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GEARS OF WAR XBOX 360 REVIEW |
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Epic Games
makes their first foray into the next-generation
console scene with Gears of War, an intense,
palm-sweating, bloodshot eye-inducing,
ear-ringing, cinematic, single-player and
multiplayer third-person-shooter that is
currently dominating the Xbox 360’s sci-fi
sector. Gears of War takes place on Sera, an
earth-like planet, which is overrun by the
Locust Horde, a crude and violent species that
nearly wiped out Sera’s billion of inhabitants.
The game begins fourteen years after this event,
and players are entrusted into the boots of
Marcus Fenix, a former well-decorated soldier
turned prisoner attempting to save his father.
His long-time best friend, Dominic Santiago,
busts him out of prison to join the desperate
fight against the deadly Locusts. From that
moment on begins your grueling mission.
The characters of Gears of War hold a lot of
depth to their personalities. Baird and Cole are
your other two main squadmates. Baird is the
blonde fellow with glasses, and he’s the
mischievous guy of the bunch; he is a bit wild
his trademark in fixing anything comes in handy
given the right parts. Cole is a former
thrashball player (some intergalactic sport, but
sounds similar to football), and he is the type
that loves to taunt the enemy. He might talk a
lot but he is definitely an excellent heavy
shooter. Another character in the game that is
worth mentioning is Anya. She is the only NPC
(non-playable character) seen and heard in Gears
of War. She serves as support from the other
side of the battle—analyzing your strategic
standpoints, mapping out locations, pointing out
threats, and the usual combat updates.
Gears of War is unlike any other shotter in that
it emphasizes cover. You can take cover behind
couches, pillars, sandbags, concrete blocks, and
anything that will protect your family asset.
You’ll quickly learn that running and gunning is
not the way to go in this game. Your foes are
agile, accurate, and as strong as you, so you’ll
need to use your brains, especially when you’re
only given up to 4 weapons (Grenades, two heavy
weapons, and a pistol) to switch from. The
developers have done a good job making the game
revolve around one simple button: The A button.
The A button is used for practically everything,
from sprinting to hurdling over a massive
debris, to crouching and defensive rolling. With
the A button acting as a multifunction trigger,
it is less strenuous for novice players to
figure out what to press next. Players can
concentrate more on the action onscreen and
build an adrenaline edge of combat
gratification.
One of the many amazing things you can perform
in this game is “blind fire”, which allows you
to shoot enemies without popping your head out
of cover. The aiming is nice and accurate in
Gears of War; it’s so good that the sure way to
survive is to duck and shoot. You have to learn
to be patient in this game otherwise you’re dead
in a second. The AI is ruthless with every
mistake you make, and the enemies will force you
to think twice about your patterns of attack.
Fortunately, you have an Active Reload system,
which helps you fire back quickly in the heat of
the moment. Active Reload is engaged simply by
tapping the reload button. A bar will appear
underneath your weapon’s ammo indicator with a
sliding line, resembling a golf game’s swing
meter. If you want to take advantage of this
feature, you must tap reload again when the bar
hits one of 2 zones. Hitting reload while it’s
in the thinner, brighter zone nets you an
instant reload, and the rounds added to your
clip do extra damage. Tapping while it’s in the
large, darker zone will net you a faster reload,
but not as fast as the primary zone, and without
extra damage.
Playing with the Active Reload system is
something you want to master first, especially
in the single-player campaign, where this
technique is can be an added asset to your
tactical advantage. The campaign spans five
acts, each act has its own theme and it takes
about three or four hours to complete. None of
them drag out content for too long, leaving the
experience fresh and exhilarating. The game
provides three difficulty settings: Casual
(Normal), Hardcore (Hard), and Insane (Ultra
Hard, and locked at first). Each difficulty
setting offers an insane amount of challenge,
and frantic paced of action. However, the game
becomes insanely unforgiving in the later
sections, where you’ll face multiple
one-hit-kill weapons, forcing you to learn about
the AI’s behavior and visual cues ahead of time.
The Y button gives you some edge in combat,
showing where your teammates are and points of
interest.
Taking an enemy down usually takes at least one
clip of ammo with most weapons, especially when
it takes them almost half a clip to shred you to
pieces. Some cannot be hurt unless you use the
Hammer of Dawn, an awe-inspiring targeting gun.
This weapon of mass destruction only works
outside, where you have to align it with the
satellite to summon an ultra beam. The beam
projects a staggering amount of light and burns
whatever entity in its path. The execution of
such move is grotesque and sickeningly awesome!
