A grossly overrated, but undeniably enjoyable gaming experience. Worth a rental at the very least.
Personally I found the game to be extremely repetitive. The only break in the gameplay are the brief vehicle sections. The enemies were not particularly varied for the most part, just the same old grunts thrown at you with different weapons. Infact no single part of the game sticks out for me, because no matter what the locale is, the gameplay is always too similar. Run, crouch, shoot, move cover, crouch, shoot, repeat ad nauseum.
It didn't help that you could easily stick with one gun through the whole game, and the fact the most interesting weapon (The Hammer of Dawn) could only be used in specific areas (and all too briefly IMO).
The enemy AI and that of your team mates for the most part was excellent. On occasion team mates would wander out into turret fire, but otherwise the enemy cleverly hug cover and return fire. Perhaps that is why I didn't enjoy it as much as others. The gameplay is very stop and start, much like American Football. I am more of an English Football man myself, which in itself is a much faster end to end game, much like basketball. The constant stop and start of the cover fights, mixed with waiting to heal, made much of the combat drag on far too long. Also the emergence holes (see - spawning points) were too frequent, and just meant more of the sitting there waiting to reload, gain health and return fire.
Obviously the graphics are absolutely incredible. 99% of the animation is spot on, the art style is distinctive. Use of lighting is great. Many question the games bland colour palette, but that is really up to taste, and ultimately, a directors decision.
Sound effects as a whole were spot on. The speech was well recorded but the dialogue itself is attrocious, regurgitated 'marine' ho- hum. Marcus is just tough, to the point of being annoyingly calm with what is going on. In my opinion these hard as nuts stereotypes are growing old fast, one just need to look at film releases these past 10 or so years to see the swift decline of Arnie, Van Damme and Stallone movies. Hopefully games will continue to follow this trend by giving us characters such as Lucas Kane (Farhenheit) and Alan Wake (Alan Wake).
As for value, the single player is very short, and can be completed in about 8 hours. Multiplayer obviously adds as many hours as you want to put in, but I am not an online fan, and would not consider playing through the single player again.
In closing, Gears of War is an enjoyable game, but it is a little short on substance.