness. RAAM is the only one able to walk among them, and his ability to do this is never explained. In "RAAM's Shadow" for ''3'', even normal Locust can avoid the Kryll and RAAM's lieutenants can control them as he does.
* PoweredArmor: Theorized to be the reason Gears can do all the acrobatics the game allows them, but it has yet to be stated.
* PreAssKickingOneLiner: "[[KillItWithFire Let's turn up the heat!]]"
* PyrrhicVictory:
** In spades with ''Gears of War 3''; [[spoiler: sure, the Locust and Lambent are finally gone, but the vast majority of humanity is dead, their cities destroyed and ruined and their primary source of energy used to build them up in the first place no longer exists because it was mutating beyond its control. The future is going to be very, very hard, but at least there IS a future for humanity]].
** Surprisingly, the events of "RAAM's Shadow" turn out as one for the Locust. Yes, the COG has lost hundreds of Gears and civilians, but the evacuation of Ilima City was largely successful and RAAM was nearly killed by Zeta Squad.
* QuadDamage: The Mutators in ''Gears of War 3'' has one called "Super Reload". If you manage a perfect active reload you get several powerful effects: the affected ammo from the reload does not drain from your primary ammo cache, once the affected ammo is depleted it still gives you a full clip of regular fire (single shot clips like the Boomshot basically gives you two shots back to back), there is no time limit on using the affected bonus and instead of a 10-20 percent damage increase it does literally about a '''500 percent''' damage increase. It's so powerful it makes regular assault rifles (especially the Lancer due to high firing rate and clip size) more valuable than the Silverback minigun.
* RatedMForManly:
** Everyone is absolutely enormous, and spouts {{OneLiner}}s without irony. They have ''chainsaw machine guns''. If you hit a button at the right time, they can reload their gun '''hard''' and make the bullets come out stronger. This game will make a man out of you, even if you're a woman.
** Anya and Samantha are every bit as manly as their male teammates. Seeing Anya scream and cuss as she chainsaws a Locust in half will remove whatever doubt you may have that her upgrade from [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection control operative]] to ActionGirl may be a plot contrivance.
** A cutscene in ''Gears of War 2'' has Cole and Marcus reuniting and bumping their chainsaw-equipped machine guns together. A manlier greeting has never been seen, before or since.
* ReallyBigGun: The only in-game sidearms available are the [[RevolversAreJustBetter Boltok pistol]] and the semi-automatic Snub pistol which looks like it came from {{Warhammer40000}} (with the magazine ''in front of the grip''). The sequel throws in the Gorgon pistol, a spiked semi-automatic burst fire weapon bigger than any playable character's head and is reloaded with ''two'' clips. ''Gears of War 3'' doesn't bring in any new sidearm, but reiterates the Gorgon into a fully-automatic submachine pistol.
* RealIsBrown: The original ''Gears of War'' was practically the TropeCodifier; nearly everything was a shade of brown and it felt like a straight ColorWash, making it almost impossible to tell your side from the enemy. The sequels improve on it significantly, with ''Gears of War 2'' making the lights on the armor more vibrant and the colors of the two sides more distinct (blue for COG, red for Locust). Since it's winter, there's a lot of snow on the surface, and down in the Hollow, glowing flora luminates the dark caverns. ''Gears of War 3'' completely averts it with colorful environments and brighter colors. Justified because it's summertime at the onset of the game.
* RecklessGunUsage: The loading screens in three show a contemplative Fenix resting his hands on the muzzle of his rifle.
* RedShirt: Aside from the two Carmine brothers already mentioned, the "We're fucked! We're fucked!" Gear who is mauled by the first Berserker in the first game is listed in the credits as "Redshirt Gyules". The Carmines lampshade their RedShirt-edness in the multiplayer.
-->'''Anthony Carmine''': *gets a headshot* "NOW who's expendable?!"
* RefugeInAudacity:
** Chainsaw bayonets?! Are you serious?! They actually make sense given how much armor almost everyone wears. A normal bayonet is only useful against unarmored targets.
** The sequel has ''chainsaw duels''. TheDragon can only be damaged by this because he has a ''[[XOnAStick double-edged chainsaw staff]].'' [[RuleOfCool Hell yeah]].
