Gears of War -- The Exclusive Review, Courtesy of M80

Welcome, one-and-all to my first-ever review of a game here. I like to value my opinion, so for all of you who stop by and read my humble little dialogue, you'll get a taste of what I like and what I think. Since I've never committed to writing a review before, let me set out the blueprint for what my reviewing scale for the various subjects shall look like. Vanna, could we raise the picture?



Thank you, Vanna. Alright, now I will review the game over various different categories and give you the grand total average by the end. The categories I will be reviewing under shall include:

Gameplay
Storyline
Graphics
Sound
Value
Multiplayer (if applicable)
Bonus (in case I feel it incorporates something not falling under the above categories)

Alright. Now you know my scale as well as my categories. All we need is my opinion, what I give them, and some screenshots to boot ... and off we go!

Gameplay

Gears of War is very entertaining, even from the start. From its cat-and-mouse, duck-and-cover control scheme all the way up to its various weapon choices, it'll provide hours of fun in campaign mode alone. Straight from the beginning, you'll notice that while all is well and good, the "A" button is clearly used for more than one function: running, ducking for cover, rolling, interacting with the environment, et cetera. This can cause some rather distinct problems. Per se, there is a heated firefight between the Locust and your soldiers (as well as yourself) interacting in front of you. Your teammates are already firing upon the threat and you, or should I say Marcus Fenix (your character), has just entered the fray. Naturally, you're gonna duck for some cover to save yourself from being fried by the Troika Gun across the way. So, you hold down A to run forward for cover. This cover is also small enough to climb over. You run directly into the slab of concrete to use as a shield and, unknowingly, tap "A" once again ... Marcus climbs over your cover and is exposed to the flying metal-and-other-material flying all around. Could that be avoided by mapping it to another button? Maybe. But this small fact doesn't hinder the ability to play Gears of War much (if any) at all. Just something worth noting. While I understand Epic Games tried to make the controls as simplistic as possible, I believe the buttons could've been mapped slightly more comfortably ... but this doesn't take away from the value much at all, and after some getting used to feels almost natural in your hands as you blind-fire and Action Reload your gun over the armoire you've ducked behind whilst fighting the Locust. For gameplay, I grant Gears of War an 10 out of 10.

Storyline

Well, I must say that creating a solid, memorable, and not to mention valuable storyline for such a game as Gears of War isn't an easy task, especially after its gained so much hype from the media. Needless to say, though, I do believe that GoW pulled it off. In a nutshell, you are Marcus Fenix, an ex-COG (or Coalition of Organized Governments) operative turned-convict for some undisclosed reason. Somehow, the prison has been infested and overrun by the planet's native enemy, the Locust. Somebody from Delta Squad belonging to the COG breaks in and breaks you out, throwing you your armor and sending you into battle. Yet again, needless to say, Fenix is somewhat happy by the proposition of kicking some alien ass after being locked up for so long. After a brief introductory sequence, you break out of the Locust-infested prison and meet up with a chopper along with the rest of Delta Squad to whisk you away to another locale of the planet in order for you to be sent on your first mission and, as well, your first firefight -- locating Alpha Squad, who also seems to've been holding a bomb-of-sorts that, if positioned in the right place, could exterminate the Locust threat for quite a long time, if not inevitably, called the "resonator". Of course, though, everything goes to hell in a handbasket for reasons which I will refuse to spoil. Even though the background story (being a sci-fi fan myself, I had to enjoy it) caught my attention fairly quickly (even having not read the accompanied manual first), I believe the characters'-depth could've been brought together much more nicely. You relate to the characters somewhat, but it's brought together in such a way that you feel something's missing, and while everything is set in place to explain that missing data, nothing's ever said about it. Again, while the character development is lacking in some areas, the storyline is nothing to groan over. And am I the only one who isn't getting what the whole deal behind heading back to the "Fenix Estate" is all about nearing the end of the game? For its confusing-yet-entertaining storyline, I grant Gears of War a 9 out of 10.

Graphics

Ah, yes. The wonderful, wonderful graphics. I, case-in-point, haven't actually been able to test out the graphics of the XBOX 360 on an HDTV as of yet, but still Gears' graphics still look amazing. How the environment gets destroyed so easily, the atmosphere around it, (especially on a train-ride of sorts near the end of the game) the characters, and the models still gets to me, regardless of whether I have hi-def or not. The textures look expertly crafted and modeled and, for this, I believe Epic Games may've just proven to us how far the 360 can actually go, pushing the boundaries of technology to this day. Maybe, eventually, Cliff [Blezinski] as well as his staff at Epic Games will show us even more of the 360's technology in days to come? For the graphics element how Gears of War is rendered on the XBOX 360, it receives a 10 out of 10.

