Game Review : Gears of War

Gears of War is two things.  It is one of the best games I have played in the past year, with an involved plot and relatively in depth characters.  And it is also one of the most violent and bloody games I have every played.  It blows Grand Theft Auto waaay outta the water.  While you can run down cops is GTA, you can cut guys in half in Gears of War.  This review covers that, so stop reading if that’s not your thing and check out how we fixed out internet with tin foil (we think). But I’ll get to all that in a bit.

The Badass of Delta Squad: Daimon Baird, Augustus Cole, Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago

Overall this is a great game.  The story within in the game itself is quote good.  You are Marcus Fenix, who, for whatever reason, is stuck in a jail at the start of the game.  Fortunately you are rescued by (your lover?) Dominic Santiago, affectionately known as “Dom” through the rest of the game.  (If you choose to play split screen, player 2 takes the role of Dom.)  From there you fight your way out of the prison against an enemy known as “The Locust”.  The rest of the game is spent trying to kill Locust (which don’t look anything like insects) before they kill you.  This is harder then it sounds, since they’re damn smart little bastards, even on “Casual”.  And of course there are different varities of Locust soldiers, but each one is a pain to make die, even with explosive tipped arrows and chainsaws on your gun.

What is going on here?…

I’ll get my beef with the game out before I keep going.  What the hell is going on?  Who/What are the Locust and why are they trying to kill me?  Where are we?  Where is everyone else (You barely meet a handful of other people throughout the length of this game) in this world?  Basically, why is there virtually NO back story?  If you let the game just sit after you turn it on it will give you a short intro, but it’s still very light on plot.  To be fair there are bits and pieces revealed throughout the game, but there are huge questions left answerless.  The biggest one, asides what is going on, is  why is Marcus Fenix (YOU) in jail at the beginning (something about Aphos Fields I think)?  The fix to this problem is either Wikipedia or the Gears of War Wiki which explains the plot of this game, the books and the sequal game.

Wikipedia FTW

My other problem, not as big as the back story problem, is that is can be hard to find where to go.  The entire distopian future you live in looks dark, and drab and dusty.  This means that everything looks pretty much the same, so if you get lost or lose sight of the NPC’s it takes several minutes of running around checking doors and looking around to find your way forward.  My last complaint, although not exactly a complaint, more of a gripe, is that there’s too much ammo.  I never thought I’d say that.  But there’s stacks of it lying around everywhere.  You never feel the need to conserve (Tomb Raider anyone?).  You can just hold the trigger down and shot things, all the while knowing there’s a box of more around the corner!

Why stop firing?

Onto the good things!

The “Y” button lets you instantly focus on anything interesting, i.e. new enemies, dead ally, special switch etc.  This makes finding things really easy as the game points you right to them.  Like when your teammates die, you can find them very easily and rescue them…. or die horribly because…

Just because I’m a badguy doesn’t mean I’m stupid.

Enemies are smart.  They’re not going to charge in like idiots.  They use cover, throw grenades and try to flank.  This makes even “casual” encounters fun and interesting.  Nothing sucks more than badguys that just charge straight into a hail of lead you’re slinging at them.. and to boot….

Ok, maybe not THIS much fun…

The weapons are fun, as are the different ways to kill enemies. A chainsaw bayonet, sniper rifle, bolo grenade… the list goes on.  While not as novel as Halo (no lasers… or plasma swords…), the weapon options are still fun!  You can literally cut guys in half with your bayonet, curb stomp enemies, stick grenades onto them, blow their head off and more.  It’s horrifically violent and quite stress relieving.  The chainsaw has to be the best stress relief, moving in slow-mo and spraying blood every which way, even onto the camera, which only goes to illustrate….

Nothing takes the edge off the day like cutting someone in half with it…

The graphics are great.  The scenes are very realistic, fire feels real (and burns!), the blood is… bloody, the horrific monsters are believable and the physics are great.  It makes for a wonderful experience late at night with the lights out and the sound jacked way up.  Especially when a Beserker is chasing you and smashing through walls and things to kill you.

Can’t sleep, Locust gonna get me.

Overall this game kicks ass.  We are still working on beating it on “Hardcore” mode, Casual was rather easy, not to say that it wasn’t hard, but on Hardcore the enemies are significantly harder to kill and seem a bit smarter.  After this comes “Insane” which will be, I’m hoping, Insane!  Pick up a copy and play this if you can, it’s well worth it!