** Numerous points in the second game have Delta Squad being forced into using this trope.
--> '''Fenix''': Control! We've hijacked a Brumak and we're-\\
'''Anya''': You ''what''?\\
'''Fenix''': ''We're riding a Brumak''!
* RetCon: The second game switched the names of the Grenadier and Grenadier Elite. The third game gave the Beast Rider a Drone body type instead of a Grenadier body type (although the Grenadier variants still show up in Horde). Myrrah also now has a Caucasian skin tone instead of being grey like she was in the second game.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: While the Boltok pistol (which is obviously a revolver) used to have a slower firing rate and more damage compared to the standard Snub pistol, achieving its active reload allows it to fire faster. It even makes for an impromptu sniper rifle in a pinch, due to all pistols having a zoom-in function.
* RingOutBoss: The Corpser in the first game has to be knocked into the Imulsion by the recoil from your attacks.
* RoarBeforeBeating: Wretches and [[TheBerserker Berserkers]].
* RockBottom: The whole human race.
* RobotBuddy: Delta Squad has a floating robot following them called JACK (that frequently utilizes a cloaking device to avoid damage from their firefights), in reference to the phrase "[[MeaningfulName Jack-of-all-trades]]". Some wonder if it's something of an {{Expy}} of [[StarWars R2-D2]], claiming to see some scenes which indicate emotion, such as waving its arms as if it's frightened. In the third game, JACK even gets an electrical self-defense mechanism.
* RuleOfCool: Many, many (if not all) things, but most notably '''Chainsaw''' '''''Bayonets'''''
* RuleOfFun:
** Canonically, the chainsaw bayonet was developed because the traditional blade bayonets break on Locust skin. In ''Gears of War 3''. the Retro Lancer is integrated into the gameplay, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation yet the blades don't ever break]].
** The "active reload" mechanic within the game consists of a minigame while reloading: press the reload button within a specific and small window of time and the weapon will reload faster. Press it within an even smaller, more specific window will give the weapon a temporary stat bonus (increased range, firing rate, damage...) and reloads the weapon instantly if pressed correctly. However, missing it causes the weapon to jam and ends up taking much longer to reload. This minigame is never explained, not even {{HandWave}}d, and is quite obviously just there to make reloading more fun.
* SadClown:
** Dom intially, even more so in the third game.
** Cole gets some moments suggesting this early in the third game when he visits the ruins of his DoomedHometown. He may be a BoisterousBruiser [[TheBigGuy Big Guy]] who loves the adrenaline rush of sports and combat, but he is also clearly haunted by memories of happier times which will never come again.
* SandWorm: The Riftworm
* ScaryBlackMan: Twice averted with Cole. "The Cole Train" looks to be the most musclar character in a game full of bulky-armoured men, and one probably wouldn't want to fight him, but he's probably also among the nicest characters as well. Jace is black, and pretty big (although by comparison to Marcus and Cole, he's notably small) and has cornrows, yet he's written as the sweetest character in the games and ExpandedUniverse (notably, Michael B. Jordan portrays Wallace in ''TheWire'', who's known for playing that type of character). Probably the straightest example of this trope is [[{{Jerkass}} Aaron Griffin]], who even seems to frighten the men under him.
* SceneryPorn: ''3'' really shows off just how good the Unreal engine can be with the proper amount of time and effort. From the beautifully-rendered and colourful daytime maps like Mercy and Sandbar to the gloomy and soaking wet remake of Bullet Marsh, it's clear that Epic didn't cut ''any'' corners.
* ScoreMultiplier: In ''3'', you can play an "Arcade" version of the campaign where your score is recorded in which enemies you kill. So many points reaches another multiplier level where you get more points for each kill and the multiplier goes down when a player character goes down, if a player is killed the score resets to X1.
* ScreamingWarrior: Pretty much everyone, especially when chainsawing, executing, or retro charging an opponent. Special mention goes to Tai, the Carmine brothers and Savage Drones.
* SergeantRock: Marcus, when Benjamin's part of Delta Squad. Hoffman counts, as well.
* 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.
* SequelEscalation: In spades. Each game seems to aim to be manlier, gorier and darker than the last.
