Gears of War delivers like a chainsaw gun to the face.
One of the X-Box 360's standout titles, Gears of War hits you like a chainsaw gun to the face and doesn't relent from start to finish. Players take control of bulky military man Marcus Fenix and tear through a world in chaos in an seemingly futile effort to destroy the monstrous Locust horde. Despite difficulty levels that fluctuate throughout the game, Gears of War is a classic that you should not skip out on if your idea of a good time is splattering the blood of your enemies all over the pavement.
The game opens with Fenix being sprung from prison by war buddy Dom and immediately thrusts you right into the action. Although players new to the game can opt to hold out on the carnage for a while in order to run through a short tutorial section. There you learn that the key gameplay element is keep your head down unless you absolutely have a reason to lean or stand out of cover.
In fact, Gears of War is all about keeping down and knowing when to strike. Should you keep your head above a slab of concrete for too long you'll find yourself dead very quickly even the in easiest difficulty mode. Thankfully, the games cover system works very well and taking cover is as simple as quickly pressing down the A button near a wall or piece of debris. Once in cover, your character automatically steps out of it with a press of the aiming button, which zooms the camera in over the right shoulder for optimal targeting. The game also does a fair job at registering hits based on whether you are in cover or not, meaning you are rarely going to be injured by glitching bullets that seem to penetrate whatever you are hiding behind.
One aspect of the control scheme that can feel a bit clunky at times is a low run/charge that your character will perform when you press A without being near any cover. This can be unwieldy to control and if you pass by a piece of cover your character will sometimes stick to it, resulting in quick death if you are under heavy enemy fire.
Another aspect of the game that could use some tuning is it's difficulty. The game ships with three difficulty levels: casual, hardcore, and insane. While for the most part the levels live up to their titles, there are spots that seem a bit too difficult, as if plucked in from a higher level. Because of this, people who play through the casual level for an easier experience will sometimes find themselves facing situations that are much harder than those from both earlier and latter parts of the game. Such differences in difficulty level could lead to frustration. However, this small problem never renders the game unplayable for players of any skill level and it is limited only to certain sections.
One thing Gears excels at is its weapon selection. While one may not find anything too original among the bunch, as you have your standard assault rifle, pistol, grenades, sniper riffle, etc. It's the satisfaction these weapons give in battle that really shines. The assault rifle, referred to as a lancer in game, is equipped with a chainsaw bayonet that never gets old to use. It can be difficult to land, as one bullet will stop it after you've revved it up, but when you do prepare for a hurricane of gore to spray your screen. Another standout weapon is the Hammer of Dawn, which paints a target on enemies and allows a satellite to obliterate them from space. As you encounter a number of large and very tough enemies throughout the game, this weapon will be one of your best friends and you can bet you will not be happy when it goes offline, which sadly, happens quite often.
The minor problems never manage to put a dent in the obvious quality that one will find in Gears, which is quite an impressive feat. Epic has bestowed upon us a game that is positively exploding with rip roaring action that hardly ever slows down. Players will find themselves begging for a little breathing room as they trudge through location after location that are riddled with bullets flying in every direction. Given that is exactly what a third person action game should deliver, it's safe to say that Gears of War is one of the greatest games of its kind of all time.