Sound

For a game with such wonderful visuals and storyline as this one, it doesn't slack off when it comes to sound, either. The futuristic weaponry sounds intense and realistic, the voices of Marcus Fenix as well as your squadmates sound extremely realistic, the alien grunts and grunts almost sound well-done enough to make you look over your shoulder scared, and the environmental detail is awesome in itself. Awesome enough that, although of course not having surround-sound, either, makes me almost feel like I'm in the world of Gears of War itself. And that's saying something ... not many games feature such ambience, yet GoW pulls it off so flawless. For that, I applaud Epic Games once again.

Oh, and let's not forget the music.

The musical score behind the game is astounding, as well as the song used for the trailer (Mad World by Gary Jules, the cover of the Tears for Fears version) left me ... well, astounded. I absolutely loved it ... although the song at the very end of the credits left me scratching my head at first with an expressionless "WTF"-expression on my face, (impossible? Dunno.) I ended up loving that just as much as the songs throughout the rest of the game. For the composition of an astounding musical score through the entire game, I give Gears of War its well-deserved 10 out of 10.

Value

Saying GoW lacks value is like saying Halo sucked. Closer to the point, some would go as far as saying Gears of War is very well the Halo-killer. With that ... shockingly enough, I must agree. Gears of War sucked me in so much that during my first (turned out to be--) 7 hours-straight of playing it, I hadn't even noticed how much time had gone by ... like I've said previously, it's been an incredible while since any game has done that ... *wink wink* *nudge nudge* Resident Evil 4. Don't get me wrong, I still have an undying-faith and soft-spot for the Halo franchise, so take pride in my word when I say that while GoW appears to be the Halo-killer thus far, maybe Halo 3 will make me eat my words, no? Despite the looming fact of Halo 3 drifting closer and closer, I give the value of Gears of War a 10 out of 10.

Multiplayer

I must say, I've played around with Gears' Co-op and XBOX Live functions. Co-op's been a blast, especially with yelling at your friend to cover you instead of hiding behind a pipe like a pansy, as well as versing many others over XBOX Live. The only obstacle I can see that would prevent this from getting a much higher score would have to be the chainsaw-bayonet melee attack attached to the end of your weapon for the majority of the game (if you hold onto it) called the Lancer. Why would this be a problem? Because, for most of the time, using the chainsaw is a grab-bag of chance while facing an online opponent over XBOX Live. You may think you've revved up your chainsaw before the opponent but he may let one rip on you, (no pun intended) making for an instant kill and a gear-and-skull icon hazing the bloody screen appear. Let me tell you -- that's no fun. If you can get your chainsaw up first, you can laugh in the victory of seeing the creature's blood across from you scatter across the screen. While this may be entertaining for awhile, it provides no challenge, so unless you're constantly on your feet and making sure you're nowhere close to the enemy (hence, a useless shotgun) when their hands are on the Lancer or your opponents over Live agree to avoid using the chainsaw-bayonet, the multiplayer matches are more of a spin-of-the-wheel in luck rather than skill. Due to this, I must grant this game its 9 out of 10.

Bonus

I guess bad things come back to haunt you, yes? I believe this game is in need for some special mention here. We've already established most of its features are outstanding, yet its multiplayer could need some work, but its downfall must possibly be its best feature ... the chainsaw-bayonet. While I just previously mentioned its a lucky-item for multiplayer, single-player is a completely different story. Watching in glory as you carve your victim up, the Lancer's an amazing tool when it comes to single-player (mainly on the lower difficulties). I, myself, have stayed on Hardcore and resulted to Casual for a couple parts later on, but Insane looks to be like some true fun. Its three modes, though challenging on different levels, clearly leaves something to be desired, but in the end its extremely fun anyway. The torque bow, as well, (think: a bow that fires dynamite-arrows covered in sticky adhesive) is an extremely awesome weapon, especially against the Locust's Theron Guards later on. The dialogue made me laugh out loud a couple of times between the entire of Delta Squad, and bringing military-branded humor into dialogue and making it funny isn't an easy task. How many other games do you get to curb-stomp an enemy while their knelt down crying? Not many, I can tell you. For its bonuses, I grant Gears of War another 9 out of 10.

Overall, Gears of War has scored an average of 9.5, a game near, but not quite, perfection.

And there you have it! Reaper's exclusive first-ever review, happening to feature Gears of War. Of course, though, none of this would be possible if it weren't for Nico from M80 Teams.

I'd recommend this to and because of that I extend an extremely open-armed thank you to him as well. I hope the review has met your specifications, and it was a blast playing it. I'll probably keep playing it for months, maybe even years to come.

I'd recommend this to any fan of shooters or stealth. While this game may not focus too much on stealth, you most certainly will need it to finish off Berserkers as well as duck from cover to cover.

Wish me luck, I'm off to play some multiplayer and unlock some more of those 49 unlockable achievements! This is Reaper, signing off!

--Reaper