Gears of War Review (Xbox 360) By Epiphany

10 / 10
01 Feb 2007 at 13:11

Review by: Epiphany

In recent years, there has been an almost endless stream of FPS over all variety of consoles. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, many games have the tendency to overlap, most notably in the ever mounting pile of WW2 shooters. I have to say I’m actually getting bored of shooting Nazi's now, having been doing it since the original Wolfenstein.

But I found Gears a refreshing change. It takes place over an in game period of 36 hours on the war torn planet of Sera. After running low on resources, humans dig underground to find a new resource called Imulsion. Unfortunately, with it they find the Locust. Cue massive great big war with wide-spread death and destruction.
During the war, our hero Fenix learns that his father is in peril and defies orders to rescue him. Unfortunately for Fenix he was too late, and to add to his misery he gets trialled for desertion and dumped in a prison cell...

Until you get your own copy of Gears of War and set Fenix free to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting Locust.

Yes, Gears of War is a bit light on story. I only found out the above background details when I was bored and decided to flick though the manual (who reads manuals anyway). Generally, its angry soldier + guns + enemies = Carnage.

The way the game dynamic is arranged means that you can't play this like your average FPS. If you tackle the game in a Halo, all guns blazing manner, your life expectancy is less than a banana in a monkey cage. Gears takes more tact and cunning than that. You have to earn your kills, and take cover behind anything you can find, blind firing your gun over the top or round the corner, before rolling out of cover, and diving behind another object. It has a perfect blend of Halo action, with Rainbow Six tactics.

Your team mates do exactly the same as well. The AI is excellent here. They'll actually cover you and draw fire, take down enemies and work as a team. The enemy is also intelligent and will work hard to pin you down, advancing towards you and retreating when out-gunned.

But perhaps the best bit of the game, is the standard issue rifle. This beauty of a weapon comes equipped with its very own chainsaw. It never gets boring, sneaking up behind an enemy, and hearing the rev of the chainsaw as you carve them into pieces, splattering the screen with blood. Pure gaming ecstasy!

The graphics are simply stunning. Detail is everywhere, background, foreground, scars on characters faces, tattoos. Every building is different; there are no repetitive environments and no double backing. It’s all there and it looks stunning. And then you play it on HD. It really has to be seen to be believed.

My only gripe would be with the difficulty settings. On my first outing in Gears of War I started on the middle (Hardcore) difficulty setting. This set just the right level of challenge for me, not hard enough to result in me eating the controller, but hard enough to provide a good challenge.
My second outing was on the hardest (Insane) difficulty, and I actually found this easier than Hardcore.
For example, on Hardcore difficulty the first time, the pumping station resulted in several hours of death and all manner of new swear words. But on Insane only took two or three attempts. In fact, the only part of Insane that I found truly challenging was the end of game boss. Here the difficulty ramped up beyond belief. The only way I managed to finally kill him was by exploiting a bug in the game.

This game is a must have addition for any 360 owner. It’s a huge step in the right direction. It’s something fresh from the stale cupboard of the FPS. It moves bar for next gen graphics up several notches, and we can all only hope that future releases are as good as this. Bring on Gears of War 2!

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