It’s because of artist James “Hawkprey” Hawkins.
Hawkins is a concept artist employed at Epic who is responsible for that trademark “look” the company’s games all share: the big boots, the clunky armour, the rustic weaponry. He’s worked on all three of the Gears of War games, as well as the Unreal series and even done a little on Bulletstorm, the rest of that game looking like his work because, well, that’s just what Epic games have to look like these days.
This is a great collection of work from all those games and series listed above, with character art and equipment designs ranging from rough sketches to the finished product.
You can see a lot more at Hawkprey’s personal site.
To see the larger pics in all their glory, either click the “expand” icon on the gallery screen or right click and “open link in new tab”.
markD
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 10:17 PMReally like his vehicle design but loathe his characters
Jubs
Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 11:18 AM+1
Aaron
Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 2:00 PM-5
I love it all, especially the monster designs. The Locust have to be one of my favourite races in video games.
Brett
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 11:50 PMLooks like a bit of spoiler in the description for the “Locust Sires”. Really wish I hadn’t begun to read that.
Aaron
Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 5:01 PMThe Sires were in Gears 2, they were the things in the big tubes in that science lab level. Plus the name Sire is kind of a spoiler in itself.
Shiro
Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 4:05 AMWow that is some talent.
PS Gears 2 was like popcorn… except scene where they found slave maria… I actually cried, they really generated an an emotional moment there.
deathtoll
Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 7:32 AMNo helmets and little arm protection. Is that kind of like putting a female with skimpy armour in an RPG? But, we look past those impracticalities…
LinkageAX
Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 5:31 PMAll the gears 3 characters are having that aesthetic.
Doraiya
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 12:32 PMMan, screw the skeptics who say that Gears of War has a cliche and over-masculine aesthetic. The designs are original, consistent and take a much needed departure from the boring realism seen in the plethora of generic FPS titles that continue to dominate the market.