July 15, 2012 by Paul Curtin
Epic Games made some big announcements at Comic-Con this year, the first of which was revealing the exact release date of March 13, 2012, for Gears of War: Judgment. Along with the release date reveal, Epic also showed off a first look video starring Baird, who gives a tutorial on the new OverRun multiplayer mode. The five-minute video, which you can watch below, is the same video we got a chance to look at with Cliff Bleszinski and Adrian Chmielarz behind closed doors at E3 last month in our preview of Judgment.
As shown in the video, OverRun is a hybrid cross between Gears‘ Horde and Beast multiplayer modes. In OverRun, players will be able to choose from four classes (Engineer, Soldier, Medic, and Scout) while they try to defend COG generators as the other team attacks as Locust classes, such as Tickers, Wrenches, Boomers, and Maulers. Each character has its own special abilities and attacks, and for the first time in a Gears game, players on both sides of the fight will be able to heal one another, adding a whole ‘nother dynamic to gameplay.
Not only will healing offer a new dynamic, but other new ways to play, such as the Locust being able to punt Tickers over COG defensive barriers, offer many unique tactics players can find to change up gameplay. Another unique new feature that I noticed in our E3 preview and you can see in the video below (1:48 mark) is the Scout’s unique class ability “Climb Up” that allows him to vault up to areas on the map that other characters can’t get to. Bleszinski didn’t really give me a straight answer during our E3 preview when asked if the Climb Up feature would be available in Judgment‘s regular multiplayer modes, but hopefully we’ll see more in the coming months when Epic releases details on the other multiplayer modes.
