10 Creators Who Killed Video Game Characters So They Could Move On

For years (and four installments of the core game) Gears of War was a story about a load of Really Big Lads, running around doing Really Big Lad Stuff, and chainsawing anybody who told them to stop being such Really Big Lads. Their entire aesthetic being that of an American footballer, if the pads were designed by one heavy metal 40k player from about 500 years in the future.

In the first three games of the trilogy, you primarily play as Marcus 'Really Big Lad' Fenix, before Gears 4 transitions to his son JD 'RBL' Fenix. The games follow largely the same narrative of horrible things breaking through the earth and attempting to crush all the humans, only for a group of Lads, and Really Big ones as it goes, to step in and save the day.

Now if you think I've done that really big lad thing to death there, then you're about halfway understanding how the developers felt. They loved the world they'd made and the stories they could tell in it, but having their protagonists all be gravel-voiced mega dudes with dumps like a proverbial trunk was wearing a bit thin.

Thus from Gears of War 5 they made Kait the central focus and, to show you they were serious, had you choose which of her Really Big Lad friends dies at the end.