Overview

If there's any one particular type of game that I really like, it's a good solid action game with enough story to overcome the typical run'n'gun game play that is the hallmark of such games. Halo managed that, with flying colors. I realize that there are those out there that weren't all that impressed, and that pan the series for being too generic, but... These days, what isn't generic? Halo was a fairly standard shooter, but it had the storyline to drive the FPS portion along at a nicely hectic pace. Until recently, the xBox 360 was missing a similar game to appeal to the players interested in solid, high paced action and combat, but that space was filled with the entry of Gears of War to the console's lineup.

Review

Gears takes place in the future on a planet named Sera where humans, after years of civil war, finally managed to find peace with the discovery of a new power source, called Imulsion, under the planet's surface. Of course, their attempts to tap into this power source rather pissed off the folks who were already there. The Locust Horde had remained hidden underground for all the years of human presence, and made themselves known on Emergence Day, when they dug through the crust into the heart of every major city on the planet. Millions died, governments collapsed, military destroyed their own structures to prevent them from falling into enemy hands, etc, etc.

As I suggested in my opening, it's not the most original of stories. Starship Troopers, anybody? Aliens? Tremors? None of those are perfect matches, but my point is that it has been done before. The important thing is, Gears of War put enough of a spin on it to keep it reasonably fresh. The story follows Marcus Fenix, a former soldier imprisoned after being courts marshaled for leaving his post to attempt to save his father when the Locusts over ran one of the last major defensive positions held by the humans. By the end of the game I was wondering just how things had gone down in Marcus's past, and Dom's search for a girl lost in the ruble of cities was another good diversion. Trouble is, Gears was short – because it's been broken into a two parter, at the least. That's right folks, the game ends on a cliffhanger, and after only five fairly short stages. Gee... what other MicroSoft supported game have we seen this in before? *coughHalocough*. Ok, so joking aside, that's my only real complaint – the game was too short to have ended on a cliffhanger like that. Give me at least two more stages before you start in with the abrupt ends. Either that, or make the stages longer. While I had other issues with the story, they were minor and already covered by the whole, 'it's a pretty basic story,' thing.

Graphically, Gears qualifies as one of the most advanced games I've ever seen. Why, you might ask? Well, I'll expound: Marcus, you see, grinds his teeth. I don't mean texture shifts on his model to suggest the action of clenching his jaw. I mean his character model is sufficiently articulated to the point that you can actually see him grind his teeth. He doesn't just grind them, he scowls, smirks, snarls – what I'm leading up to here, is that he shows emotion not through the use of textures, but actual, physical changes in his expression. That's... impressive, to say the least. I wasn't without my issues with the character models, though. Almost all of the characters - good, bad, and just plain ugly – are huge. I don't mean that they're out of scale with normal humans. I mean that with the exception of two humans, every single character that you see looks like a freaking dump truck on legs. This is the sort of size that Arnold wishes he could have had. Steroids don't pump you up that much... really, as much as I understand they were trying to go hard core for the squad, it was rather excessive.

As for the world itself, it's pretty damned good. Nice and crisp colors, great little details. There wasn't too much repetition to be found, beyond the fact that you do spend a fair amount of your time humping it through a ruined city. Colors pop appropriately, and the explosions were damned nice looking. Oh, while I'm on the subject of colors popping... Folks, don't let your little kids play this game. It's gory. Impressively so. Excessively so. I'll explain further in a few moments here, but make no mistake... the creators didn't spare the graphical power when it came to the splatter factor. Blood splashes all over, bright, vibrant, and a touch disturbing, even for a veteran gamer and horror fan like me.

The weaponry is, actually, pretty standard fare for an Third Person Shooter. There's a 3-round burst rifle, grenade launcher, sniper rifle, couple pistols, orbital satellite based weaponry, bow... er, lemme back up there. There are a couple unique weapons. The Hammer of Dawn is a 'gun' that you use to designate targets for orbital particle beam satellites to fire on. Fun weapon – or, it would be if its use weren't so limited that the designers literally give you one right when you need it... because you won't be able to use it at all after. I learned quickly to do the deed, then turn back around and get my secondary weapon back before continuing. There's also the Torque Bow – think Rambo, folks. Target, pull back the string, and watch an enemy go boom. There is, of course, also the trusty shotgun and assault rifle that all such games thrive on... bet you know there's a reason why I saved them for last.

The Lancer is Gear's assault rifle. It's a workhorse weapon, plain and simple. Good range, good power, great ammo capacity... and a chainsaw for a bayonet. Groovy. That's right folks... you get to chainsaw enemies that get too close in half, splattering your screen with blood in the process. Good... Bad... You're the guy with the chainsaw gun. As long as I'm making some Evil Dead references, you get a Boomstick, erm, Boomshot too. Fun weapon. Shoot an enemy at point blank range in the waist with it, and he'll be about legs shorter. I mean that literally, folks. This is what I was referring to earlier... The money shot kills – chainsaw bayonet, headshots, point blank shotgun blasts... they get gory. Enemies get torn apart, blood WILL splatter all over your screen. Let me reiterate: this game is not for children.