* SequelHook: The ending narration of the first game is a bona-fide hook. Wait until the end of the credits of the second game for another sequel hook. [[spoiler: The data disk Adam gives to Baird is possibly another hook on the LeftHanging segments for ''Gears of War 3'']].
* ShootTheMedicFirst: Those damn Kantus Priests!
* ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon: The Longshot sniper rifle fits this trope well, except for one particular sequence in ''Gears of War 2'' (see ThisIsForEmphasisBitch below).
* ShortRangeShotgun: Averted in ''Gears of War 2'', as the raw damage the Gnasher can inflict in close range was toned down from the first game but was balanced out by actually being an average weapon for medium range. ''Gears of War 3'' introduces a double-barrled SawedOffShotgun to give you a choice between the balanced Gnasher and this overspecialized shotgun. In fact, the Sawed Off's range is so short, [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108020-Gears-of-War-3-Interview.2 the developers nicknamed it the "Bad Touch" gun]] since you'll need to be in that range to use it right.
* ShouldersOfDoom: Pretty much the whole Gear armor kit should prevent any kind of movement whatsoever if it were even vaguely realistic.
* ShoutOut: Several to many sources.
** The Kantus has the same ability and trademark pose as {{Doom}}'s Arch-ville.
** The nature of the Kryll turns the game into a {{Homage}} of ''PitchBlack'' for part of the Act 2 of the first game.
** There's an achievement for killing 10000 and 100000 enemies in the first two games, respectively, called "Seriously!?", alluding to one of [[JohnDiMaggio Marcus's]] [[KimPossible other roles]].
** In ''Gears of War 3'', earning the Onyx medal for the number of times you executed a nemesis (Someone who kills you 5 times without you killing them) will award you with the title "[[Film/ThePrincessBride My Name Is Inigo Montoya]]".
** In ''Gears of War 3'', the medal for 500 MVP awards is BrutalLegend.
** The "Architect" medal has a picture of the skull from the Crimson Omen wearing a white suit, like the Architect from ''TheMatrix''.
* ShrugOfGod: As explained by David Nashty and Karen Traviss, the writers actually ''did'' have a confirmed backstory for Myrrah, New Hope, and the Sires. However, Epic went to the effort of deleting the Q&A post by Nashty revealing this backstory, leaving its "canon" status up in the air (see the Discussion section for details).
* SigilSpam: The Crimson Omen. ''Gears of War 1'' and ''3'' both use it as a marker inexplicitly to let you know a COG Tag is nearby. The other collectibles in ''3'' don't get them, unfortunately, and in ''2'' the COG Tags don't even get them.
* SillinessSwitch:
** The mutators in added in ''3'' are divided into 'easy' 'hard' and 'fun' categories. The latter is composed of BigHeadMode, Flower Blood (which, sadly, disables ''all'' gore as well), Laugh Track (which is INCESSANT, like a terrible sitcom), Headless Chicken (which causes decapitated enemies to run around in a berserk rampage for a short time) and Pinata (which adds a collection minigame of sorts).
** There are several multiplayer events that ramps up the silliness. Two prominent examples are the Halloween event that turns everyone's head into a jack-o'-lantern, and the "Thanksgibbing" playlist, where everyone starts with a Cluckshot that shoots explosive chickens!
* SimultaneousArcs: ''Gears of War 3'' does this in the first act, half of which you play as Cole and his squad as they attempt to aid Marcus.
* SincerestFormOfFlattery: The developers point to ''ResidentEvil4'' as an influence, which then came full circle, as the developers of ''ResidentEvil5'' bragged about their "[[http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/906/906950p1.html Gears of War controls]]".
* SmallGirlBigGun: Anya, Samantha and Bernie in the third game. Though not petite, they are smaller than the male Gears.
* SophisticatedAsHell: The "Young Adam Fenix" multiplayer skin has quips like this, since he's probably the smartest individual in the ''Gears Of War'' universe. "Kiss my highly educated ass!" indeed.
* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil:
** Fairly blatantly used in ''2.'' While talking about Skorge, Marcus states he "makes RAAM look like a Goddamn pushover". Somewhat justified by [[spoiler: linking the emergence of a "GIANT WORM!!!" to the Lightmass Bomb]].
