Outside, shrapnel slams into stone walls and bodies crunch into the cold comfort of cover as tracer fire explodes over the heads of soldiers. Inside, there is relative peace. Statues of old heroes stand, worn and decayed, but still erect. Stained glass windows are shattered, scattering diffused light across the domed structure. At once, the sounds of battle end. Footsteps crunch closer to this forgotten building. In the center of these ruins is a table, dented with shrapnel, overgrown with vines. Beaten into its surface are the words:

Order. Diligence. Purity. Labor.

Gears of War is the story of fascist empire in decay. While the game's opening cutscene gestures at a time of peace, it must have been a brief one. A scant few years after destructive resource wars ravaged the planet Sera, the Locust--think orcs with guns--arose from the earth. Somehow undetected, the Locust brought the human Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) to the brink of extinction. Gears of War starts around 13 years after this conflict began. Freed from prison, former sergeant Marcus Fenix and his old friend Dom Santiago attempt to find the superweapon that might end the war. To do this, they drag themselves through ever deeper layers of hell until they succeed, but only briefly. The war they sought to end will continue. Gears of War is thus lean and oppressive. Exposition is stripped to the bone, as Marcus and crew fall into set-piece after set-piece, always surviving by the skin of their teeth.