Cliff Bleszinksi raised a curious possibility for Gears of War in a new interview.
Talking to the Xbox Era podcast, Cliffy was asked what he was going to do to the cover shooter franchise before he agreed to have Microsoft purchase the game in 2014. This is what Cliffy said, as reported by the Video Games Chronicle:
“Yeah, I can tell you I wanted to actually consider going to first-person with it.
Can you imagine chainsawing a Locust in first-person?”
To the discredit of the Xbox Era hosts, they did not get Cliffy to elaborate further on this, but it’s really interesting to think about when you consider Gears of War’s history.
Cliffy is considered the creator of the Gears of War franchise, and was lead game designer for the first three games. Of course, Cliffy was not the sole game designer or creative mind behind Gears of War, so we should also note here that Rod Fergussion also had a major leadership role in the franchise, as executive producer and director of development for the studio Epic Games until 2012.
Gears of War is considered the progenitor of the cover shooting mechanic. It is not the very first game to feature this mechanic, as Winback: Covert Operations, developed by Omega Force for the Nintendo 64, precedes it by a good seven years.
However, much like Super Mario 64 created an industry template for the 3D platformer when it released, Gears of War was the defining template for how shooting mechanics would be used in video games for a good few years. The reason Gears of War takes this distinction over Winback, Time Crisis, Metal Gear Solid 2, and even Kill.Switch, is that the entire game, including its environments and level design, was effectively built around that mechanic.
So let me be clear on that. Every other action game with shooting mechanics, like Grand Theft Auto, Rainbow Six: Vegas, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, utilized cover shooting mechanics.
On the side, some of those games were first person games, while Gears of War is a third person game.
In very general terms, Gears of War’s cover mechanics did allow players to take their time and aim their shots. While hardcore FPS players derided this as easy, it enabled more players to try shooters themselves.
But as an FPS, Gears of War would have been a more immediate and visceral experience, requiring a shift to fast combat. It would have definitely taken that first generation of Gears of War players outside their virtual comfort zone.
But as Cliffy pointed out, imagine chainsawing Locusts in first person. It would have been making you feel more like Doomguy than Marcus Fenix.
Gears of War continued to build its own identity after Epic Games and Cliffy B. The rumor going around right now is that a new game is already in development.
