(This is my first review, ever. At least, in the written medium, because I doubt word of mouth reviews count. Constructive criticism is most definitely welcome.)
The Potato Salad
I used to consider myself PC gamer, turning my nose up to the more simplistic console offerings. I mean, sure, I was a spoiled kid, and grew up getting most consoles starting with the Atari my mother had, before I could even string a full sentence together, due, mainly, to the fact that my parents happened to be gamers, as well. I won't deny that I spent hours playing Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES, before I knew that '3' was, in fact, a prime number or, even, what a prime number was. Neither will I deny my exhilaration at soaring down snow-capped slopes, playing SSX on my shiny new PS2, December 25th, 2000. I am not new to consoles, by any stretch, but, until recently, they were no where near my preferred gaming medium.
Now, as referenced by the past tense, my preferences have changed, and this is owed, in large part, to the subject of this review - Gears of War, for Microsoft's X-Box 360. In fact, prior to playing Gears of War, my heart was set on the Playstation 3 as my eventual, 'next-gen' console purchase, due to my previous warm feelings about the PS2 and the inclusion of the Blu-Ray Optical Drive. The pivotal even happened back in, around September, shortly after my purchase of my new Sharp 37", 1080p television. I had been playing, but was by no means engrossed by, the Nintendo Wii's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The game was fun, had good controls, but for, some reason, wasn't holding my interest. My younger brother then came down to visit, bringing his shining, new, 360, with a few games. I played around with Saint's Row, and it failed to impress me, and was prepared to write off the 360, once again, until I put Gears of War inside. Right off of the bat, I was hooked.
The Meat
I?ll start with the game's presentation. Starting the game up, I was greeted with the stylish, blood and flames, Gears of War title accompanied by excellent, understated, 'creepy' ambient music. I quickly launched into the single player campaign, and chose the Casual difficulty. I wasn't new to the FPS genre, I was new to shooters on consoles, and hadn't played many Third Person Shooters. The game did an excellent job of throwing me right into the game, and grabbing my attention, by way of the prison rescue and following tutorial. The tutorial did a good job of incorporating itself into the gameplay, not repeating its lessons, as is common with many tutorial, regrettably, and, most importantly, I could have skipped it, had I wanted to. The HUD was useful, but minimal, and tied well into the overall feel of the game. Overall, the presentation of the game tied very well to what the game was trying to be; a gritty, non-cerebral fight against an alien horde, combating utter extinction.
The controls for the game were something I was also very impressed with. The sensitivity was adjustable, though the default seemed good to begin with. The simple cover mechanics, as well as blind-firing and aiming, made the action feel less ponderous, and more visceral. I didn't have to, after the first three minutes, think about what button I needed to press to do something, and could dive into the action. My only complaint about the controls has to do with melee and using the chainsaw bayonet. It seemed as if those two facets were not as polished as could be, which, in turn, caused me to be standing around like an idiot while trying to chainsaw locust, and promptly turned into tourtiere by a shotgun blast to the face.
The gameplay is where, I found, Gears shone the brightest. The fun, intelligent use of a cover system, combined with good corridor fighting, and possible co-op gameplay, made for several engaging hours. Personally, I'm a chicken-shit when it comes to thriller/horror type gameplay, but even that didn?t stop me from wanting to complete the game. The campaign is where the game was at its best.
Unfortunately, because of how fun most of the game was, its flaws stuck out gruesomely, as well. The AI in this game is, for the most part, plain stupid. The only reason the locust or your squadmates last more than three seconds, is because of the cover system. This, I think, contributed to another flaw; the difficulty. Some parts of the game were so inconsistent in difficulty, as to be frustrating, and higher difficult, like a throw-back to older shooters, mostly meant you hurt them less, and they hurt you more. I think the multiplayer was lacking in this game as well. It did not capture the core gameplay mechanics of the game very well, such as using cover and suppressive fire to dominate the opposing team, and instead became a mad-dash for the sniper rifle, with some shotgun-strafing in between. Not to say that multi-player wasn't fun. It was, but only for a little while. It could have been many, many times better. Finally, the vehicle sequence plain sucked. Fortunately, even with those flaws, that do prevent the game from being as great as it could be, it is still very fun and entertaining, which are the main things I look for in a game.
The story, since games are more than their gameplay, is fairly weak. It did not bother me, because the small bits of story seemed to suit the action well, and I feel as if, thematically, long asides or flashbacks on the story would have detracted, somewhat, to the fluidity of the experience. With the being said, I understand the necessity of story for motivation and immersion. With that in mind, it really could have been improved upon, even in small ways, such as quick flashes of what things used to look like, to mask loading times, instead of the scenes with Marcus talking on his radio. The playful banter could also have provided more allusions to the past and the conflict. However, I still found the story elements fit in, thematically, with the style of the game.
Graphically, there isn't too much to say. It's incredibly impressive and is often cited as a benchmark for what the 360 can do. They were amazing. Some people find fault with the lack of colour, though, that's more of an art direction fault than graphical. I'm sure if you go to war torn ruins in Iraq or some other place devastated by war, you'll probably see a very similar colour palette. I digress, the graphics were amazing.
The Post-Dinner Belch
Overall, I think that Gears of War was an incredibly entertaining game. I don't think it was terribly deep, nor do I think it's a game that will keep you entertained for months. I, also, don't think that that is a bad thing, as the campaign was one of the most intense and fun gaming experiences I've had and it renewed my interest in console gaming, causing me to purchase my 360. With that being said, unless you see a previously owned copy, or the price drops to under $30, I'd say -
Rent it.
It's a good game, I like having it in my collection, but it's unlikely that you'll get $60 worth of gameplay out of it, and will not, most likely, play it much after taking the campaign through all the difficulties, playing co-op, and dabbling in multiplayer a bit.
