Review: Gears of War

With reports of this game costing more than $10 million to make, some gamers feared it may be the same old story… pretty visuals as opposed to decent gameplay. How wrong they were… GoW pulls off both feats without breaking a sweat.

The brain child of Epic’s lead games designer, Cliff Bleszinki or AKA Cliffy B, Gears of War is finally here and it has totally been worth the wait. After we played Gown at E3 06, we’ve been counting down the days until we received this game in the Cyber Shack… the waiting can finally stop.

Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter video game that uses the Unreal Engine 3 technology. Cliff Bleszinski cited Resident Evil 4’s quick pacing and the over-shoulder camera view as a major influence on Gears of War.

The storyline follows a soldier named Marcus Fenix, a member of the Coalition of Ordered Governments, or COG. Fighting against the Locust Horde, an alien race of creatures, you’ll come across some pretty nasty characters that need to be dealt a lesson in pain. So as you can imagine, the plot is a little lax. You have a gun. There’s a bunch of aliens. You use afore-mentioned gun to kill aliens, end of story.

The developers have placed great emphasis on a ‘cover-style’ of gameplay, in a similar fashion to another game, Full Spectrum Warrior. Plus, Gears of War is a much slower-paced shooter than what you would be used to, focusing on squad tactics rather than brute force. Meaning, if you’re type of player that tries to take down an enemy with fancy jumping/circle strafing moves, you can forget about it… you’ll be cut down by a hail of gun fire, quick smart.

Multiplayer is really where this game shines and it’s obvious that Epic has really put in the effort to make multiplayer work seamlessly. Co-op in Gears of War will let up to two players play through the game from start to end. The game also offers the ability to invite players on your friends list and have them instantly pop into your current game if you’re having a little trouble getting past some levels.

In full multiplayer mode, you can have up to eight players (four COGs vs four Locust Horde) engaging in battle throughout several maps, over three different modes: War Zone, Assassination, and Execution. On top of that, voice recognition will be available for players, and obviously voice chat to discuss strategy with your friends.

If you own an Xbox 360, do not delay, this game must be in your collection. Plus, with Epic promising plenty of content to be available over Xbox Live at a later date, longevity is definitely not a problem in GoW.

Developer- Epic Games

Publisher- Microsoft

Classification- MA15

Formats- Xbox 360

URL- Gears of War