Gears is an outstanding game, and the only thing holding it back from being perfect is a plethora of glitches and bugs.
Graphically, the game looks very, very good. The textures are amazing on all of the walls and surfaces, and the characters themselves look pretty stunning. The Locust, especially some of the bigger characters look simply frightening. This is still one of the best looking games on the 360 for sure.
The story itself is very strong. The plot line is well put together, and the voice acting itself is surprisingly good. The characters all seem like badasses, in the exception of Baird (till the end). While the Casual and Hardcore difficulty modes are cake walks (for the most part), crank this baby up to Insane and have fun!
One of the best parts about Gears of War, and the element that really separates it from other next gen shooters, is the cover system. You can take cover behind virtually anything in this game, and then aim your reticle, pop out and shoot, or blind fire. Either way, this is a surprisingly huge part of the game. You will find yourself, many times, crouching behind a wall and sprinting up behind an enemy. The system is (mostly) really well designed, and really enhances the game play.
Perhaps the best part about the game, is online multiplayer. Gather up 7 of your closest friends and play some team deathmatch. This provides nearly endless hours of fun, and if you do happen to get bored, you can always hit up the ranked matches and try to own some reasonably well seasoned players. Although multiplayer is very fun, there are a few things that keep it from being on par with multiplayer for games like Halo 3…. Glitches, for one, are probably the biggest annoyance in multiplayer. There is an insane amount of glitches that can be accomplished using simple tricks, from rodeo running, which lets you sprint incredible fast while crouched, and free aim your rifle, to instantly exploding players on contact with your chainsaw. Another problem is that the entire join game function seems broken. No matter how many times you attempt to connect, it often fails, even when the connection strength is good or very good. All in all, multiplayer is still an incredibly addictive, fun way to spend your time.
If you haven't played Gears of War yet, I would recommend going and get it soon. The graphics are stellar, the story is great, and the multiplayer is outstanding, creating one solid, entertaining game. Can't wait for Gears of War 2!