The Potato Salad
I used to consider myself PC gamer, turning my nose up to the more simplistic console offerings. I mean, sure, I was a spoiled kid, and grew up getting most consoles starting with the Atari my mother had, before I could even string a full sentence together, due, mainly, to the fact that my parents happened to be gamers, as well. I won't deny that I spent hours playing Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES, before I knew that '3' was, in fact, a prime number or, even, what a prime number was. Neither will I deny my exhilaration at soaring down snow-capped slopes, playing SSX on my shiny new PS2, December 25th, 2000. I am not new to consoles, by any stretch, but, until recently, they were no where near my preferred gaming medium.
Now, as referenced by the past tense, my preferences have changed, and this is owed, in large part, to the subject of this review - Gears of War, for Microsoft's X-Box 360. In fact, prior to playing Gears of War, my heart was set on the Playstation 3 as my eventual, 'next-gen' console purchase, due to my previous warm feelings about the PS2 and the inclusion of the Blu-Ray Optical Drive. The pivotal even happened back in, around September, shortly after my purchase of my new Sharp 37", 1080p television. I had been playing, but was by no means engrossed by, the Nintendo Wii's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The game was fun, had good controls, but for, some reason, wasn't holding my interest. My younger brother then came down to visit, bringing his shining, new, 360, with a few games. I played around with Saint's Row, and it failed to impress me, and was prepared to write off the 360, once again, until I put Gears of War inside. Right off of the bat, I was hooked.
The Meat
I?ll start with the game's presentation. Starting the game up, I was greeted with the stylish, blood and flames, Gears of War title accompanied by excellent, understated, 'creepy' ambient music. I quickly launched into the single player campaign, and chose the Casual difficulty. I wasn't new to the FPS genre, I was new to shooters on consoles, and hadn't played many Third Person Shooters. The game did an excellent job of throwing me right into the game, and grabbing my attention, by way of the prison rescue and following tutorial. The tutorial did a good job of incorporating itself into the gameplay, not repeating its lessons, as is common with many tutorial, regrettably, and, most importantly, I could have skipped it, had I wanted to. The HUD was useful, but minimal, and tied well into the overall feel of the game. Overall, the presentation of the game tied very well to what the game was trying to be; a gritty, non-cerebral fight against an alien horde, combating utter extinction.
The controls for the game were something I was also very impressed with. The sensitivity was adjustable, though the default seemed good to begin with. The simple cover mechanics, as well as blind-firing and aiming, made the action feel less ponderous, and more visceral. I didn't have to, after the first three minutes, think about what button I needed to press to do something, and could dive into the action. My only complaint about the controls has to do with melee and using the chainsaw bayonet. It seemed as if those two facets were not as polished as could be, which, in turn, caused me to be standing around like an idiot while trying to chainsaw locust, and promptly turned into tourtiere by a shotgun blast to the face.
The gameplay is where, I found, Gears shone the brightest. The fun, intelligent use of a cover system, combined with good corridor fighting, and possible co-op gameplay, made for several engaging hours. Personally, I'm a chicken-shit when it comes to thriller/horror type gameplay, but even that didn?t stop me from wanting to complete the game. The campaign is where the game was at its best.
Unfortunately, because of how fun most of the game was, its flaws stuck out gruesomely, as well. The AI in this game is, for the most part, plain stupid. The only reason the locust or your squadmates last more than three seconds, is because of the cover system. This, I think, contributed to another flaw; the difficulty. Some parts of the game were so inconsistent in difficulty, as to be frustrating, and higher difficult, like a throw-back to older shooters, mostly meant you hurt them less, and they hurt you more. I think the multiplayer was lacking in this game as well. It did not capture the core gameplay mechanics of the game very well, such as using cover and suppressive fire to dominate the opposing team, and instead became a mad-dash for the sniper rifle, with some shotgun-strafing in between. Not to say that multi-player wasn't fun. It was, but only for a little while. It could have been many, many times better. Finally, the vehicle sequence plain sucked. Fortunately, even with those flaws, that do prevent the game from being as great as it could be, it is still very fun and entertaining, which are the main things I look for in a game.
The story, since games are more than their gameplay, is fairly weak. It did not bother me, because the small bits of story seemed to suit the action well, and I feel as if, thematically, long asides or flashbacks on the story would have detracted, somewhat, to the fluidity of the experience. With the being said, I understand the necessity of story for motivation and immersion. With that in mind, it really could have been improved upon, even in small ways, such as quick flashes of what things used to look like, to mask loading times, instead of the scenes with Marcus talking on his radio. The playful banter could also have provided more allusions to the past and the conflict. However, I still found the story elements fit in, thematically, with the style of the game.
Graphically, there isn't too much to say. It's incredibly impressive and is often cited as a benchmark for what the 360 can do. They were amazing. Some people find fault with the lack of colour, though, that's more of an art direction fault than graphical. I'm sure if you go to war torn ruins in Iraq or some other place devastated by war, you'll probably see a very similar colour palette. I digress, the graphics were amazing.
The Post-Dinner Belch
Overall, I think that Gears of War was an incredibly entertaining game. I don't think it was terribly deep, nor do I think it's a game that will keep you entertained for months. I, also, don't think that that is a bad thing, as the campaign was one of the most intense and fun gaming experiences I've had and it renewed my interest in console gaming, causing me to purchase my 360. With that being said, unless you see a previously owned copy, or the price drops to under $30, I'd say -
Rent it.
It's a good game, I like having it in my collection, but it's unlikely that you'll get $60 worth of gameplay out of it, and will not, most likely, play it much after taking the campaign through all the difficulties, playing co-op, and dabbling in multiplayer a bit.
