Gears of War som släpptes i butik 2006 skiljer sig väldigt mycket från visionen som Epic Games hade om spelet fem år tidigare. Då hette det Unreal Warfare och var en Battlefield-inspirerad shooter med fokus på storskaliga multiplayermatcher.
Lead programmer James Golding berättar i en intervju med GamesTM om hur spelet såg ut:
"Gears started as a class-based Battlefield kind-of game. It had classes, mechs and it was going to be multiplayer focussed... that was until [Cliff Belszinski] played {Medal of Honor} and he was like 'no, single-player campaign is where it's at!'"
"The team at Unreal was working on the first draft of the game in 2001, as a multiplayer game, and Gears shipped in 2006 - so it took five years for the whole project to become this very different, whole other thing."