** Played with in ''3''- you start off against the new and explode-y Lambent, and fight them and the Locust in varied intervals. By the end of the game, though, the Locust you fight are loads and loads of Myrrah's Guards along with the bigger Boomers, Grinders, Armoured Kantus, etc. Possibly a JustifiedTrope that Myrrah only managed to get her elite forces to keep up with her and the main Locust force is kept at bay on Azura by the COG reinforcements.
* SoundtrackDissonance:
** Joseph Kosinski's famous commercial for the first game where scenes of carnage are set to the tune of "Mad World". The sequel's commercial has Delta Squad drilling into Locust territory as "How It Ends" plays in the background. The main trailer for ''Gears of War 3'' has ''Into Dust'' playing in the background.
** [[spoiler: Just to show how things are going full circle, "Mad World" gets an instrumental DarkReprise as Dom sacrifices himself in ''Gears of War 3''. The calm piano melody is offset by the carnage of the act]].
* TheSquad: Delta Squad
* SquadControls: You can order your team to either hold back or advance.
* TheSquadette: Three in the third game; Anya, Sam, and Bernie.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Subverted in ''Gears of War 3''. Delta Squad gets a total of three [[TheSquadette female Gears]].
* SssssnakeTalk: [[EliteMook Theron Guards]]
* TheStoic: Marcus
* StoryToGameplayRatio: Fairly low, especially in the first game.
* {{Stripperific}}: Averted in the third game, where this trope was mentioned in an interview. Female Gears will be wearing the same bulky armor on their upper-bodies, although they do wear skin-tight leggings instead of wearing baggy pants like the men, and by virtue of character design, they are still physically smaller than the men. They do manage to show at least some skin as Delta Squad switches to summer, sleeveless uniforms, but the game series is certainly gender balanced in {{Fanservice}}.
* SuicidalOverconfidence:
** In the first game, your teammates' propensity for vaulting over a perfectly good piece of cover in order to charge straight into enemy fire and get shot full of holes is absolutely ridiculous. Almost certainly a form of FakeDifficulty designed to make the player do all the work instead of letting the A.I. do most of the fighting. Rectified in the sequel with smarter squadmates less likely to break cover and do this (and who also can soak much more damage).
** Locust in Gears 3's Horde mode are prone to doing this. It's rather interesting to watch a sniper of all things trying to rush at a primed and ready Mulcher.
* TakeCover: THE TropeCodifier for the genre. The way Epic Games made it work compared to similar shooters was by shortening the distances you'd engage enemies (making the fighting generally more frantic) and evening out the durability of both sides (Locust are just as durable as you are). They also pointed towards playing paintball as an inspiration, as much of the game is trying to replicate the adrenaline rush you'd get in a RealLife combat situation and patiently waiting for an enemy to expose themselves. {{Lampshaded}} perfectly in the second game by Marcus:
-->'''Marcus''': The Golden Rule of Gears: TakeCover or die.
* TakenForGranite: ''Gears of War 3'' features the city of Char filled with crowds of people who have been flash-fried into statues of ash, the first real depiction in the games of the absolute hell the Hammer of Dawn counterattacks have caused.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Marcus and Baird do not get along very well, though they do gradually get on friendlier terms. By the second game, they mostly throw friendly insults at each other. Explained in-universe that Baird was initially resentful of Marcus given command over him or Cole, considering at the start of the games, he and Cole outranked him or Dom and, despite Marcus being a decorated Gear and war hero, Marcus was also discharged and imprisoned who is only active again because the military doesn't have a choice.
** Brought back in ''3.'' While Marcus and Baird are now getting along, there is considerable friction between Baird and Sam in the first Acts, with them throwing all sorts of sarcastic quips at each other. The nature of their rivalry is implied to stem from Sam being Dom's new LoveInterest. [[spoiler: They ease up considerably after Dom's HeroicSacrifice.]]
