Gears of War has always been a divisive franchise that summons the sweatiest of gamers to wall-bounce and gnasher their foes into oblivion. I’m a Gears of War ranked play fanatic. Social play doesn’t really make any sense to me. Why would you want a relaxed mode of a very sweaty game?
Anyway, with the latest iteration comes some pretty awful players that have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. Like a good COG soldier, I bought the collector’s edition and played the game during pre-release. That time period before the game was released was the most competitive time of the game’s existence. Since that moment, bottom-feeding scrubs have found their way into my ranked matches. I completed my conquest, demolition, and team deathmatch placement matches, earning onyx rank in the A category for each mode.
I was proud of my accomplishment and my rank, as I do consider myself a pretty good Gears player. Well you can imagine my surprise when my ranked teammates are mostly unranked, gold, or even bronze at times. Why is it possible for me to even be on the same team as these players?
Of course, the bronze player is on my team, yet the opposing team has gold and above. I don’t know how that makes any sense. Out of pure frustration and annoyance, I am here before you today with some tips on how to suck less at Gears of War E-Day.
Like many franchises, Gears of War E-Day changes the balance from game to game. In some games the lancer is superior, in others, the gnasher. What remains consistent through it all are these key considerations.
100 Health
Remember that at the end of the day, your enemy has one hundred health. You need to do one hundred damage to kill them. There are many different ways to apply this damage with the gnasher being quickest to deliver a killing blow.
The thing I see many, many, many players forgetting is that you are allowed to do damage to the enemy before they arrive on the objective or run up to you. I was playing conquest today and my teammates REFUSED to pull out their lancer, pistol, or simply shoot their shotgun at enemies that are sprinting at us from the open.
Keep in mind that 100 health I mentioned previously. For every point of damage you do BEFORE they arrive at the objective, is the fewer damage you need to do with your gnasher to down or gib them. Even if you’re just pop-shotting the enemy for a few damage, this will assist you and your team in the long run.
Tip # 1 – Lancer or pistol the enemy as they approach you
You don’t need to put your entire clip into the enemy, but placing a few accurate rounds into your enemy before quickly switching to your gnasher will make things so much easier for you. Remember to not only do this for enemies that are approaching you, but lancer enemies that your teammates are also fighting. This will allow them to have an easier fight of their own, buying them time to come and assist you.
Stopping power also slows down enemies approaching you, making it more difficult to physically reach your position.
Positioning
In the case above, you live and die the positioning of your team. Always be on the lookout for rotations when you’ve already captured the objective or if your team is drowning in enemy fire, abandon the objective and move onto the next capture point.
This also applies to demolition. If you see the enemy pick up the bomb, they’re headed to one of your bombsites. Determining which one is more difficult, but be sure to tag the enemy so your team can easily identify where the bomb carrier is headed.
Tip # 2 – Maintain an Advantageous Position When Both Protecting the Objective and Rotating for a Power Weapon or New Objective
Early Game
Gears of War at its core is a simple game. At the beginning of any match, you have a decision to make. Either to play the objective or to retrieve power weapons. Many points of contention force you to fight for power weapons, but some can be easily retrieved.
Understand that if you’re not going for a power weapon, you should be playing the objective while rotating into a power position. If your teammate dies at the power weapon, you know that there’s one less enemy fighting you. Use this to your advantage and quickly clear out the enemy if you have numbers.
If you fail to do this, you are simply letting the power weapon player the chance to rotate to the objective, where you will die. I am tired of dying to THREE ENEMIES on our a power weapon at the start of the game only to see my team not using that time to capture the hill or plant the bomb.
Tip # 3 – Play For the Objective, Space, or the Power Weapons Instead of Sitting AFK
Smoke Grenades
Smoke grenades are prominently featured in many video games as a utility. In Gears of War, this remains true. People often make the mistake of smoking off vision from their own team when they really should be using the smoke grenade to blind the enemy.
I’ve had teammates throwing smokes at the enemy on approach, only to find that the smoke is only blinding my team after entering the objective, making it the ultimate shooting gallery for the enemy.
Tip #4 Utility Exists for a Reason, Use it to Your Advantage
Teamplay
This is a mistake I often see lower rank players making in my matches where they aren’t firing their weapons unless they are the ones in the fight. Assisting your team is a core part of any multiplayer shooters, especially in Gears of War. Stop being a selfish idiot and help the team. Providing teamfire will benefit both your quality and bad teammates.
I was inspired to write all this because of my last conquest match where I could full clear an enemy team and my team couldn’t set up on an objective to kill one singular enemy. I killed all four, they respawned, I killed three more and they aren’t capturing the point. Absolutely useless.
Tip # 4 – Don’t Treat Every Fight Like a 1v1
