Gears of War/YMMV

"Marcus: "Control! We've hijacked a Brumak and we're-" Anya: You what?"
 * Alternate Character Interpretation: In universe, with opinions on Chairman Richard Prescott being decidedly mixed. Most of the civilians love him until he abandons Vectes in Coalition's End, and they begin to despise him and consider him a coward. Bernadette Mataki doesn't consider him one, wondering what exactly would make a "unlikable but brave man" abandon those who had led and protected for fifteen years. His motivations are extremely complicated, and some are still unrevealed, and even after, the Gears debate exactly what kind of man he is and try to figure out why he acted like he did.
 * Also happens to Cole in the third game. The previous games portrayed him as a magnanimous, charismatic pro-athlete-turned-pro-soldier who is fearless and loyal. The third game has a section where Cole runs through a heated battle, fantasizing that he is still on the athletic field, seeing heavily-armed enemies as players for the opposing team. It makes the observer wonder if, when demonstrating how Badass he was in previous games (all the time spouting Thrashball-terminology like "We're going into overtime!"), he actually realized what was going on. It's worth noting that this sequence occurs during the only time Cole was the player character in all three campaigns.
 * In the books, it is revealed that Cole is very aware of everything that is going on, and most of his cheer and boisterousness is him faking it to keep up his comrades' morale. It's likely that being back in his hometown and finding the stadium where he had played at overrun by Stranded and Lambent started making him crack a bit.
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced:
 * Gears of War 2 had the demontration of the Meat Shield mechanic and the mortar. New weapons and enemy varieties also placated feelings that it was going to be Gears of War 1.5.
 * Gears of War 3 has fans of the novels excited to hear that Karen Traviss is writing the plot. Unfortunately, there were people who aren't fans of her books.
 * Lambent Berserker? Dedicated servers to kill the lag that has plagued multiplayer since day one? A beta to iron out all the gameplay imbalances?! DID THAT GUY JUST STICK THE SCORCHER IN THE OTHER GUY'S STOMACH AND BURN HIM FROM THE INSIDE OUT?!.... Alright Epic Games, you have our attention.
 * Gears of War 3... uncut... in Germany. Insert Happy Dance from German fans across the Atlantic.
 * The first piece of DLC for Gears of War 3 is just a couple of addons to Horde Mode and maps we can't even play in public versus? Well that kinda sucks. Sure, Bernie and the Onyx Guard are cool and all, and we'll be able to play those maps online eventually, but it's still not very... hang on... what's this coming out in December? A new campaign act, a Prequel featuring Kim (Gears of War), Tai (Gears of War 2), Michael Barrick (Expanded Universe) and a new female gear named Alicia Valera (new for the game), fighting against General RAAM and dealing with the Kryll!
 * Anticlimax Boss: The final boss of Gears Of War 2,, literally dies in two or three seconds. Climax Boss Skorge himself puts up a reasonable fight, but is nowhere nearly as tough as General RAAM was back in the first.
 * However, compared to the very threatening RAAM, Skorge's Boss Battle is little more than a few chainsaw duels. But he also counts as a Climax Boss: he's fought right before the final act, after Delta Squad discovers not only the real plans of the Locust, but the fact their Queen looks human.
 * Author's Saving Throw: The widely praised story of Gears of War 3 seems to have lessened some of the vitriol thrown at Karen Traviss.
 * Awesome Music: The Cole Train rap that plays during the first game's ending credits.
 * Base Breaker:
 * The Sawed-Off Shotgun. Good Lord. A multitude of the fanbase started frothing at the mouth and swore to quit the game if it isn't patched. They claim that it encourages camping, is too noob friendly due to its 180 degree spread and slows the pacing of the game to a crawl. Others say it's fine as it is due to incredible short range and long reload time.
 * Now that the sawed off has been proven to have a longer gib range than the gnasher, as well as a spread that doesn't even require the user to be looking at an enemy to kill with it, the backlash towards the gun has gotten even worse. Cliff Bleszinski's reaction essentially being "deal with it" has not helped matters either. The gib range has since been patched to be shorter than that of the Gnasher.
 * Complacent Gaming Syndrome: A problem in the first game. The Gnasher shotgun and Gridlock map are the two biggest offenders. You even had players quit if they couldn't get a spot playing as the COG. Fixed to some extent in the sequel by a matchmaking system, map voting between two random choices and nerfing the Gnasher.
 * The Retro Lancer and Gnasher seems to be the most popular pair of weapons in the third game.