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: Marcus sometimes shouts "Now I'm pissed!" upon being revived, and some Locust in Campaign may shout "RRRRRAAAAAGE!" while attacking you.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: ''Gears Of War 2'' allows characters to use mortars, miniguns and a multitude of over-the-top weaponry to kill mere infantry. Not to mention multiple characters can chainsaw a single enemy at the same time. That's not counting the ludicrous amount of overkill inherent to [[spoiler: using a Brumak]] against hapless Locust.
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch:
** One segment in ''Gears of War 2'' gives you free reign to snipe Locust from a ridge. Achieving five kills in a row with the sniper rifle, and Marcus will yell: "That's one. That's two! [[LargeHam That's THREE! THAT'S FOUR! THAT'S FIVE, MOTHERFUCKERS!"]]
** Delivered straight by Marcus [[spoiler: when he guts Myrrah in ''Gears of War 3'']]:
--> '''Marcus''': "[[spoiler: You feel that? That's from Dom... and everyone else you killed you bitch!]]"
* TokenMinority: Averted, as the series is very racially diverse, since the humans of Sera are shattered remnant of dozens of nation.
* TookALevelInBadass:
** The Carmine family name, via the introduction of Clayton in ''Gears of War 3''.
** JACK gets upgraded to be helpful in combat late in the third game.
* TropeCodifier: ''Gears of War'' didn't invent cover-based shooters (that honor goes to the PS2 games ''Kill.Switch'' and ''Win Back''), but it unquestionly took the gameplay mechanic from the realm of obscure Japanese widget to mainstream Hollywood blockbuster.
* TrueCompanions: This is ''BandOfBrothers: The Game''. In fact, the tagline for ''Gears of War 3'' is "Brothers to '''The End'''". In the ExpandedUniverse, the enitre COG army is pretty much this both before and after Emergence Day. If you are a Gear, you know you can always count on every single other Gear to have your back, no matter what, even if they don't like you. Since the army is so small after Emergence Day, a large majority of Gears know every other Gear still alive.
* UncleTomfoolery: ''ALL ABOARD THE COLE TRAIN, BABY!''. Cole is the {{Expy}} of Terry Tate, Office Linebacker, except with a very big gun. Aside from the flamboyant, boisterous actions of Cole (the "Cole Train" multiplayer skin in ''Gears of War 3'' being the prime example), all other blacks, such as Jace, are written very 21st century.
* UnexpectedGameplayChange: After spending the entire game skulking cover to cover, ''Gears of War 2'' ends in an unstoppable juggernaut section, followed by a point-and-click FinalBoss. The earlier Reaver-piloting RailShooter sections certainly count. Likewise, the trip to the town of Mercy in ''Gears of War 3'' and the beautiful submarine segment to Azura, albeit somewhat boring.
* UnflinchingWalk: While not entirely unflinching, Tai's walking out of the debris of his squad's grindlift rig when it is destroyed has him looking quite unconcerned with the fact it just happened.
* UpdatedRerelease: The PC version of ''Gears of War'' features several new levels in the last act that make the overall plot flow more coherently, as well as a new boss battle against a Brumak. If it's any consolation to console gamers, these levels are unoptimized and tend to lag even on bleeding edge hardware.
* VehicularAssault: Although they're technically more of a mount, all the [[spoiler: non-Lambent]] Brumak fights go this way. Likewise on the various occasions that Delta has to fight Reavers on foot.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Downed characters crawl on the ground in the sequels until death. In the first game, you could leave them there, unmoving, until death via blood loss. In every game, executions are possible and encouraged, with the second game introducing weapon-exclusive executions that look excruciatingly painful. Oh, and then there's the [[KillItWithFire Scorcher flamethrower]].
* VillainousBreakdown: Towards the end of ''Gears of War 3'', Queen Myrrah loses a lot of her previously cool and composed demeanor and becomes increasingly rabid and hysterical... fairly understandable, considering she's facing the complete annihilation of her species.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Baird and Cole. Baird and Marcus too, prevalent throughout the first game, and while toned down in the second and third it's still there.
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Anya
* WalkItOff
* WeaponizedAnimal: Most of the Locust "vehicles" and some of the weapons are actully enslaved creatures from the Hollow.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler:The first two Carmine brothers]]. Averted with Kim and Tai, who are now primary characters in "RAAM's Shadow" for ''Gears of War 3''.
