Gears of War: Great but not quite Epic

User Rating: 9.3 | Gears of War X360
By master_spoon | Review Date:
The first time through Gears of War was a great experience; the same could be said the first time through it with Co-op play. However there is something lacking for the overall single player experience. First off the graphics are as advertised. I have purchased Rainbow Six recently and Gears of War blows it away graphically. The game play graphics are equally as good to the cut scenes, and this is what should be expected with next generation graphics. I am excited to see what the 360 and PS3 will have to offer by the end of their fifth years. Secondly the game play involved in Gears of War is what can damage your game experience sometimes. Don’t get me wrong here, I love the motion of the characters; it truly does feel you are in control of your characters. The do everything button is what does drag it down though. You press the A button to roadie run (great animation), dive (forwards, backwards, and sideways) and take cover. Sometimes however you find yourself sticking to walls you don’t want to because of this. This issue is not that big of a deal during the single player game, however this will get you killed online.

Now the disappointment of the single player campaign. I am sure you have heard all of this before. The story good have been great, but consists of lame dialogue from Marcus and does not develop as fully as I had hoped. Hopefully this issue will be revolved with Gears of War 2. (Oh there will be a Gears 2 and probably 3) Secondly the boss battles in single player just plain suck. Oh sure they feel epic, you fight a blind bezerker, a huge monster, and they general of the Locust Horde, however they are all simple to beat. There was hardly any challenge on Casual or Hardcore. Also was not that difficult on Insanity with a second human player. I also wish that the game had better AI. Sure the game is almost impossible by yourself on the insanity mode, but it really has nothing to do with intelligent adversaries, that is most do to the fact that your health is cut in half and the Locust health is doubled. I am not just complaining about the Locust AI, but also your teammates are a bunch of idiots. There were numerous times when I was flanked by Wretches and my dudes did nothing to help me. Just stood there like they were brain dead. WTF? Overall this game should have made the Locust really smart, and balanced this by making your teammates smarter as well, it would have made for a better gaming experience. And what was with the opponents doing the same thing over and over. Whenever I died at a location, I had no trouble betting it the second time due to the fact that the enemies seemed to move into the same locations and try the same tactics. I expected more randomness from this game, and this generation of consoles.

Having had the trouble with the single player mode, this game truly shines online. It is at most a 4 on 4 game and while the 3 modes are basically the same, they are all great. Curb stomping or placing a grenade into an opponent and watching them explode is great, same could be said of the close quarter battles with shotguns. However it must be stressed that you need to work with your online teammates, and stick together or you will die fast. I would compare it more to chess with machine guns then anything else. Make the right moves, and you win.=)

While I seemed to rail on this game a little bit, I just wanted to stress the negatives of this game. Everything you have read or seen is true though; this is a superb game and should not be missed by anyone. Just don’t expect the “perfect” game because it is not quite it. Maybe with the second one.

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