Article Calls out Space Marine for "Ripping Off" Gears of War

[Frosted89]

I have to admit, this is one strong reaction to his article.

I mean everybody knows that games generally copy gameplay from other games. So when one person says that it's happening it shouldn't be a big deal. Yet clearly he insulted the wrong franchise.

Lets be honest Space Marines probably does share a lot of similarities with GoW. Does that matter? no. Still probably a fair thing to say the gameplay is similar.

I'm much more likely to believe the guy who saw the demo than a bunch of overly angry trolls who have never played or seen the game.

TL;DR No need to get mad at someone for pointing out similarities. It doesn't mean the game is bad.

The reason why this article is being bashed is the lack of research, the author of that article doesn't have a leg to stand on any of the points he brought up, most of them being design and game-play.

Game-play wise Space Marine doesn't have a cover system, unlike Gears of War; Space Marine focuses on ranged shooting and close melee combat equally, if you watch some of the videos, you'll see that aside from Space Marine being in third-person and having guns that's pretty much where the similarities end in terms of game-play, and that's a fairly weak point to criticize on. Heck, Mass Effect 2's game-play is more derived from Gears of War than Warhammer 40k Space Marine and I don't remember seeing any game journalists criticize Bioware for that.

In terms of similarities on design, as many have stated on this thread and on the replies on the comment section, Warhammer 40k came out in the 80's and features nearly everything that the Gears of War universe was designed upon, the hulking space marine with ridiculously-sized armor, a gun with a chain-saw on it's end; As for the point he made about the Orcs in WH40k being largely inspired by Tolkien, What fantasy title featuring Orcs in the past 70 years hasn't taken ques from Tolkien's work?

Everything that gets created draws inspiration from something, Games Workshop drew much inspiration from Lord of the Rings and Starship Troopers in the creation of their franchises, as I'm sure Robert Heinlein and J.R.R. Tolkien drew inspiration from various mythologies, political, and social views in the books that they wrote.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Was that the real life?

Or is it just fantasy?

Seriously, reading that killed my brain cells.

Well it seems he was caught in a landslide... of comments.
Unlike him they have no escape from reality.

 

[Haydyn]

That's like Katy Perry changing her name to Katy Perry, then sueing a store in Austraila for using "her" name, even though it existed before she changed her name. Dumb self rightous *****.

 

[godofallu]

I have to admit, this is one strong reaction to his article.

I mean everybody knows that games generally copy gameplay from other games. So when one person says that it's happening it shouldn't be a big deal. Yet clearly he insulted the wrong franchise.

Lets be honest Space Marines probably does share a lot of similarities with GoW. Does that matter? no. Still probably a fair thing to say the gameplay is similar.

I'm much more likely to believe the guy who saw the demo than a bunch of overly angry trolls who have never played or seen the game.

TL;DR No need to get mad at someone for pointing out similarities. It doesn't mean the game is bad.

The reason why this article is being bashed is the lack of research, the author of that article doesn't have a leg to stand on any of the points he brought up, most of them being design and game-play.

Game-play wise Space Marine doesn't have a cover system, unlike Gears of War; Space Marine focuses on ranged shooting and close melee combat equally, if you watch some of the videos, you'll see that aside from Space Marine being in third-person and having guns that's pretty much where the similarities end in terms of game-play, and that's a fairly weak point to criticize on. Heck, Mass Effect 2's game-play is more derived from Gears of War than Warhammer 40k Space Marine and I don't remember seeing any game journalists criticize Bioware for that.

In terms of similarities on design, as many have stated on this thread and on the replies on the comment section, Warhammer 40k came out in the 80's and features nearly everything that the Gears of War universe was designed upon, the hulking space marine with ridiculously-sized armor, a gun with a chain-saw on it's end; As for the point he made about the Orcs in WH40k being largely inspired by Tolkien, What fantasy title featuring Orcs in the past 70 years hasn't taken ques from Tolkien's work?

