Gears Of War
Gears of War, an Xbox 360 exclusive game that blends tactical action with survival horror, thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing tale of humankind’s epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. The storyline plays out like a Hollywood blockbuster — lead character Marcus Fenix pits advanced human technology against the overwhelming Locust Horde. Built around a revolutionary third-person tactical combat system and breathtaking, high-definition visuals from the Unreal Engine 3, Gears of War immerses you in a horrifying tale of war and survival.
Gears of War is harrowing tale that pits humankind against the Locust Horde. |
Marcus Fenix and his team battle nightmarish creatures. View larger. |
In Gears of War, you must take cover to survive. View larger. |
Gears of War presents a focused and well-paced cinematic experience. View larger. |
The gameplay is focused on a fire team co-op so advanced that your A.I. teammates are indiscernible from human players. Voice recognition and real-time lip synching heighten the absorbing experience. The Unreal Engine 3 technology brings out the smallest details in the largest of battles. With GOW you’re sure to experience a rich, dynamic world where characters spring to life. Speaking of life, the battlefield is a lethal place. To survive, you must suppress your enemy with blindfire, take cover in interactive environments, and use weapons and teammates to outwit your dreaded, inhuman foes. And with a title like GOW, it would be shame if you couldn’t get online and challenge live gamers. With the next-generation of Xbox Live, you’ll be able to experience individualized matchmaking, view player statistics, earn player achievements, customize games, and build personalized gamer profiles.
Gears of War shined bright at Microsoft’s pre-E3 press briefing, but a deeper demo at Microsoft’s E3 booth revealed many of the game’s mechanics. GOW is built with both the hardcore and casual gamer in mind. But, instead of selecting a difficulty level at the start of the game, GOW offers a choice at the beginning of each level. In the vein of choose your own adventure, you can select between a difficult or easy path. And it’s not just a simple choice of battling tougher enemies; each path (explained by a comrade) represents additional content that is crucial to the storyline. After easing your way into the experience of the gameplay with the simpler paths, you can go back and test your skills on the more difficult routes and never feel like you’ve played through the areas before.
Standing around in the open is likely to get you killed in GOW. You must use cover to survive. With a context sensitive A button function, you won’t have to sweat memorizing cumbersome button combos. The A button will:
- Slam you into cover. As you approach cover in GOW simply tap the A button to slide and make immediate use of cover.
- Vault you over the cover. Once you’re in cover, pressing up and A will vault you over your cover to engage the opponent or next cover opportunity.
- Evade enemy fire. When you’re forced to be out in the open, tapping the A button will engage a roll maneuver to evade enemy fire.
- Activate a “Swat Turn.” When taking cover on the side of a doorway, pressing the A button will spin your character from one side of the doorway to the other, helping avoid fire.
Ripping a magazine free and replacing it in the midst of bloody combat is no easy task. GOW simulates this difficult action by forcing you to perfect your reloading skills. To be effective in combat you’ll need to allot for time to successfully reload your weapon. Do it well and the battle is yours; do it poorly and you may actually jam your gun. Time it perfectly and you’ll earn a bonus with a temporary damage boost. Though GOW clearly showcases a sci-fi experience, its roots are in tactical, realistic combat scenarios. Therefore, running and gunning makes for seriously erratic shooting. Think about what you’re doing. Unless wasting ammo is your goal, you better stop, aim, shoot, and then move on. Otherwise, the Locust Horde might swarm you and take your life.
Gears of War presents a focused and well-paced cinematic experience, and nothing ruins that faster than a time-consuming exploration of every switch or button to find the elusive trigger to open a door. This game introduces a “point of interest” button that comes up on the screen so you can immediately interact with the necessary item to move forward in your gameplay. GOW certainly offers drool-worthy graphics, but the mechanics have also received equal attention. Keep your eyes and ears on high alert for a release date, as Microsoft hasn’t let the cat out of the bag on when gamers will be able to tackle this great-looking and great-playing title.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Gears of War
Gears of War was a very well executed game. Graphics are stunning, giving the game a realistic feel. The story line is kinda far fetched but it gave new twist to the FPS/TPS genre. The idea of being able to take cover is awesome and makes the shooter extra cool. Unlike a few other FPS games that i wont get into.
The controls are easy. The “pick-up-and-play” style make it easy for Super Gamers and the casual gamer to enjoy. Also, the fact that when you reload faster to you get a quick little damage buff. I dont know many other FPS/TPS that do that anymore. It’s like a little mini game to play when your in the middle of battle.
Overall, Gears of War is an Outstanding game for anyone that enjoys the shooter genre. the storyline will blow your mind, along with everything else the game has to offer.
I easily Give this Game 555555 out of 55555
5 Stars Awesome
It’s what I thought it would be, just awesome. Everything…just great! ONLY THING…story mode/Co op too short. Co op is really fun on this game since it’s the same as story mode. Anyway, haven’t played the second one yet, but I plan to!
