Gears of War

Emergence Day. The day when the Locust Horde gathered under every major city and launched a surprise attack against humanity. Once disregarded as fictional boogey men by a society now decimated, the Horde turns out to be more frighteningly real and dangerous than anyone had previously imagined. That was fourteen years ago. Enter Marcus Fenix (you); a hard as nails ex-COG soldier now serving time in a maximum security penitentiary for defying orders when you tried to save your father which was unsuccessful. Subsequently charged with dereliction of duty and sentenced to forty years, you now find yourself breaking out (with the assistance from a friend) and get recruited back into the COG service to help defeat the Locust Horde. You join the ranks of Delta Squad where you and three other soldiers are tasked with stopping the Horde from completely obliterating Mankind. Sounds easy, right?

Game play in Gears, in the most simplistic terms, consists of finding cover, shooting enemies and moving on to the next fight. But even this simple formula manages to turn every encounter into a pulse-pounding experience. To be successful you have to rely on cover. Stone walls, pillars, outcroppings, etc. litter the landscape for you to seek refuge. Forget run ’n’ gun because Gears demands that you utilize every square inch of cover that you can see or else prepare to die a lot. You can also raise your weapon and blind fire to keep any advancing locusts at bay. While the cover mechanic works well enough there is one tiny flaw inherent to its execution: Since the button that controls running, leaping and using cover is the same it’s easy to accidentally take cover against an object when you meant to retreat or leap out of the way. This can sometimes result in an unnecessary death since instead of avoiding danger you might end up heading straight for it. While it’s not a major issue it is a minor annoyance that borders on the frustrating especially during a particular heated fire fight when you must react quickly only to become “stuck” on a wall.

The weapons in the game are pretty standard affair (pistols, shotgun, grenades, rocket launcher, etc.) with a few unique items such as the torque bow which is a high-tech bow with explosive arrows. And the Blazer which is your main assault weapon that contains a chainsaw bayonet that you can rev up and literally cut a victim in half with; truly a visceral experience. The game also introduces the active reload feature; instead of just pushing a button to reload you have the chance to speed up your reloading ability as well as increase the damage of your rounds for a short while. However, if you mess up your gun jams and takes a few extra seconds to load which can mean the difference between life or death.

The A.I. in Gears is fairly competent. The Locust will react offensively or defensively depending on how you are doing. They will employ the very same tactics you and your squad do such as taking cover, retreating, charging, flanking, etc. You rarely should stay in one place for long since the enemies are constantly shifting their positions to get a better shot while making sure to give you a harder target to hit. The only area I found fault with concerns your accompanying squad mates. While they do an adequate job of helping you out they are still quite dim. Sometimes charging recklessly (and alone) against a greater force which causes them to go down and become disabled until you can either run over and revive them yourself or clear the area of all threats and then they will magically heal themselves and return to the fight. Also, during the times when you split up in to groups of two they suffer from the same problems but even worse. Many times I died because my other squad mate was not watching my back, and for some reason could not hit the broadside of a barn when it came to enemies overwhelming us. Other times I found that I was dying because my squad mate was not even in the same vicinity when I was attacking and therefore I had no support to back me up. Hello teamwork! This is a very noticeable problem and very frustrating which will hopefully be addressed in the sequel.

The graphics in Gears are easily some of the best found in any game at this point in time, especially if you have a HDTV. Even so they still look good on a standard def. TV which says a lot. With HD everything is so crisp and sharp. The environments are like-wise just as stunning and defined bringing to life a war torn and desolate cityscape. The rain effects are particularly impressive as it convincingly shimmers and gleans off walls and collects in pools on the ground. The texture and lighting are some of the most detailed I have ever seen; ambient light glows and shines off of objects realistically. The character models of your squad are very detailed and animate very fluidly and smoothly. These are some of the biggest guys you‘ve ever seen in a game. Each member is built like a small truck adorned with massive pieces of armor. The Locusts are no slouches either in the character department and are also greatly detailed. They are like-wise built as small trucks (some even bigger) and have the dubious honor as being the ugliest creatures in a video game.

The game does a wonderful job of showcasing the raw power of the chainsaw bayonet whenever you use it as the camera will lock on tight and you are treated to a literal blood bath as the blood from the unfortunate Locust victim is splashed and spurted leaving little droplets on the camera. Pull off a successful head shot with the sniper rifle and watch as the head explodes like a grape. If you take down a Boomer (Locusts carrying rocket launchers) with their own weapon you can then inspect the mangled body and actually see the entrails spewing out. And for successful grenade hits you can find body parts strewn about from the blast zone. Those are some of the visual treats from using the weapons.

Sound is top-notch in Gears. The voice acting never feels forced or phony. Each member of Delta Squad has their own personality that comes through their character very convincingly. Throughout the game there is plenty of good natured banter exchanged between the characters that further enhances the notion that these guys have a history together and are not just “artificial” drones fighting the good fight. There is a definite sense of sincere camaraderie that makes itself known simply through the fantastic script. The Locusts also have convincing sounds. Mostly raspy almost reptillian type of voices that serve to induce their creep factor. The Wretches (creatures that serve under the Locusts) have the most disturbing and heart-stopping screech that can only be compared in ferocity to the Naz’gul’s screech in The Lord of the Rings. The weapon effects are superb; from unloading clips into Locusts to the subtle clicks and clacks of reloading. Each weapon has its own distinct sound as well. The game is brought to life in 5.1 Dolby Digital.

Gears offers a substantial amount replay value both in single player campaigns and multi-player. Multi-player can be achieved either through local, system link or Xbox Live. You can either grab a friend and take on the Locusts in split-screen co-op mode or on Live as well. Or you can frag other players in three different versus match types including “Warzone,” “Assassination” and “Execution.” Matches are restricted to 4v4 which seems at first too little, but ends up being just right. As with every 360 game there are a number of achievements to unlock. Some are quite easy and only require the completion of a level or act to unlock, while others are substantially harder and will take quite a bit of time. There are both an assortment of single player campaign and multi-player achievements available so whichever mode you play you have the ability to unlock them.

Overall Gears delivers just what the 360 has needed all this time: A killer app. Sure the cover mechanic has been done before, and the story is not as fleshed out as I would like, but what Gears does do is make all the different elements come together in one seamless experience that will hopefully make you want to come back for more.
 
 (Review originally written December 24, 2006)