Hey, so it's been over a month since Gears of War Judgment came out. Most likely you forgot that the launch ever happened or you were just not paying attention to the game in the first place. Don't worry, I forgot that the game came out too and I fucking love these games. I don't consider myself too prevalent on these forums so I constantly feel the need to reiterate my passion for this franchise. Ignited by countless dumb online matches with friends in Gears 1, I've played the multiplayer of all of these games right into the ground so it hurts that my feelings for Judgment are the way they are which I will finally get to explaining.

Get Off My Lawn?

I wanted to like this game. I consider myself a fairly open guy that can accept changes and hearing about some of the changes in this game at first worried me, but then I accepted them because I wanted to see what would happen if the formula was messed with just a bit. Well it turns out that hundreds of hours spread across several years in 3 games that more or less share the exact same control scheme does create a negative effect when the 4th (arguably unneeded) game in the series decides that now is the time stop you from switching weapons via the D-Pad and puts a greater emphasis on the use of grenades.

Now I'm not saying that the new control scheme is worse, but for me, personally, it just sucks and it became more than just an issue of having trouble adapting. There was a specific playstyle for me when it came to online matches. I constantly used the Tac/Com option (the batman vision mode like thing that gives you situational awareness) and it was easy to reach by holding down the left bumper. Well too bad because now if you want to use the thing you'll have to do it by pressing down on the D-Pad and you can't keep it on forever. That right there was a big negative for me, I essentially lost having that "sixth sense" that was so readily accessible and helped me move around the map efficiently.

Team? Hello? ...Bueller?

There is also a shift in the pacing of the gameplay/multiplayer matches that I don't exactly care for. Gears 3 started this by speeding up the run speed of characters and it could just be me but that pace feels even faster in Judgment. There is a greater focus now on Team Deathmatch where you can basically spawn as soon as you die and matches now feel CoD esque in the sense that you want to get back into the game as fast as you can, roadie run like a speed demon across the map till you run into someone, kill or be killed, and repeat the cycle.

That feeling wasn't as large as it is with this game versus Gears 3. In 3 you still had access to more weapons which allowed you to have a more diverse set of tools to approaching situations in the right way versus only having two weapons that you can swap between in Judgment and having to choose between a rifle or shotgun when you first spawn. Hell you can actually shoot rifles/shotguns/just about whatever while holding a shield or meatshield. If that doesn't encourage more lone wolf styles of play then I don't know what does. There was a sense of tactical combat and a deliberate slower pace when moving around the map in the last game and if you're laughing about the concept of Gears multiplayer being tactical then you clearly haven't played with teams. No, constantly rolling into people with shotguns does not count as "tactical".

Get to The Point, You Think This Game is Shit?

Not exactly. Gears of War Judgment is well made and fucked with the formula just enough to create its own flavor unique to just this game. I think that if you are not as crazy as me when it comes to playing multiplayer in the past games then you will have a great damn time with this. I'm not going to get into the other negatives like lack of content, a bare bones story, and the weird shift to having a red vs. blue thing going on in multiplayer instead of just keeping the Locust (did they run out of space on the disc?!).

All I know is that I simply don't like this game. This is a game where I assumed I would feel at home (while simultaneously wondering why someone rearranged the furniture) but instead I feel like an outsider, I didn't finish the campaign (even though I think it's the better part of this game) and I didn't play near as much multiplayer matches as I would have expected. It's just a bummer to end my ties with the franchise on such a poor note, but on the bright side I now can go ahead with getting rid of my Xbox that I've been looking forward to doing for quite some time. So yay?

I have not read this.

Even though I have my own fair share of grievances with Judgment, the only major problem I have is that there simply isn't more of it. I can certainly recognise a lot of the changes and why that would turn long-standing fans of the multiplayer in particular, but considering that Judgment is the one Gears game I'm actually good at competitively, I've sorta shrugged off some of alterations. Though letting players user gnashers/lancers with a shield is fucking stupid, that I have to agree with.

