Gears Of War reviews

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.

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:

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. ...(click for less)

	Platform - Xbox 360 ESRB Rating - Mature Features: CD-ROM Gears of War's engaging, cinematic story plays out like a Hollywood blockbuster To survive you must suppress your enemy, take cover, and use weapons and teammates to outlast the Locust Horde Xbox Live gameplay offers individualized matchmaking, player statistics, customized games, and more

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Anonymous

Flaws in Gears of War quite glaring

(Review From Amazon)

General Comments:
First off let me say that the game graphicwise is absolutely stunning.The environments as well as the characters are the best seeen to date. The singleplay is a nice couple of days of real fun or weeks if you play briefly and want to not bge in such a rush to finish it so fast. The difficulty is a nonfactor due to saves as repetitions of points you might get stuck in.

The multiplay is where the real lasting power of this game is.While the game online suffers from absolutely no slowdown or framerate concerns the problem is with the weapons. The sniper rifle and the shotgun simply are not consistant.You can shoot someone the exact same way ten times ina row and half the time he dies and half the time you do.The sniper rifle often passes right through someones head. If a guy is charging you and you shoot first and blow his head of gears doesnt recognoize it and the other guy shoots and your dead.Your gun went off first point blank at his head and you get 0 points your dead and his late shot does you in! Unreal ! Also when you sneak up on someone and basically outplay him by doing this you walk behind him and point a bullet of two directly at him point blank you see the shells boucing off him and he than actually turns after this(unreal again) and shoots and your dead . lol.This ruins the game in my opinion.First off the weapons detection here is deepy flawed but secondly when you shoot someone in the back from behind gears should have installed some kind of dection where the guy is dead dead dead and doesnt turn and still fight! The player weapons mechanics simply are not consistant with reality and are still locked in some kind of fake pacman contra type world where this was deemed the norm.If you strive for the best as GOW has than why make all your player actions undermined by shots that bouce off players.You dont even get points sometimes!

Finally when someone charges you witha chainsaw and you shoot at them your shot is supposed to deactivate their shotgun.The chainsaw is a cowardly way to play anyhow but the chainsaw guy is rewarded with akill even though your shot (which is supposed to deactivate their shotgun)hit them first.You hear your shot before their chainsaw it hits them you see it hit them ,you even look later and see you get 4 points for your shot into them yet your chainsawed and dead! Unreal.

If you can play the game knowing that all your best efforts are often wasted due to deep flaws in the mechanics of the game than it is a great game.Just dont be surprised when your weapons fail you and do the exact opposite of what your eyes are telling you they just did.

Anonymous

Best graphics

(Review From Amazon)

General Comments:
This game has better graphics than Halo 3, though it's not a 10/10, this game is if not the best game on 360, in my opinion... gameplay is unique, kickass graphics, huge panoramic views, master bosses, life like expressions, great controls... action gamers will I repeat WILL Love this game, any real fan of combat action bloddy games is nodding right now by reading this cause they know it's true... can't wait for the sequel, this game is a 360 owner must have!!!!!!!!!!!! Such details, little bugs, perfect game!!!

Anonymous

A no-brainer purchase.

(Review From Amazon)

General Comments:
Gears of War after a thorough review has a few, note few, shortcomings. It's story flows well and is engrossing, however after awhile I realized that I had gotten dropped into the middle of a story, with practically no background information. The weapons are awesome, but very limited. In multiplayer, there are a few more starting with the menu. Once you complete a game, you get kicked back out to the main menu where you have to navigate the menu all over again to get back to versus online play. Hit detection will throw you into coniptions from time to time also, as you swear you had the shotgun in the guys ear, yet he managed to break wind and kill you. The other gripe I have is how matchmaking is accomplished. You host or join a game, and wait. Forever. For it to fill up. I often ready-up and then do chores to fill the down time. Halo 2 should be the gold standard for online game matchmaking. Aside from that, it is the best looking game I've ever seen. It is also one of the most intense. It's also one of the most imaginative and innovative ever, evidenced by the active reload and the clever use of cover. The only control issue is that the A button is pressed to run, roll, and take cover. Meaning that as you try to run or roll, you often wind up squatting down right in front of your enemy, with your noggin positioned at just the right level to kiss a hip carried shotgun. I beat it up pretty good here, but it's campaign diffculty, achievements, and on-line co-op play give it tremendous replay value. That value is only matched by the great multiplayer modes. It will provide months and months of play for anyone from the casual to the serious. If you own a 360, it's a must have. If you don't own a 360, this is your strongest argument to buy one.

Anonymous

totally amazing

(Review From Amazon)

General Comments:
Gears of war is an awesome game for the xbox 360 platform... this game is a must have for xbox 360... I think it is the best 3rd person shooter I've ever played..

What calls my attention the most about this game is that if you start playing it, you wont stop until you beat it.. this game is a bit hard, but nothing that a good gamer can't take. It is fun, sometimes scary, but with a great storyline that makes the game even better.

I think this is a game every mature gamer should have if he owns an xbox 360, 5 stars for this one