* WeHaveReserves: The Locust Horde is described this way in supplementary material, being willing to sacrifice a hundred Drones just to kill one Gear. This is less so in ''Gears of War 2'', where the Locust military exhibits some self-preservationist behavior, e.g. retreating and falling back, but only when on the receiving end of bad mojo, like [[spoiler: being chased by a goddamn ''Brumak'']] or the Lambent Locust, which is justified since overexposure to Imulsion would turn them into Lambent.
* WellDoneSonGuy:
** Marcus [[AllThereInTheManual in the extended universe]].
** Shades of this appear in the actual game when ''Gears of War 3'' rolls around: "It was always his work my father cared about... his research." Poor Marcus.
* WeWillMeetAgain: Griffin vows revenge against Marcus towards the end of ''Gears of War 3'' before pulling a VillainExitStageLeft. Somewhat odd, given that this is the last game in the trilogy.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** Don't buy the third game if you expect any sort of explanation for the [[spoiler: Sires]].
** [[spoiler: The strangeness of the queen, looking much like a human unlike the rest of the Locust, and even surviving the anti-Imulsion and Locust superweapon, is noted by Baird before it happens, and it is never explained]].
** [[spoiler: What's with the disk Adam gives to Baird? One thing's for sure, you won't find out in the same game]].
* WolfpackBoss: The Armoured Kanti in Gears of War 3.
* WombLevel: The Rift Worm in the second game.
* WorldHealingWave: [[spoiler: Adam Fenix's machine, while neutralizing the Lambent parasite. In true Gears fashion, this doubles as an InferredHolocaust, as anything irradiated enough by Imulsion, human or Locust, will be destroyed. Indeed, all the Lambent die, including the Locust and some humans, such as Adam himself]].
* WouldHitAGirl: Berserkers; you'd better hit them HARD or else they'll rip you to shreds. In the third game, the Locust and Lambent have no qualms about shooting, downing and executing female Gears.
* XMeetsY: Horde 2.0 in ''Gears of War 3'' is Horde Mode from the second mixed with TowerDefense elements.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Marcus
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Marcus' reaction to having to fight a Berserker onboard a train.
* YourHeadAsplode:
** Done by headshots from almost all weapons in ''Gears of War'' if they hit your head when [[CriticalExistenceFailure it does enough damage]] to deplete your HitPoints. They even sell ''an action figure'' of a Drone with its head a-sploding.
** ''Gears of War 3'' hilariously introduces a "Mutator" for Arcade Mode and Horde 2.0. What does it do? Enemies victim to would-be-fatal headshots frantically run around the map attacking anything without mercy. Makes for funny moments when all that's left of their craniums is a bloodied stump while managing to continue screaming.
* YourMom: Prescott gets furious if you lose a multiplayer round.
-->'''Prescott''': ''I wish your indigent fathers had never met your indulgent mothers!''
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: [[spoiler: The Resonator fails. Even after that, the Lightmass Bomb is insufficient to wipe the Locust out. In the sequel, sinking Jacinto isn't enough to stop the persistent creatures permanently]].
* [[spoiler: ZombieApocalypse]]: The Lambent, [[spoiler: more so once the infection is discovered to spread to humans]].
!!The Books provide examples of:
* AnimalReactionShot: Bernie's dog Mac gets a few of these.
* AteHisGun: General Bardry Salaman, who was unable to live with himself after having helped carry out the Hammer of Dawn counterattack.
* TheAtoner: Hoffman. He feels horrible about leaving Marcus to die in prison, but can't bring himself to apologize. He makes up for it by ignoring Marcus and Anya breaking regulations and having a relationship.
* BadAss: A ton, just like the games, but some notable ones are Captian Miran Trescu and Major Helena Stroud, both of whom most of the other characters really admire for their fighting skills.
* ChildSoldiers: Delta captures a fifteen-year old Stranded insurgent on Vectes, though Baird insists that his age makes him an adult.
* ContinuityNod: Many between all the books. Considering that each is written by the same author and each has a flashback storyline and one set in the present that relate to each other, it really isn't any surpise.
* CrapsackWorld: If the games didn't make it clear, the horrible event in the books really will show how terrible a place Sera is, even before the Locust emerged.
