Gears Of War

Gears of War is harrowing tale that pits humankind against the Locust Horde.

Marcus Fenix and his team battle nightmarish creatures. View larger.

In Gears of War, you must take cover to survive. View larger.

Gears of War presents a focused and well-paced cinematic experience. View larger.

Gears of War shined bright at Microsoft's pre-E3 press briefing, but a deeper demo at Microsoft's E3 booth revealed many of the game's mechanics. 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. And it's not just a simple choice of battling tougher enemies; each path (explained by a comrade) represents additional content that is crucial to the storyline. After easing your way into the experience of the gameplay with the simpler paths, you can go back and test your skills on the more difficult routes and never feel like you've played through the areas before.

Standing around in the open is likely to get you killed in GOW. You must use cover to survive. With a context sensitive A button function, you won't have to sweat memorizing cumbersome button combos. The A button will:

• Slam you into cover. As you approach cover in GOW simply tap the A button to slide and make immediate use of cover.
• Vault you over the cover. Once you're in cover, pressing up and A will vault you over your cover to engage the opponent or next cover opportunity.
• Evade enemy fire. When you're forced to be out in the open, tapping the A button will engage a roll maneuver to evade enemy fire.
• Activate a "Swat Turn." When taking cover on the side of a doorway, pressing the A button will spin your character from one side of the doorway to the other, helping avoid fire.

Gears of War presents a focused and well-paced cinematic experience, and nothing ruins that faster than a time-consuming exploration of every switch or button to find the elusive trigger to open a door. This game introduces a "point of interest" button that comes up on the screen so you can immediately interact with the necessary item to move forward in your gameplay. GOW certainly offers drool-worthy graphics, but the mechanics have also received equal attention. Keep your eyes and ears on high alert for a release date, as Microsoft hasn't let the cat out of the bag on when gamers will be able to tackle this great-looking and great-playing title.

Gears Of War Features:

• Gears of War's engaging, cinematic story plays out like a Hollywood blockbuster
• Unreal Engine 3 technology brings out the smallest details in the largest of battles
• To survive you must suppress your enemy, take cover, and use weapons and teammates to outlast the Locust Horde
• Xbox Live gameplay offers individualized matchmaking, player statistics, customized games, and more
• A.I. teammates are indiscernible from human players in this third-person shooter

Customer Reviews:

• Very Good, not Great - I think I'm spoiled: Maybe I've been spoiled by the in-game story telling of Half-life, or Bioshock's writing, but Gears of War left me wanting more than I had hoped for. Maybe, for me, it was the victim of its own hype, but I had wanted more.
  
  What I loved:
  +The graphics are amazing
  +Level Design is great (if linear, but I like that for games like this)
  +Learning curve is great
  +Multiplayer is awesome
  
  Shortfalls
  -Controls aren't perfect. More than once I've thought, "I wouldn't have died here with a mouse and keyboard." or even a second button instead of a universal, do all button.
  -They steal the good bits from you. Why are all the cutscenes amazing? Why can't I play those parts instead of watching Dominic and the gang do them while I watch the screen? These parts REALLY made me miss Half-Life's storytelling style.
  -Quibbly problems with autosave locations (really? I have to unblock that door up the stairs and down the long hallway AGAIN before running to the APC?)
  
  Otherwise, great game that everyone should try. Borrow it from a friend and buy a copy if you like the first couple levels. The action is fast and intense and NOTHING beats that first chainsaw kill. One of the biggest thrills I've had in a game in a longtime after the first little sister in Bioshock.
• great: this game was hot i beat it, doom has nothing on this i cain't wait till gears of war2 come out. xbox360 comes out with awsome games a very great system ps3 okay not many great games for it but this game was great.
• This Game sucks in all the ways a game can suck!: Allow me to tell the TRUTH about this game and why Gears of War sucks. This game has horrible level design, every level looks exactly the same it just feels like your playing the same level over and over and what makes that worse is that all the enemies are lame and look exactly the same. Also Lame graphics that old in 3o seconds. Worst of all is the gameplay, grenades suck running sux walking sux cover sux and even getting out of cover sux. Also the stupid big dude you play takes up half the screen which is plainly dumb design. EVERYONE NEEDS TO STOP BEING SUCH FAN BOYS AND FOLLOWING EVERYONE ELSE. THIS GAME IN ALL HONESTLY IS JUST NOT FUN AT ALL, DO NOT BUY!!! there are plenty of other awesome 360 games and this is not one. If you want a similar duck and cover game get GHOST RECON ADVANCED WARFIGHTER. GRAW is much better game and one that actually has smooth cover gameplay. Ive beaten both gears and Graw. Graw is better. Soo get that not gueers of war. GEARS SUCKS!!!
• This game: This game alone is why Xbox 360 blows PS3 out of the water with performance and games. Gears of War is possibly the best game ever! Scary and addictive as hell!
• There's nothing casual about it: I have to admit, when I first played this game I didn't care for it. It seemed way too difficult for me. After getting killed three times in a row on the first level I gave up on it. It was Christmas time after all, and I was had other games to play plus my old favorite Oblivion that I keep going back to. (Yes, I must slip Oblivion into every review for an Xbox 360 game) But later, when I heard people talk about how much they enjoyed it and read reviews about it on Amazon I decided to give it another go. I read faqs about how to play better and my skills started to improve. I began to better grasp the concept of cover, when to stay behind it and when to sally forth and kick some alien(?) butt. I started to actually get perfect active reloads.(That flashing bar when you get a perfect reload is quite satisfying. It almost makes up for the fact that half the time when you finally get a chance to shoot something your temporary damage bonus is gone) I persisted through the choke points where I wasn't entirely sure how to proceed.(In a fluid game like this strategy guides only help so much) Even though I died (and got chunked) enough times to fill up a national cemetary I finally beat the game andit was one of the most fulfilling moments of my video game playing days.
  
  Why bore you with my life story(of this game). It's basically a long intro for the theme of this review as stated in the title. This game ain't easy. Although I won't give it the satisfaction of putting it in the all time hall of hard games (Battletoads, ghosts and goblins anyone?) it still is a wake up call to die so many times before you even see your first boss. A game like this isn't some fun diversion you tune onto just before bed. You play this game sitting straight, hands clenching the controller tight. This game requires commitment, this game requires dedication. This game requires you to, I don't know, not suck at shooting games I guess would help. This game is funner with two people playing. Why exactly is it that you can resuscitate your computer allies but they can't heal you? The good thing about this game is that it makes 'health hunting' irrelevant. Instead of a health meter or bar you have an emblem that glows red when you get hit. Your character is pretty slow, he can run but it is kind of wonky and hard to control. All in all this is a good game. It is a bit hardcore, even when it's not, ie casual. But that makes beating it even more worthwhile.