Everything that gets created draws inspiration from something, Games Workshop drew much inspiration from Lord of the Rings and Starship Troopers in the creation of their franchises, as I'm sure Robert Heinlein and J.R.R. Tolkien drew inspiration from various mythologies, political, and social views in the books that they wrote.

I'm still not seeing why everyone is so upset here. Is it because they didn't copy anything and this guy is wrong in that? Or is it because they did copy some stuff but it isn't a big deal?

It isn't the former, and everyone seems to admit copying isn't a big deal. But if copying isn't a big deal why the fuss? The guy even said that Warhammer predated GoW. All he did was merely suggest that it feels similar to GoW andit probably does. It's the same genre afterall.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I have to admit, this is one strong reaction to his article.

I mean everybody knows that games generally copy gameplay from other games. So when one person says that it's happening it shouldn't be a big deal. Yet clearly he insulted the wrong franchise.

Lets be honest Space Marines probably does share a lot of similarities with GoW. Does that matter? no. Still probably a fair thing to say the gameplay is similar.

I'm much more likely to believe the guy who saw the demo than a bunch of overly angry trolls who have never played or seen the game.

TL;DR No need to get mad at someone for pointing out similarities. It doesn't mean the game is bad.

There?s also not a lot of emphasis on taking cover in the Space Marine. The combat in Gears is very focused on taking cover because you die if you don?t do it. There is more emphasis on melee fights, or hand-to-hand combat, so the engagement range with enemies is typically farther than it is in Gears of War. There are also more enemies on the screen at any given time

Except the gameplay is different. The only similarities are stylistic ones and anyone who says 40K ripped off GoW in that department is a fucking moron. I've never played Warhammer. I've never read any of the books. I've never played any of the vidogames. I still know they didn't rip of GoW.

You also forgot to mention the fact that in the article he refers to styles and weapons, almost sarcastically, as to say "Oh look, it has , how strange that it's similar to from Gow"

 

[Frosted89]

I have to admit, this is one strong reaction to his article.

I mean everybody knows that games generally copy gameplay from other games. So when one person says that it's happening it shouldn't be a big deal. Yet clearly he insulted the wrong franchise.

Lets be honest Space Marines probably does share a lot of similarities with GoW. Does that matter? no. Still probably a fair thing to say the gameplay is similar.

I'm much more likely to believe the guy who saw the demo than a bunch of overly angry trolls who have never played or seen the game.

TL;DR No need to get mad at someone for pointing out similarities. It doesn't mean the game is bad.

I'm still not seeing why everyone is so upset here. Is it because they didn't copy anything and this guy is wrong in that? Or is it because they did copy some stuff but it isn't a big deal?

It isn't the former, and everyone seems to admit copying isn't a big deal. But if copying isn't a big deal why the fuss? The guy even said that Warhammer predated GoW. All he did was merely suggest that it feels similar to GoW andit probably does. It's the same genre afterall.

Well, I think it's less of him saying what drew inspiration from what, but more of how he presented it; When I read the article, I got the impression he was berating THQ for creating a similar game to GoW, "The THQ folks also pointed out that their melee system, which includes the chainsaw weapon, works a lot better than Gears of War?s does. Gee, I hope so. If you copy someone else?s game, you don?t want to copy the bad parts." , that's one of many quotes from the article, if he had just pointed out the similarities I don't think he would of received nearly as much backlash as he has, but he presented it in a wrong way. The title of the article doesn't help his case much either.

 

[godofallu]

Except the gameplay is different. The only similarities are stylistic ones and anyone who says 40K ripped off GoW in that department is a fucking moron. I've never played Warhammer. I've never read any of the books. I've never played any of the vidogames. I still know they didn't rip of GoW.

At the end of the day, it's a third person shooter that uses executions. Has a chainsaw gun, and has a roadie run sprint feature. Nothing wrong with taking elements from other games, but blindly stating that the two games have nothing in common, and flaming the shit out of a guy who notices they do is kind of crazy.

I love Halo, and if some guy said Halo was shit it would piss me off. But if someone said Halo was taking gameplay features from the original Doom I would say well yeah. It's a FPS. Nothing wrong with taking ideas from other games.

