9 Video Games That Got Away With Being Total Rip-Offs

3. Gears Of War

What It Ripped Off: Killswitch. Gears Of War is a rather influential title, with its cover-based shooting and blind firing being used by many games that came after it, including BioWare's Mass Effect and Naughty Dog's Uncharted. It's just a shame that its hilarious city sinking giant worm that makes an appearance in Gears 2 didn't catch on in a similar fashion. And of course it ripped off its core mechanic from another game: Killswitch - a fairly obscure game that released on the PS2 and Xbox back in 2004. While other games before it like Metal Gear Solid 2 had employed cover systems, Killswitch was the first to build itself entirely around the mechanic. Players would quickly duck behind cover and pop out and take quick shots in a very similar way to Gears Of War. Killswitch also pioneered blind firing from behind cover - another mechanic that Epic's shooter popularised. The reason why you may not have heard of Killswitch is that it admittedly was a fairly mediocre game overall, but there's no denying that Gears Of War stole a lot from this title.