Gears of War Creator Explains Bald Space Marines and Brown Ruins in Games

Video games come in a lot of shapes, sizes and genres, but among the most popular ones are shooters, whether they are first or third person. Sadly though, in recent years, they have all begun to look the same and to have characters that are made using the same pattern: you play as a space marine, preferably bald or with as little hair as possible, making his way through a bombed-out futuristic city with decaying ruins colored in brown.

A lot of people wondered why this was chosen by so many studios for their story, but Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski has now though of answering these questions. He reveals, while talking with Develop, that these choices, the bald space marines, the brown color, are due to the technology, like his company's Unreal Engine 3, which is really good at rendering such things.

“I just think that the technology of this generation just happens to be very good at rendering metals and stones and dramatic lighting, which is why you see a lot of pillars and girders and destroyed blown-out areas because that's what the bump-mapping happens to do very well. At the same time, in this generation the translucent effects are very hard to pull off. That's why everybody sees a lot of these bald characters and wonder why games feature so many [...] space marines. Well, the tech is good at showing off armor and it's not that good at doing hair. That's why we have bald space marines. There's your answer people.”

But don't think that any new game that will use the Unreal Engine 3 will have space marines and color everything in brown, as the designer shared a few examples: “Well, if you look at the upcoming Shadow Complex game, or the Wolverine melee game that came out; we’re just offering a canvas and a paint brush; it’s up to you as a developer to paint whatever you want. If you look at Borderlands; okay it is a shooter, but it has a beautiful cel-shaded look to it.”

So there you have it, gamers, technology prevents a lot of designers from creating video games that don't all have space marines and brown in them.