* DeadpanSnarker: A lot of the characters, but Baird does it the most.
* DecemberDecemberRomance: Hoffman and Bernie.
* FantasticRacism:
** While the townspeople of Pelruan and the Gorasini have every reason to hate Stranded, thats no reason to be mean to and attack Dizzy and his daughters.
** The COG also heavily discriminated against any non-COG ethnic groups, and even some of those allied with them.
* GunshipRescue: Many times, just like in the games. Subverted once as well: during a Lambent assault on Pelruan, KR-33 attempts to take out a mutated Leviathan. It's quickly destroyed by the Leviathan shooting explosive polyps at it.
* HeroicBSOD: FriendlySniper Padrick Salton begins suffering one after the death of his spotter. It becomes even worse after he scouted the areas hit by the Hammer of Dawn counterattack that killed most of the human population.
* HeroicSacrifice: During the Battle of Aspho Fields, [[spoiler:Helena Stroud, Anya's mother,]] sacrifices herself to take out an Indie anti-aircraft vehicle so COG air support could assist in the battle. Somewhat averted in that she didn't mean to die on the Asp; her armor just caught on the vehicle, which exploded before she could cut herself free.
* HumansAreBastards:
** After E-Day and the Hammer of Dawn counterattack, all civilization outside of the COG except for two instances devolved into gangs of Stranded fighting each other over territory and supplies. Rape, murder, and other crimes are the normal behavior among a lot of Stranded tribes, and are often regarded as worse than the Locust by the COG because they have the capicity to be civilized, but aren't. On the other hand, there are also plenty of Stranded who are not complete bastards, and simply can't bring themselves to join the COG because of the Hammer strike and just want to be left alone.
** Also counting the Hammer strikes themselves, the COG breeding farms, and what the Indies did to Tai's home village, this trope is hammered home many times.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Baird. However much he may claim he doesn't care about anyone else but himself and [[HoYay maybe Cole]], he sure takes a lot of risks he doesn't need to for others, and even attempts to comfort them in his own unique JerkAss way.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Helena Stroud, Rory Andresen, Bai Tak, Carlos Santiago]]
* LudicrousGibs: Whats happens to [[spoiler:Helena Stroud]] and [[spoiler:Carlos Santiago]].
* MacheteMayhem: The Pesanga scouts are fond of this.
* ProfessionalButtKisser: Major Aleksander Reid will do anything to get in Chairman Richard Prescotts good graces.
* RapeAsBackstory: Bernadette Mataki, with AngstWhatAngst in regards to it on her part. Or so she claims.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Bernie went on one against her rapists. She got real good with using her knife during it.
* SkeletonGovernment: Basically all that is left of the government 15 years after E-Day is Prescott.
* WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis: At one point Queen Myrrah remarks that the Locust could have cooperated with the Humans to save both species, but decided to go to total war instead because supposedly HumansAreBastards who "only understand dominance and ownership". Not to mention violent to an extreme. Then again, if you first encountered the Seran humans after 100 years of war (and untold years before hand of unrest) which included nukes and kill sats on their own species, you might be a little wary of approaching them as a completely different species altogether.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In hindsight, knocking the Corpser into Imulsion probably wasn't the greatest idea. Good thing the Lightmass Bomb took care of it.
* YouSayTomato: Bernie is questioned about her accent several times, mostly about saying "arse" instead of "ass".
!!The Comics provide examples of:
* BadAss
* DisposablePilot: Delta's Raven pilot gets blown up in his cockpit, prompting Jace Stratton to take the controls and sort-of land the chopper.
* DoesNotLikeMen: Most members of the Grievious Bodily Love, with good reason.
* EyepatchOfPower: Lt.Draper
* GunsAkimbo: Happens several times, most notably with Michael Barrick and shotguns.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** [[spoiler:Michael Barrick]] stays behind in the Hollow to allow the rest of Delta Squad to escape.
** [[spoiler:Matron]] detonates a bomb in Jilane to allow Delta to escape with the survivors of a Locust massacare.
* SamusIsAGirl: Alex Brand, which surprises Delta after she saves them from a sniper nest.
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