The Bottom Line: Gears of War is one of those games where the pros far exceed the cons, and with high production values and fun gameplay it is hard not to recommend.
donut_man23's Full Review: Gears of War for Xbox 360
Gears came out quite a while ago and by now it has came and gone. But for those who haven't picked up Gears by now it is definetly worth a play through despite its age. The experience from Gears feels unique in its own and deserves a play through even today.
Graphically the game is superior to much on the 360, at least at the time it was. Gears is definetly showing off itself as an advertisement for the Unreal 3 Engine and what its capable of this generation. Everything, including environments, character and gun models, etc., are each extraordinarily detailed. The gritty, dark feeling that the graphics portrayed fits well with the game and made the experience as fun and epic as it was. I was surprised to see such visible scars and scratches of the big, hefty soldiers known as Gears. These men pack such a punch that your controller vibrates every time you slam against a wall.
To go with the gorgeous graphics, the game provides a dark and scary atmosphere through the sound. The orchestra music fits well in the game. The blending of the music and graphics works so well in a game like this I'm almost surprised that it worked so well. The voice overs are kind of the stereotypical tough-guy attitudes but its not that big of an issue. But the bullet sounds, melee hits, and chainsaw rippings all have that gritty sound and feeling that goes well with the rest of the game. The enemies are sure to scare with their dark and haunting voices and noises.
That being said, the story is very lacking. There is little to no explanation for the "Emergence Day" that the game talks about. It doesn't feel like there is a true beginning or closure at the end. Nor do much of the characters develop throughout the adventure, which is a disappointment in a game that it could have worked so well in, especially with high production values like in Gears. The narrative that is given is done decently and the action makes up for the story that you feel you are missing out.
Speaking of action, what is the gameplay like? It surely isn't like any other Epic (the developer) game before, such as Unreal Tournament. Instead of an FPS-style run-and-gun scheme you'll spend more time in covering doing what is called "stop and pop." The game consists of using the A button to hide behind and jump over cover and it can also be used to run. Its a tradition shooter in the sense that the R trigger is used to shoot, L trigger to zoom, and the other buttons for reload, melee, change weapons, etc. The unique reload system allows you to tap the reload button twice, instead of once, and if you time it correctly you can get more powerful ammo that dishes out more damage. Since the game revolves around this system where you stay in cover and pop out and shoot your enemies and hide again, the enemies take more damage to kill than your average game. This "stop and pop" gameplay is simple at first but you find that it gets deeper as the game goes on. It is hard not to like the somewhat fresh change on gameplay in shooters that Gears provides and even if you don't find it all fun it still is a nice change on things from other shooters. The high production values and atmosphere works perfectly with the game, too.
The single player game alone is fun and exciting but the multiplayer feels like a never-ending extension on the unique style of the single player game. The multiplayer is loads of fun playing with others online, especially your friends. The variety of weapons and maps is sure to fulfill everyone's interests. Multiplayer mode is incredibly amazing because it extends the depth of the single player mode and adds more organized combat since each player is human and you can talk to them. Although the lag can put a bit of a damper on the gameplay but it runs mostly smooth 4 on 4. Having said that, the modes are not similar to typical shooters. Instead of having deathmatch or capture the flag every mode gives each player 1 life (3 modes) and you can either kill or be killed. Usually when you get shot up enough you fall to your knees, from there almost dead but you can be revived, however you can be finished off in some gruesome and pretty cool moves, especially the chainsaw. One mode has 1 member of each team as the commander where the only way to win is to kill the other team's leader. These modes are exciting but can get old fairly quick if you don't get addicted to them immediately.
The other aspect of the multiplayer mode is the co-op where you can play the entire campaign with a friend online or off. Having played both I would definetly say offline is a better experience even though 2 people are sharing the same screen. Online can get incredibly laggy and contains the occasional glitch. Having 2 humans rather than 1 human and 3 CPUs is much better experience-wise as well. A friend and I were able to beat an entire game within 8 or 9 hours in one sit through. I'd love to play it over and over again because its just that addicting. The story can get old but the stop and pop gameplay is fun every time.
Gears of War 2 will surely come out sometime in the foreseeable future so for those that have not picked up Gears of War now is better than never. I don't know anyone who hasn't enjoyed the stop and pop gameplay and even if you don't like multiplayer, the single player game is well worth it despite its shorter length, but a lot is packed in in that time and the game is over before the gameplay gets old. It is at least 10 hours (on solo play) of intense fun in a gritty, horror atmosphere.
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