Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszkinski says “the future of shooters is RPGs,” suggesting that the Gears of War franchise could be in for a healthy dose of dialog and character development.
The Gears of War games seem to be doing well enough as is, garnering both critical and commercial acclaim, but Bleszinski apparently envisions even greater things for the future. Looking to the success of BioShock, the man known as CliffyB expressed great admiration for designer Ken Levine and admitted that he was initially worried the game wouldn’t catch on with players. “But it pleased me to no end that the game did so well,” Bleszinski said. “I had a conversation with Harvey Smith – one of the lead designers on Deus Ex – and said to him the future of shooters is RPGs. He said he completely agreed.”
He was somewhat more circumspect about how the Gears of War franchise fits into that belief, however, saying, “One could wean that from the comments I made earlier about the future of shooters is RPGs and see where things are going with us.” He also dismissed suggestions that criticism of the Gears of War 2 narrative would dissuade Epic from further “innovation” in the future.
“We never said we were making Shakespeare; this is a Michael Bay film, go with it,” he continued. “I would much rather be the guy who makes a game that sells millions of copies that people love to make fun of – because that’s what people do on the internet – than the guy who makes a critical darling that no one really knows about.”
