20 Things You Didn't Know About Gears Of War
8. The Locust Horde Was Inspired By Lord Of The Rings
The main antagonists in Gears of War are the Locust, who sprang out of the ground fourteen years before the start of the game in 'Emergence Day', killing a quarter of the world population in the first 26 hours.
They're a formidable foe, and Cliff had a clear idea of how he wanted The Locust to act. In an interview with CVG (now part of GamesRadar) Cliff was very clear that he wanted the Locust to have a Tolkien-esque quality to them, stating:
"We wanted the Locust to be intelligent savages; they're like the Uruk-hai in LOTR, only with guns. The Uruk-hai would organise themselves, line up and then storm in - even though they look like horrible monsters. That's what the Locust essentially are: bipedal, thick-skinned, but also smart enough to build and use their own weaponry. They use tactics - they're not just running at you mindlessly."