Removing the Locust characters completely is also a downer, as is of course the lack of a proper Horde mode and so many of my favourite COG character avatars too. And seriously, fucking Tai?! Of all the classic characters, they bring back Tai?? I'm not exactly deep in the Gears community after all so maybe I'm just outta the loop, but I would have never gathered Tai to be an especially popular character.

Anywhoo, while saying that a game has been ''codified'' is the go-to blanket statement for when people can't think of a suitable way to articulate their complaints about a game, never has it been more apt than it is for Judgment. Because that's, as you've described yourself, exactly what's happened. People running off on their own flinging frags at one another without a care, spawning in like a split-second after you've died.

I'll admit that I do still really like the pacing of the matches, though, as it is quite the adrenaline rush to shotgun a group of three all within the span of five seconds. Which is totally doable for me, whereas from what little I played of Gears 3 (which was admittedly when it was already a year in its lifespan), getting a kill felt like a victory for me. Plus courtesy of the much faster and more fluid controls, wall-bouncing is a helluva lot easier to do in Judgment, whereas in Gears 3 it was certainly a skill that had to be mastered. Actually, one thing I thought was funny is how a lot of the blatantly classic Gears players in Judgment can't no longer rely on their wall-bouncing as much anymore. For as easier as it still is, you're now so much weaker anyway that a guy with a retro-lancer can handily finish you off before you reach him.

That's also probably the reason why they've restricted you to taking but one primary weapon in, though. Because on the chance that you're roaming around with a both a lancer and a gnasher--and with the way you switch between weapons so damn quickly now, which I'm also a fan of--you can feel unstoppable at times. And frankly, I'm just happy to see players out there who can hold their own just with the ranged weaponry too. Gears 3 pretty much culminated in shotgun duels from a lot of my experience, and for so much other weaponry to be pretty much wasted on looked ridiculous.

Plus, as I have to reiterate of course, I was really bad at Gears 3's multiplayer. I just wasn't having fun and I never felt like I was truly learning from my experience when this guy killed me quicker with a shotgun than I could him. A large part of that is unfortunately because I got in too late; the third game in the series, while also a year deep, it's no surprise that every other player are these max-level machines who look like they never stop moving. Maybe I would share in your frustration if I happened to have invested as much time as you have in Gears multiplayer, but as it is it's an incredibly one-sided comparison for me.

I just think Judgment plays a lot better too. A lot of the animations have been sped up and your roadie-run is definitely even faster; I love how it moves, how it flows, and the primary thing that I loved about Gears 3 anyway was the speed. So for it to be sped up all the more felt like the gameplay has hit its mark for me.

I can't deny that there are some logical fallacies at play here in the multiplayer, though. Again, using any weapon with a shield is a bunch of nonsense, and taking out DBNO (even if it still persists in Execution) is kinda lame. I also don't like the fact that there's no ''clutch'' or whatever it's called, as one thing I both loved and feared is when your team's lives have ran out and you have but the one. In Judgment's TDM, it's very easy for a match's result to be out of your hands should there be a lesser player who has like 15 deaths. That I'm not a fan of. My K/D ratio or whatever is relatively OK, yet ironically enough I've still got plenty more loses than I do wins overall because I'm at the mercy of my team. Not like I really care all that much about the statistics, but it's an issue nonetheless.

Frankly, for Judgment to potentially rank as one of my top five for the year, all it needed was precisely what we should have gotten anyway. If it had more maps, an extra competitive mode or two, Horde mode (Gears 3 version would have been fine, even without the implementation of classes), Arcade mode for the campaign, more character skins and other little doodads and I'd have been perfectly satisfied with my purchase. I may have even purchased a few extra months worth of GOLD, despite how ridiculous it is to pay for online play anyway, I've enjoyed myself enough.