One of the great features of Gears of War is the
ability to play coop. You can play tag team
online and offline. You can split up to take
different paths or cover each other from
different perspectives of the battlefield. There
are also multiplayer shootouts between you and
up to seven other people online or on a LAN—if
you get tired of the game’s grueling campaigns
and want to go for real human interaction. |
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PRODUCT
OVERALL RATING: 9.0 OUT OF 10 |
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Instead of
multiplayer death matches that would just lead
to a lot of repetitive mindless shooting, Epic
decided to infuse team-based strategy. The game
basically runs on team-only modes. There are 3
multiplayer modes: Warzone, Execution, and
Assassination. In all modes, smoke grenades are
in. Warzone is similar to popular FPS titles
such as Counter-Strike in that if you die once,
you’ll have to wait until the next round to get
back in. In Execution, the game is very similar
to Warzone, but with a twist. Instead of dying
when you’ve been hurt enough, you just get
knocked down. You don’t die unless an execution
move is pulled on you, which is interesting.
Finally, there’s Assassination, where both teams
have a leader. The objective is to score on the
leader’s head any way you can. The twist in this
mode is that the leader can pick up big guns
(the Torque Bow, for instance) and drop them for
their teammates to use, or use it themselves.
Epic has a reputation for overwhelming players
with an incredible set of weapons, and there are
plenty of them to be found in Gears of War. One
of the weapons you’ll be using frequently is the
Lancer, a hybrid assault rifle and chainsaw.
This particular weapon can atomized foes with
its intense rate of fire. Another cool weapon is
the Torque Bow, a crossbow that shoots explosive
darts. Charging it enough lets you shoot the bow
so that it sticks into what it hits, and it’ll
definitely stick to your enemies for a one hit
kill. In terms of squad AI, your teammate does a
good job of taking cover, shooting back, lob
grenades, response to commands, and more.
Thankfully, these guys only die in rare
occasions, but when they are hurt you can
administer a remedy by pressing X next to them.
Of course, your control over them is nowhere
near the amount you have in Full Spectrum
Warrior or Ghost Recon, but that’s more than
acceptable.
Graphically, the game is impressive. This is one
of the best-looking shooter to date! The
cinematic “acts” play out well and stunning. The
background presentation, from the cramped
corridors of the factory, to the run-down final
resting place of Alpha Squad, to the bright
Fenix Estate is truly remarkable. They are all
stunners, delivering their own unique theme and
feel to the game. The level design is perfectly
paced, too! After a few rounds of heated action,
you’re given a breather and allowed to explore
the amazing world of Gears of War. The weapons
are unbelievably cool-looking as well, like the
burst-fire rifle, shooting out red tracers. The
enemies look freakish thanks to the tremendous
amount of creativity placed behind them.
The blood is as impressive as the gameplay
itself—there is so much of it to be found. It’s
also quite evident that there is a great effort
put into the animation. You seriously feel like
you’re desperately shoving all your weight into
a concrete slab to hide for cover given all the
gadgets you’re carrying with you. One of the
game’s great special effects comes in the middle
of a firefight. Bullets fly by and take chunks
of your cover out. This dust can sometimes
obstruct your vision, a nice touch of realism
there. In terms of camera views, the game does a
good job of providing the full drama of the
action, as if someone was holding a camera
behind Fenix and trying to catch up with him. In
the audio department, the incredible sound
effects hit so close to home that they make the
game that much more engaging. For instance, what
should sound like a rocket being launched seems
like the start of a storm, really! In
firefights, you’ll always hear chunks of your
cover being blown away and the roaring whiz of
bullets overhead.
The music is top-notch, movie-crisp quality. The
score of pounding soundtracks really make a
battle feel like it’s going to be your last time
on earth. The voiceovers are done extremely
well, and John DiMaggio even lends his talents
to voice Fenix. Your squad is so much optimistic
that they’re always ready to take on more grunts
with their wild yells of “Bring it on!” and
“Who’s next?” Needless to say, the sounds of the
guns, such as the two types of assault rifles,
when fired are roughly the same in every battle.
You wish there is more variation in the way the
guns project noise to differentiate their
awesome firepower. Some of the guns don’t pack
enough wallop, especially the Hammer of Dawn,
which is almost completely silent even though
it’s burning flesh and the ground beneath it.
Other than these irregularities, the audio is
flawless.
Gears of War is clearly one of the best-looking
games in 2006 and it could even rival Halo 3 for
the graphical achievements and awesome gameplay.
It’s only a matter of time before it starts
winning awards such as Game of the Year under
its belt. For FPS fans, you really can’t go
wrong with this game. It’s almost like a puzzle
and shooter hybrid, relying on quick thinking
and tactics. There is no other shooting game
like it out there until Halo 3 comes out. It’s
definitely worth the price and it has definitely
earned respect among magazine editors. With such
game coming out for the Xbox 360, Microsoft will
gain momentum for market advantage. But it’s
still early to tell with Sony delaying a few
their good launch titles. Anyway, if you are
looking for an intense FPS title for Xbox 360,
then this is one game you shouldn’t miss. |
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