Grunt of God's Profile

Gears of War

Published: Sun 27 Jul, 2008 | On:

When you first put Gears of War into your 360, you may notice that the main menu is simple, creepy and forboding. This theme is demenstarted through out the game, yet this is not a bad thing.

Gears of War focuses on ex-War Hero Marcus Fenix and his squads struggle against the evil under-ground 'Locust'. The back-story is simple, your on 'Sera' a planet colonised by Earth and is run by C.O.G, the Coalition of Ordered Governents. Sera had a big civil war over extreme inflation caused by a new fuel called 'Imulsion'. After this war had finished, came E-Day or Emergence Day, where the Locust came up out of the ground and started attacking the Humans, popping up everywhere and anywhere they chose. C.O.G was eventually pushed back to a plateu constructed on a sheet of concrete, which the Locust couldn't, yet, break through. They started recruiting eveyone they could, including you, a disgraced War-Hero imprisoned for Dereliction of Duty. You're broken out of an abanded jail, and commence to kick some ass.

Gameplay in Gears focuses on cover. If you don't take cover, you'll be blown into chunks of meat (Litterly, more on that later). The cover system is simple and easy to use, but still efective. You roll out from cover, SWAT turn into another piece of cover,mantle it or duck around it, all using the A button and the thumbsticks. You can also either pop your head over cover to fire off some rounds accuartly or you can blind fire, sticking your gun over the top and blazing away. This is less acuarate, but keeps you alive.

The graphics in Gears, although primarily grey, are fantastic. There is lots of detail, from facial expressions in cut scenes, to bits of leg rolling around on the ground. This game is definetley not for young people as it contains lots of gore, although this can be turned off in the options. You can literley cut people in half with your chainsaw bayonet, in a great spray of blood. Atlhough entrails are very well textured and some people may find this hilarious, it is not for everybody.

Multiplayer is fought on a smaller scale than most games. Two teams of two, the C.O.G Gears (The term for their soldiers) and the Locust Swarm, compete in teams of four in deathmatch orinted game types. Once killed, you cannot respawn, meaning an annyoing late to people killed in the first 30 seconds of a game. Co-Op is good, with player 2 playing as Dominic Sandiego, Marcus's long term friend and fellow Gear, Split-Screen, Lan and on line.

The story leaves alot to be desired, however this is a action, not story, driven game. Your squad mates each have their own personalitys and you'll grow to enjoy their company. The A.I is intelligent, taking cover and flanking. Your squadmates are also smart, but a little two gung-ho, often charging across an open field to assualt an emplaced Locust, how ever this does not happen very often.

In Conclusion Gears of War is a fun game, simple but all the more fun for it. 9 out of 10 from me.