The weapons are pretty well balanced in terms of risk vs reward. The shotgun is lethal at close range, but you don't get a lot of ammo stock for it – though I never ran out of ammo, with a little self control. The Lancer is godly, especially when you go in for the chainsaw kill... but you're vulnerable for a good five seconds while mauling another enemy, and some enemies carry them too. The only weapon I felt was really out of balance was the sniper rifle, and that mainly because... it's not worth the bother. Gears uses an odd system to get to full zoom, which must be reset each time you reload... and you have to reload for each shot. I don't mean cycle a bolt. I mean go through a full reload. Some people love it... I didn't have the patience for it, and I often grab sniper rifles over other weapons in games. Overall, pretty good, though.

The music was pretty good, some nice rock themes, good action music, and the sort. It kept things going smoothly, which is all that I ask for. The voice acting was actually pretty damn cool. Marcus's voice suited the harsh character displayed for you, deep, gravely, and straight to business – but with a wry sense of sarcasm/fatalism that I wouldn't have expected, but certainly fit the situation. Dominic's is pretty good too, though I might have expected at least a bit more of a Spanish accent given his full name. Cole and Baird, the other two (PC) controlled characters of your team, had solid voice actors as well, so kudos all around there. As long as I'm on the topic of voice acting, the dialog wasn't too bad either, but I have to come back to my earlier statement: This game really isn't for children. There's swearing like crazy to be found, even a few well placed f-bombs. Again, it fits the situation... but I can't stress enough that kids shouldn't be playing this.

The thing that everybody told me really shined about Gears of War before I picked it up was the multiplayer game... I wish that I could say I thought the same. I was expecting non-stop action, fairly evenly matched battles, and good map design. Instead what I found was a system where whoever got to a certain point first almost always won, with no exceptions. Gears is built around the idea of using cover in a realistic way, something that they pulled off admirably in the main game... something that is useless in the multiplayer game. Whoever gets the sniper rifle or Hammer of Dawn first wins... the end, in multiplayer. BUT... that's not to say xBox Live is wasted on Gears, because you can also play the main story campaign with somebody online! It really makes the main game more enjoyable, and makes the final boss beatable, to have two human controlled players playing. That would be my final gripe about the game, folks... The final boss, so far as I can tell, is designed around beating as a team. The designers start that particular section by cutting you off from the two PC controlled members of your team. The final battle, once you're alone with Dom just... doesn't... work... unless Dom is behind cover with you, pouring on the fire, instead of running up and getting his ass dead. Supposedly, General RAAM can be killed in the single player game... if I couldn't even manage it on easy, but did it with EASE on Insane with a human player, there's something broken.

The last thing that I want to mention is that, intentional or not, I picked up on a lot of homages to other series. You drive a couple cars that I swear could have been the twins of the new (Batman Begins) Batmobile. There are enemies called Kryll that are right out of Pitch Black. And one of the bosses, I swear, was an Alien facehugger. Truth be told, I thought I saw a few other movie references sprinkled through the game, but not ones that I could readily identify. Like I said, I don't know if it was intentional or not, but I enjoyed what I saw as a nice little gamut run of sci-fi and horror movie nods.

Overall

I did enjoy Gears of War, after initially shunning it as being too generic. It is generic... but not for lack of effort not to be. These days, that's worth points in my book. The movie references, intentional or not, deserves a little respect too. The main storyline game is far too short, though. There really should have been at least a couple more stages, and I'd have liked to see more background work done on both Marcus and Dom. At the very least, I'd have liked to see a bit more on the history of Sera itself! They were setting up a second game, but it was a damned sloppy job of it. In the last stage the storyline gets a bit jumpy, skipping over parts that shouldn't have been skipped in an effort to get the the main event.

Playing the campaign with a partner on xBox Live makes it more palpable, and makes it possible to beat the damn game. With that having been said, I didn't care for the multiplayer deathmatch at all. Tiny maps, poor weapon placement, a complete lack of the emphasis on cover built into the campaign, and level design that emphasizes getting to The Spot rather than working as a squad, to say nothing of the fact that Gears only supports 8 players - 4 per team - made for a lousy experience. Had the maps been better designed, the emphasis been more on flanking and working with cover as in the campaign, rather than zerg tactics, and it would have been infinitely better. Larger maps with more players, and I'd have been down right happy.

Still, it's a good enough distraction. There's not much in terms of replay factor, but getting into a good groove on Insane difficulty, especially with a partner on xBox Live, is ample opportunity to indulge your thirst for action. I DO NOT, in any way, shape, or form, recommend Gears of War for anybody under the age of 15 - and 15 only with great reservation. Yes, I realize that much worse is routinely seen by much younger... and there's nothing I can do about Soccer Ma and her TV Babysitting. The language is vulgar, the violence is extreme, and the gore is excessive. Be well aware of that going in... if you don't have a problem, then hey, dig in. Solid game, decent if too short campaign, freaking awesome graphics and character models. One word of advice... don't go out in the dark. The Kryll always win.