Gears of War for Xbox 360

Gears of War is the title to have if you own an Xbox 360 this Christmas. Still one wonders whether this title is just a placeholder until Halo 3 comes out. Ironically this would be similar to a situation last generation where Epic released a surprisingly solid Unreal Championship for the original Xbox (published by Atari not Microsoft), only to be outclassed a couple years later by Halo 2. Here we are four years later, only this time Epic is playing for keeps and Microsoft Studios, publisher to both Gears of War and the Halo series, can sit back and watch the fun.


Story

The story revolves around one Marcus Fenix, a soldier in the COG army fighting against a freakish race of creatures called The Locust. Fenix is a rebel as he is locked away for disobeying a direct order to save his father from The Locust earlier in the war. Now it's years later and he's busted out of his prison to join the fight again. That's where you pick up the story. The details are sketchy and Epic isn't known for it's epic (no pun intended) storylines. Even though it's a shooter and the story isn't all that great, it would have been nice to at least have a clear cut defining scene where you know what you're fighting for. Then again, the lack of one could signify a deeper insight as to what long drawn out wars are all about sometimes. And to that end, the story just shows you that it's you and your squad mates against the enemy. If you can't find a reason for polishing them off, then they'll find a good reason to do it to you.


Gameplay

My first impression of Gears of War was I thought the game would seem more like a graphically superior Kill.Switch clone. From the very beginning, it's painfully obvious that you have to utilize your cover or else you'll find yourself fragged by the opposition. However unlike Kill.Switch, emphasis isn't so much on blind fire and trick shots but rather exposing part of your body to take aim at selected targets. This is where Gears of War crosses the threshold of gimmick into a pure tactical shooter. The common theme in Gears of War is about out flanking your opponent and flushing them from their hiding places. So in a sense, Gears of War combines elements of Kill.Switch, Time Crisis, and X-Com into a very entertaining 3rd person shooter.

The weapons are an interesting assortment, but nothing revolutionary. By far the most popular weapon is the chainsaw bayonet at the end of your standard assault rifle. Cutting loose with one of these on your enemies will bring a rush to those who enjoy particularly gory imagery. Aside from that there's a pretty standard set of weapons like a pistol, sniper rifle, shotgun, and rocket launcher. Grenades are pretty interesting in that they are on a tether and swung towards unsuspecting foes. They can be used to ferret out enemies from their cover, but they can also be stuck to your enemies in melee combat and blown to bits. Remember sticky bombs in Shadow Warrior? It's the same premise without the proximity factor. It's kind of funny that each side has the same arsenal of weapons, aside from one; the Hammer of Dawn. The Hammer of Dawn is simply a laser that does no damage, but what it does do it targets an enemy for a satellite that rains down the pain. It can only be used during certain intervals given that it orbits the planet, but it's the only way to defeat certain enemies though.

Enemies are a pretty diverse group. They range from grunts with simple automatic weapons, to more sophisticated grunts who have grenades, shotguns, or assault rifles with chainsaw bayonets too. As you progress through the campaign, there are snipers, big giants who lob rockets at you and other interesting creatures that require different tactics to defeat. The boss battles are a mixed bag. Some of the bosses really fit in well with the theme of the game, while others like the Corpser are a little too easy given the point in the game in which they are encountered. Still in the end the boss battles are better than expected in most instances.

The campaign in Gears of War is very similar to that of Halo. It follows a checkpoint system where you can play alone or with a friend split-screen cooperatively. However, the campaign mode does do a few creative things to liven up the cooperative effort. You can coordinate strategies to out-flank your adversaries as well as other creative things like splitting up, or the part where you have to cover the other person with a spotlight to avoid getting killed by Kryll. The campaign mode operates on two available difficulty levels, casual and hardcore; as well as a third difficulty called insane, which can only be unlocked by completing the hardcore missions. Insane is an appropriate name. Enemies are tougher, have better aiming and just will take you out quickly. I actually think that Halo on Legendary is actually easier but then again I've been playing the latter for much longer. Overall the campaign mode is pretty good. Some might think it's short, but I'm not a good judge of that sort of thing. I took my time going through the campaign mode and it lasted a good 15 hours for me. Then again, there were some spots that really threw me for a loop.


Multiplayer

Multiplayer is the reason to own Gears of War rather than to simply rent it. While it doesn't have as many options, the duck and cover style of gameplay really makes for an interesting online experience. One thing I just didn't see were the strafe circles like in many commone first person shooter games. Although the action was much more up tempo than I thought it would be. Ducking for cover is good, but you just can't approach it the same way you do against humans as with the computer AI.

