Gears Of War
by Microsoft
|
Our Price: $60.00 Availability: Usually ships in 4-5 business days Buy Used: from $5.85 (click here) Category: Video Games See more product details |
|---|
Video Game Reviews of Gears Of War
Customer Review: A blockbuster game!
Summary: 5 Stars
Gears of War thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing story of humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. Players take the role of Marcus Fenix. A disgraced former war hero, Marcus seeks personal redemption. You immerse yourself in an experience so intensely emotional and gut-wrenching that playing will be like controlling a blockbuster action movie. Control Marcus Fenix and his fire team as they pit advanced human technology against the overwhelming and horrific Locust Horde. Gears of War unites next-generation technology with classic, emotional storytelling and a revolutionary tactical combat system, engrossing the gamer in a horrifying epic story of war and survival Unreal Engine 3 technology pushes high-definition visual designs and brings out the smallest details in the largest battle. Experience a rich dynamic world with an unprecedented level of detail.
With Gears of War you're sure to experience a rich, dynamic world where characters spring to life. GOW is built with both the hardcore and casual gamer in mind. But, instead of selecting a difficulty level at the start of the game, GOW offers a choice at the beginning of each level. In the vein of choose your own adventure, you can select between a difficult or easy path. To be effective in combat you'll need to allot for time to successfully reload your weapon. Do it well and the battle is yours; do it poorly and you may actually jam your gun. Time it perfectly and you'll earn a bonus with a temporary damage boost. Though GOW clearly showcases a sci-fi experience, its roots are in tactical, realistic combat scenarios. Gears of War presents a focused and well-paced cinematic experience.
Customer Review: Needs more difficulty levels...
Summary: 1 Stars
Everyone has different skills at video games. I am not very good. I found it too difficult and therefore more frustrating than fun. It would have been fun for me if it had two lower difficulty levels: easy and very easy.Customer Review: A few bullets short of perfect
Summary: 5 Stars
Let's face it: hype can really bring down a game, especially post-launch when after all the buzz and expectations have been quieted down and you look at it not in terms of "will this game rock?" but rather "does it deserve to be called that awesome?" In the case of Gears of War, one of the big premier blockbusters for the Xbox 360, it's one of those cases where, indeed there is some entertainment to be had and it's the perfect game when you want to just kill stuff without having to go online to deal with annoying brats. But then again, this game does have its flaws and they're pretty easy to spot but since it's Gears, people go "meh, no big deal" whereas most games get called out and criticized heavily. All this being said, Gears of War is still a fun game but one that can get maddeningly frustrating while it delivers balls-to-the-wall entertainment.
Story: On the planet Sera, the inhabitants have been terrorized by an alien race known as the Locust Horde who suddenly popped out of the ground on Emergence Day ("E-Day") and are gradually reducing the number of the survivors. While fighting through a prison, Dom Santiago rescues his friend and your main guy, Marcus Fenix, and it's up to you to make it through dangerous cities and areas to hopefully nail a crippling blow to the Locust Horde.
Yep, that's it. That's the story and I'm not trying to be mean here since there's not much plot here and what plot there is tends to be skipped over or not given as much depth. Fans who have played 2 will note 2 references to Maria and yet even that plot wasn't given as much attention despite Epic saying it's more "epic and personal". There's one line about the "sham" of a trial that Marcus had, well what kind of sham? Still don't know. As far as the game's story is concerned, I wasn't a big fan of the pacing. While indeed it's fairly short at 8-10 hours give or take the difficulty and skill, the pieces never really felt connected and there was some really slow parts. Not an in-depth story by any stretch but likable enough to push through.
Graphics: This is really a cosmetic nitpick than anything but I never liked the blood in games that uses the Unreal Engine like Uncharted since it was seemed more mass-like and gooey than a liquid but in a game like this, it seems to go hand-in-hand. But one can't deny the graphical power of the engine and from the extremely detailed character animation, scale of the firefights and architecture make this a showcase for what the 360 can bring to the table. Really small nags are the famous Unreal Engine texture problems, occasional pauses, slight framerate things but they're usually never an issue or distracting enough to cause frustration. One thing though is despite how stunning it looks, it's very drab looking with a lot of mild colors and desaturated colors but that's sort of a Gears look I guess.
