Gears of War Review 0
As a hardened and oft-dissapointed gamer who has seen more hype than a person should be able to suffer in a lifetime without imploding through serial dissapointments…I’ll be honest and say that I expected little from Gears of War other than a marketing exercise that would try and stifle the PS3 launch fanfare. Thus I am pretty delighted by what I found in Gears of War, but dissapointed in some aspects of the game. It could have been a perfect score game had a little bit more ‘daring-do’ gone into the production of this new IP of the 360 era.
Lets start with the delighted side though.
I generally hate 3rd-person games… really with a passion. I find a 1st person view point much more immersive (especially in shooters) and will normally refuse to buy a third person game no matter how highly regarded it is because I simply remember I am playing a computer generated avatar as soon as I ummmm… SEE a computer generated avatar! Gears has somehow managed to change this prejudice forever and I am not sure how! I think the fact the avatar is generally kept very low down on the screen i.e. not in the way of your viewpoint at any time is part of it, along with a lot of nice little touches like the shaky-cam, floor-level, reportage effect when sprinting adds a level of cinematic effect that simply impresses rather than detracts from the atmosphere and immersion of the game.
On the subject of cinematic effects, lets be clear – this is THE singularly most impressive game released on the 360 (or any other format I can think of) graphically and the quality of the textures and environments is stunning. I have never been more engrossed in simply admiring the armour of my colleagues (much to the annoyance of my teammates when playing online I guess!). This looks and feels every part a Next Generation game graphically, and really shows why first-party development is the only way to judge the potential horsepower of a console.
The interface and control is also a nice surprise. Yes it generally centres around one context-sensitive action button (A), but it is the slickness of the implementation that makes the interface of the game easy to use, yet incredibly flexible. Want to sprint? Press and hold A. Want to dive left, right, forward, backward? Tap A while pressing a direction. Want to take cover behind the burning car? Press A whilst next to it. And to release yourself from the cover then press A again. Yes it’s fairly common to have such controls these days but this is just done so well, intuitively and sensibly that it becomes a real feature of the game in that you are never ever fumbling to find the right button in a firefight.
And it’s important that this part of the interface is done so well because the main mechanic of combat is ‘cover and fire.’ Again there are other games that use a similar mechanic, but it really is important in Gears as you WILL die if attempting to combat from any other position than from within cover. You can easily peek around corners of the cover to aim and fire with the minimum of exposure, plus you can also fire blindly over the cover whilst not being exposed at all (though very very innacurate).
So graphics and interface aside… what about the game?
Single player is a typical ‘Aliens emerge and destroy the world’ type plot with every cliche, every cheesy one liner, and every stereotypical character in there. But that doesnt mean it’s dull. It’s wrapped in such a fast paced, entertaining and visually impressive way that you just don’t care. The battles are intense and LONG! Your typical alien will take a buttload of hits to kill. There are some quick ways to kill the bad guy, but they are very difficult to pull off. For example slipping a grenade in their pocket with the pin pulled is a guaranteed method… if you can get close enough without being mown down by his ugly friends, or by your target’s chainsaw! The chainsaw is another quick method but you will find that your revved engine of death is silenced if you get hit by a bullet, thus leaving yourself vunerable to a chainsaw right back at ya!
If you try and run in the open you will be mown down, and if you try and get up close and personal you will either be chopped in half by a chainsaw, or have your head blown off by a single well placed shotgun shot.
The length of the battles and their tactical nature is the core of the gameplay that makes it feel very different to the usual shooters with their ’single sniper headshot or 2/3 body shot deaths.’ No its not realistic but by god it’s fun!
The plot romps along and the best bit is if you find one part too difficult… you can go online and get somebody to help you by doing it in Co-op mode as opposed to your generally pretty dumb AI teammates. I hear that generally the only way to finish the game on the hardest setting is to enlist the help of some real human guile in Co-op mode.
The multiplayer proper lacks in maps, but the ones that are there are generally decent enough. They are well proportioned for the main War game mode which pits two 4-player teams against each other.
Again the mechanics make the game, no single weapon seems too overpowered right now and for every tactic there seems to be a counter tactic. If you are being picked off by a sniper… its very easy to sneak round the back of him, thanks to the cover, and chainsaw the bastard from behind. The machine guns (of sorts) generally need sustained and heavy fire to take someone out rather than the spray and pray of other games. This is in part due to the health bar (not that it is visible) constantly recharging like in COD3. So if you take a few hits you can find cover and replenish fully by simply staying out of harms way.
In fact it is very hard sometimes to take someone out 1 versus 1 as you both duck, dive and roll your way out of fire… which is great! It promotes teamwork and rarely have I found such willingess from other players to, for example, lay suppresive fire whilst you flank someone, or perform a pincer movement, because it comes so naturally and is outright mandatory if you want to win!
But I do have a few gripes in the midst of this gushing gears-love-fest.
Single player mode often has you replaying the same fight over and over again before you hit a checkpoint successfully to progress. This wouldnt be so bad, but the placement of the checkpoints is AWFUL! The fights are fun win or lose… but to have to listen to the same 2 minutes of pre-fight dialogue repeatedly is NOT! Anyone who has played the last part of act 3 on the harder difficulties will know what I am talking about…
“what was that?”
“shhhh just the wind”
“yeah right I never heard the wind say ‘Hostiles’ before”
Arrrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!
Seriously move the damn checkpoint to start at the interesting bit!
Secondly, although the 4 v4 online gamemodes are well suited to the game… I often find myself wishing there were more objective oriented, larger scale modes too. i can’t help thinking a 12 v 12 capture the flag would be an immense tactical battle with all the ingredients for some epic warfare!
Lastly (and I am picking the bones a little here) the campaign in single player is short and seems ripe for some chargeable addon pack. I hate the idea that I might only be getting half the game here and will be stung for the rest at some point in the future. Then again Epic has a long history of providing free, long term support and addons (a la Unreal Tournament) so lets hope that is the case.
Score? Hmmm an easy 9.5/10
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