Recently, I spent some time with Gears of War; the first in a trilogy made exclusively for the 360 by Epic Games. Unfortunately, this time spent with the macho men of Gears was cut short due to me not actually having a 360; and therefore not being at home. None the less, i got far enough that I believe my opinion is worthwhile and fair, as I've had others collaborate with me on this review.
Gears of War is a third person shooter, developed by Epic Games for the X-Box 360. And before anyone says anything, yes i do realise this game came out ages ago, and the 3rd game of the trilogy is set to come out soon. For those people who are thinking that, just think of this as a special edition because Gears 3 looks fantastic. Or stop reading.
STORY
The story of Gears of War takes place on the planet Sera, 14 years after Emergence Day; the day marking the beginning of the Locust War against humanity. It begins as Marcus Fenix, a former COG soldier, is reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison for abandoning his military post in order to make a vain attempt to save his father, Adam Fenix.
Dominic Santiago successfully extracts him from the prison, and takes him to meet Delta Squad. The group seeks to obtain the "resonator", a device that will map "The Hollow", the underground caverns which the Locust inhabit.
The story isn't particularly well explained early on, though certain plot elements like Emergence Day and the resource of "Imulsion" are touched upon and quickly detailed. As far as I could gather, the story wasn't one of the deepest that I have ever seen in a game, but was adequate none the less.
PRESENTATION
Gears looks extremely good; the graphics are high quality and character models and landscapes are detailed. However, there isn't much of a colour scheme here, with colours normally ranging from boltgun metal to black; though what could you expect from a war torn, horrific world?
The settings for each act are fairly varied; though the ones I played through were quite similar, save for the time of day. Though I do know that levels can range from these destroyed city landscapes, to Imulsion mines, to a heavily armoured freight train.
The sound in Gears of War isn't as amazing as the rest of it. The music is great, setting the tone and mood for each section, but gunshots don't seem as powerful as they ought to. The voice acting is quite good, though I can't help but feel that the men of Delta Squad are trying a bit too hard to be macho. Macho and manly aren't the same thing boys; and I think they just missed the mark. By no means is the voice acting terrible, it just made it hard for me to truly like many of the characters.
GAMEPLAY
This is where Gears shines brighter than many games, though its not without its faults. Gameplay is mostly a lot of excellent 3rd person shootouts, revolving around battlefields littered with chest high walls to take cover behind. The gameplay has been referred to as Stop and Pop gameplay, and that's a fitting description as any.
You see, while you could stand and go completely Rambo at whoever you wanna kill, it probably won't work too well. Bullets hurt, and you'll soon discover that. The art to playing Gears comes from getting to cover, then picking your shot and ducking back; moving out of cover only to shoot, or run to different cover.
And the enemy knows this too. They'll use cover efficiently, even flanking you if your mind wanders, forcing you to watch the battle at all times.
My biggest problem with Gears comes with the context sensitive button. Alot of actions are tied to the A button, such as run, dodge, take cover or hurdle over obstacles. Now, running may seem simple, but not when you get sucked into cover whenever you sprint by it. Another problem i had with the running is that, despite it looking cool, and having a distinct "run for your life" feel to it, it was annoying to control,as you could never make tight, or even normal turns. If you, say, want to run to your left, you'd better be looking that way, or the best you can do is run straight, and veer left slowly.
Now that my minor complaints are out of the way, lets continue. Gears has quite a few weapons and attacks; including your standard SMG's and Sniper rifles. However, you also get cool weapons like the lancer; an Assault Rifle with a chainsaw on the end, and the Torque Bow, with bolts that explode when they connect to enemies. Oh, also; there is a close range attack with your grenades! This is a very welcome addition to melee attacking in shooter games.
Oh, and you can curb stomp. Gears of War is nothing if not gory, and most gamers will welcome that. I know I do. Though i didn't experience many different types of enemies to gore it up on. Sure, there were variations of the low level grubs that hold different weapons; but aside from that there were ceiling running Wretches, bat-like Kryll who swarm and kill you if you step into the night, and the Berserker; who more or less served as a boss fight.
Now, it goes without saying that I do want to play this game more; but i Hope to see more variation in the later levels.
Speaking of a lack of variation; its all well and good to add vehicle sections, but if you do, you should make it a core gameplay mechanic. Now, me saying this is a bit odd, as I didn't get to complete Gears; but I've heard it lacks vehicle sections to break up the slicey, shootey 3rd person action. That's ok, but i know theres at least one. So why bother with making just the one?
REPLAYABILITY
Gears of War has a fun campaign (from what I've seen) and I personally want to play through it multiple times, not only by myself; but in the co-op mode provided. Not many games feel like a co-op mode is necessary, but in Gears, you're always with at least one other guy, so it makes sense. As well as that, there are online multiplayer modes for anyone brave enough to stick their head out into Xbox Live (only to get it cut off with a lancer).
OVERVIEW
In all, Gears of War is mostly what I expect from a game. It has excellent gameplay with solid controls and its own unique character and level style, that fits the not-entirely-serious tone of the game (for example, the soldiers who look like they've been taking bullshark testosterone since they were 6). To me, Gears is a game that can laugh at itself, but can also be rather serious; what with the game world being set in a war torn world over run with giant things that want to kill you.
Sure, it has its problems, but Gears of War is one of those titles that you want to keep playing, just cause its full of awesome.
That's all for this week, I'm not sure what I'll be reviewing next week... perhaps Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Or another wii title? I haven't reviewed a wii title yet, so that could be interesting.
Anyway, see you next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment