Gears of War delivers a new, fun, innovative gameplay style
My eyes are blurry, my head is whoozy, and my ears hear the sound of gunfire when I sleep at night.
Why?
Because I've been playing Gears of War four nights in a row.
So far, I've beaten the game twice and my opinion is that Gears is an addictive, intense, and fun experience that will keep you locking, loading, and unloading 'til the wee hours of the morning.
I had my doubts. For all the hype, it just didn't occur to me why Gears was getting so much praise from the gameplay footage I watched on gamespot and other sites. But once I started playing and understood what the gameplay was about, my doubts went away.
What Gears contributes to the console shooter genre is the implementation of duck-and-cover gameplay. Most third and first person shooters either depend on run-and-gun or strafe-and-shoot gameplay. Gears emphasizes the need to stay behind cover and pop up for quick bursts. The key to staying alive is maneuvering around the battlefield, running from cover to cover until you're at a superior vantage point vis-a-vis enemy positions. The levels are designed specifically for this type of gameplay, so confronting each new environment and figuring out how to best use it against the types of enemies you're facing is what keeps Gears fun and refreshing.
Another great thing about Gears is the enemy variety and pacing. Enemy types range from very fast, exploding critters to huge, lumbering monsters (called Berserkers) that resemble the blind, claw-armed hulks in Resident Evil 4. The pacing is also reminiscent of RE4, as you'll be engaged in an intense firefight on one level and suddenly have to quietly sneak around a Berserker in the next.
Despite Gears' strengths, it does have some flaws. For example, the story and characters could have been developed much better. The character of Marcus Fenix could have been fleshed out much more, and I did not find the story particularly engaging. However, these are side dishes to the main course of the game, which is its core gameplay. And in this respect, Gears delivers--and it delivers something truly new, innovative, and fun to the third-person shooter genre.
