xBox 360 Game Review: Gears of War - It's an odd thing to say about a game whose chief appeal is hacking enemies apart with a chainsaw, but Gears of War is a pretty game. Epic's new third-person shooter lives up to its considerable hype, the first game to really show what the Xbox 360 can do. Without graunching to a halt to load up new scenes or getting choppy when the action gets a little intense, Gears of War looks and sounds superb. Lucky, because it's not really offering a hell of a lot else that's new.
Gears of War has a setting and a plot. You can tell it's a scifi combat game, because it's got every space marine cliché you'd expect. You can tell there's a plot, because you start off with your character Marcus Fenix being busted out of prison by his old friend Dom. Fighting your way out of that acts neatly as your tutorial, and then you and Dom join the rest of the squadron you'll be spending the rest of the game with, on a mission to rescue the missing Alpha Squad. While there's a bit more background than that if you do the reading, it's not integral to the game. There can't be plot because there are no characters, just very expertly-rendered grunts who don't wear helmets so you can see how great their skin texturing is.
Gears is a 'duck and cover' game. Charging in blindly will get you killed just like you'd expect, only faster. Written down like this, sneaking from bullet-riddled wall to abandoned car and popping up long enough to shoot sounds like it would quickly get repetitive and boring. If you're not sure about how absorbing it would be, try sneaking up one someone else while they're playing. This is what great graphics and sound give you: a real feeling of tension and menace that sucks you right into the game. You can hear the locust attacks coming, bullets pinging around you as you try to manouever to outflank your enemy.
While it's short on variations in weaponry, game play, scenarios, maps, and enemies, you just might not notice, especially on your first play through. The basics are done very, very well. The weapon you'll use for most of the game, the Lancer, comes equipped with a bayonet-mounted chainsaw. On the rare occasions you get close enough to a locust to use it, the experience is deeply satisfying. It fountains gorgeous sprays of blood and makes a noise like, well, a chainsaw tearing through meat. Your big kick-ass weapon is the Hammer of Dawn, which is as stunning as you'd expect satelite-mounted weaponry to be. It's nicely restricted, though, as it can only be used outside and with clear skies. Much like the chainsaw, if you could use it all the time, it just wouldn't be as much fun.
Gears comes with three difficulty levels: casual, hardcore, and insane, which unlocks after you finish the game once. All ramp up the difficulty towards the end of the game, but you can choose your level for each play session, so if you're struggling with a particular section, you can tone it down, then back up again once you're through. That's one of the little things this game does well.
Another is multiplayer. As well as the eight-player team mode available with Xbox Live, you can play two-player split-screen co-op as well. The other player, who takes over Dom, can drop in and out at any point. The game is a lot more interesting and tactical with two players, and some levels seem particularly designed for co-operative play.
The game is a bit on the short side, and can be finished in around ten to fifteen hours. Often when a game feels short like this, it's to push players to online multiplayer games. That makes it seem a little strange that there are only ten different maps available for that. There are three different gameplay modes, but they're all minor variations on team deathmatch. It's possible Microsoft will have more online content for Gears of War coming out in the future, but with all the hype, the launch content does seem a bit scant.
What it comes down to is this. If you like third-person shooters, you're going to love Gears of War. And if you don't, you aren't. There's nothing about it to suck in people who wouldn't normally play this kind of game.
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