4 Stars They will keep fighting, and they will win
Ever wanted to play “Starship Troopers” or a Michael Bay movie? Well for the zero of you that wished that now you have your wish
The game starts 14 years after “E Day” and we meet our main man Marcus Fenix who is voiced to perfection by John Dimaggio *aka Bender from Futurama* sitting in jail and rescued by his teammate Dom. Soon after we break out and get to know the world of “Gears of War” and get familiarized with it’s cover and fight game play, it’s raw in your face attitude, and it’s never ending horde of various baddies dubbed….. “The Locust”
Visually the game is something to behold. It has this grey almost black and white look to it, and in fact if you pause the game or try to give command to your squad it does go black and white for a second. The creatures, the characters, the expansive environments as well the weapons all have a sharp quality to it that makes one feel like they were watching a live action movie. I only have a standard TV and looked this good so I can only imagine how it looks like on HD. I read this game was responsible for the 360 having a 512 ram and it takes full advantage of every bit of it. Amazing looking game.
Only slight complain about the visuals is that when you first start to play the game it’s a bit difficult to tell who you’re suppose to be shooting at since the baddies look identical to your teammates. I have that same problem with the “Call of Duty” games. Yeah you get use to their sight after the first couple of levels, but overall when there is a big battle going on it becomes very difficult to know who is who till they start biting or shooting at you.
The cut scenes in the game are a lot of fun to watch mainly for the over the top characters and their cliched demeanor. My personal favorites are the opening one in which after Dom tells Marcus; “Welcome back to the Army”, his response is “S**t” and another favorite is the very last cut scene with The Queen making a dire warning to mankind.
My problem with the cut scenes is that I wish they had let the player actually play most of the cut scenes instead of just putting the controller down and watching some of the lengthy well animated scenes. A great example would be the last level in which you just watch the climatic ending. It would have been great to have played that cut scene instead of watching it but hopefully that problem will be fixed with the many sequels I’m sure is to come. “Half Life 2″, “Resident Evil 4″ and “Prince of Persia” all actively involve the player in the cut scenes and that makes them unique. Makes you feel like a part of the world
The audio goes hand in hand in hand with the excellent visuals and delivers a blistering track that stays very busy. The gunshots have a nice low end effect to them when you fire them that coupled with the shaking of the controller makes for a very satisfying shooting experience. The howls and screams from the creatures fills the speakers quite nicely and the “boom” from the Boomers gives the already busy subwoofer some work to do.
The music however is terrible in the game and I can now understand why they went with Jablonsky for the 2nd game. This is a game that plays and feels like a Michael Bay movie and yet the music is just lazy brass and a lot of non melodic noise. I actually had to turn off the music from the menu screen because it got too distracting but glad they have someone on board to get that “Media Venture” sound that the game called for.
There are lots of clever level designs in this game that require clever thinking and planning. The level with The Berseeker is a great example of this. Here is a level in which you have to be quiet because if this beast hears your footsteps he’ll run at you and rip you to shreds, but on the other hand you need him to run at you so he can break open a hole in the wall for you. It’s probably my favorite level in the game and I had to play it quite a couple of times to finally beat the guy.
The level with the birds that kill you in a heartbeat if you step in the dark is also a clever one. It forces the player to think before they move which is a welcome notion for me. You just don’t run, shoot and cover, but you to apply some strategy here and there if you want to make it to the next chapter.
My big complaint and what keeps me from hailing this game as a masterpiece is that it’s pretty much the same thing on every level and gets a bit tiring after a while. The first time you play it’s great but the 2nd time it gets a bit tedious, but that’s what multiplayer is for I guess. Where the game lacks in replay value for the single campaign, it makes up for with Co-Op play and online play, but it still would have been nice if the game offered a bit more in terms of what you had to do on every level.
It’s a very short game with great visuals, great sound, and some occasional clever level designs. May not be the greatest game ever made, but it sure is a lot of fun
A must have for all 360 owners
5 Stars Addictive Game
I love this game. I beat it so quickly because I couldn’t get enough of it. It’s pretty to look at and very realistic. Makes you feel like a child with a cool toy. The online wasn’t great, though.
5 Stars newbie to this kind of thing
My experience with video games has been the various older Mario games on the original NES system and Mario Kart Double Dash, which is so much fun to play. This was my first Xbox game and I think it’s going to be difficult to find another game as amazing as this one.
When first starting the game I felt completely incompetent, but it was so much fun that I just had to stick with it. I play GOW with my husband and we’ve even managed to complete the insane level. I highly recommend GOW, but if you’re new to this type of game it would be helpful to have a more experienced player with you.
My husband and I are now playing GOW 2 in Horde…it’s stunning how quickly time flies when playing this.
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