A LOT of manliness awaits you...
So let me be clear: Gears of War is a fun, FUN game. Its extremely enjoyable and a blast to play. Upon picking the game up you will probably get warmed up in the campaign, which you can do alone or co-op (I reccomend the latter, more on that later). The campaign follows the story of soldier Marcus Fenix, once imprisoned for disobeying orders and trying to save his dad, and his squad. The world of Sera (which Gears takes place on, a fictional planet) has been engulfed in constant war for over 100 years. First, it was the fight over recources and Sera's oil, Immulsion. But one day, humanity was forced to band together to fight an enemy greater than they had ever faced, the Locust, a horde of monstrous, humoid figures from beneath Sera. You and the COG army must kill the Locust. And... thats it. That is the story. Actually, there is no real story, just a lot of backstory. You get sent on a series of missions by the higher up, and go kill Locust. Its a little disappointing, but who really cares when you're cutting up waves of enemies in the most enjoyable, bloody manner? The gameplay itself is fairly varied, sometimes just pushing you forward through ruins of European inspired urban enviornments fighting Locust from behind cover, or putting you in a fast moving vehicle, maybe fighting a monstrous Bezerker who will rip you in half if you dare mess with it, or occassionly handing you a ridiculously destructive weapon and let you explode giant monsters like Seeders and Boomers. Its fun while it lasts (about 8 hours), and even more so with a buddy, replacing the somewhat dim AI buddy, Dom. There are also 3 difficulties, achievements, and collectable COG tags encouraging you to go back again, which you gladly will.
On the multiplayer side of things, you get one of the best multiplayer experiences on the Xbox. Unlike Gears 2, Gears of War does not have matchmaking, but rather a host based one. You find a server you wish to join, and hop in. There are many very well designed maps to play on (my favorite is Gridlock), and a few gametypes to choose from, as well as now free DLC maps to play. Overall its very balanced and extremely addicting. There isn't much to say, like the campaign its just really, really fun, complemented by extraordinary gameplay.
Speaking of gameplay, I should tell you its great. Unlike many run n' gun FPSs on the market nowadays, Gears of War takes a more.... careful route, I should say. Taking cover is absolutely critical in Gears. You MUST keep you head down in order to survive. Its all about taking cover, squeezing off as many shots as it takes to clear a decent path, and then push forward and repeat. You also really can't shoot while freely moving, as there is no reticle and accuracy is terrible. When you pull down the L trigger or get into cover though, you can pull of some seriously crazy, disgusting head shots. One of the best parts about Gears are the creative weapons. There's a bow and arrow weapon called the Torque Bow, which you hold down the R trigger to pull back the arrow, and release when you get the crosshairs over an enemy for an instant kill, which is actually an explosion, or the Hammer of Dawn, a ridiculously destructive weapon that rains a massive laser down from the sky, and the famous Lancer Assualt Rifle, a fairly standard assualt rifle... with a chainsaw on the end. Gears was already gory enough without a freaking chainsaw to shred your enemies in half while spattering blood all across the screen (which is an awesome effect)! Gears also has a unique twist on reloading; to reload you tap the right bumper, which brings up a little timer with a small dot quickly traveling across. Tap the bumper again over the small white area and you get an instant reload, which reloads your gun extremely fast and adds extra damage to your bullets for a brief period. Despite the amazing graphics, the gameplay itself is the very best part of Gears.
We all know how awesome the graphics are. The game is nearly 3 years old now and this game is still a beauty. It runs at a constantly steady framerate without any noticeable dips while presenting some amazing lighting effects and gore. Everything just looks great, and it really justifies UE3s' popularity. The music is pretty good, the dialogue is pretty funny but very dumb sometimes (I'm often reminded of Clint Eastwood's awesome one-liners).
So thats it. Gears of War is an awesome game that any 360 owner should definately own, if just to show off the machine's capabilities. Check in later for a review of Gears of War's sequel (and perhaps superior), Gears of War 2 soon.