Full Review for Gears of War by checkmateman

Introduction

Gears of War is a 3rd person shooter, where you get to play the character of Marcus Fenix, and save the world from the underground alien threat, with the help of your squad mates. While not particularly ground breaking, Gears of War is still an excellent game, with all of it's elements coming together top make a top quality product.

Graphics

The graphics of this game are excellent, the detail of the maps/landscape are quite impressive, as well as the models used. But what really stands out are the effects of gunfire, blood splatter, and all the little things that add to the games atmosphere.

One of the most impressive graphical feature would be the mini "cutscene" you get to see every time you chainsaw someone, spraying your whole screen with blood.

Sound

The sound was also excellent, with plenty of background noise, adding to the atmosphere of a battle ground. Also, the use of a repeated triggered sound to indicate the ending of an area/completion of a objective is a clever move, it makes the levels much easier to get through.

What really made this game for me, was the stunning atmosphere the graphics and sound created when combined together. It really puts you right there, in the middle of the action. And the suspense it creates is astounding, it is almost like watching a movie.

In fact the first time I played it there were four of us, and we switched controllers every scene or so, and even watching others play the game was quite enjoyable.

All in all the atmosphere the graphics and sound create are very impressive.

Gameplay

I think the gameplay is also one of the things that made the game so intense. The idea of making cover so important made the game much more realistic. While the use of cover is also used in games in the style of Rainbow Six, in those sorts of games the atmosphere is much more clinical, and doesn't quite manage to create the sort of suspense and excitement it does in Gears of War.

Another impressive feature was being able to "flow" into other cover positions, such as rolling from one small barrier to the other. Or being able to quickly switch between pillars. Or being able to jump over barriers from a cover position.

And of course the run feature was pretty cool as well, (though I found running for extended periods of time made me a bit dizzy). Being able to go straight from run to a cover position by running into it was also a feature I really enjoyed. Of course, it did have it's drawbacks, as quite often you would accidentally "stick" to a wall while trying to run away.

The only thing that I felt lacking in the game play was a variety of weapons and enemies. I think there were maybe only six different enemy units the whole game (not counting the Kryll).

Lastability

So the main problem about the game is it's lastability. It has an incredibly short campaign, and there can be a certain repetitiveness to it, as well as the lack of variety in enemies and weapons.

As I mentioned before, the main thing that got me excited about the game was the atmosphere of it, but the thing was, once I had played it a few times it was gone, and it just seemed like any other 3rd person shooter (albeit a very good one).

Overall

So as a one player game, this isn't too brilliant on the lastability side of things. Multiplayer is a different story I imagine (as I haven't played it much) So I guess that is the only thing that makes this game worth gettin, the initial thrill it gives you, and the multiplayer value.

Final Score: 80%