Gears of War

If you want more: Third-person shooting, a tale of human survival against creepy things that go bump in the night
Notable differences: Not a survival horror game, more conventional third-person shooting, less-realistic setting and premise, and fucking chainsaws, baby
Availability: Windows (Steam Deck not directly supported) Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Gears of War and The Last of Us represent two divergent paths from the wide influence of Resident Evil 4. Both are over-the-shoulder third-person games, both have you fight monstrous foes, and both feature present and looming threats to what’s left of civilization. But Gears wants to give you more of a power fantasy, which might sound like a treat after roughing it out there with Joel and Ellie. If TLoU’s infected and assholes-with-guns™ had you feeling against the wall a bit too much, Gears is here with foul-mouthed soldiers equipped with chainsaw guns and friggin mega lasers that come down from the sky and obliterate everything.

Though you’re typically better stocked and evenly matched when tup against Gears’ Locusts than you are the infected in TLoU, there’s still a similar theme of desperation and loss: Gears of War’s human world of Sera has been forced into a defeated, post-apocalyptic state by the emergence of the Locust horde. As a player you have a lot of power to go against that, but it’s clear you’re one of the last hopes for a doomed world. Sound familiar?

There are five whole, numbered Gears of War games worth caring about (we shall speak not of Judgment). The original has been remastered in Gears of War Ultimate for more modern Xbox consoles. Two and three are excellent in terms of gameplay, but the story goes a little off the rails. Scratch that. The story gets really, dramatically fucking stupid. But it’s a fun time!

The recent sequels, Gears 4 and 5 are also of high quality and worth checking out, particularly 5, and feature a change of protagonists from the originals. I’d describe them as a soft reboot, so if you did play the Gears games, but maybe not the whole trilogy or don’t remember the details too much, just jump into 4 and have a fun time destroying shit.