18 Action Video Games You Must Play Before You Die

12. Gears Of War

You must experience: The chainsaw kills. If an alien race sprouted forth out of some trans-dimensional portal, wandered out their respective craft and prompted the question "What can we play that'll instantly give us happiness?" it won't be watching a small child smile or a flower gently swaying in the breeze... it'll be cleaving someone's chest in half with a whopping great machine gun-chainsaw in Gears of War. Back in 2006, Epic Games' take on the formula Operation Winback and Kill.Switch were already attempting nailed it to the wall with a devout purpose; almost overnight the Mortal Kombat-esque levels of gore, perfected controls and overblown Unreal Tournament-esque humour combined to make Gears a household name, with even the barest of catchphrases like "Nice!" and "Sweet!" finding their place in the cultural vernacular too.

The story was mostly 90's action movie madness, but it always had heart, and come the time for some suitably epic character moments (and one very memorable death scene) the series is instantly recommendable to both those looking for a quick thrill and the rest who want to devote the time perfecting the best sci-fi weapon there's been since the lightsaber.