Bloody,atmospheric...it's AWESOME!!!
No matter which genre of games we like the most,be it strategies,sport sims,driving sims or role playing games,we each feel sometimes the need to shoot & kill.A game to kill our anger.There are two types of cathegories games of this type are divised in.One of them contains Painkiller,Serious Sam & Will Rock.The other gathegory is Gears of War.
Gears of War probably needs no introduction,being the most popular game on X360 for a long time.But we all know that its exclusivity for the 360 is exactly for the same reason why the new Metal Gear Solid is only for PS3:selling more consoles,making more money.But when the PC version of Gears of War came it was clear that GoW was ment for the PC,not the 360.Every shooter actually is much better with a mouse & a keyboard than with a stupid gamepad with with it takes 5 minutes to target the enamies...Well,but we're talking about Gears here so let's do it.
Graphics:9/10
For the graphics the Unreal Engine 3 was used,thing that came out naturally,considering that the producers of Gears of War are in the same time the producers of Unreal Engine 3,Epic Games.As a mix fact,People Can Fly,the producers of Painkiller-Heaven's got a Hitman contributed in the making of GoW.Back to the graphics,they are very good.It looked good last year on the console,now on the PC it looks much better.I'd say it's the best optimized version of the popular engine,as it offers the best graphical experience done with Unreal Engine 3,&,in the same time,is not very demanding on your PC as Crysis, The Witcher or Assassin's Creed are.The textures really look awesome,the explosion are spectacular & so is the dynamic lighting.It doesn't compare with Crysis or Lost Via Domus,but overall is an amzing graphical experience.The only bad thing to talk about is how blood is textured.I mean,such a violent & full of gore game like Gears of War demands good-looking blood. & yeah,there is good looking blood when you come close to your enamies & cut them to pieces with the chainsaw on your gun...maybe the most violent,amazing & pleasure-giving animation ever included in a game before.But when you shoot your enamies with ranged fire,red circles with black interior come out...& this with max settings & DX 10 support activated.It is one of the most horrible textured blood types in the games I played & that's very sad.Fortunatelly,it doesn't affest the pleasure of playing Gears of War because you'll soon forget about it,but stil... .Getting back to all the gore,it is really amazing.Very violent content,I mean everyone can be blown to pieces,& you can actually play football with arms or head parts from your enamies.The chainsaw kills are as I said before,perfectly designed,& it occured very often to me that I died just because "I wanted to cut that guy to pieces".The physiscs are quite bad,because only some boxes or other few decorative objects can be destroyed.Walls,obstacles,buildings cannot be destroyed,pieces don't fall out of them,& physics don't affect combat at all,which is quite disappointing.
Sound:10/10
On the other hand,the sound is perfectly implemented.The music & soundtrack are very well chosen & representative to the game's atmosphere & key moments from it.Except the end credits music,which I really don't like,everything else is great.The sound effects are,let's say,majestic.OK,the gunshots don't sound everytime very convincing,but the other elements are great. & the voice acting is amazing,everyone sound very very convincing & everything blends perfectly with the sombre atmosphere surrounding the game.
Story:8/10
On a prospere planet,some kind of violent creatures come out of the ground & start massacring the people.Military actions are taken in this day called Emergence Day,but Marcus Fenix,a squad commander,disobeys a dirrect order & is imprisoned.The people try to kill the locust by frying the surface of the planet with Ultra-Violet rays,also killing many people with them. They don't quite succed,for more & more locust come from their underground tunnels.Marcus Fenix,who you'll control trough the whole game,is released from prison,joins a squad which he'll later lead trough many urban & underground fights.The story is not bad,but it's not the main attraction of Gears of War & it's quite poor when compared to the other elements of this fantastic game.
