Gear of War XBox 360

Gears Of War

In the simplest of words: Oh. My. God. You can open the package and you expect somewhat of a standard FPS, with better than average graphics. But Gears Of War may be the bloodier and better incarnation of both Halo 1 or 2, and HalfLife 2.

Let me say it: Gear Of War is better than Halo.

With graphics powered by the Unreal 3 engine, the amount of spit and polish on this product is immense. The refinement of both the control system, the camera movement, the interaction with the environments, other players, online co-op of the standard single-player campaign, the quality of the AI, and the new puzzles and challenges brought on by your abilities makes this game, the de facto standard of what to expect for “next-generation gaming”.

1. First off, the graphics really are as good as that screen capture above.
2. The game play is awesome, giving you the ability to run behind objects for cover from the onslaught of enemies. Gaining incremental runs towards a target, while running is impressive, but incorporating this into various missions (pushing bullet-ridden cars along a street in the middle of a firefight to use for cover) and boss fights (running for your life).
3. The new user tutorials are part of the mission as in games like Halo, but some parts of the mission are multipath. In other words, you come to a fork in the road and you choose either route. In the opening, this is cleverly handed to you as either go straight to combat, or go straight to training to “workout the kinks”.
4. Weapons are fun, with the added gore-magnet of a chainsaw attached to one of your rifles as a bayonet. So should you be equipped with this weapon and decide to use it when a foolish alien comes in for close-quarters combat. You fire it up, saw them in half, and enjoy the blood that splatters and drips on the lens of the camera.
5. Yes, there are vehicles, much like in Halo.

There’s more but I could illustrate more by pointing to this stunning trailer for the game. It is all done in-game with no pre-rendered 3D graphics and the haunting music is an unusual but glorious piece to overdub the movie to. The whole thing shows as poetry-in-motion and that’s exactly what Gears Of War is!

UPDATE:
So I’ve finished the game and am still addicted to the running camera movements and the online coop play. The game is shorter than I anticipated, but still a quality buy. In addition *SIGH* it falls a little short in storytelling with a full-bodied storyline (a negative since I have compared it to Halo 1). I’m replaying it on the “Insane” difficulty level which is only do-able if you tackle the game with a quality human partner, online or in the same room. I’m not sure if I maintain my original statement of the game being as much of a genre-defining icon as Halo, but it is certainly the new standard of FPS gaming on the next-gen of consoles. Without question, don’t miss out on it. - SWL

This blog taken from: http://www.secretweaponlabs.com

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