While I feel for the 'old guard' who consider Judgment to be blight on the Gears name, Judgment is the first where I've felt like I'm not completely lost as to what's happening and I can totally clean house in a match. It's all very possibly just a matter of circumstance, but eh, I've enjoyed myself and for my free month of GOLD that I had available, I was playing Judgment pretty regularly for a few hours each day.

tl;dr: Gears 3 may certainly have more depth and substance to it, but I'm a lot better at Judgment so... dems the breaks.

I have not played this game. What happens at the end? Ill look it up anyway.

@yummylee: You're the exact person I'm thinking of when I say "newish" person to the series. You haven't had hundreds of hours that cemented you in one control scheme so I can see it being a lot easier to adjust to the changes here including the gameplay ones. If Judgment followed closely then the skills of past games would have translated over flawlessly to this one and you would probably be having your ass handed to you a lot more.

I can certainly see the appeal of the new gameplay changes because the campaign allowed me to be more lax about the changes, I just couldn't let them go when it came to competitive matches. I wasn't playing like shit, I could still take down guys well with the shotgun, but, at the cost of sounding like a crusty old man, this just wasn't my Gears of War. I don't come to this game for this kind of playstyle.

I was worried that quitting the game early would mean missing out on a maturation in playstyle instead of the "run at enemies till you die" tactic but if people are still doing that then I kind of want no part in that. Kills feel cheapened and are a lot less rewarding than in past games. And it's really a shame you didn't have a team to play with cuz that's when the other Gears games excel. You don't have everything end up into shotgun encounters when you have a capable team ready to counter that.

It's a lot easier to go lone wolf in Judgment especially if you're less experienced than in Gears 3. If you don't know what you're doing then going alone in Gears 3 will only end in your humiliating death.

@the_official_japanese_teabag: I haven't finished the campaign nor will I ever so here's my guess. Made up new villain for new game is all terrifying and shit. Baird and crew do some drastic shit to kill said villain at the cost of being court martialed. They end up being pardoned/or the court is overrun by Locust causing everything to be dropped.

Hey I'm a huge fan of games like Sly Cooper and Jak & Daxter. Would this game satiate my hunger for that sort of goofy, light hearted platformer? Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Forgot to ask this. Does this game share any gameplay elements with games like Bejeweled, Bejeweled 2, Bejeweled 3 and Candy Crush?

I wanted to rent it one day. I couldn't see myself spending 60 on this game. I LOVED the other 3.

Why thank you for bringing up this excellent question. Yes, Gears of War Judgement© shares many similarities with popular match-3 games providing an unprecedented level of immersion and visceral gameplay. The entire cover system has been rewritten so that you need to match 3 gear symbols before you can "stick" to cover and 3 more if you want to unstick. This new feature is also reflected in the new Very Active Reload System where, using new state-of-the-art motion control technology, you have to be rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time in order to reload your gun successfully.

Again, I want to thank you for bringing up such a fantastic question. If you have further questions, feel free to contact your nearest ACLU chapter at 1-800-4UR-RIGHT or visit us at http://www.Immersiongaming.bit.ly/ACLU.html

@colourful_hippie: Truth be told, the main reason why I've played so little of the Gears multiplayer in the past is because I've thought the idea of paying to play online has always been kind of ludicrous. Even though I got into Gears sometime in 2009, I still bought Gears 3 in 2012 a year later because I couldn't play online, therefore it didn't feel worth buying the game for full price when I'd be locked out of like 3/4's of its features. In fact it was my little brother who bought me the copy at that, but playing the campaign/horde in split-screen and going against bots in versus still made my summer last year.

Though if I had the opportunity to play online during the time of Gears 3's release, then it's possible I could be right here complaining about this casualised bullshit right alongside you. But being a PlayStation guy first and foremost, I've never been keen on investing some extra cash just to play a couple games online. Guess it was never meant to be /sadface.

Also, I'm curious. What was the multiplayer like in the very first Gears? I have to imagine during the early goings people were playing it like a regular TPS, using their Lancers more often than not and making liberal use the chainsaw novelty. Was 'wall-bouncing' even a thing back then? Or was it Gears 2 that got it going?