Gameplay:9/10
This is quite a straightforward shooter.The game gives you guns,enamies who want to kill you & covers.You can take cover against almost every object & wall in the game,with a very intuitive & easy control sceme.You can than easily fire from the cover,move from that cover immediatly to another cover,jump & roll left or right,run up against the nearest cover & immediatly enter it.When in cover basically no one can hit you,only with grenades or if they come sideways.Not very real & quite aracdish,but it makes the game easier on the high difficulties,where the game is really hard & challenging.There are several guns in Gears of War,but you won't change them too much.The standard machine gun with the chainsaw equipped is the best & most exciting game troughout the whole game,but a shotgun ,sniper rifle & pistol come very handy in some difficult situations.These weapons have a reload bar,something like the bar in FIFA World Cup 2006.While reloading,if you press "R" again when the pointer goes across a white bar on that gray bar,you'll reload much faster & it also gives you a damage bonus.If you press it wrong,your gun can jam,but you can always let it reload the classic way if you feel you can't manage that when guys are shooting you.The basic enamies,soldiers with guns,come out of grub holes (which can be collapsed with grenades they say,but I can't manage to do that)can be killed without much effort.They know to take cover,throw grenades & even surprise you with some squad based tactics,but most of the time they are not a problem.Then there are the wretches. Very similar to the snorks in STALKER-Shadow of Chernobyl,these guys attack in packs,but they can easily be killed with one or two shots,as long as you don't get close.But you will be tempted to get close seeking some "cool chainsaw kills" & you will often die,because their melee attack is very bad for you.The boomers are big beasts with a rocket launcher,& they shoot rockets at you while yelling "BOOOOOM".Quite funny but dangerous in the same time,they need a lot of bullets till they fall,but they're quite easy to abord if you run around them while shooting,because they are slow & stupid.The drones are equipped with a crossbow with explosive arrows,which can easily blow you to pieces if you are hit,but they fall quite easily.By the way,you can also use the crossbow,but the lack of a crosshair for it really annoyed me.The Kryll look like bats,they attack in hug,but the thing that prevents them from attacking you is light.They are met just in a level of the game that generates cool puzzles where you get to light your way.You will also get to drive a jeep & kill them wit UV rays.The biggest trouble of all is the Beserker.She is a very ugly & huge beast which can destroy walls & other obstacles in her way.She's blind but hunts trough sound & smell ,so be warned.She is invulnerable to bullets so you'll have to lure her carefully outside in order to burn her with the Hammer of Dawn,the most powerful weapon in the game,which shoots huge circles of fire from orbital stations.You will have to smartly lure,avoid her & use her in order to create your path trough walls.You will always be accompanied by your team,sometimes one member(when you split up in half),other times all three.When you get to crossed roads you can always decide which path to take,which contributes to replayability & makes the game less linear.Speaking of your companions,they are very capable & you will start to care for them & their life.When one gets hurt you can go & heal him as in Kane & Lynch-Dead Men,but the mad thing is that you always die,you never can be healed by your friends.Also,the PC version features some more content at the beggining of Chapter 5,consisting in Brumak moments in wide open spaces,more battles & a boss battle with the Brumak itself.Cool
Multiplayer:10/10
Not very various,the multiplayer consists in a Co-op mode,which means you can play the whole game accompanied by a friend,which is an exciting experience.I love it.
Overall:9.5/10
Gears of War (PC) is a fantastic experience overall,with a lot of good stuff & only a few,insignificant negative things. It is quite short (13 hours max),because,don't worry,it doesn't get boring & you'll love to play trough it again everytime.So,don't just sit there,buy it & go do some chainsaw kills!!!
Gears of War probably needs no introduction,being the most popular game on X360 for a long time.But we all know that its exclusivity for the 360 is exactly for the same reason why the new Metal Gear Solid is only for PS3:selling more consoles,making more money.But when the PC version of Gears of War came it was clear that GoW was ment for the PC,not the 360.Every shooter actually is much better with a mouse & a keyboard than with a stupid gamepad with with it takes 5 minutes to target the enamies...Well,but we're talking about Gears here so let's do it.
Graphics:9/10
For the graphics the Unreal Engine 3 was used,thing that came out naturally,considering that the producers of Gears of War are in the same time the producers of Unreal Engine 3,Epic Games.As a mix fact,People Can Fly,the producers of Painkiller-Heaven's got a Hitman contributed in the making of GoW.Back to the graphics,they are very good.It looked good last year on the console,now on the PC it looks much better.I'd say it's the best optimized version of the popular engine,as it offers the best graphical experience done with Unreal Engine 3,&,in the same time,is not very demanding on your PC as Crysis, The Witcher or Assassin's Creed are.The textures really look awesome,the explosion are spectacular & so is the dynamic lighting.It doesn't compare with Crysis or Lost Via Domus,but overall is an amzing graphical experience.The only bad thing to talk about is how blood is textured.I mean,such a violent & full of gore game like Gears of War demands good-looking blood. & yeah,there is good looking blood when you come close to your enamies & cut them to pieces with the chainsaw on your gun...maybe the most violent,amazing & pleasure-giving animation ever included in a game before.But when you shoot your enamies with ranged fire,red circles with black interior come out...& this with max settings & DX 10 support activated.It is one of the most horrible textured blood types in the games I played & that's very sad.Fortunatelly,it doesn't affest the pleasure of playing Gears of War because you'll soon forget about it,but stil... .Getting back to all the gore,it is really amazing.Very violent content,I mean everyone can be blown to pieces,& you can actually play football with arms or head parts from your enamies.The chainsaw kills are as I said before,perfectly designed,& it occured very often to me that I died just because "I wanted to cut that guy to pieces".The physiscs are quite bad,because only some boxes or other few decorative objects can be destroyed.Walls,obstacles,buildings cannot be destroyed,pieces don't fall out of them,& physics don't affect combat at all,which is quite disappointing.
