Creating a new standard for it's crowded 3rd Person genre, Gears' original concept brings something new to the table.
Led by a company called Epic that done the past Unreal Tournament games that introduced fast paced multi-player action for the PC world, Epic was determined to bring a new franchise to the 360 that will leave a dent on Microsoft's competitions.
Gears of War pits you against the fearsome Locusts. What makes this game so different is the much better cover system that is introduced into this game. Kill.Switch had apparently used this in its 2003 debut but the system wasn't used well and the game wasn't that good.
The graphics of Gears of War single handedly beats out the Playstation 3's launch games. Especially, Resistance: Fall of Man, which is surprising since I was not expecting those kinds of graphics to be on the 360. The details are excellent and are put to heavy use to create an ominous setting to make the player feel uncomfortable in some places. One of the best parts of this game is the lightning system. The dark areas are played into a use for this game but there is a twist into this whole, dark is safer and light is dangerous. Staying too long in the dark can end up getting you killed in some areas and the Locusts thrive in the dark. It's like the movie by Vin Diesel, "Pitch Black" where the inspiration of this game is from, that the monsters the survivors were being chased by was "allergic" to light and they were picking off people that were wandering into the dark. The textures are excellent to look at and far surpass anyone's expectation that they had for this game. Instead of seeing flat looking textures you can see textures with life that they don't even look bleh. It's been the Achilles heel for every great game in the past 4 years now, poor textures sometimes ruin games, but in this title… it's awesome.
You can't have a great game with the word, "war" in it if you're going to have some really crappy sounds in it. But this game's sound is so fun that you're going to end up unloading your weapons by shooting them at random things because it's sounds so… badassery! It's so freaking awesome, dude! The shouts, the explosions, the music, everything! One of the best sounds I've ever heard in a game ever since Call of Duty 2!
Going into the voice acting is requires one word to explain how it is in this game. The word is… outstanding. Yes, I said it, it's outstanding. I don't have to explain myself here, it's outstanding! This is coming from a guy that played Superman Returns: The Videogame that has one of the worst voice acting of all-time!
When we all see a title like this game, we all are going to think to ourselves, "gah, the game looks so complex with the control schemes, it's going to be a nightmare!" Well, Epic heard your cries, ladies and gents, this game has one of the most fluid and intuitive controls for a game this complex. You'll never push the wrong button and you'll always feel comfortable in the heavy receiving end of a Locust assault. Even the cover system is so smooth that you'll rarely get screwed on the whole collision detection problems that haunted Kill.Switch.
The gameplay is superb in this game. It has a different taste of most violent shooting games out there that they even threw in a chainsaw into the mix as well. The gameplay can hardly get tiring or repetitive that in some areas you are given a choice of taking the left or right path. That is the first thing you'll do when you start to play the game. You are given the choice to either, take the left path if you already know the controls or you can take the right path to learn the controls. It's a really good system since each path has its own difficulty system. But the game will never let you know until you died for the 20th time on the right path you chose. The enemies are just downright scary in this game because they really know how to use the cover system in this game. Plus they are extremely accurate and know how to flank you that getting out is a death wish. If you're standing out in the open, chances are that you're already dead, dude. Yeah, their that tough. But luckily sometimes you'll find them glitching that you can pick one off with a full blast of your lancer before they stop standing in the open and get back into coverage.
Overall this game is one of the greatest games I've played in a while and this is defiantly worth more then $60 for this game. Its fun, it's tough, and the chainsaw makes it all the worthwhile of owning this game. If you don't have it, go get it now before the Locusts comes to get you.