Talk:Review 2 - Ian O'Brien - Gears of War
From DIT Experimental Gaming Group
Contents |
Story
The story plays out like a typical Hollywood blockbuster. The Human race from the planet Sera are engaged in war with the Locust Horde (a monstrous looking race that came from the underground of the planet). You take the role of Marcus Fenix who has just been busted out of prison by his friend Dominic Santiago. Your task is to help the world army called the COGs wipe out the Locusts tunnels by going to the underground a planting a “Lightmass Bomb” to resonate and hopefully end the war. You acquire some amusing characters along the way and while for the most part all of them are very cheesy, macho and stereotypical its fits the mood of the game very well.
Gameplay
Gears is a third person shooter and decided to do so after the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 4 has achieved so much success. The camera follows the TPS perspective and zooms in over the characters shoulder whilst in aiming mode. The really cool thing about Gears is the cover system. By simply using the ‘A’ button and the analogues you can get to cover, jump from cover to cover, roll to cover, move in cover and so on. It really is that fluid and easy to use. The other standard controls are Left Trigger to Aim, Right Trigger to Fire, DPAD to switch weapons, Analogues you use to move and ‘B’ to pistol whip or Chainsaw somebody depending on which weapon you have selected.
Sound/Visuals/Performance
The visuals in Gears of War are really top notch even two years down the line. Powered by the Unreal Engine this game is really is lovely on the eye. The character models and the beautiful vistas are really nice on the eye. On another side the colour palette really just is greys and browns and this seems to be an issued with most UE3 powered games. The Sound is also really nice. The sound effects like ‘Headshots’ or ‘Curb Stomps’ sound really gory but at the same time really cool. The score for the game is executed very well during the cinematics and during the loading screens. The game performs well on the 360 running at a solid 30fps at 720 and its optimized pretty well for the PC but unfortunately the PC version suffers from been a poor port with freezing and screen tearing all over the place even when played on the high end gaming machines.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer in Gears of War consists of 4 game types (Execution, Warzone, Annex, and Assassination) and 12 maps. You can play split screen, online over Xbox Live or over LAN. It is quite fun to play and although I enjoyed it, it’s not for everyone. The lack of part support and the fact that there is no matchmaking scheme in place detracts from the experience also.
Lasting Appeal
I’ll try not to be biased here even though it is my favourite game in the past 3 years Campaign is great fun especially co-operatively with a buddy Multiplayer is great fun to play with friends once you get the hang of it, Amazing Visuals, Great Gameplay and sounds, Gears of War 2 is only 2 months away.