Sound/Music: The movie 300 was something that I tried several times to get into but I never could and one theory was that it was basically a movie for the frat boys who'll cheer at the violent parts and revel in the weird use of heavy metal music yet it has quote-unquote "depth" that made it different than most action movies. Not. Gears of War on the other hand knows it's basically a dumb summer blockbuster movie and just rolls with it from the line readings and one-liner dialogue. It's not meant to elicit tears but it's not eye-rolling either. The music however is fantastic from the creeping sound design to the big bombastic moments during firefights, this is one to have a stereo on.
Gameplay: Whereas shooters like Call of Duty or Halo are all about strafing a little bit from a wall or cover just enough to nail the enemy, Gears of War is all about taking cover. From columns to big blocks of stone, doorways, ruined cars etc, just press A and your character slams his side and is able to avoid enemy fire. Pressing the LT lets you take aim and RT to fire or pressing RT is just covering fire, inaccurate but helpful for nailing charging Locusts without wanting to pop up. Carrying up to 4 weapons at a time, we have the Hammer of Dawn, a laser-targeting system where a satellite will beam huge rays onto the area and all but vaporizing the enemy to standard pistols and shotgun. The highlight of course is the Lancer, which is basically a normal assault rifle only it has a chainsaw for a bayonet. Just hold the B, get closer to an enemy and zzzzzz!, you saw them in half. Only problem is that getting shot stops the revving and it's really frustrating to try to chainsaw someone only to get shot and have it stop.
The big problem with the game is the AI and not the enemies who'll flank, throw grenades and do whatever it takes till you're lifeless on the ground. The AI problems come from your teammates since they are, to borrow a Yahtzee phrase, "pants-on-head retarded". They'll openly go out of cover for seemingly no apparent reason other than wanting to get closer and they'll end up crying for help to be revived which you do by pressing X near the body. It happens with such frequency that I even saved one guy only to literally need help 4 seconds later when he got out of cover instead of just staying put. While co-op in most games is more fun, here it's more beneficial you go through it co-op since the players will be smarter than the game itself. You can issue squad commands like attack, cease fire and regroup but more often that not it's like "I can't do that right now". Hope you like to babysit.
Another issue is that the A button becomes a multi-use button from slipping in and out of cover, doing a "roadie run", swat turns and rolling out of the way and many times I'd try to get away only to take cover and it's like "no, I want you to roll". Oh and there is some incredibly trying moments in the difficulty where Hardcore is fairly hard at times thanks to the AI of your squad but also it's very frustrating to all of a sudden be shot by a rocket launching bugger or the Torque Bow users when you're trying to do something else. One time I was in a battle and enemies literally spawned right behind me and I had no idea they were even there. Strangely they fixed this in the sequel where it was more easier yet more funner so least that's an improvement.
As far as the multiplayer is concerned, you gotta admire Epic releasing so many maps, especially for 2 (they're up to 29 now) but it's slightly disappointing. During "join a quick match", after 3 refreshes it literally cycled between the same 2 matches almost as if out of the, I'm sure thousands, that still play this online, there's only 2 matches that even pop up. Plus the match itself is a race, who can find the sniper first, who got the boomshot first and for the most part it's not like Killzone or Call of Duty where at least you have balancing between shotguns, RPG's etc but here it's like "I have a grenade launcher and you don't" which usually means an easier win for them. Despite the matchmaking and lag of the sequel, I found it a way funner multiplayer and this one is probably one of the few I'd consider boosting then leaving it alone.
Is it game of the year? No, well at least not to me but considering the huge release and fanfare the game got, it sure seems like it. But it's like a lot of movies out there that get exceedingly popular for no reason other than it's fun yet it's got a couple of issues.
Customer Review: simply amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
i got this game for my birthday and i haven't gone a a day since without playing it. it is so much fun, the online multi-player, the campaign, and especially the two player on-line co-op. it's a little too easy on casual but it's still a lot of fun. anyone who owns an xbox 360 should buy this game.Customer Review: Sweet, sweet carnage
Summary: 4 Stars
I continue to catch up on reviewing the games I've played over the last year or so (been too lazy to post reviews). In prep for Gear 2, I finally picked this one up and played it. There is SO much info on the game that I'll not bother you with details you already know, I'll just say that I thought this game rocked pretty hard. It wasn't a perfect 5, but damn was it close. Some say it's over rated, but I don't think so. Considering when it came out it was top of the line as far as graphics and gameplay go. The story was pretty shallow and thus the 4 score, but I still highly recommend this one for shooter fans.