 * Demonic Spiders: Kantus priests in the sequel can revive downed Locust troops from halfway across the battlefield, summoning Tickers out of nowhere, armed with a burst-fire Gorgon pistol that does ludicrous amounts of damage, Ink Grenades and can perform dodge rolls the moment you get a bead on them. Try to get in range to use that chainsaw bayonet and they'll knock you down with a sonic, screeching attack.
 * The new and improved Reavers from Gears of War 2 onwards tend to spring into action at the most inconvenient times.
 * Theron Guards filled this role in the first game: much more intelligent than the normal Drone and with armed an explosive-firing Torque Bow.
 * Myrrah's Royal Guards in Gears of War 3 are essentially Theron Guards on steroids. Digger Boomers are even worse, as their Digger Launchers can bypass cover.
 * Lambent Drudges combine toughness with numbers (every Lambent encounter seems to have at least one, if not several) and the ability to mutate into newer, nastier forms if they take too much damage in the wrong regions of their body.
 * Lambent Gunkers have an extendable cleaver-arm that will instantly down you if you get too close, and they fling Imulsion balls at long range that will knock you down even on Normal difficulty. To make it worse, their recharge is just about as long as the time it takes an AI to come and revive you...
 * Kantus priests are no longer the nuisance they were in the second game: the torch has been passed to their "armored" bretheren in Gears of War 3. These Dual-Wielding-Gorgon pistol blighters are absolutely immune to small arms fire, and their armor is also made of knives, thus their evading manuevers are prone to slicing you apart (provided you're unfortunate enough to be within "roll into you" range). At least their mouths glow when they screech, kindly informing you when to empty your weapon at their heads, unless you have explosive ordinance or something that starts fires.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Anthony Carmine from the first game, to the point where his popularity baffled the developers. They brought his younger brother Benjamin to the sequel just for the sake of having a similar character. In Gears of War 2, Benjamin mentions writing to his older brother Clayton Carmine, who appears in the last of the trilogy. Clayton's fate was then determined by fans via purchasing T-shirts for their Xbox Live Avatars, with the profits going towards the Child's Play charity.
 * To put it in persective, Anthony has two lines in the whole game: one where he asks if Marcus is the Marcus Fenix and the second is explaining to Marcus how his gun keeps jamming..
 * Baird's also highly popular, at least going by the "favorite character" polls on the official Gears of War forums.
 * RAAM: He's the most Badass Locust hands down and seen the above And the Fandom Rejoiced for people's reaction to his return to Gears of War 3. How could you not class him as an Ensemble Darkhorse after that kind of reaction, considering he was only put in their at the last minute to serve as the Final Boss of the first game? That proves just how awesome he is.
 * Even Better Sequel
 * Freud Was Right: The riftworm... The final scene before it dies pretty much clears any remaining doubt.
 * Goddamned Bats: Wretches in many encounters. Their lambent counterparts will likely cause huge amounts of frustration.
 * Kryll from Gears of War are Goddamned Bats with four wings.
 * Tickers from Gears of War 2 are Goddamned Bats that try to BLOW YOU UP.
 * The in  Gears of War 3 and the Locust Shriekers.
 * Growing the Beard: Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games had an interview where he described the company has been slowly expanding their comfort level with the games, due in part to bringing in people with more experience in non-programming things like framing cut scenes and story writing/dialogue.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: The line "Yeah, but he [Skorge] makes RAAM look like a goddamn pushover" stems likely from the fact Skorge cuts through a tank, but it quickly becomes apparent Skorge is nowhere near the level of RAAM's ability to induce frustration.
 * Ho Yay:
 * The achievements (and one scene in the sequel) heavily imply that Dom and Marcus have a little more than just a business relationship... Dom in particular. An interview with Epic Games and the guy who named them said he loved making them into as many jokes and Double Entendres as he can (assuming he did knew what he would be getting into). One could argue that Maria's presence in the sequel, when she was only alluded to in the first game, was mainly to put an end to an excess of such jokes and speculation on the part of the fans, although this theory would hold up a little better if the developers hadn't also included cooperative achievements called "Dom-Curious", "One-Night Stand", "Open Relationship", etc.
 * Some fans have apparently seen this between Baird and Cole.
 * HSQ: Much of the game is built on this reaction.
 * Anya's reactions to Marcus's hijacking various Locust beasts definitely qualifies:

"Barrick: Do you have the code?"
 * Inferred Holocaust:.
 * It's the Same, Now It Sucks: Gears of War 2 had some complaints because much of the preview footage was showcasing the enhanced visuals, with everything else having the same weapon selection. It wasn't until they started showcasing the new features that quite a few people quieted down, particularly a demonstration of the new weapons, chainsaw duels and using meat shields.
 * Memetic Badass (It's Carmine!)
 * There are four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and four Carmine brothers. Not a coincidence.
 * Memetic Mutation: WHERE'S MY WIIIIIIIIFE?!
 * "It's a giant worm! THEY'RE SINKING CITIES WITH A GIANT WORM!!!This is an In-Universe trope. Not a YMMV. Trope is misused.
 * Kim's got the codes.
 * One of the tier 4 medals for interacting with objects during the campaign is called "I've Got The Codes".
 * In "RAAM's Shadow":


 * Misblamed: Augustus Cole was accused of being an example of Uncle Tomfoolery by critics and players who weren't familiar with the "Terry Tate, Office Linebacker" series he was based on, starring the same actor.
 * Moral Event Horizon: Though the Locust are presented early on as complete monstrous bastards with the whole genocide motive, Gears of War 2 makes absolutely certain that the player should feel zero pity for them.
 * Most Wonderful Sound: *click* bip bip... beep! THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
 * Revving up the chainsaw bayonet.
 * The gong sound that plays when you kill the last enemy in a firefight. It's so zen!
 * Narm Charm: There's almost something cute about the Boomers yelling "Boom!" before every shot.
 * Older Than They Think: The chainsaw bayonet appeared in the Mutant Chronicles RPG first.
 * The blind-fire cover-based shooter was pioneered by the mostly-overlooked kill.switch game, though Gears of War is the one that made it famous.
 * Much older then that: try Winback all the way on the Nintendo 64.
 * Player Punch:.
 * For many players, this was in Gears of War 2, even with the knowledge he would die from the start.
 * in Gears of War 3.
 * Ruined FOREVER: The fandom's reaction after the announcement that rapper Drake will voice Jace Stratton. Never mind the fact that he was an actor for a long time before becoming a rapper. Fan Dumb at its finest, indeed.
 * Until scheduling conflicts prevented him to voice Jace. Instead, Michael B. Jordan took over the role.
 * "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: Paired with Scrubs, as pretty much every match in the first game was fought with nothing but Gnashers. Everything else was considered cheap, especially the Lancer. When Gears of War 2 came along with its shotgun nerfing and even-easier chainsawing methods (not that it was exceptionally easy in the first game), cries of They Changed It, Now It Sucks were rampant, as nobody wanted to learn how to use any other weapon.
 * That One Boss:
 * RAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!! While he actually isn't too bad (other than being Made of Iron and having minor Puzzle Boss elements), the Reavers and wild Kryll that randomly join in while you're trying to fight him make it very much a Luck-Based Mission.
 * The Final Boss in Gears of War 3 is just as, if not, more difficult than RAAM. It has a devastating flame attack with a huge area-of-effect that will down you in less than a second of exposure, a shitload of health and, to make things worse, constant waves of Royal Guards and Shriekers while you try to deal with it. There are so many Palace Guards in fact, that by the end of the campaign they will be your most killed enemy, outnumbering your second most killed enemy by at least double.
 * The Lambent Berserker is rage-inducing as well, especially after it starts dropping the one-hit down lambent juice behind it.
 * Gunkers aren't bosses by any stretch of the imagination, merely Demonic Spiders. However, one Gunker at the beginning of "Hanging By a Thread" can gunk/scythe you as soon as you drop down from the zipline. Since you don't get downed on Insane difficulty and just skip straight to death, this elevates this one particular Gunker to That One Boss territory due to its Luck-Based Mission nature.
 * That One Level: Any time Delta Squad had to drive anything, especially those Reavers. Except . That classified as awesome.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Lots of people whined and cried about the Gnasher receiving hard nerfs in Gears of War 2.
 * Ugly Cute: Baby from Gears of War 3. DAWWWW!!
 * The Tickers too.
 * Visual Effects of Awesome: The game series is generally known for its gorgeous graphics, especially textures and particle physics. The visuals in these games alone (before the cut scenes) are often better than full motion videos of other games.
 * It helps that each subsequent game improves on the Unreal Engine 3, with Gears of War 3 being the most detailed and fine-tuned of the three. Gears of War 3 also has some really stunning and creative visuals, such as the super-trippy opening level dream sequence, the Half-Life 2: Episode Two-style morphing environments and the lighting effect from the Tempest's Breath Weapon.
 * What an Idiot!: Yeah, Chairman Prescott, hide the fact that information on the Locust capital is at a secret base, and the location of vital fuel supplies. Oh, and the fact that an island the population of Jacinto could have evacuated to is not contaminated like everybody else thought. That will be real helpful to the war effort.
 * Win Back the Crowd: The beta for the third game seems to have done this, winning back a great deal many players who despised the second's multiplayer.
 * The Woobie: Dom. Everyone had their faces designed so they don't have to express much to show their personality. Dom constantly looks sad.

The Books provide examples of:

 * Complete Monster: Jonn Massy.
 * Moral Event Horizon: Many of the Stranded consider anyone associated with the COG to have crossed it with the Hammer of Dawn counterattack, but considering how badly the COG was losing the war and the fact many Stranded gleefully cross the horizon themselves to survive or for fun, the accusation rings a little hollow.