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Gears of War Review
Chris Leyton
08/11/2006
Microsoft's weapon against the PS3 is finally unleashed upon a gaming world; but, can Epic's blockbuster move the 360 onto the next level...
It seems the unparalleled success of Halo 2 put Microsoft into a tight situation. With the unquestionable need for a sequel to Bungie's seminal first-person-shooter, Microsoft faced the unenviable position of releasing the title, knowing full well that their successor to the Xbox would have to launch just a year later and survive the early stages of a life-cycle without the Master Chief's support.
Seeking something to fill the considerable void, Epic Games' Gears of War became that talisman for the Xbox 360 during its early days. Impressing chiefly with the first genuine depiction of what next-generation visuals and presentation are truly about, Gears of War also marks a return to the all-too familiar Sci-Fi/Action genre that seems to be a sure-fire bet with the Xbox demographic. Gears of War isn't just crucial to Microsoft's balance sheets and the future of the Xbox 360, however, it's also the flagship title for Epic's next step in the Unreal Engine series. Becoming the early next-generation engine of choice for developers working on Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 titles across the globe, Gears of War serves as a considerable first effort to judge all others.
With a sense of the fanaticism that Gears of War will generate, the division of difficulty modes into 'Casual', 'Hardcore' and later 'Insane' is a clever touch that instantly classifies your experience. The campaign mode can be enjoyed on your own, or with a friend via Co-Op on splitscreen, system link and Xbox Live - an essential aspect to enjoying the full potential of Gears of War.
Set on the planet of Sera, Gears of War plunges players into a story of humankind's battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that dwell within the bowels of the planet. Assuming the role of Marcus Fenix, Gears of War commences with the rescue of the disgraced former war hero, from a prison under attack from the Locust. Quickly reinstated to the COGS, Fenix embarks on a home strike against the Locust alongside a squad that changes throughout the five chapters (with a few deaths along the way). Despite Fenix gaining control over the other members of Delta squad, it would be hard to label Gears of War' rudimentary 'Attack', 'Cease Fire' and 'Regroup' commands as anything bordering on those that define a tactical squad-based shooter - Gears of War is a pure shooter through and through.
The prison serves as the game's tutorial, though it's possible to skip this by choosing an alternative path. Gears of War continues this approach in a handful of occasions throughout the main game, splitting up the squad into smaller numbers, for obvious dramatic effect, by choosing between the Left or Right path. Beyond offering a sense of replay to the single-player campaign, this feature is built for Co-Op, splitting players up to progress, but often closely enough to maintain a sense of attachment.
Once you've scraped your jaw from the floor and scooped your eyeballs back into place, the next thing that strikes you about Gears of War is just how accomplished the game is as a third-person shooter. Central to the game is a covering system that is up there with the very best in terms of fluidity, practicality and stylish execution. Tapping the A button will quickly attach Marcus to nearby objects to use as cover, moving easily around the object, peeking around the side to take a shot, firing blindly or diving to the cover of another object. Completely intuitive, the cover system becomes instinct within no time at all, making your control over Marcus look as stylish as possible in a videogame. Holding onto the A button will make Marcus duck and run with perhaps the most impressive run animation to ever feature in a videogame. Adopting a low chase cam that follows Marcus erratically, the true touch of genius is the wide turning circle of Marcus whilst he's running; it feels more like a racing game when you're sprinting away from a shower of Locust lead, which may sound strange to begin with, but trust us, works very, very well with the context of the game. Running into an object while still holding onto the A button will enable Marcus to seamlessly run into cover; it's a system that's so instinctive it never becomes a barrier to doing what you want to do in the game, ensuring the action occurring on-screen looks intensely cinematic at all times.
Fenix is restricted to carrying two primary weapons, a side-arm and grenades, though the game's limited selection of weapons ensures you quickly know what you'll need for each situation. Covering all the typical requirements with the customary selection of assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles and rocket launchers, though it's the brutal chainsaw bayonet melee attack that has to epitomise the game's combat with the most gratuitous blood splatter effect seen in a videogame to date. Later on in the game Fenix acquires the Hammer of Dawn, a weapon that targets an orbital beam to destroy the larger and otherwise invulnerable Locust found within the game. An attack from space, the Hammer of Dawn requires the target to be outside and the satellites in position, effectively restricting its use to when it's called for by the story. The Torquebow is a little different to the standard selection of weapons, a small cross-bow that fires explosive tipped arrows with deadly effect and the weapon of choice for one of the game's harder opponents.
