Gears Of War: Judgment is the latest addtion to the incredibly iconic Gears Of War franchise. However, this game in a lot of regards is not at the same level as the previous installment, Gears Of War 3. 

Combat: 
This game plays a lot different than previous titles in the series. Gone is the ability to choose two starting weapons. You're only allowed to choose one weapon and a grenade type and that's it. To switch between maps you click the Y button, and to throw grenades you click the LB, or the left bumper. The game has also done away with active reload in multiplayer, you can only use that feature in the campaign.

Introduced in this game are a few new weapons to play with. Spot Grenades when thrown show everyone on your team enemies in the area. Stim Grenades have taken the place of Down But Not Out, a feature that has been in every other Gears title except this one. They revive fallen teammates and heal anyone on your team in the vicinity of the healing gas. The Markza is a semi-auto sniper rifle that can take down  enemies with a few well-placed shots. The Breechshot is a modified Markza with a much more powerful kick and will decapitate foes with one bullet to make up for it's lack of a scope. 

Storyline/Campaign Mode: This time around, instead of the very well-known Marcus Fenix, the action takes place around Lieutenant Baird and Kilo Squad, who are shown to be war criminals at the beginning of the story. The story is composed of several sections, with each member of Kilo Squad giving their testimony of what happened prior to their arrests. Now for something that seemed so promising actually turned out to be sort of bland. In the other Gears games I really did feel for the characters in the story and in this installment I really could care less. The newcomers Sophia & Paduk are very boring characters, and the familiar Baird & Cole seemed to have lost the spark that made them very interesting to begin with. They could have done SO much more with the storyline and instead gave us a bland plot and a very uninteresting and a predictable antagonist. 

The campaign is broken down into sections and every section has a declassified mission. Declassified missions give you some sort of handicap as you encounter the next wave of locust, as the person giving their testimony will say for example:"We only fought with pistols because we were low on ammo" or "There was a lot of wind in the area and we could barely stay on our feet". This was one of the highlights of the campaign as you are rated on how well you take on the enemy and are judged on how you dispose of them. You are given stars for your performance, and the better you do against the Locust the more stars you earn. This gives the campaign some replayability as you try to go back and earn more stars while playing. You will unlock Multiplayer characters & weapon/character skins for obtaining stars. 

The campaign isn't very lengthy, you could finish it in one sitting if you wanted to. The Aftermath campaign addition brings you back to the Gears 3 universe and serves as a epilogue to Judgment which is a lot more fun to play through than the main campaign, sadly. 

Multiplayer:
Judgment hits a high note on multiplayer. There are several modes you can play on, from some classic modes like Team Deathmatch (Whoever depletes the other team wins) & Domination (Pretty much a Capture The Flag mode), to new modes like Overrun and Survival. Survival is Judgment's "Horde Mode", having to defend yourselves against 10 waves of locust enemies in the style of Overrun.

Overrun is the biggest highlight of multiplayer. You will start out as either the locust or the COG. Your objective is either to defend the E-Hole Hatch (COG) or to destroy it (Locust). There are 4 classes for each COG member: Medic, Scout, Soldier, & Engineer. Engineers carry shout guns, repair fortifications, and can set up temporary turrets to ward off locust enemies. Scouts carry Markzas and they can throw spot grenades. Soldiers throw out ammo boxes for other team members to refill their ammo and carry Booskas. Medics carry Lancers, Sawed-Off Shoutguns, and stim-grenades.

As the locust, you can chose from the 1st tier at the beginning. These include the fortification destroying tickers (who are also able to use shortcuts in the map to destroy the hatch quicker), grenadiers (who are able to throw frag grenades and have a great weapon loadout), the wretch (able to hop over COG fortifications and climb certain areas other locust can't reach), and finally the kantus (who is able to heal other locust while leaving itself vulnerable to fire). As you gain points from killing COG soldiers and destroying forifications you will be able to play as 2nd tier locust who you spend points on to use. The rager can turn into a near unstoppable behemoth for a short time to destroy fortifications and make way for other players to advance. The Serapede is indestructable sans for its tail, but it can shoot acid to scatter enemies and destroy fortifications. The mauler is a slow but powerful locust that can easily destroy fortifications and scatter enemy players, as well as reflect enemy bullets by spinning its shield. The final and most expensive 2nd tier locust is the corsper, which can burrow underground and pass by enemy fortifications and easily destroy anything in its path.

It should be noted that playing as Locust can only be done in Overrun mode, you can no longer play as locust in any other mode aside from this one.

There is a leveling system that is very similar to the one implimented in Gears 3: You earn ribbons and XP every time you play a match. You also earn Prize boxes depending on what you do. There are Normal, Rare, & Epic prizeboxes, each containing different things such as Character skins,  weapon skins, and XP. You can Re-Up after you max your level out, and start fresh again playing online as a level 1 and earn more prizeboxes. 

MP Negatives:
It is extremely odd that this game shipped with only 4 multiplayer maps (4 for Overrun & Survival, and 4 for the other MP modes). It gets very dull to play on the same maps after a while, and you also cannot choose two starting weapons at the beginning of the match. A bad point of MP is the matchmaking system, sometimes you will be put into matches full of bots (This happens a lot when you pick survival). 

Enviroment: 
Judgment is stunning to look at. Every enviroment is brightly colored and detailed and looks a lot more vibrant than past Gears titles. You can truly appreciate the time that went into creating such a beautiful world, when you're not fighting locust of course. Especially in the campaign when you get to the Halvo Bay Military Academy, the world is very colorful and bright in contrast to the brown and dull palette of past titles. 

Multiplayer maps are extremely huge as well, especially when compared to past titles. Gondola is a vertical map, as there is a gondola going up and down the middle of the map and you can get to higher ground and pick off people below from riding it. Rig, Library, and Streets are all for the most part a bit more grounded but still big maps, you never know who's coming behind the next corner, and they are also very tight, closed, and claustrophobic. Every single map is chaotic and it is a blast to play through each of them online. 

Overall:
Judgment is refreshing enough not to feel like the past 3 titles but in some aspects it still feels like I'm playing Gears Of War 3 just based on the menu & leveling up system alone. This game is worth a look if you're a Gears Of War fan, but it's not worth the $60 pricetag. I got the game for a lot less on eBay and I feel it was worth the money I spent, but this is just a step back for the series. While I do enjoy the multiplayer I know that in time I will grow bored of it just because of the lack of maps and modes there are. I would recommend this only when the price drops, don't buy this at full price. Rent it to see if you like it or not, and if you do go ahead and buy it but I really recommend you wait for the inevitable price drop. If you're new to the series Gears 3 is a much better title and you should check that out instead if you haven't already, and it's less than $20 in most stores. 

Recommended: Yes