How that twenty-year-old Gears of War teaser still grabs my attention

There’s a moment I keep circling back to.

You’re in a room full of noise, everyone talking over each other, and then you notice there's one kid alone, sitting in a corner, speaking barely above a whisper. And somehow, that’s the voice you end up focusing on.

That’s what the original Gears of War teaser did back in 2006.

The whole industry was in ‘bigger, louder, flashier’ mode, and then along comes this short, almost fragile trailer set to the Donnie Darko-era ‘Mad World’ cover by Gary Jules. A lone soldier. A ruined city. No shouting, no hype. Just a mood that landed harder than all the big-budget noise around it.

It didn’t push itself into your face.

It didn’t have to.

It said what it needed to say quietly, and that was enough.

An amazing Gears of War commercial

An amazing ad for the Gears of War XBOX 360 game. When I realized whom the song was from, I was a struck. I mean I grew-up listening to Tears for fear. The song, though completely at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum for such a game, actually balances out the futility of the violence -- and by that I mean the setting, not the game itself. It's a mad world after all!