The Gears of War franchise is a meaty, dark, and some surreal journey. Tragedy constantly strikes the planet of Sera, which the franchise calls home, and millennia of war and billions of deaths have taken place before the title screen in the first entry. Even still, that's only a prelude to the death and destruction that repeatedly wreaks havoc throughout the Gears of War series.
Simply put, there are tragic and scary moments in the Gears of War games everywhere. There's universally tragic things like the theft of a baby and then lying to the mother by telling her that her only child had died. Then, the baby must be killed by her own baby a few decades later. There is also the attempted genocide of the human race by The Locust during and after Emergence Day, when the faction took to the human cities all over the planet, destabilizing the government, but what can top even that?
The Death of Maria
Maria Santiago was the second half of one of gaming's greatest couples to her childhood sweetheart Cpl. Dominic Santiago, as well as a loving mother to their two small children. On Emergence Day, she had sent the children to be with her parents in the city, so she could spend quality time with Dom.
Unfortunately, her parents lived in the major city of Ephyria and they, along with the Santiagos' children, would die on that same day. Fate had worse in store for her though. After choosing to self-exile from Dominic and other reminders of her losses, she was taken in and cared for by a group of survivors that were later captured by The Locust Horde. Even worse still, she was subjected to hard labor, torture, and a lobotomy that turned her into a mindless slave. All until Dom finally finds her and puts her out of her misery as he begs for forgiveness.
Cpl. Tal Kaliso - The Broken COG
Living with trauma can be extremely difficult in the best of times, let alone while the world is literally crumbling. When that kind of pressure and trauma is piled on, it can be too much to deal with. Cpl. Tai Kaliso, whose village was destroyed during the Pendulum Wars, is described by fellow tough guy Marcus Fenix "...if anyone could make it, it'd be him." As he helped defend Marcus and Dom's escape, he was captured and tortured by Locusts to the point where most of his body was scarred. When Marcus releases him and tosses him a gun in order to prepare for the incoming Horde, it isn't a minute before Tai points the gun at his own head and pulls the trigger. One of the COG's toughest men had been broken beyond repair by the Locusts.
JD vs. Del
JD Fenix, son of war hero Marcus Fenix, would order his command at the protest at Settlement 2 to fire on innocent protestors, killing multiple. When he realized what he had done, he left the COG with his best friend Del to join an outside group that relied on each other instead of the government that had supported such atrocities. As dark as this is, JD's attitude after being injured by the Hammer of Dawn is almost worse, turning this likeable character into a truly unlikeable one, to say the least. While there is some redemption in his repentace, it's short lived as he meets his death (potentially) at the end of Gears 5.
While tragedy is a good part of storytelling, some games can cross that line into the depressing with the amount of darkness it tries to feed the audience all at once. That doesn't mean that games with a overtly dark tones aren't enjoyable, but players need room between to digest the heavy stuff in order to appreciate the entire experience. The Gears of War franchise never overtly crosses that line, but it pushes the envelope in the best of ways.
Gears of War is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.