Gears of War is the one game that nearly tipped me into buying a 360. Here was a visceral, beautiful, action-packed shooter getting tons of buzz from gamers and press. I could barely keep myself from plunking down the $350 just so I could get a taste of this first-hand. Alas, the infatuation faded. I couldn't seriously justify buying a console for one title, so I put it to the back of my mind. Fortunately, Epic threw PC gamers a bone in late 2007 by announcing a PC port, alongside their other humdrum release, Unreal Tournament 3.
Now it needs to be said Gears of War on PC in 2008 is not Gears of War on 360 in 2006. They're two completely different experiences, so while I am going to argue that Gears on PC right now is fairly lackluster, in no way am I saying I don't see why this was such a huge deal on 360 two years ago. I get it. I got it. OK. Moving on.
So what's good about Gears on PC?
First and foremost, you get 5 additional chapters at the end of the game (about 2 hours of gameplay or so), plus a satisfying (albeit simple) boss fight with a gigantic weaponized beast called a Brumak. These levels also occur in larger spaces with less linear funneling as the core console game, which gives you a greater feeling of general chaos and a little more immersion b/c the levels feel more like actual real-world spaces, rather than tightly designed video game levels.
The other nice perks on PC is simply the K / M controls (which work fine, don't listen to people whining about the keyboard) for precise aiming, and cranking the graphics settings all the way up for a incredibly impressive looking game that gives Crysis a run for its money.
The core gameplay in Gears is enjoyable but simple. Small pitched battles in insanely detailed environments with a lot of movement behind and around cover. Enemy variety is actually limited to a half-dozen type, so battles do become repetitive as the game wears on. There are a few mini-boss battles where you'll be using the Hammer of Dawn to call satellite barrages from the sky. And while Gears is a game focused on much smaller battles than its XBox peer, Halo, it does carry some of that same "epic" feeling of survival and helping your friends on the battlefield that Halo is known for.
Story-wise, there's not a lot going on in Gears. There's something about being imprisoned for something and your father does something or another, but really it all just boils down to you and your buddies shooting aliens in a post-apocalyptic future. Voice-acting ranges from decent tough-guy marine talk for the protaganist, Marcus Fenix, to downright stiff and wooden for your sidekick.
Unfortunately, there are some significant detractions to playing Gears on PC.
Most notably is -- the game engine runs like crap. Even on a current-gen PC, you'll suffer through occasional screen lockup, stuttering, random texture pop-in. You also have to deal with Games for Windows LIVE, a nebulous Microsoft service, just to keep track of your saved progress in the single-player campaign, as well as all patching is done through GFW Live. If, like me, your GFW Live account is unable to apply content patches b/c it kickstarts your motherboard's BIOS update instead, then you're basically stuck with a game you can't patch.
Online and co-op play must also be done through GFW Live, so good luck finding anyone on a server, let alone convincing a friend to install that garbage on their PC and meeting up with you for a session.
Which is really too bad, because co-op gameplay is clearly where Gears of War shined brightest. The ease and simplicity of playing co-op on 360 with friends cannot be duplicated on PC. (At least not with GFW Live. If you could play the game over Steam ... that's another story.) So that's a major strike against the game.
It also doesn't help that Epic waited a year to release this port, so not only was all the release buzz and anticipation dead in the water, but many gamers (myself included) have already played other games with cover/shoot mechanics they stole from Gears, which completely steals the thunder out of what was a true innovation in 2006 and is now just another expected feature in action games in 2008.
So all in all, if you can get Gears PC used, or borrow it from a friend, it's well worth a playthrough. Just don't expect anything too deep or immersive and enjoy shooting the crap out of gnarly beasties and grunting with your buddies in power armor.
