Munkeh111

User Score
8.9

Presentation - 8.5
Gameplay - 9.0
Value - 9.0

When you start Gears of War, the first thing you will notice is how good it is looks. Though the colour palette is severely lacking, the textures are high resolution, and the effects look really good. Character models are great, frame rates are great, infact, there are some of the best graphics that you will see in a video game and probably the best on the Xbox aside from Gears of War 2. The sound is also great, with good audio cues, and suitable gun noises.

Gears has an interesting premice. On the planet Serra, humanity has been attacked by an unknown enemies who can burrow under the ground. The Locust are a good enemy and certainly iconic. However, to put it simply, the story sucks. The developers admitted that they left out a whole chapter due to lack of time (later included in the PC version), and the story is completely underdeveloped, it could have been great, but it really isn't. The characters don't really have that much character aside from their banter, and while you do learn a bit about Marcus, there just is not that much depth there.  There is a very interesting back story, but the game tells none of it. What is also odd is that apart from Delta Squad, your squad, everyone else is completely useless, you are the only part of the CoG army who are capable of doing anything.

Gears is a clunky game, as the game would suggest, it just all feels very very solid, maybe even manly (well as I have said, there seem to be no women). This applies to the sound, the graphics and the gameplay. Everything feels big, all the men have huge thick body armour, and when you use the signature cover mechanic, it also feels chunky. The cover mechanic is not new, but is pretty much perfect. It is incredibly tight and responsive, and when you are locked into cover, you can lean and peak to take donw your evemies. As I said, everything is large, as are your enemies heads, into which you have to load entire clips into to bring them down. The gameplay is just fantastic, well balanced and feels great.

The weapons are varied, and there are several stand out weapons, number one is the chainsaw bayonette, which just plain awesome. You've all seen it, and you can use it to cut your enemies in 2, litterally. There is also the toque bow, where you have to charge up your explosive arrows, which when the latch onto the enemy, blow up and kill them. It is just aweosme, and feels totally new, and does a food job of adding variety to the game.

The enemy types are also well varied, but there are only a few of them. There are the standard drones and then there are the boomers, these will basically be your enemies for the entire game. There are a few boss fights and they are good, but they aren't that great.

Another neat feature is the active reload system, where you have to tap RB once to start the reload, and then the same again at the right time. After a while it just feels right and gives you a nice power boost, and quicker reload time.

The entire campaign is playable in co-op, either locally or over Live, and it works great. You can also give some simple commands your squad, but nothing on the same level as Rainbow Six.

As for the length of the single player, it is a bit short, and it can get a bit repetitive. I must confess that I have only played the multiplayer of Gears of War 2, but general concencus is that it is great, and offers much needed longevity, and contains one of the most prized achievements on Xbox, Seriously.

Gears of War is a good game, but I can't help feel it needed more time. The story is not quite finished, and with more time there could have been more variety put into the game if they had more time. However, the graphics are simply stunning and the fundamental gameplay is simply brilliant.