Next generation games are no longer something of the future, finally a game comes alongs that proves next gen is NOW.
The game play is simple yet fun. Instead of being your standard first person shooter Gears of War has created a new style in shooters that is very similar of that to the Metal Gear series. In Gears of War cover is your best friend, on further in the game and on higher difficulties you will not last a second if you are not behind a concrete planter, sandbags, or a car door. Going behind cover is as simple as hitting the A button. Once behind cover you can blind fire but shooting above your cover without aiming, your popping up to take a few shots at your enemy before popping back down. This may sound pretty boring but with the constantly changing battlefield you will have to dive out of cover and reposition yourself due to grenades or flanking troops.
The health system is extremely similar to Halo in the fact that you regenerate your health over time. When you take damage, the red skull and gear symbol will appear on your screen very lightly, and as you take more damage it will darken, when you see the logo completely your dead. Not taking any damage for merely a few seconds and the logo will disappear eliminating the need for hunting med-packs and getting you straight into the action.
The campaign mode is relatively short, lasting only about 6 to 8 hours depending on how seasoned a shooter you are. However, the many memorable fire fights gives the game nice replay value and you are likely to beat the game on harder difficulties.
The difficulties in Gears of War needed a bit of tuning. You start out the game with the “Casual” difficulty, which makes the game almost a joke as it is extremely easy. “Hardcore” difficulty is much harder then casual. The game needed an in between difficulty between “Casual” and “Hardcore”. Beating the game on “Casual” or “Hardcore” will unlock “Insane”.
One of the most prominent features of Gears of War will have to be co-op. Gamers have simply not had a good co-op experience since Halo and a little bit on Splinter Cell. The developers seemed to design Gears of War to be played co-op simply because it works so well for this type of game. You can choose to play co-op over the Internet or locally via split-screen. Beating the game on the harder difficulties such as Hardcore or Insane is much easier with co-op and much more fun. In some of the levels you will have choices to take certain paths, and your four man squad will split into two groups of two; which includes a player and a computer. While the squad is split, often times there will be situations where half the squad will be in the building and the other squad will be in the neighboring courtyard and therefore one half can give sniper coverage from the building to their buddies in the courtyard. These instances where the split squads can give each other covering fire only happens a few times, but it is extremely satisfying.
During co-op it is often a good tactic to have one person lay down fire and the other person flank the troops. If one of the players goes down, the other player can run up to them and press ‘X’ to revive. However, if the player is killed in certain instances such as getting chain-sawed then it will be game over.
The story in Gears of War is extremely weak. Most the story can be gotten out of the instruction manual and by watching the trailers and that is about the entire story you will get. Many would expect that as you play the game more would be revealed about the Locusts (they are called Locusts because these degree of death hasn’t been seen since the plague) but alas at the end of the game you know as much as you did when you started it. Most of it will most likely be saved for the inevitable sequel as the game ends on a slight cliff hanger.
Delta squad is the squad you are with the entire game. Your squad mates are well developed and have a lot of character which make for some humorous cut scenes and dialogue, which are all very well put together.
The graphics for Gears of War is one of it’s major features. The world is brought to life by insane detail and very artistic architecture but is in ruins and scarred by the war.
The weapons in Gears of War are all well developed and powerful. You will have you standard pistols and rifles, including your automatic rifle, the alien riddle that shoots in burst shots, a rocket launcher, sniper rifle, and one of the more fun weapons: the torque bow. The torque bow fires an arrow that explodes shortly after contact with anyone or anything. Another fun weapon is The Hammer of Dawn which is a pistol that can be used to triangulate a position and send an orbital beam to pretty much destroy anything that is unlucky enough to be under it.
However, the most fun weapon in the game is arguably the chainsaw bayonet on your machine gun. Hold B to rev it up, and then walk near any enemy to see a short cut scene that is very gory and very satisfying.
Which brings us to the rating of the game, which is M. Why? The game is extremely gory… extremely. Enemies get ripped to pieces by shot guns, chunks go flying as you chainsaw through someone, and sometimes your screen is so soaked with blood you have to wait a few seconds to properly see just about anything. The gore never gets old, and it makes killing enemies a blast. After extremely intense firefights just walking results in a “Squish Squish” sound as you walk over corpses of the fallen.
The sound in the game is spectacular, the guns sound epic and the soundtrack makes the game feel almost larger then life; that you are really in a war.
Multiplayer rates up with Halo 2 on Xbox live with intense death matches. However. It is a tab bit different in the fact that you play rounds and it is not until your entire team is killed until you get to play again after death.
RECAP HIGHS:
Great game play, impressive graphics, well developed characters, satisfying weapons, fun multiplayer, and an epic soundtrack.
LOWS:
Difficulty system could use some tweaking, very little story, very short game clocking in at around 6-7 hours.
All-in-all:
Next gen, NOW!