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Gears of War Review

November 28th 2006 03:14
Gears of War XBOX 360 Review

Developer: Epic Games
Publisher: Microsoft
Price: $79 - $100
Website: www.gearsofwar.com



Gears of War may quite possibly be the best console game of the year, and if it was released on the PC probably the best PC game of the year as well. Well maybe if Oblivion didn't exist. What isn't undisputed is that this is the best game on the Xbox 360 out yet. Full Stop.


Gears of War is different because it doesn't use a first person perspective like you would have thought, instead it uses third person which is just as good in my opinion. Using third person makes the game much more tactical than your average Quake 4 which relies simply on brute force (you can only carry four weapons as well, instead of the usual 20). Cover is essential in this game, I don't know how many times I died because I just went in guns a blazing only to be shot to pieces in seconds (or ripped apart by feral monsters). When you tap the A button near some type of cover (burnt out car, wall, sandbags etc) you are protected from most attacks, while using your aim to peak out and take pot shots at the enemy. To move out of cover you can either tap the A button to jump over it, or do a action hero dive, or even a SWAT turn (a spin move from one wall to another). When done right after a bit of practice this looks very cool, especially with the awesome particle effects created from grenades and bullets whizzing past.


The Locust a.k.a The bad guys


Graphically Gears of War is superb, I simply can't find any way to fault it, the landscape and battlefields are to put it bluntly: beautiful. What else is beautiful is the effects, such as the awesome 'Hammer of Dawn' weapon that fires a laser from an orbiting satellite down on the battlefield. The way blood spurts onto the screen (as though a camera was following your player) is hell cool, cooler still is how it gets there, a chainsaw on your gun. Yes there is a chainsaw on one your weapons called a Lancer, and by pressing B while charging into an enemy you get a very cool death scene whereby your player cuts the monsters in half. The aforementioned blood covering half your television screen. Move over GTA this is how you do video game violence. I've included a video off of youtube.com to give you an idea, oh yeah and the video contains graphic video game violence for those who are a bit squeamish.



I haven't finished the entire game, so when I do I'll do another update with a sort of walkthrough of the story, consider this review to be the first part of several Gears of War posts, I like this game that much. Stay tuned later on in the week for more gears of war updates.

Oh I almost forgot, this game gets:

9.5/10

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Comments
4 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Jase

December 2nd 2006 18:52
Gears of war is a sweet game, some parts were frustrating but it was pretty cool, i only played on a mates system so i didn't play the whole game though. that chainsaw is fucked up haha

Comment by Cibbuano

December 3rd 2006 21:50
Joel, great review! I've heard good things about this, but that video made it look intense!

Oblivion is, of course, incredible. I'm not sure I could handle Gears of War, though!


Comment by Ahmed

December 6th 2006 11:21
meh, all I can say is that I hope this sparks interest in 3rd person games again..

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