Gears of War is a favorite of mine because it’s a really great buddy game. Whenever I have a fellow gaming friend over, I either take this one out or Lego Batman. It really depends on the friend and the type of games they like. All of my friends like Batman, but only a few can tolerate violence.
Instead of blood, their enemies explode in a shower of lego pieces.
What I like about it is that it really is about the two of us. Playing the game alone doesn’t hold that much pull for me because I miss the strategics and the teasing when one of us has to rescue the other. This is a game, however, where there are no female soldiers. And you know what? I gave it a semi-free pass because they explained it in the back story and the universe of Gears of War did have in its history powerful, strong female soldiers. When the games take place, there are none, however. This is explained because women needed to be making the babies after the drastic population drop and men needed to be fighting. At the same time, women ran things behind the scenes. Would this be okay with me if I lived during this? Well the idea of childbirth, personally, creeps me out and I don’t like other people making decisions about my body for me, but it’s an extreme situation they are in, and it seems that they do have a really important role, if silent, in the games. It’s kind of disgusting that women don’t seem to have a choice in the matter, and that their worth is measured as baby-makers.
Yes, though I loved this game, I missed playing as a woman. I always will, probably, when I’m not. But at least the absence of women was given an explanation beyond “we ran out of time” or no explanation at all. A poor excuse, but one nonetheless.
That’s why, when the Gears of War 3 trailer was being discussed on the Jimmy Fallon show and it revealed a woman soldier, I was shocked. This was not a series I ever expected there to be a female soldier in. They had their excuse! Supposedly, this character is unable to have children(infertile women was something I had wondered about in this scenario, actually), and so able to join in the fighting.
Oooooh yeah.
I am excited and I am so glad it was this series who were mature enough to realize the future of game design where equality is commonplace. I applaud you Gears of War, for recognizing what you should have been doing all along.
One further point? She appears to be wearing armor that would actually protect her instead of some chain mail bikini.
So awesome.
Badass and not overly sexualized? We can hope!
Check out the video below. It looks really flipping awesome. Screenshots shown were taken from this video.
