Sex on a disc.
The second thing that will strike you about Gears of War is its sound. Combine it with the graphics and the chaos on screen, you may beleive YOU are the protagonist for a while. It's that immersive.
Moving on from drooling over your controller, the story of Gears of War is the story of Marcus Fenix, who has been imprisoned for being a traitor, but when the planet is overrun by the "Locust horde" he is needed to save humanity. It sounds like a bit of a cliché and it is, and due to the lack of back story of Marcus, or lore about any characters, you dont feel as much for the story as you couldve. Since the gameplay is so intense, you probably dont give a damn anyway.
To doubters, this game is more than hiding behind concrete blocks and crushed cars, its strategy. The AI gives you a challenge, and the cover is there to use. You don't have to hide from enemy fire, but then again you dont have to live. There are some occasions where the AI, if taking fire from you hiding in a sneaky place will have no reaction and let you pump him full of lead, but there arent many encounters of this I came across, and doesnt effect the game that much atall.
One thing that wasnt pleasing about this game was the fact you are effectivley immune to death, using the same health system as the Call of Duty games. The Gears of War icon appears in darker and darker red the closer you are to death, which does teach you how much damage you can survive while running around picking up ammo or ressurecting a fallen team member. It slightly belates the fact that you should be afraid of bullets travelling faster than sound, which gives you the mental confidence to run in guns blazing which reduces the challenge of duck and cover, moving up and assaulting the enemy tactically. Due to this, the game feels moderately easy with the occasional rise in difficulty until nearing the end, where it increases significantly. The health system helps if you are a novice yet it dampens the difficulty unless you try the "insane" level.
As the single player campaign is not intensively long (around 10-12 hours) you would turn to multiplayer, which in Gears of War, is the best multiplayer game on Microsoft's system. There are 3 different multiplayer modes which are Warzone, Assassination and Execution. Warzone is a run of the mill team deathmatch while Assassination puts one player in the leader role and the 3 other players are defending that leader. Execution makes you kill opposing players, but they can wait and bleed or tap A to ressurect themselves.
While the enviroment of Gears of War appears to be dull, it matches the story very well and the technical effects make this the best looking console game in history. The sound is crisp and clean, which adds to the atmosphere and little soundbites when an AI soldier bags a kill, bring a little smile to your face.
Gears of War is an outstanding singleplayer game and an even better multi-player game, which raises the bar of what console shooters should deliver from now on.