Gears of War timeline catches you up in time for third game

by Alexander Sliwinski on Sep 14th 2011 11:30PM

The Gears of War trilogy has a story... with an actual plot. This may be a revelation to some, so Epic has produced a timeline that covers pertinent events.

Short version: Marcus Fenix has deep daddy issues. His buddy, Dom, had spontaneous wife issues in the second game, but they worked it out. Meanwhile, the planet had a locust problem, which then evolved into issues with a new group, the lambent. There, you're all set for Gears of War 3.

Longer version: Head on over to Epic Games' site for the full rundown.

Tags: Epic-Games, Gears-of-War-3, microsoft, Timeline, xbox

Reader Comments (40)

This game would be so much better if it were on PS3... Cause then I could play it :D

@Scuba Steve You give us LBP2 to play and we have a deal 0_0

@Schlecht
LBP? That's a great game but I'll take God of War 1-3 instead :)

@Scuba Steve

or you could just get an Xbox...i mean, why not?

@Master Troll I just feel we could get more play time out of LBP2. I know, GoW for GoW seems perfect

@Schlecht I'd rather have the Uncharted series, even though I already have them on my PS3...

@Scuba Steve
Yeah I agree. just get both. Why settle for one over another when the systems are relatively cheap?

@Tommy758 I have a ps3 but would take the Uncharted Series especially 3 coming out soon on Xbox over ps3, the multiplayer would be alot more fun on live

Read it. Does a good job giving a simple explanation of what happened before Gears 1 and in-between 2 and 3 to those who didn't read the (awesome) novels.

Awfull timeline, go read the books.

@Zeta333

This is the simple way to explain new players what went on in the Gears universe. Books are usually to the hardcore fans of the franchise. I doubt they can read all 4 books in 5 days. Just saying. I think it's pretty cool to give new comers a little insight into the Universe.

@Zeta333
People shouldn't have to read several books to understand the backstory of a video game franchise.

@Giroro

this kinda stuff used to come in the game manual... :`(

IN COLOR >:(

i'm glad dom and his wife worked it out, i look forward to meeting the emaciated zombie babies

Just like the Doctor Ordered...

Not to go too far ahead of myself, but I really hope Epic signs another deal with Microsoft to create a Gears game that was set during the Pendulum Wars ala what Bungie did with Halo: Reach.

Nice back story on what Marcus and Dom had to go thru emotionally earlier in there lives for whoever hasn't read the books. Plus, a little bit more of their bro-mance wouldn't hurt either.

@CatalysticGEAR
Or one that covers the pendulum wars and one that covers emergence day. That'd be sweet.

i like how Gears pretends to have a story when it so obviously doesn't. i mean, this new one has Drake and Ice T in it. doesn't get any more deep than that. oh, and lets not forget all the awesome one-liners that are just so....awesome.

seriously though, not hating on Gears, just saying. when you've got a chainsaw bayonet gun you don't need a story, you just need lots of shit to chop up/shoot.

@Liquidfingers
Sure it has a story, it's just really hard to tell exactly what the story is.

@Liquidfingers Drake was replaced with Michael B. Jordan

@gonzalezo21

ahh, didn't know that. well that's good. looked him up on IMDB and found out he was in The Wire. consider me corrected.

@gonzalezo21

i was crapping my pants until i found out THE Micheal Jordan has a different middle initial. oh well.

@Liquidfingers
I was sad when Michael replaced Drake :'(

I'm sorry Joystiq, but just because the game is heavily focused on gameplay and action doesn't mean that the story isn't relevant.

Yes it isn't super awesome
Yes it is a bit ridiculous because every looks like they weigh 400lbs and have 350lbs of muscle and so emotional feedback from said characters is a bit strange
Yes with explosions and yelling going on the majority of the time, its sometimes hard to follow
Yes Carmine has died twice, possibly three coming up
Yes the campaign's story isn't as memorable as other games

BUT

that doesn't mean the story isn't relevant. I actually enjoy the campaign AND the story line and I'd like to see how it ends.

@BoBsS
I'm actually glad they did this. Otherwise I would very seriously have absolutely no Idea why the first game starts out with Marcus in a prison.

Epic ... they aren't so great at storytelling.

Is that the resonator??!?

Reading the headline made me immediately think exactly what the first two sentences of the article described. I didn't realize Epic doesn't know that the appeal of this game is the excessive curb-stomping, and not whatever story they think exists.