Sound:10/10
On the other hand,the sound is perfectly implemented.The music & soundtrack are very well chosen & representative to the game's atmosphere & key moments from it.Except the end credits music,which I really don't like,everything else is great.The sound effects are,let's say,majestic.OK,the gunshots don't sound everytime very convincing,but the other elements are great. & the voice acting is amazing,everyone sound very very convincing & everything blends perfectly with the sombre atmosphere surrounding the game.
Story:8/10
On a prospere planet,some kind of violent creatures come out of the ground & start massacring the people.Military actions are taken in this day called Emergence Day,but Marcus Fenix,a squad commander,disobeys a dirrect order & is imprisoned.The people try to kill the locust by frying the surface of the planet with Ultra-Violet rays,also killing many people with them. They don't quite succed,for more & more locust come from their underground tunnels.Marcus Fenix,who you'll control trough the whole game,is released from prison,joins a squad which he'll later lead trough many urban & underground fights.The story is not bad,but it's not the main attraction of Gears of War & it's quite poor when compared to the other elements of this fantastic game.
Gameplay:9/10
This is quite a straightforward shooter.The game gives you guns,enamies who want to kill you & covers.You can take cover against almost every object & wall in the game,with a very intuitive & easy control sceme.You can than easily fire from the cover,move from that cover immediatly to another cover,jump & roll left or right,run up against the nearest cover & immediatly enter it.When in cover basically no one can hit you,only with grenades or if they come sideways.Not very real & quite aracdish,but it makes the game easier on the high difficulties,where the game is really hard & challenging.There are several guns in Gears of War,but you won't change them too much.The standard machine gun with the chainsaw equipped is the best & most exciting game troughout the whole game,but a shotgun ,sniper rifle & pistol come very handy in some difficult situations.These weapons have a reload bar,something like the bar in FIFA World Cup 2006.While reloading,if you press "R" again when the pointer goes across a white bar on that gray bar,you'll reload much faster & it also gives you a damage bonus.If you press it wrong,your gun can jam,but you can always let it reload the classic way if you feel you can't manage that when guys are shooting you.The basic enamies,soldiers with guns,come out of grub holes (which can be collapsed with grenades they say,but I can't manage to do that)can be killed without much effort.They know to take cover,throw grenades & even surprise you with some squad based tactics,but most of the time they are not a problem.Then there are the wretches. Very similar to the snorks in STALKER-Shadow of Chernobyl,these guys attack in packs,but they can easily be killed with one or two shots,as long as you don't get close.But you will be tempted to get close seeking some "cool chainsaw kills" & you will often die,because their melee attack is very bad for you.The boomers are big beasts with a rocket launcher,& they shoot rockets at you while yelling "BOOOOOM".Quite funny but dangerous in the same time,they need a lot of bullets till they fall,but they're quite easy to abord if you run around them while shooting,because they are slow & stupid.The drones are equipped with a crossbow with explosive arrows,which can easily blow you to pieces if you are hit,but they fall quite easily.By the way,you can also use the crossbow,but the lack of a crosshair for it really annoyed me.The Kryll look like bats,they attack in hug,but the thing that prevents them from attacking you is light.They are met just in a level of the game that generates cool puzzles where you get to light your way.You will also get to drive a jeep & kill them wit UV rays.The biggest trouble of all is the Beserker.She is a very ugly & huge beast which can destroy walls & other obstacles in her way.She's blind but hunts trough sound & smell ,so be warned.She is invulnerable to bullets so you'll have to lure her carefully outside in order to burn her with the Hammer of Dawn,the most powerful weapon in the game,which shoots huge circles of fire from orbital stations.You will have to smartly lure,avoid her & use her in order to create your path trough walls.You will always be accompanied by your team,sometimes one member(when you split up in half),other times all three.When you get to crossed roads you can always decide which path to take,which contributes to replayability & makes the game less linear.Speaking of your companions,they are very capable & you will start to care for them & their life.When one gets hurt you can go & heal him as in Kane & Lynch-Dead Men,but the mad thing is that you always die,you never can be healed by your friends.Also,the PC version features some more content at the beggining of Chapter 5,consisting in Brumak moments in wide open spaces,more battles & a boss battle with the Brumak itself.Cool
Multiplayer:10/10
Not very various,the multiplayer consists in a Co-op mode,which means you can play the whole game accompanied by a friend,which is an exciting experience.I love it.
Overall:9.5/10
Gears of War (PC) is a fantastic experience overall,with a lot of good stuff & only a few,insignificant negative things. It is quite short (13 hours max),because,don't worry,it doesn't get boring & you'll love to play trough it again everytime.So,don't just sit there,buy it & go do some chainsaw kills!!!
0 Comments