great game but dissapointing at many times
first off.......this games story is completely nonexistent. You have teammates but you never form a bond with them. At one time, Kim, one of your soldier friends, dies by the locust horde...........except you only knew him for about 3 minutes that it didnt matter, he seemed like just some other guy.
I guess you can sum up the story as, the locust horde of ugly humaniods and some monsters are trying to take over the planet of sera(the name is only mentioned in the instructions booklet....), and you(marcus) must fight with your teammates to destroy the stronghold of the locust........thats it.
The characters in the game are trying to much to be hardasses, youd think the guy who plays bender in futurama would be more lively, but hes really stiff and deep in his voice. The rest of the crew has some jokes here and there but the vocal work in this game is really limited.
The graphics, basically the best thing about this game. this game is gorgeous, every little part of a level is sooooo detailed. The environments are mostly broken down buildings, facilities, and towers. All of them look outstanding and there will be lots of times were you just want to look at the levels.
The character models are also impressive. one annoying thing is that you and your comrades were these huge bulky armor that looks like it weighs a ton, and yet they dont wear helmets...........only one does but hes not a main character. Another annoyance is that you and your teammates almost look exaclly like enemies from far away(during multiplayer you'll have times when youll confuse your friend with an enemy, and vice versa, very annoying). other than that the enemy models look really rough, and the monsters look really big and detailed.
Graphics are so far the best on any console, or pc, so far. It looks really tough to beat in the visuals right now.
weapons, a shooter is only as good as its weapons. I must say, gears has a dissapointing amount of weapons, but there are ones that really shine. except, there are very useless weapons that make up that list, one is the 3 shot burst (hammer burst) locust weapon, which you use in the first level, and you practically ignore because its really not so fun to use. There are also 2 pistols, one is the magnum which is strong but is really slow, and the other is a standard Cog pistol which is really fast but weak.........you'll probably only use the pistols when you just want to act tough, but other than that their basically invisible. theres arocket launcher, which is powerful but has poor collision detection, and you basically have to shoot either at the persons body, or next to the floor by their feet.
there is a shot gun in which is really helpful at times. You guessed it, you have to use it at close range, but the best thing is, enemies explode when you kill them..........!!!
there is a sniper rifle. This gun is really tough to use, because you have to reload after each shot(seeing as how this is a futuristic game, youd think it would be automatic). But then again it does keep the multiplayer balanced, because if it wasnt oneshot at a time, youd probably murder at multiplayer.
there is a cross bow grenade launcher which is really nice to use. It is kind of strange that its a cross bow, but basically it shoots explosive arrows that can stick to people. Watching enemies blow up is priceless.
there is a really special weapon called the hammer of dawn. Basically what it does is shoots a laser, and the laser has to be still while it locks on to the target, after that,a giant beam strikes down and you have the freedom to move it anywere and burst anything in sight. The thing is it only works outside, and in the campaign, it only works when the signal is on. Sometime this gun can back fire on you, because you can strike the beam and make it go over an enemy, and they wont die........
Now the beast of them all, the lancer. It is a machine gun that has a chainsaw on it. Yes probably the most original gun ever, it was predictable but no one has done it yet. this gun is the one you will mostly be using because it is accurate, and strong. The best part is the chainsaw melee, in which you rev up the engine and then saw an enemy to pieces. The sawkills are soooo gory and awesome that they will never get old. The devs make the chainsaw balanced by only letting you chainsaw someone who is wide open, so if theyre shooting at you when you have the chainsaw up, you can stutter and the chainsaw will stop, leaving them to kill you.
there are grenades but they are really hard to use. They, like the rocket launcher, have bad collision detection too, so a person has to be right on top of the grenade to actually die..........the grenade is only useful if you stick someone with it, gauranteeing their death. Enemies in the campaign will never die by a grenade because once you throw one, they run a couple of feet away and they dont get hurt, so its pretty much useless.
so now its time for the dissapointments.
one thing is that the campaign is really short. Yes there are only 5 acts, and it takes about 2-3 hours to beat each one on the hardest difficulty. So you might say, oh i can make it worth while by playing on a different difficulty, thats true but the difficulty just makes the game longer because you die a lot..........
also, you'll most likely only play with another person via coop because solo mode is kinda unfun knowing you can be playing with a buddy.
another simple thing, but still pretty dissapointing are some of the bosses.
one boss you actually witness on the first act, that giant thing that comes from the ground. Its called a corpser, it is impressively huge. the thing thats stupid is that you can kill it on the hardest difficulty, alone, in less than 5 minutes without any trouble...........yes that huge thing is extremely easy to beat. Do not, i repeat, do not waste 100msp to buy the strategy guide from market place.......it teaches you how to beat it, and i think you have enough common sense to beat it on your own. Seriously this monster was all high and mighty in the commercial for gears, it was all badass in the first scene, and then you fight it and you say to yourself "wtf........is there like gonna be another one spawning or something???, ah...that was some bs".
another boss is that giant titan guy with a huge gun on his back. he made appearances in the magazines when gears was first announce. They were praising how big he was, and detailed. Well.......guess what?? you dont even get to fight this guy..........yes this awesome, would be great boss guy, is not fightable. The thing is, you only see him once in the game and he is covered in the dark, so basically you see a little silouette(i cant spell that) of him, and then you run away..
Ya so theres only one boss in the game worth fighting, the berserk. The rest are stupid......damned corpser, ruining peoples anticipation.
ok, the single player in this game is extremely fun with another friend and pretty much will never get boring fast because its not restricted. It is linear but there are so many ways to kill enemies, so many ways to use your tactics, its just really fun to play. in the multiplayer, you play 4 cogs vs 4 locust. The game is really intense and requires lots of team work.
the levels are really varied and have lots of spots for great shootouts.
The multiplayer will last a long time because it is really really fun.
The only problem is.... the options.
There are only 3 match types to play. the first is warzone in which you have to kill each member of the other team. The other is execution in which you have to kill the other team using exotic methods like the chainsaw, curbstomb, headshots, grenade sticks, etc. And the last is assassination in which you must kill the leader of the other team, as they try to kill your's also.
The thing is that execution seems too much like warzone, because in warzone, most of your kills will be all the exotic kills, rarely will you actually gun down a person till they die(well you will but you would rather just crush their heads). So basically they are the same things.
Assassination is really not that fun to play because its sooo unnecessary...i mean kill the leader??? out of 4 people???, its annoying because the game can end so fast because the leader was already killed..............its really not so fun to play.
the other thing about multiplayer is its party system. You cannot change the level, or match type once you have created a room........so basically if you wanted to change the matchtype and level, youd have to abandon your party, start a new room and choose the options....................this is a really annoying factor because there are times when you want to play on other levels without having to put it on custom cycle(which changes the levels after each match). This gets you thinking, "why couldnt the developers let you have these simple options??", its really ridiculous actually, i mean just to change the level??? all in all gears of war is an amazing game with an amazing multiplayer section. This game is worth the buy.