Most of my time online was spent in the 4 on 4 team based play. There are 10 maps to choose from. They are mostly based off the environments you find in the campaign and are pretty well designed. Some are more boring than others though they offer a good challenge nonetheless. There are also 3 different modes: Warzone, Assassination, and Execution. Warzone plays by your standard team deathmatch rules like in Socom. Assassination is a little more interesting in that one player is a leader and winning the match is dependent on who's leader is killed first. Execution is similar to the deathmatch rules only you have to finish off your opponent by blowing their head off, curb stomping them, or through some other means. The result is that you can revive yourself by pressing the A button repeatedly if your opponent forgets about you. Overall it's a good experience. I haven't seen any cheating lately, but people have become quite good online. However the learning curve isn't too steep if you know how to adapt or can find some good multiplayer clips on youtube.

Not only can you play against your friends on Xbox Live, but you can also play the campaign on coop mode online via Xbox Live too. This is more reserved for friends than strangers. It's more of a mixed bag of people out there who are really uptight about your abilities. Apparently I suck at the campaign mode, which is true to a relative extent.


Controls

I really liked the control scheme in Gears of War. It follows the typical shooter form in that the left analog stick moves forward and strafes, while the right analog stick turns your view and look direction. The right trigger fires, and the face buttons do other miscellaneous operations like dive for cover (a), pick up weapons (x), melee attacks (b), and objective-based quick look (y). The left trigger allows you to aim in first person mode, mostly used while under cover. RB activates the active reload, and LB activates squad order command window. Finally switching weapons is done by selecting one of 4 directions on the Dpad. I really like this setup because of the ease of changing weapons, combined with the logical placement of useful functions like active reload and ducking for cover. This is all the while maintaining the general shooter control scheme.

One of the aspects of the controls which I don't like is that some operations take a lot of practice to understand. While I can understand this if we're talking about complicated moves, I'm instead referring to basic duck and cover actions. Frequently I found myself pressing the A button in front of a barracade only to see Fenix just not do anything, or duck in such a way that part of his arm is exposed. I would have liked to see this done in a more logical way since it plays such a crucial role in the game. The last thing I like is to be a sitting duck despite mashing the A button.


Graphics

The graphics in Gears of War is one of the best aspects of the game. It's clear from the beginning that Epic has put a lot of effort into making the graphics look truly great. On my 480p DLP projection TV, the gameplay and cutscenes look virtually indistinguishable, which is something I have have yet to say as a complement. The framerate is also pretty good as well. I have yet to see the action slow down due to the amount of action taking place. But as good as the general look and framerate, the lighting is one of the best jobs I've seen in a console game. Epic knows this, and to an extent they really flaunt it by devoting almost an entire Act in the campaign where you have to stay in a lighted area. The penalty for leaving the light is an almost instantaneous death at the hands of the bat-like Kryll. That part of the game was really sweet.

My only gripe about the graphics are the player models. All the player models seem ripped right out of the pages of the Unreal games with their short stocky muscle-bound look. To me it's kind of hard to look at Marcus Fenix without imagining him jumping 15 feet in the air and unloading a clip of rockets into another foe.


Sound

The sound was good, but it just didn't thrill me as much as the graphics did. The music adapts to the action. When there are enemies in the vicinity, the tempo shifts, and boss fights are even more tense. Still, I really couldn't get into the music. In fact without really paying attention the music to me is just forgotten among the other aspects of the game. The sound effects I must admit are pretty good. I noticed a lot of nuances to the point where I could never turn down the audio, even during some of the spookier parts of the campaign just because the sound effect ambiance was just too important. The voice acting was ok. Most of the characters sounded realistic, and I even enjoyed the dialog at times, especially from Augustus Cole. The rest were mostly stereotypical.


Replay Value

Most of the replay value is achieved through online play. Although some hardcore gamers will enjoy playing through the campaign mode on insane multiple times due to its challenge. There are a fair amount of Xbox Live points to get here. Most of them are achieved by finishing the campaign mode on all difficulty levels. The rest are scattered around multiplayer achievements, and individual accomplishments like successful active reloading. I was surprised though at the amount of points for local coop play. If you're looking to get the most points you can, try to find a buddy to play with. I have my 4 year old daughter ... just kidding.

Overall Gears of War is a great game. It is definitely the game to have this Christmas if you're a fan of first or third person shooters. I have my doubts that it'll replace Halo 3. I just don't think the multiplayer is as clean as in the other Halo games. Still, Gears of War has a whole year to gain a reputation before Halo 3 comes out so we shall see. I think the inevitable sequel to Gears of War should command a lot of respect given the quality of this game.