Review: Gears Of War
The highly anticipated shooter from Epic Games has already won the hearts of many Xbox360 owners, for its stunning visuals and cinematic feel. But a rather frustrating online mode drags it a bit down. Full review after the jump.
For starters, Gears of War is undoubtedly the best looking game on the Xbox360, and shows just what the Unreal Engine 3 can do on the console. The atmosphere, details and general level design are all top notch, and you find yourself occasionally just wandering around, looking at the details of each level. The audio is great as well, sound effects and voice over at as good as any other great game.
The singleplayer campaign relies much on teamwork with your AI controlled buddies. The hide/cover system was marketed a lot by Epic, and is essential to surviving on the battlefield, although finding cover is pretty easy on any given map. The controls are also fairly straight forward, using one button to get in an out of cover. The campaign is fairly short, consisting of five acts which can be completed in anywhere from 7-9 hours on the normal difficulty. However, like most other Xbox360 games, there is a certain amount of replay value for those hunting for achievement points. The is also a split screen and online co-op mode, where you can complete a campaign with a friend, or just join a campaign already in progress online.
One of the most important aspects of Gears of War was its multiplayer feature. There are 10 maps available, all with a different feel, yet great balance. Each map supports up to 8 players with the usual game modes. The focus is on team work, where players that stick together usually win, and also have the option of reviving each other. The problems however, start occurring in online ranked play, where players, and those hosting games, aren’t subject to many rules. The ones going for stats can simply chose to exit the game if they’re losing, leaving the remaining team members for themselves. I also experienced players who are hosting a match would simply leave if their team was losing. If that’s not frustrating enough, I saw players being kicked for “stealing kills” and being “too good”. The solution? Play non-ranked games until Epic fixes the ranked games.
Besides the (stunning) graphics, Gears of War doesn’t really introduce anything new or innovative. The multiplayer part certainly needs improvement, and probably won’t knock Halo 2 off the top stop on Xbox Live until Epic steps in with a patch. But any Xbox360 owner that’s remotely interested in action games will find Gears of War outstanding, if not for its singleplayer offering, then for its outstanding visuals and audio.
-Armin Siljkovic
The good:
Outstanding graphics and audio
Decent singleplayer campaign
Great (unranked) multiplayer
The bad:
Ranked multiplayer need improvement
November 17th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
Yeah but they actually gave the nod to Resistance overall … I sent in that link so you should be about ready to publish that article.
November 17th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
Oops sorry … it wasn’t you guys who did the comparison … it was Game Daily … sorry I mixed you two up. Anyway that review you gave was pretty close to my own. So cool … but for me even though I gave it a 9.2 it’s just not that fun. I always find myself putting in F.E.A.R. or MUA instead.
November 17th, 2006 at 9:16 pm
I’ve only experienced problems on ranked matches, you constantly hear american kids smack talking with their crap, and booting people…
But unranked matches are so much more fun and relaxed, certainly on par with Halo 2.
November 18th, 2006 at 2:35 am
Lol, look up the reviews, Gears has crushed sonys big launch title… things are off to a bad start for the PS3 fanboys.
November 20th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
” things are off to a bad start for the PS3 fanboys. ”
the next gen console war doesn’t begin and end at lauch.
it’s still early.. patience, my friend, patience.
November 20th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Gears is a big stinking pile of very beautiful crap … it is mind boggling how such an unoriginal game that has ripped off comic books, movies, and other games for its ideas could even begin to get this kind of praise.
Three things:
1 Fantastic Four Issue one and the Mole Man
2 Pitch Black
3 Killswitch/GRAW
But of course since Gears is so good looking nothing else seems to matter. Bah. If other people are having raging orgasms while playing this so be it. I don’t like whips and chains either but I understand plenty of people find unparalled pleasure when using them.
And what is up with not being able to Dual Wield not one single weapon in this game … wow really next gen. I can’t believe I had been pining for this game since GDC 2004 … UNREAL.
November 20th, 2006 at 11:13 pm
Well I can’t speak to the MP player aspect but 4×4 is not nearly enough imo. If it was any other game people would be ripping the hell out of it saying there should be support for a greater number of players. But if you like it I’m not here to convince people otherwise merely to point out this is not the original, genre breaking game so many people like to think it is. It could be fun though … if the damn weapons weren’t so insanely underpowered (with the shottie being an exception of course, even the Hammer of Dawn should be far more destructive given what it is) …play it on Hardcore no co-op and you will see what I mean.
November 20th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
“By pushing up on the stick, you can pop out above cover. By hitting left or right, you can pop out to the side. The system is, quite simply, the best use of cover in any shooter, more intuitive and smoother than even Gears of War. From a doorway, you can pop out, check that the room is clear, and then actually bend all the way around the wall — you have 360 degrees of movement. By letting go of the left-trigger, you swing right back into first person.”
From IGN’s review of R6V … and they say as well as TeamXbox that the multiplayer may be the best around on the Xbox360 … yep even better than Gears … man I can’t wait for this title to come out so people can see just how overhyped Gears is … and how a real cover system should work. Yep I am definitely going to get this title now. From what I am reading I will enjoy this game much more than Gears which is strange since I usually like Sci-Fi shooters a great deal more. Oh well there is Lost Planet and Mass Effect to look forward to as well … and also TimeShift.