Gears Of War Review

Jamie66 · Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:58 am Post subject: Gears Of War Review

Welcome back to another one of my game reviews, this time I am reviewing a game most 360 owners will have themselves and nearly all gamers in general have heard of. Before I get into this review I was getting hounded by everyone to get this game as soon as I brought my 360, the positive feedback I was getting and the urge to then buy the game myself was overwhelming. But I always wonder when I buy a game everyone I know has recommended if I will enjoy it as much as they did or if we have different tastes in games? But Gears Of War was a great game experience, now I won't go as far to say this was an awesome game because there were some things involving the game that did bug me and there was allot in the game that was great but the few things I didn't like did effect my scores.

You are Marcus Fenix a former military officer who didn't follow orders and was then sentenced to 40 years in Jacinto maximum security prison during the first Locust war against the planet, but when the Locust Horde return and overrun the prison where you're located you are thrown right back into the action. Firstly the tutorial level to escape the prison is VERY good, one of the best tutorial levels I have played in for a long while and it definitely left you wanting more and explaining most of the controls and the cover system every well. You eventually meet up with Dom, Cole and Baird who are your squad mates, now one problem I found was that if I didn't read the instruction book there was no way I would have known all about Fenix's past. Now I played through the whole story and I never once was filled in with much of a background to the story of Fenix, The Locust or why they have come to attack again (Although at the end of the game the Locust say that the people don't know why they attacked, so this might be why). The missions themselves are quite in-depth and just when you think it's over it just keeps going, which means you get allot of game play around 12-15 hours off the top of my head for a single play through depending on your skill level.

The visual effects in this game are amazing to think this game was released last year and it can stand tall to games such as Halo 3, Assassins Creed and maybe even Bioshock in terms of graphics is a true testament to just how good this game was for a game released a year or more behind the titles I named. Especially the second and third campaigns are very eerie and dark and really get your heart pumping, especially when the Wreches jump from the abandoned windows you freak out as you didn't see that coming and are always on your toes. The amount of detail in your adversaries is also top notch from the Wretches, to the Boomers, to the Berserker and your final battle with RAAM. Not only do all the boss battles need allot of strategy to win let alone stay alive for more then a minute but the battles leading up to these are as hard or even harder, the flock upon flock of enemies you have to put away along with the Wretches that can sneak up on you while targeting the Drones means you have to be ready or they can get you before you even saw it coming, my favourite adversary though would be the Boomers they are an awesome character and especially when they shoot at you they scream "BOOM".

When you are playing this game the music in gunfire takes a backseat, but when you're not in a battle you hear just how great the score is and it can determine if you're on edge or having a great time it was beautiful work. Not only that but the gun fire itself along with the great one liners and voice interaction between the squad mates itself is brilliant along with the great voices of your enemies. How can I not speak about the cover system, when I first read the booklet and saw it was one button that would allow you to do six different actions I thought this could be some trouble. It turned out not to be much trouble but especially in certain fights and the final boss battle the cover control can determine if you live or die, seeing as you could be sprinting and then suddenly you stop and cover and are blown away. This was a good idea but I think it could be worked on in GOW 2 if that comes around.

Overall this was a great game and is definitely one of my favourite 360 games I have got my hands on, although the storyline could have filled in some more back-story on screen and given us more of an answer to why these Locusts are attacking us and to why exactly they want that we must destroy them to protect. But I can see how if they turn this into a sequel GOW2 I would be less harsh on the untold reasons why they attacked seeing as they wanted to set up the second volume, although it is most likely will be coming out since there is no decisive stamp saying the game is a Go I feel very intrigued to just why this whole war came about and am very much looking forward to the sequel if it comes about. The cover system had some flaws, but with the great designs and graphics along with some brutal battles and the fact you can chainsaw an enemy that is right near you into pieces and have the blood splatter on your screen was absolutely one of the best things in the game.

Story : 8.5
Presentation : 9.7
Sound : 9.5
Game Play : 9.6
Lasting Appeal : 9.6

Overall : 46.9/50

Joeywan · Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 12:58 am Post subject:

Yeah, I wouldn't go as far as to say it was the best game in the world, but I liked it nonetheless. Great review man Very Happy

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