11 Influential Video Games That Have Aged Horribly

The game that launched a thousand rip-off cover shooters (including one that inexplicably belonged to the 50 Cent fictional universe), the first Gears of War was released in 2006.

Featuring an original, gritty narrative about a squad of troops battling against a subterranean enemy known as the Locust in the hopes of saving the human population of the planet Sera, Gears of War combined third-person action with immersive storytelling in a sci-fi setting, and people just couldn't get enough.

Gears of War soon blossomed into a popular franchise, spanning not just multiple video games but a number of books and comics too.

Gears of War holds up well in terms of gameplay, but being a product of the mid-'00s, there are a few issues with the narrative that don't come off too well in today's landscape.

Firstly, all of the game's main characters are gruff, oversized tough guys so musclebound that it's a wonder any of them can even get behind the cover they so famously shoot from. Secondly, they all come off as so two-dimensional that it takes all of the humanity out of the story.

If it were released today, the game would be dubbed a massive narrative misfire, something which is all too obvious when you replay the iconic title.