Brutal, intense, satisfying, solid... combat in Gears of War compliments the explosive visuals and action that occurs. Shredding a Locust Boomer with bullets, or laying waste to the Wretches with a close-range blast from the shotgun; there's an irresistible sense of power and impact throughout combat, emphasised by the macabre way in which the Locust are torn to shreds or gibbed into lots of small pieces. Showing a touch of innovation missing in many areas of the game, an unobtrusive mini-game rewards players with a faster reload time and damage bonuses by testing your reflexes - but with the risk of jamming the gun if your timing is off. It adds a subtle layer of skill to combat but never obscures the action, becoming essential for quick sniper action and rewarding skilful players that master the art of successive Perfect reloads.
Adopting the chronological structure employed in Ubisoft's GRAW and the forthcoming Rainbow Six Vegas, the five chapters of Gears of War portray the events of two sequential days. As the night draws in on the first day, Fenix and Delta Squad face up to the new threat of darkness and the Krill. Featured in the first demonstration of the game back in 2005, the Krill swarm the sky at night like a plague of satanic swallows! Apparently siding with neither Humans or Locust during the conflict, the Krill will happily devour any unsuspecting human or locust that steps into the darkness. During the night hours the gameplay changes considerably, as you continue to fight the Locust, whilst illuminating your path with the many gas canisters that pave the way, making sure never to accidentally step into the darkness. It's a novel twist to the frantic nature of the day time, highlighted in Co-Op when a friend has to guide your way across the battlefield by controlling a light beam. Similar to the Flood in Halo, the exact purpose of the Krill remains unknown at this stage, though there are blatant ties to the Locust with the game's final battle against General RAAM. There's little doubt, however, to their purpose in the atmosphere stakes, dominating the skies above and creating a chilling sense of terror, highly reminiscent of the Grue in Vin Diesel's 'Pitch Black'. On a couple of occasions Fenix takes control of the APC, a vehicle of Warthog-crushing proportions. Chased across a desolate cityscape by the Krill, the APC comes equipped with a light-beam where a gun turret would normally sit - the dilemma being that switching on the light cuts off the engine's power. These sections feel similar to comparable missions in Halo, though the light/power dynamic ramps up the tension and tempo, particularly when you're playing Co-Op.
Beyond the consistently heart pounding action and the gripping night-time suspense, Gears of War has plenty of memorable moments in between the action. Luring the unstoppable Locust Berserker through a series of rooms to the outside, before striking him down with the Hammer of Dawn, brings a tense and welcome change to the core gameplay; equally defending Jack the door cutting robot from the first attack of the Wretches is an experience that's hard to forget.
Crucial to the atmosphere that Gears of War creates is the varying tempo that Epic have woven the storyline around. Having captured the raw essence of action so dramatically, it would have been easy for a self-indulgent Epic to deliver an experience that relies solely on escalating combat and increasingly shorter odds of survival. Instead Epic have remained true, in some part, to their original claims of drawing inspiration from survival/horror as much as run-and-gun shooters; ultimately it's little more then a shooter, but it is one that knows how to stylishly vary the pace and provide the shocks to fend off any concerns over repetition setting in. Harnessing the power of the Unreal Engine 3, Gears of War delivers a level of quality to the in-game cut-scenes that is the closest thing we've seen to Sony's fabled Killzone PS3 footage. Although it's something you'll probably fail to notice as first, these cut-scenes flow in and out of the gameplay with barely any pause, whilst the only real loading section is towards the start of the game or whenever you die.