 

[Waaghpowa]

-

I was actually referring to the sense that he was being over confident and smug about his comparisons, when really he knew very little, if anything at all.

 

[ChieftainStag]

the word dearth does not compute please try again. the guy even forgot to use spellcheck.

 

[Waaghpowa]

Except the gameplay is different. The only similarities are stylistic ones and anyone who says 40K ripped off GoW in that department is a fucking moron. I've never played Warhammer. I've never read any of the books. I've never played any of the vidogames. I still know they didn't rip of GoW.

At the end of the day, it's a third person shooter that uses executions. Has a chainsaw gun, and has a roadie run sprint feature. Nothing wrong with taking elements from other games, but blindly stating that the two games have nothing in common, and flaming the shit out of a guy who notices they do is kind of crazy.

I love Halo, and if some guy said Halo was shit it would piss me off. But if someone said Halo was taking gameplay features from the original Doom I would say well yeah. It's a FPS. Nothing wrong with taking ideas from other games.

There's a difference between claiming that there are similarities and claiming that IP (A) Ripped off IP (B). Aside from gameplay similarities, a lot of his claims of "Ripping off" refer to things like weapons and characters.

The grunts in Gears of War are derivatives of the U.S. Marine Corps soldiers, re-imagined in a sci-fi universe. So THQ's game is really just copying Microsoft's Gears of War game (made by Epic Games), which is copying something out of the history of marines.

So basically Space Marines to him, despite being from a Sci fi game from almost 30 years ago, is copying GoW.

also:

The guns are huge and they feature a chainsaw blade that can be used to slice enemies in half, execution style, similar to the "chainsaw bayonet" of the Gears soldiers.

He says "Just like" a few times, and considering this article is called "How many ways can THQ rip off Gears of War" it wouldn't be a too much of a stretch to assume he really meant to say "rip off".

The bad guys are the green Ork enemies from the Warhammer world, and they bear no resemblance to the enemies in Gears of War, except that they make loud grunts.

I think by this point you know where he's going with this statement.

Edit: forgot this

The THQ folks also pointed out that their melee system, which includes the chainsaw weapon, works a lot better than Gears of War's does. Gee, I hope so. If you copy someone else's game, you don't want to copy the bad parts.

Now either he's referring to the chain sword or melee systems in general, but to claim that a game is ripping off another for having a melee system is just stupid.

 

[deathstrike866]

i know im late to the conversation party, but this guy is so insane that the men in happy coats have lost all hope of curing him and returned to the more conventional method of heavy blunt instrument to the face, if you are attempting to review something surely you should put the time and effort into researching the history of both sides, rather than just seeing the narrow-minded and frankly childish view of 'i love gears, everything that comes after, regardless of history is suddenly a clone'. surely nowadays it is practically impossible to create a FPS that doesn't contain an element of another game, so in this line of reasoning gears is ripped too, as is halo, CoD, medal of honor etc etc...

 

[Keldon888]

He's trolling or never played games before, and since he writes about gaming I guess that just leaves trolling.

 

[Soylent Dave]

"The Orcs bear a resemblance to the Orcs in Lord of The Rings, but we'll ignore that for now."
Yes, because all fantasy races are obviously derived from Lord of the Rings.

Most of the time they are, yeah (and parts of Lord of the Rings were derived from Norse and Saxon myth).

In GW's case, they definitely are (when they aren't nicking things from Michael Moorcock (or Heinlein)).

40k just took those races and put them IN SPACE (Orks are Orcs IN SPACE, Eldar are Elves IN SPACE, Squats are Dwarfs in SPACE, Necrons are Undead IN SPACE und so weiter)

They've added more story to it over the years, but originally GW canon wasn't exactly that original. Like most fantasy, really.

(this would be why GW canon keeps getting pruned as well as added to - you can't go around having Squats (a deeply shit idea) when you're trying to make the 40k universe all grim and dark...)

 

[Canid117]

WAZUHHHH!?

Who is stupid enough to employ this person?