Gears of War Review

Now before I start I just want to let you know that this review may be fairly obsolete with Gears of War 2 due to come out in November so don't write any hate mail when you read this.

OK, onto the review.

Gears of War is set in a post apocalyptic Earth where, what I can only guess are humanoid creatures, are fighting to take over the surface. Civilisation has gone to hell and Mankind is struggling for survival. Now, you may think that the story goes deeper than that but it doesn't. The story is about deep as a puddle and about as noticeable as one while driving really fast in a car through a street riddled with pot holes and it's been raining for two weeks non-stop and you're trying to spot that specific puddle. The protagonist is Marcus Fenix, a soldier in a group called "The Cogs" or "Cogs of War" or something to play into the title, and is released from prison by his friend Dom who in my opinion is the the coolest mother-fucker in there maybe to the exception of Cole but you don't play as him so who cares.

considerably. In the The gameplay is fairly straight-forward, if not repetitive at times. The routine goes like this: Run, Take Cover, Shoot (Blind firing is optional), Take Cover, Shoot some more, Run and it goes like that for about 90% of the game. There is one driving section in the game but it's short and easy but meant we had to leave the totally kick-ass old guy who had a revolver back at the petrol-station. There are certain mechanics to this game which spices up the gameplay. Multiplayer mode "WarZone", you can curb stomp a downed enemy to finish them off. In Gears of War 2 there's going to be that and more with custom animations for finishing moves for different weapons but we're talking about the first Gears of War so let's get back on topic.

Reloading now isn't just a "Tap-a-Button" reload sequence like 100% of other games out there, in this game when you tap reload a bar shows up with a white section about a third of the way through it. If you tap the reload button again when another white bar starts to fly across the bar and it lands in the white zone you get a perfect reload and it takes a fraction of the time. If you miss it the gun jams and you have to wait till it's fixed. Also while taking cover is easy jumping over objects is a big pile of ass because when you're running away from a group of enemies and have to jump over a barrier you have to take cover with it first, exposing your easily killed body to the enemies, then jumping over it with another press of the button. Now why they couldn't just have had it so that you can jump over it quicker and easier I don't know but it is a killer when you're in trouble.

Also, with the difficulty level, on singleplayer it can be very unforgiving. When your teammates are shot down you can just run over, drag them back up and they're good to go but when you're shot you lose and have to restart at the last checkpoint. This doesn't seem fair because you take risks running out to save them while they just leave you for dead as soon as you fall over. I saw another take of this in Star Wars: Republic Commando and let me tell you this. I fucking love Republic Commando! It livened up my Xbox with great controls, responsive AI and a priority system worthy of God. In Republic Commando you can revive your squad mates or tell another to revive them for you, but if you're down you're on the ground with blurred vision and dulled out hearing, with three options on your visor.

1: Recall and Revive
This will make your squad mates come heal you whenever they have the chance, even when under fire. They won't run on a suicide mission and will say when they can or can't come.

2:Finish Last Order
Your squad will finish the last order you give them before you were downed, such as to kill a large droid or clear a room. It also means that if you choose it, the team will clear the area before healing you.

3:Reload Last Checkpoint
If you want to redo the last section or think there is no chance of revival this is the last resort.

These options made Commando awesome and fluent without making it too easy. I may have said this in my Rainbow Six Vegas review that you can revive team mates but you can't be revived yourself. It's just bad game design.

Now I finished Gears of War on co-op which to me seems like it was made for it. Fairly often you have to split into teams of teo to explore both routes and that usually means one human player and one AI per team, with one team needing the help of the other at certain points. The levels were very challenging but some sections were just unreal. There was one section where we first get shotguns and we were supposed to be freaked out by munchkins charging at us from both ends of a corridor. Rather than being scared we pissed ourselves laughing at how the ragdolls flew and exploded in mid air.

The one complaint I have is a major one. When you get to the last boss, usually it's hard. I mean hard. As in you could throw a stick of dynamite at it and it wouldn't do a thing. In Gears of War this is not the case. The last boss is a testosterone filled rocket-man with a shield which lasts for 4 seconds before it flies off trying to attack us only realising we're in the light and gets scared and runs off back to offer a small amount of protection to the slow, grunting rocket hoar with bad aim. All you need is a sniper and a knack of avoiding really slow rockets and you're done! He doesn't even take that long to kill!

I know this was a launch game for the 360 and they had no real experience with past games for it but to me it seems unfinished. Unrefined. In need of a longer campaign, good storyline and a good fucking ending.

I'd give this game a "Should buy for the experience, but don't expect to replaying it anytime soon"

P.S.: Any game made by a developer called "Epic Games" HAS to be worth buying.