Gears of War – Completed

My first 360 game completed!

Number one selling game for Christmas, the amount of hype for this game was just amazing. Then upon its release it seemed to live up to its name. One of the reasons I purchased a 360 was this game. People seemed to think it was worthy to be the game of the year and to me it had to prove itself.

A future war and you are an imprisoned solider with a past. You have to fight the alien horde to save the planet. Seems fairly familiar when it comes to shooter games yet amazingly enough the story gets you involved. Something I didn’t really care for but kept me intrigued was the amount of information that is missing. Maybe I didn’t watch all the cut scenes or wasn’t paying attention, but it seemed like there were holes in the story they just never chose to fill. I don’t expect final fantasy like character development, but at least tell me why I am in the slammer. In the end I was content with the shallowness of the story as it did not really affect the game.

When I started out I didn’t read all the text and missed that I could have done a tutorial. Training would have made the first hour of the game much more enjoyable. I would suggest to new players at your first fork in the road go right and get the training. Once you have a handle on the controls the game runs well and is easy to maneuver. What makes the controls unique is the one button to do it all. When you want to duck behind cover, run crouched, or tactfully move through a house you only need to press “A”. Making what would be very difficult maneuvering for a novice player so simplistic gave this game allot of appeal. For season veterans such as my self the single control limited my abilities that I have spent over a decade honing. In years of counter strike / quake / battlefield you get a sense of movement and adopt it to your playing style. The game does not allow you to use this experience and requires the cookie cutter fashion in which it was programmed. What does this mean for the players? It makes everyone equal and bound to the same exact scheme of movement and control. This could be why the game is doing so well, it is a level playing field.

The graphics and sounds have a great effect in immersing you into the environment. The graphics are some of the best to date that I have seen in gaming. The lighting and ambiance of it all give you the tingle you haven’t felt since resident evil.

I will give it 8 of 10. Game didn’t not feel as short as I expected it to be and the controls once learned are stable and well done. If you own a 360 and like shooters this is a must have.