Gears of War som ble sluppet i butikk i 2006 skiller seg veldig mye fra visjonen som Epic Games hadde for spillet fem år tidligere. Da het spillet Unreal Warfare og var et Battlefield-inspirert skytespill med fokus på store flerspillerkamper.
Lead programmer James Golding forteller i et intervju med GamesTM om hvordan spillet så 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."