Ruined By The Worst Lag I've ever Even Heard Of
Gears is so fun if you're the host.
Gameplay
The singleplayer in gears didn't disappoint it was gritty, bloody, nasty, and so fucking awesome. The weapons are so badass and cool and never get old, especially, yes the fuckin chainsaw. The campaign is a pretty good length although I was a little pissed when I found out all the work of two whole acts had been for nothing (play and find out). But that really doesn't matter because locusts are always fun to chainsaw. The campaign is good for two playthroughs minimum especially with co-op. The active reload system works very well, it gives you a good damage boost if you spend the time to get good at it.
On to multiplayer, this is fun except all the modes are the same except for annex which was added later. Warzone, assassination, and Execution are pretty much the same death match stuff, while annex added an objective game type it still seems a little half done. So the multiplayer is just a little disappointing in it's lack of good modes and it's horrid lag (more in the performance section).
Sound/Graphics
This I'm glad to say was fine the frame rate was good and steady didn't notice any major shuddering. Blood effects, are a big thing in this game obviously and they are good, very awesome to take the chainsaw to a guy and have his guts splatter your screen. The sound for each weapon and the voice acting is awesome although some weapons seem a little toned down, they didn't seem as powerful as they should have been.
Performance
The singleplayer as before stated was steady and just fine, the frame rate was steady it ran pretty smooth. Now in multiplayer, UUHHH where to start. The frame rate as far as movement of the avatars is fine but if you're not the host be prepared for some of the worst lag ever in any online game on the 360. It goes way beyond any excuses like oh there will always be a little lag that's the internet, or the host has a shitty connection, no it always happens no matter what. It's so bad I always host now just because if you don't it actually takes a second for your bullets to hit after you fire. The weapons are either underpowered or overpowered the pistol for instance should not be able to put someone down in 2 shots and a melee hit. The multiplayer was flat out disappointing it was just plain laggy, with broken guns, and the host advantage basically makes the host a god, it's just so bad. That's not even talking about all the glitches not even cool little random ones here or there no there are like five that you can actually do consistently on every map you can just make your character do it (karate flip, crab walking, etc.).
Reccomendation
Rent it if you must, and hope that gears 2 will fix these horrid problems that are ruining this good game.
