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Dear Xbox One Doubters: Don’t Underestimate ‘Gears of War’

I'm glad that Epic's old franchise is making the generation jump, Gnashers, Lancers, and all.

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

It feels odd to say that you miss the sound a hideous cave-dwelling mutant makes as it lumbers to a sprint, but I can't deny a certain rosy glow on firing up the Xbox One's Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and stepping into the boots of a Locust Grub, for the first time in years. Odds are if you hear the original Gears of 2006 mentioned these days it's in the context of a disparaging remark about the Xbox 360 game's cover systems, or that mucky, dawn-of-photorealism color scheme. The game has been so widely imitated, its greasy guts finding their way into everything from Metal Gear through Ghost Recon to Uncharted, that people forget that it has such a personality, unpleasant though that personality generally is.

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There are so many distinctive little touches, hammered into the crevices (or, in many cases, tucked into a corner nursing a half-spent shotgun). The way a COG trooper twirls a grenade on its chain while you aim the throw, for example, or the self-satisfied gargle of a Locust who's just stumbled on the map's only Boomshot. The way the magnetic lock-to-cover feature assists with quick maneuvering, allowing the deft of thumb to pinball around a tight space while amateurs blast hopelessly at air. And of course, there's that inimitable roadie-run, in which the camera wobbles along behind your character's speeding bulk like a child hanging from a shopping trolley.

All 'Ultimate Edition' screenshots via the official 'Gears of War' website.

The latter is one of gaming's classic tactical trade-offs—pace at the expense of peripheral vision and your turning circle. So is the utterly perfect Active Reload feature, where tapping the button at just the right second buys you a full clip in a fraction of the time, with extra damage per round to boot—it's common to fire off a test shot purely for the sake of the buff. Screwing this up, on the other hand, traps you into a clumsy extended animation, your character slamming a fist against the weapon's frame while opponents seize their chance to somersault into chainsaw range.

If I'm going over old ground, that's because it's genuinely quite weird to revisit a game as cleanly made as Gears in this, the age of flabby XP grinders like Destiny and Advanced Warfare. After years of shooters that sag beneath the weight of unlockable camos, currencies, randomized reward chests, and the like, the starkness of its approach to arena combat is almost haunting. And very invigorating.

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Now in beta, as confirmed at this week's E3 in LA, the August-bound Ultimate Edition bumps the original game's resolution to 1080p and the frame rate to 60fps, but leaves the handling more or less alone. The only currently available map, Gridlock, is a rough crescent moon shape with a spawn zone at each prong and car hulks strewn across the middle—easy to navigate, but packed with potential for ambush. New weapons, including the game's absolute, full-bore bastard of a sniper rifle, must be pilfered from drop points or the fallen. Teams are small—four a side in Deathmatch and King of the Hill—and while you can earn ranks there's nothing of note to unlock.

Those who rely on level-ups to compensate for their own inadequacies (I don't mean to scold—I'm absolutely that kind of player) may find this too spartan for comfort, but there's so much you can do with what Gears gives you. Smoke grenades underwhelm until you realize how vital it is to screen your advance in a game with such a formidable shotgun. The evasive roll lends itself to close-quarters duels that are more like sword fights, as heavyset warriors spin through each other's windows of fire, scraping off particles of health until somebody collapses in a shower of organs. Getting your teeth into Gears of War, after years of progression ladders, feels like easing yourself out of a low-level drug habit. You begin to realize that you don't need those regular "content" top-ups to enjoy yourself—as Vasquez would say, all you need to know is where they are.

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It's a risible gesture, but I'd extend this reasoning to the E3-unveiled Gears (of War) 4, in development at Microsoft's dedicated Gears studio The Coalition. Going by forum chatter, a sizable percentage of E3 conference viewers were unimpressed by the game's reveal gameplay, which does sound quite stuffy on paper—two COGs armed with familiar weapons chase the offspring of a gorilla and a food blender through a beautifully rendered ruin, narrowly escaping an outbreak of apocalyptic weather. In due course they find themselves in a courtyard facing the mysterious beast, which turns out to have a whole bunch of friends. Shadows are hugged, limbs shredded, and envelopes left resolutely unpunished.

Wanna bulk up like the COG guys? You could eat your way there.

Where, Xbox One owners clamored, were the big changes? Where were the fancy new tricks we require (or at least, claim to require) of next generation console shooters? To an extent those are my concerns as well—with games like Titanfall and Splatoon doing the rounds, this really isn't the time to dig in. But the Ultimate Edition's beta is a reminder that all the old Gearsy elements hold up extremely well, however slavishly they've been borrowed and reworked, and I like what I glean of Gears 4's tone. It seems a return to the horror-inflected glories of the original's campaign, before the pressures of sequel-making obliged a turn for the bombastic—a fearful yet companionable journey through a gathering darkness, ears pricked for the rumble of a Locust emergence hole.

Gears of War probably isn't the series to help Xbox One overtake PS4—it's far too long in the tooth for that—but I think it's an essential component of the brand's identity. Like its host console itself, Gears strikes a somewhat homely figure alongside the competition. It is ugly and graceless, where games like The Last of Us are poignant and profound, built to endure rather than innovate. But you'd be an absolute bloody fool to turn your back on it.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is released on August 25 on Xbox One, with a PC port following and Gears of War 4 expected in time for Christmas 2016.

Follow Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on Twitter.