Gears of War takes the formulas of previous hits, such as Resident Evil 4, and packs in into a compelling, yet fresh experience. From start to finish, the player will sit behind the gun of Marcus Fenix, who has just recently been released from prison. While it has been criticized that the story in Gears of War isn't as award-winning as other games, the gameplay is where this game shines. From Resident Evil 4 and Killswitch comes arguably the best cover-system in a game thus far. The game uses an over the shoulder style camera from Resident Evil 4, as well as the stop and pop cover system from Killswitch, and damn does it work well. From the start, you'll be popping in and out of cover strategicly trying to outthink your opponents, and the locust AI aren't stupid either. They'll be taking cover behind objects and flanking you every opportunity they get.
With all shooters, you're going to spend most of your time shooting, obviously. With Gears of War, there are many, many great weapons at your disposal. Theres the Lancer. A typical fully-automatic assault rifle, but with a chainsaw bayonet on the bottom. Press B to rev it up and rip your opponent in half in a mess of gore and chunks, in which you can then kick around by walking into. Theres also the typical shotgun, pistol, and grenades, each with their own unique twist in the gears universe. Theres also a few 'power' weapons. Theres the Longshot Sniper Rifle, which is a bolt-action rifle that can decapitate its target with a well-placed headshot. Along with that is the Boomshot Grenade Launcher, packed with two shots, this thing can take out multiple opponents at once if aimed right. Theres also the Torque Bow. It's basically a bow that launches arrows that explode on impact with a surface, or a target. The last weapon the deserves mentioning is the Hammer of Dawn. This beast calls in a satellite (when it's online), and shoots down a beam of particles that rips anything in its path apart. All of the weapons in Gears of War has their own unique twist, and is a joy to use. Nothing is more fun than severing our opponent in half with a shotgun blast.
As far as the story goes, its pretty simple and straight forward. At first, Marcus Fenix is in jail for something he did in the past, but is soon release by Dominic Santiago. They begin looking for the missing Delta Squad and soon find out some of them have had grim deaths. It's not too long until the squad is joined by Baird and Cole, and that's where the game really starts to begin. Throughout the game, the COG (Coalition of Government) forces will be fighting against the locust, a race of underground dewelling humanoid type creatures. Among the ranks of the locust are sub-types of them as well, such as Drones, and later in the game, Theron Guards. After finding Delta Squad the story takes a swift turn to planting the resonator, a light mass bomb designed to destroy the locust. I'm not going to reveal too much, so I'll leave it at that.
The game itself consists of five chapters, broken up into multiple parts with three difficulty settings. Casual is really easy, and is probably what you would play if you don't
play shooters often. Hardcore is for the majority of the crowd, and is
quite a challenge to complete. Lastly, theres Insane, the hardest of
the three. The hardcore crowd will most likely be after this one. If you want to play through campaign with a buddy, you're in luck. The entire story is built around the idea of co-op, so you can take the fight online with a friend, or sit on the same couch and play. The second player will take the role of Dom, and you'll most likely need to do this on the higher difficulty settings.
As much fun as the single player is, they've also added a bit of replayability in multiplayer modes. Take the fight online as either the COG or locust forces and face off in three on three, or four on four battles in up to four different modes. Firstly, theres Warzone. A typical deathmatch with a twist. After you take so much damage the player willl get 'downed'. This is an injured state in which you can only act again if your teammates help you up, before the enemy closes in to execute you in a brutal fashion. Next, theres Execution. It bares the same basic rules as Warzone, however, a player can get themselves back up when they're downed by pressing the A button rapidly for a certain time limit. Theres also Assassination mode, where you must kill the leader of the team to win. Lastly, theres Annex mode, which is a King of the Hill type mode, but unlike other game types, players actually respawn within the same round. While multiplayer was not the primary focus in the game's development, its still really good for the time they worked on it. There's even professional gaming leagues that have tournaments on this games multiplayer. That says a lot.
As a whole package, Gears of War is among the best out there on the Xbox 360. It is still played heavily today, and rests in the Top Ten of games played on Xbox Live nearly two years after its release, even with blockbusters such as Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and Grand Theft Auto 4 being heavily played. Gears of War has one of the most intense co-op experiences ever to be in a campaign. Multiplayer, while it has its flaws, is still great fun to play with friends. In short, this game kicks some serious ass, and it's a must have for those of you have own an Xbox 360.
