Review: Gears Of War (360)

Let's just get it out there in the first paragraph: Gears of War is THE reason to buy an Xbox 360 this Christmas. It is not only what you'd call a "system-seller", it's also what 360 owners have been waiting for since launch; a game with an epic single player campaign combined with a brilliant multiplayer component, held together with stunning graphics that can finally claim the right to call themselves 'next generation'. But more importantly, Gears of Wars packs a punch; it's an aggressive, exhilarating, testosterone-fueled gore-fest, and it takes no prisoners.

The plot is thin and hardly important, but follows the exploits of Marcus Fenix, a former soldier who was imprisoned for disobeying orders (i.e. trying to save his father). The game opens with Dom Santiago, Fenix's best friend and fellow soldier, rescuing Fenix from a prison that has been overrun by enemy forces, telling him that he has been pardoned since the Locust Horde has humanity on the ropes. Fenix and Dom then escape the prison, and are given a dangerous mission: to deploy a piece of equipment that will map the Locust tunnels and allow the Coalition of Ordered Governments (or COG) to find and launch a powerful missile strike against their subterranean stronghold. What this means for the player is that they, along with a colourful cast of characters, will be blasting their way through beautiful environments, dispatching god-ugly (but clever) enemies, all while seeing lots and lots of blood.

Blood aside, the first thing you will notice about the game is just how beautiful it is. The planet of Sera is a war-torn world and looks like it. Burned out cars sit rusting, walls look grimy and moss-ridden, and enemies look so revolting up close that you can't help but admire their disgusting beauty. But then you'll be looking at these awe-inspiring ancient-Rome-meets-industrial-Europe arenas and simply wondering how Epic managed to make the game look this good. And God help you when you see the rain. The next thing you'll notice is your bloody corpse slumping to the ground, minus its head, blood splattered on the screen. Why? Because you were so busy admiring the graphics that an enemy Drone was able to sneak up behind cover and blast you in the face with a shotgun. There's no time to stop and stare.

Gears of War plays like few other third-person shooters, as cover is vitally important for survival. Sure, many other games have used the concept, such as Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, but it never felt essential. Here, if you expose yourself to enemy forces for more than ten seconds, you'll be reloading checkpoints more often than you change your socks in a year. Recognising that cover is vitally important, a lot of the controls are dedicated to keeping you concealed. With a press of the A button, you can slam yourself into the nearest piece of cover - be it a chain, a burned out car, a wall, anything. A further press of the A button and a tug of the control stick enables a variety of moves, like hopping over walls, 'SWAT-turning' past doors, or leaping out and running towards the next piece of cover. It's all easily done, in fact sometimes too easy, as all these controls are contained on the A button and occasionally get muddled up.

Guns are just as important to your survival as cover, and Gears has an interesting and useful arsenal to aid the player in their fight against the Locust. They barely number more than a dozen, but they all have their unique charms and, most importantly, are a load of fun to use. Gamestyle's personal favourite is the basic COG rifle, which for the most part acts like most other virtual machine guns... with the exception of a chainsaw attached to the end of it. Cue the brutal dismemberment of your opponents (both online and off), causing you to smile as their blood explodes onto the screen. To add insult to injury, you can then kick their skull around the level - brilliant. Other fun weapons include the Hammer of Dawn, a laser-targeting system linked to a satellite orbiting the planet, which fires a massively powerful laser. The basics are all covered, with sniper rifles, pistols, grenades and the like, and you'll never be short of ammo either. Another fun little feature of the weapons is the 'active reload': after starting the standard reload sequence, players can either let it run its course, or attempt to reload faster with a second press of the button. However, if you wrongly time the second button press, your gun jams and delays the reload time even longer. It's a small feature, but it adds that little extra involvement and sense of mild panic.

No matter how good or challenging the single player campaign is on the 'casual', 'hardcore' and 'insane' difficulty levels, it nonetheless pales in comparison to the multiplayer offerings. The campaign itself can be played alongside a friend over split-screen, system link, or most importantly, Xbox Live. It really does become even more impressive with a friend; they take the reins of the otherwise AI-controlled second character, as you both try to outflank the incoming Locust or simply try to survive against the rampaging Berserker enemy, which can only be killed using the Hammer of Dawn weapon. Gamestyle's favourite moment comes from fighting this behemoth; as it approached at top speed, we hurriedly revived our fallen comrade and narrowly avoided being flattened again.

On the more regular side of multiplayer gaming, Gears of War shines as well, though perhaps not as brightly as it could. The games are limited to eight players and are completely team oriented, but rarely has an Xbox Live game been this much fun, even with the three limited game modes. Warzone is a standard team deathmatch game and the weakest of the trio, while Assassination makes a single player on each team the 'leader' of their squad, and victory is only assured when the leader is destroyed. The most fun mode, however, is Execution, a variant on the standard deathmatch template which adds a 'downed state' to proceedings. When a player has taken enough damage, they will drop to the ground, but will not die unless they have been shot in the head. What follows is a frantic race to the downed player before they are revived so a finishing blow can be administered, by either stomping on their head, chainsawing them to death (the preferred method of most opponents) or finishing them off with a head-shot. It adds a dramatic twist to the deathmatch as players frantically try to revive themselves or hope their team can save them before the blood-spewing finishing move can be enacted.

In fact, the only real fault that Gamestyle can find with the game is that its multiplayer mode doesn't feature enough variety - a great disappointment. While Execution is great fun, a capture the flag or objective-based game type would add team play mechanics to get everyone involved and working together, perhaps defending a base against an opposing team. Any other minor niggles, such as the odd skipping cutscenes and brevity of the single player campaign, do little to dispel Gamestyle's love for Gears of War. If only more multiplayer modes had been created, Gears of War would be regarded as the perfect Xbox Live game.

Rating: 9 / 10

Words by Garry Webber