Does Joystiq have something against gears? Every time i see a Gears article, it seems that way.

"Dom, had spontaneous wife issues in the second game, but they worked it out."

Is it wrong that this made me truly laugh out loud? :) Doesn't help that I just played through the game again in prep for the new one.

Man, I played through the first two GoW games twice, and I had no idea there was any story beyond "Hey, there are locust where we want to go! Let's shoot them and then crush their skulls under our enormous feet!"

And really, isn't that enough?

Never understood the hate this game gets about the story. Sure its no Pulitzer winner but there is as much a story as any other action heavy game. I like the Uncharted games but the story element of those games did jack shit for me, same with Metal Gear.

My take on games is if they are fun that is the main goal, if its an RPG, then I expect a decent story, if its an Action game then just keep me interested and have good pacing.

@aic007
I found Uncharted to be an enjoyable experience but the story was very "popcorn", if you get me.

I thought Metal Gear Solid had excellent potential... until I saw the direction they took with MGS2 on the PS2. I gotta be careful on the net cuz of all the Kojima-love but I'll keep it brief: I've always been a fan of someone who can spin a good yarn and show some restraint while doing it. Hour long cutscenes are not a necessity in games anymore, if they ever were. ...and what was up with MGS4's ending? O_o

To quote some dead guy: "Brevity is the soul of wit."

@applefleas

Definitely agree about MGS4, those cut scenes became torturous after a while. I never finished the game, got bored of it after a couple of chapters.

If he is so hell bent on telling a story through cut scenes just make a friggin movie already, leave that shit out of my games. I don't like 20-40 minute breaks between the action.

Can't wait to play Gears next week, just finished the first two for a second time, my friend never played so we went through it co op, even he enjoyed the hell out of it. Loved the Beta for the multiplayer, cant wait to play it some more.

The timeline is completely unreadable on my iPhone. All the text is block & blurry, what a great combination!

Can't wait for this game lol horde 2.0 has me excited.

I seriously hope they ditch to pointless, contrived, and pretentious "story" stuff for this third one. What was wrong with the way they handled the "plot" in the first game? I never expected something of substance from this franchise and then I get Gears of War 2? Dom and his woman? Wtf?

Seriously, Epic, your games have never had a spotlight on story, why start in the middle of a franchise? Because your commercials mislead a few people who didn't know what to think? Come on... If that's what passes for inspiration nowadays I don't know what to do.

I JUST WANNA CHAINSAW SOME UGLY MOFOS!!!! Give me a simple reason like... the Locust just killed a new recruit that I thought was kind of cool/funny/promising/etc. or... this one Locust gave me an ultimatum where either choice was bad and somehow I gotta find a way to cheat him... or he just stole my last dollar and I just found the last working soda machine in the world. That's all... Level to level, one of those, mix n match. :P

Well I have a PS3 and an Xbox 360 so I get the best of both worlds!

"Dom, had spontaneous wife issues in the second game, but they worked it out."
Still LOLing over that, and feeling bad with every laugh.

Don't get one of those Gears in 5min videos?

Gears of War 3

Gears of War timeline catches you up in time for third game

Reader Comments (40)

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:36PM Scuba Steve said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:38PM Schlecht said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:43PM Master Troll said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:46PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:48PM Schlecht said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:59PM Tommy758 said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 12:19AM SuperWoody64 said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 10:03AM styleznma said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:37PM Schlecht said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:38PM Zeta333 said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:42PM Master Troll said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 12:01AM Giroro said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 1:37AM maveric101 said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 1:37AM maveric101 said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:40PM shabby329 said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:47PM styleznma said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:48PM CatalysticGEAR said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 12:21AM SuperWoody64 said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:51PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 12:05AM Giroro said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 12:06AM gonzalezo21 said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 1:35AM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 1:41AM maveric101 said

Posted: Sep 17th 2011 6:35PM gonzalezo21 said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 11:55PM BoBsS said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 12:03AM Giroro said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 12:03AM Giroro said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 12:12AM HotWookieeLove said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 12:39AM Master Troll said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 12:43AM devwild said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 1:26AM freaparn said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 1:36AM aic007 said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 1:54AM applefleas said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 2:25AM aic007 said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 1:46AM JimmySkinny said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 1:47AM skbkoy65 said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 1:50AM applefleas said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 2:17AM asslber said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 10:32AM IronClawt said

Posted: Sep 15th 2011 1:31PM DarkNightRJ said

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