Gears of War:Judgment©: Better with Kinect©

@yummylee: Gears 1 relied quite a bit on the shotgun (no surprise) partly because of the crap netcode and the outrageous host advantage that was in the game. You could literally down a guy with host shotgun from about 10(?) or so feet away with just a couple shots. It used to be a chainsawfest at first until people realized to step back and stun them first. Sniper rifles were popular too cuz they had the bullshit one shot down active reload. The hammerburst was the true underrated weapon here, that thing could take a guy down in 3 bursts. Everyone underestimated that gun.

As for wall-bouncing, it was in its infancy in the first game. Some people tried it but at best the most people could reliably do was just pull off a one shot kill after bouncing once off a wall. That became more common in Gears 2 and then more elaborate wall-bouncing took off after that. I personally never got it down and thought it looked fucking stupid, I counter that by keeping my distance with a rifle.

I enjoy the game and would say I'm pretty good at the multiplayer. Gears 3 is insane right now, I played 3 or 4 matches a week or so ago and I was lucky if I even got a single kill... It was probably the least fun I have ever had playing Gears of War (and I LOVE this series). I'm not the biggest fan of saying something is just like COD because they sped up how quickly you can spawn, it still has its own flow which is nothing like any other shooter out there. And while rifles seem to be far more viable now the Gnasher is still pretty much king.

I think the weapon switching and the speed of the run is natural. I enjoy being able to charge at people knowing that there's a high chance I will get a kill or two. You can get cheap kills, and even I have gotten kills here and there I don't believe I should have been credited with, but there's definitely some skill as the players that are good tend to always be at the top of their team with insane K/D ratios like 17-2 or something.

I pretty much agree with everything yummylee has to say about it.

I don't care for competitive online in games besides very few instances. Well, I guess Trackmania is the only game I can think of that fits in this category. And Virtua Fighter 5 because VF kicks fucking ass. But I've never really gotten into Gears' online. So I can't speak to the changes made. I only play the single player in these games and have played all three prior to Judgement. And, really, I only really like the campaign in Gears 3. The other two were just fine. But I never really bought into the fervor.

So looking at Judgement I've only cared to look at the single player. What I liked about GOW 3's single player was the variety and pacing. The other two games felt like 'run to spot, take cover, kill stuff, rinse repeat'. By and large that's what you did in GOW 3's campaign too. But there were breaks. There were more slow segments. There were changes to how you would shoot dudes. It just felt varied and exciting where the other two felt slow and mechanical.

Judgement, from all I've seen, looks like the other two GOW games. Graphically it looks like GOW 3. Just, design-wise, it looks like a GOW 1 or 2 experience. It looks like the older design of 'run to spot, take cover, kill stuff, rinse repeat' minus some of the horde mode segments which I don't like horde mode because it resembles tower defense too much for me and I can't fucking stand tower defense. So Judgement looks like the absolute worse game in the world for me to buy.

@gunstarred: Like I said in the blog, the people who weren't crazy deep in the multiplayer like I was are the ones who I expect to like this game quite a bit. I can still hold my own in 3 but at the same time I can see how fucking daunting it is for someone with less experience to go in there. There's little room for mistakes.

And my comparison to CoD is still valid when considering the shift from the past games to this one.

@jasonr86: I didn't even expect for you to give that amount of thought in a comment to this game but ok cool. Also I'm not into multiplayer games as much as I used to be otherwise I would still be playing more Gears 3. That franchise hit around when I was in high school and holy shit that was a great time sink at the time.

@colourful_hippie:

Is the single-player pretty much what I think it is?

@jasonr86: Contrived for the very purpose to tick off the single player campaign check box? Then yeah sure. Unless you like playing the game (which is where the campaign becomes better because of the bonus points gameplay tweaks) then I don't see very much appeal in playing this just for the single player.