On the subject of death, get used to it a lot if you'd hate the idea of ever being called 'Casual'. The various forms that the Locust take on aren't the smartest alien threat we've ever seen in a videogame, though they do make use of the cover system afforded to the main player adequately and occasional produce a surprise with the odd flanking manoeuvre. Instead the Locust are tough, tough enough to dwarf any previous threat that we've encountered in a videogame or can think of in recent movie history - and we're just talking about the bog-standard Locust here, just wait until you've seen a few Boomers and General RAAM - the biggest bad-ass in town.
To follow in the footsteps of Bungie's Halo it's essential for Gears of War to have a multiplayer mode that will last long after the final credits have come down, and fill the gap until Gears of War 2 turns up in 2008. Certainly the team behind the Unreal series have used their expertise, to create a game that fills quite different to everything else. Focussing on a smaller scale, with smaller maps and an eight-player limit, battles in Gears of War capture the sheer intensity, brutality and fun of the single-player campaign. Pitting players as either members of the COGS or the Locust, Gears of War has a selection of three game types and 10 multiplayer maps, which could be considered pretty weak to begin with. It seems that Epic have focussed purely on the game types that will be the most popular and suit the nature of the game, with round-based games that cover the essential deathmatch with WarZone, VIP with Assassination as you attempt to kill the opponent's leader, and finally, Execution that challenges you to kill opponents with an up-close and personal move such as the chainsaw or curb stomp. The maps are on a smaller scale and as a result only intensify the experience, and maintain the importance of cover that's predominant in the single-player. There's a smattering of smart touches, such as the need to rhythmically tap the A button when you're down to call for help; however, the hype already behind Gears of War ensures it's going to be a hot title on Xbox Live, and there's nothing more enjoyable on there right now then stepping up close to an unsuspecting victim and lopping his head off with the chainsaw.
With so many qualities it's hard to find faults with Microsoft's flagship 360 title. The cynical side of me could argue about the fact that very little is revealed during the course of the story, with an overriding sensation that it's all just an introduction to bigger things in the inevitable Gears of War 2. The entire events of the story and the background information could be condensed onto a sheet of A4, whilst the female narrator's suggestion that there's more then just a brutal war occurring, something all together more sinister and complex, seems overly pretentious at this stage. Unfortunately the end battle also seems a little anti-climatic and fails to really tickle your balls in the way that CliffyB recently promised to TVG. Defeating General RAAM is surprisingly easy once you've stumbled upon the solution, which doesn't take very long (even on Hardcore) and the end sequence fails to really leave you desperate for more in terms of the continuing storyline. Finally although the AI, both on behalf of the Locust and squad members, does a reasonable job of feeling convincing and putting up a challenge, it is occasionally prone to moments of stupidity. One such example occurred after splitting up into pairs, only to come across a pack of Wretches with precious little ammunition; instead of taking pot shots at the pack, Cole (a Delta squad member of the larger kind), decided to do nothing whilst Fenix chased around the room with a pack of Wretches in hot pursuit - these guys are so hard they won't even help each other out in a fight! Similar quirks are apparent throughout the game, but never significantly; on the rare occasion that you do get close to a Locust and decide not to saw him in half with the chainsaw bayonet, you can occasionally unload a steady fire of bullets at odd angles without the Locust even responding - but this was isolated to a handful of occasions in the game.
Anonymous
Date Added:Fri 18th Jan 2008 12:38
Biggest Half-Life fan!
Date Added:Thu 13th Dec 2007 10:51
Rommel 45
Date Added:Thu 22nd Nov 2007 23:12
Anonymous
Date Added:Sat 17th Nov 2007 02:20
Nothing like anoth aging console collecting dust amongst the pile n64's sega master systems and PS1's
FARLEY
Date Added:Fri 16th Nov 2007 12:08
dangerous is the dark
Date Added:Wed 17th Oct 2007 01:13
GRANTblade
Date Added:Sun 2nd Sep 2007 12:57
Anonymous
Date Added:Sat 21st Jul 2007 13:11
Anonymous
Date Added:Fri 15th Jun 2007 11:39
Bungie have got it made, Halo fans will lap up anything they throw to em.
Anonymous
Date Added:Thu 14th Jun 2007 02:48
the games also look better( yeh thanks to the YEAR head start for the xbox......perfect dark zero WOW brillian and i mean ...shadowrun ...t... [ Read full comment... ]