Rocks!
Gears of War was hyped to kingdom come and back. It is nearly impossible for a game to truly deliver on hype like that, and the ones that do beome legendary. For some Gears of War did deliver. It delivered on a fair amount for me, but it does fall short in some places.
There's no getting around it, the graphics are absolutely flooring. This game truly signaled that the next generation of gaming was here. The characer models, lighting, textures, backgrounds, explosions, vehicles, everything is just amazing looking. On top of this, there are very few if any echnical problems. The framerate is smooth, there's barely any texture pop-in, I didn't notice any glitches and the load times are solid. There are some invisible walls and I have a feeling msot of the backgrounds are pre-rendered, but overall the game is technologically marvelous.
The soundwork is overall pretty solid. While the guns and explosions sound great, the poor excuse for a soundtrack is annoying, sparse, and repetitive, and the voice acting is cheesy.
The storyline is pretty generic, borrowing heavily from games like Halo and Killzone, but with more hollywood blockbuster flair, which some will love, and others like myself would prefer to do without. Single player is fun enough with some exciting and unique moments, but pretty short. Its much more fun to play through the storyline with a friend via co-op. My friend and I stayed up all night the first day I got the game and beat it. The difficulty is pretty unbalanced. Its extraordinarily easy unless you play on insane, and then its ridiculously hard. The shooting feels solid, and the cover system is awesome. Up close melee hits are awesome, especially with the chainsaw or when you curb stomp someone. This brings me to the fact that this game is one of the gorier ones avaialble today, that can be a plus to some people, and for others it means they won't be able to play it.
This series has a lot of potential and I can't wait for the sequel. The game isn't perfect, but it sure is a lot of fun.
