With Gears of War 2 looming over the horizon I thought I'd have a look at the first game as a way of seeing what to expect. For those of you who have never heard of or played GOW, Gears is basically a military shooter that is centred around the use of cover in combat with a post-apocolyptic sci-fi setting (which suspiciously reminded me of the conflict in Iraq at times).
The gameplay consists of a repeated system of hide behind a wall, lean out to shoot, hide again, reload and repeat process until the area is clear.
The major difference between the use of cover here and the use of it in other games is that it actually works. In most other games cover is used simply by standing behind something and hoping that the bad guys don't run around and kill you while your screen is still red and blurry, GOW however impliments it quite effectivly since enemies also take cover in the same fashion and are useually quite reluctant to move fowards (this means the whole 'regenerate when not under fire' health feature is actually approptiate since it is now possible to get a moment of peace and quiet).
The problems occur, however, when you get the enemies who rush foward and end up behind the cover you're using or the other problematic scenario of being without cover (rare, but it does happen). Both of these are bad since they made firing from the hip (or firing in any scenario when you're not using the zoom feature) almost impossible to aim unless you happen to be standing right next to the alien you are trying to reduce to a fine paste, add on top of this the fact that the AI is remarkably accurate when firing on the move and you'll find yourself adding to the body count quicker than you (or anyone else) can shout 'BOOOMERS!'.
This brings me quite nicely to my next point: difficulty. The difficulty of this game is inconsistant to say the least ranging from some moments that are laughably easy to the point where my mum can do it with reletive comfort while other times had me pretty much stumped to the point that the only reason I managed to make progress was due to the laws of averages (infinate number of monkies at infinate number of typewriters and what-not).
The plot is nowhere near as 'gut wrenching' and 'engageing' as the box says, a big problem they had was that unless you watch the film thats played by leaving the controller idle for a few minutes at the main menu, you go into the game without any previous explanation as to what is going on. This wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that not much is done to bring you back up to speed (what I personally call Half Life syndrome), on the other hand though, the plot is not what we are here for and is only a minor moot point (like complaining about a perfectly good Volkswagen just because it happens to be german).
Now, like I said at the begining, I was gonna use the first game to make an educated guess at what to expect of 2 so here is my prediction...
Gears 2 will probably be more or less the same as 1 with perhaps one new weapon and a plot continuation that makes the whole conflict with the Locust seem all the more dire and cataclysmic (damn! they're on EARTH now!).
Overall, I would reccomend this game to most people, its one of those games that is solid enough in the gameplay that I can't think of any majorly condemning flaws or anything to make it nesseercary to avoid this one like the plague or anthrax.
Like all of my reviews, if you did or didn't like this one could you state WHY so I can improve upon my writing style in future.
-Iron Mal
The gameplay consists of a repeated system of hide behind a wall, lean out to shoot, hide again, reload and repeat process until the area is clear.
The major difference between the use of cover here and the use of it in other games is that it actually works. In most other games cover is used simply by standing behind something and hoping that the bad guys don't run around and kill you while your screen is still red and blurry, GOW however impliments it quite effectivly since enemies also take cover in the same fashion and are useually quite reluctant to move fowards (this means the whole 'regenerate when not under fire' health feature is actually approptiate since it is now possible to get a moment of peace and quiet).
The problems occur, however, when you get the enemies who rush foward and end up behind the cover you're using or the other problematic scenario of being without cover (rare, but it does happen). Both of these are bad since they made firing from the hip (or firing in any scenario when you're not using the zoom feature) almost impossible to aim unless you happen to be standing right next to the alien you are trying to reduce to a fine paste, add on top of this the fact that the AI is remarkably accurate when firing on the move and you'll find yourself adding to the body count quicker than you (or anyone else) can shout 'BOOOMERS!'.
This brings me quite nicely to my next point: difficulty. The difficulty of this game is inconsistant to say the least ranging from some moments that are laughably easy to the point where my mum can do it with reletive comfort while other times had me pretty much stumped to the point that the only reason I managed to make progress was due to the laws of averages (infinate number of monkies at infinate number of typewriters and what-not).
The plot is nowhere near as 'gut wrenching' and 'engageing' as the box says, a big problem they had was that unless you watch the film thats played by leaving the controller idle for a few minutes at the main menu, you go into the game without any previous explanation as to what is going on. This wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that not much is done to bring you back up to speed (what I personally call Half Life syndrome), on the other hand though, the plot is not what we are here for and is only a minor moot point (like complaining about a perfectly good Volkswagen just because it happens to be german).
Now, like I said at the begining, I was gonna use the first game to make an educated guess at what to expect of 2 so here is my prediction...
Gears 2 will probably be more or less the same as 1 with perhaps one new weapon and a plot continuation that makes the whole conflict with the Locust seem all the more dire and cataclysmic (damn! they're on EARTH now!).
Overall, I would reccomend this game to most people, its one of those games that is solid enough in the gameplay that I can't think of any majorly condemning flaws or anything to make it nesseercary to avoid this one like the plague or anthrax.
Like all of my reviews, if you did or didn't like this one could you state WHY so I can improve upon my writing style in future.
-Iron Mal
