Gears of War

I decided to review Gears of War because I'd like to add my 2 cents to the mass of opinions.

Gameplay: This is where the game is different from generic shooters with the same look and storyline of GoW. The game (for the most part anyway) makes you use cover in order to survive and wait for open advantages in the enemies deffences. For almost ever surface and wall in the game all you have to do is press "A", and your character will immediately (an automatically) press there back up against the cover and use it. The game includes many of the oh-so generic weapon types that you would expect from any kind of shooter including such things as the sniper rifle( named Longshot), a rocket launcher (named the Boomshot), and the soldiers assault rifle (named the Lancer), which includes a chainsaw bayonet) just to name a few. For the most part, the games enemies will put up a good fight, and when you turn up the difficulty they are harder to kill and deal more damage, as one would expect. The single player campain will take around 10-12 hours to finish depending on the difficulty level you play it on, and there's reason to replay the game, such as to collect thing such as the game version of dogtags, and extra achievments. The multiplayer isn't somthing to laugh at either. With only 8 players per match the games you'll find will fill up quickly and with even more achievments avalible for online play it'll keep you busy for quite some time.

Graphics: The best you've seen on the 360 to date, or on any system for that matter. There are some slowdown in some places and during one of the cut scenes during my first play through the game my 360 crashed, but this only happened once and it is definatly worth these minor inconvinences for the games amazing presentation. From the smallest detail of the scares on a soldiers faces, to the explosions of grenades and the cinematic environments the games art desine and graphics are unbelievable. If you want to see the best of the best check this game out.

Story: Unfortunatly the weak point of GoW. There is very little story to be had in the game. Like most games that take place during war, the extent to which a story exists is pretty much where the action takes you. Your group of Cogs are going to recover some weapon to hopefully win the war against the Loctus. That's pretty much it, you''ll laugh, you'll cry, but the story is just your teams actions after that. There are some cutscenes but they're just used to get you to the next bit of action. Not to be a bummer though, the games story doesn't make the game suffer, it just doesn't add anything to the game. There are some interesting segments of dialogue however in the game; Your friend and fellow cog Dom, is looking for a girl, and there is some female (unknown) dialogue over some of the cutscenes rumoured to be the "Queen". The games story has some interesting storylines that may be answered in the sequel (oh yes, there will be a sequel to this game).

Sound: The games sound is great with the guns cracking loudly and the explosives booming. But what really shines is the voice acting done during the course of the game. The four main Cogs (Marcus, Dom, Cole, and Baird) are all voiced and there dialogue is snappy and witty. They say some generic hard-boiled soilder stuf from time to time but they never exaust any of their lines. Great Sound design and usage.

Overall: If you like shooters of any type this is a must own. The gameplay, the graphics, the sound, they are all amazing and will keep you intertained until the next one comes out. However, if you're the type of person that does not like shooters, you'll find little to like about Gears of War, the game has no form of Role Playing, and the vehicle segments (only one really) donesn't last long. This game is great and will make the lifespan of the xbox 360 much longer as this soon-to-be-franchise expands. Between the single player and multi player experiences, you're going to find alot of things to like about Gears of War