| Gears of War |
| Posted on 4th February 2007 by Tom Hully |
This title, the first from developers Epic Games (famous for the brilliant Unreal Championship series on PC) which they have produced exclusively for the Xbox 360, has received an incredible amount of hype ever since the first details started to appear; from both press and forumites alike. We, the ever-expectant gaming public, became even more feverish as the more details were revealed, up to the first screens where the inevitable happened: “Oh my god; that cannot be an in-game screen, can it?!?” – and suffice to say, it was indeed. Then the moment of truth arrived: the release date – November 17th 2006 was from then on to be known as Emergence Day, both as a date for the retail release of the game itself and a pointer in its beautifully intricate storyline. Fast forward to that date, and now the press and the worldwide gaming public are able to answer the classic media question: “Will it (the game) live up to the hype?”
Amazingly, you, the humble game-player to FPS fanatic will not even need to play this game once you place its blood-Gear adorned disc into your Xbox 360 and fire it up – just the act of looking at what appears on the screen will make you gasp with joy. OK, I admit that many of the 360’s ever growing repertoire of quality games will have you doing this; Oblivion, Dead Rising, Tom Clancy’s GRAW, Test Drive Unlimited, Lost Planet and Call of Duty 3 for instance, but “Gears” effortlessly beats them all, hands down.
This can be put down to Epic’s masterful use of their brainchild Unreal Engine 3, pretty much guaranteeing the absence of slowdown, tearing, and with not even a whiff of bugs or glitches. The sheer detail on every surface, organic or otherwise is truly out of this world, aided by the incredible working of the lighting mechanics and camera movement. The positioning of the camera during default play is the classic panoramic third person view, which moves to a first-person aiming mode (over the shoulder with a fade-in sight) when using a weapon – thus giving you more accuracy. The combination of these two angles makes the game an effortless joy to play, with new players picking up their skill pretty quickly; and also aids your viewpoint of the stunning environments; from a rusty prison to an underground mine network to a palatial private estate. These locales are filled with detail beyond your wildest expectations, down to the most innocuous piece of masonry (either still part of a semi-complete building or blasted into the streets or alleyways due to the ravaging Locust Horde’s sudden and brutal appearance into the world of man) which receive copious scars or pockmarks when fired upon, or the rusted hulk of a burned out car being literally roasted by the presence of any local propane gas.
These hulking blocks and wrecks soon become your best friends however, because enemy fire really is as lethal as it looks in this game, if you take one hit too many then that’s that – there are no fancy shield gauges or segmented health bars around to comfort you. Mercifully though, the cover system works brilliantly, both in it’s simplicity to use on the aspect of the controls but also in the way it saves your rebellious self from death. The health system in Gears works by the appearance of a red gear-style icon on the screen, which deepens in colour the more damage you take. So, if you manage to take cover before this icon becomes too impressive on the screen then it will seamlessly melt away, allowing you to continue.
Now, on to the control aspects for this system. One of the other great beauties of this game is the sheer amount of actions you can perform by doing so little. One button, A; allows you to dive into and move back from cover, dive from one piece of cover to another, perform a SWAT turn round a corner from cover or leap over cover all by using this button and a push of the left analogue stick in the direction you want to travel. Holding A while moving normally puts you into a fast, crouching sprint known as a roadie run (presumably based on the movement’s of roadies during music events to help the set up of a band’s equipment) which is essential if you are to make it from one piece of cover to another in a position you deem more effective. What’s more, the bonus of this move is the extra camera effect that kicks in: a more distant, centred perspective which shakes comparatively to movement; or as if the camera is being held by someone dashing behind you as in a war movie. After A, the next most impressive control layout is the use of the X button. This is the context-sensitive “do” button, allowing you to kick in doors, command your helper drone to cut through heavier barriers while you defend it, pick up ammo from crates, swapping weapons, controlling fixed machine guns (whose rate of fire and firepower is very satisfying) or pushing burning cars into better positions to use as mobile cover. Such reliance on you using cover to survive may lead some to think of this game as a slower, more considered Ghost Recon style of play; but oh no. This is much faster, thanks to the added agility of your character and team mates allowing you to jump from cover when you feel the need.
These incredibly simple moves can be learned almost instantly, letting you control Marcus (the lead character in his fight out from his prison cell in a last ditch attempt to save humanity from extinction) with such precision that you really will become hooked on how amazing this game is to play. The members of the Locust Horde which face Marcus, his faithful friend Dom and fellow COG army squadmates are split into varying forms of size, strength, numerity and intelligence. For example, Grunts (your equivalent) will work against you in pretty much the same way any human force would work on a battlefield: seeking cover, working out manoeuvres, providing cover fire etc. Wretches are next, and are more of the annoying nephews of the larger Locusts (much like the Grunt-to-Elite relationship in Halo, if you will). These little critters come in packs and scurry along all surfaces including the roof in order to take you out due to sheer persistence. Then we have the heavier Boomers, so called for their incredibly brutish appearance but also the weapons they carry: the explosive Boomshot grenade launcher. The females of the race are the not at all attractive Berserkers, which hunt on sound and smell alone to fanatically chase down and beat targets. The heavy artillery of the Locust come in the form of Seeders (spider-like creatures which spit out spores and ink which disrupts your communications) and Corpsers, which are aptly name if you get close.
These last three enemies are so physically daunting that they cannot be taken out using standard weapons – your Lancer machine gun with its meaty chainsaw bayonet, pistol, grenades or any of the Locust’s own weapons, including the mounted heavy guns. They need treatment in the form of the Hammer of Dawn laser gun, an incredibly potent weapon which works by you “painting” a target with the receiver; which in turn ignites the orbital battery and sends a hugely satisfying beam of light crashing down on the target.
After all of the gameplay features have been experienced, you then have the storyline: an epic war-torn adventure based on a rags-to-riches format: of a potentially disgraced war veteran (Marcus) being busted from prison by his best friend, brought instantly back into his squad, and re-igniting humanities challenge against this omnipresent alien menace. This storyline is once again made superb by the camera work, which have been honed and designed to levels normally only seen in films to create an absorbing and disturbing story which will live with the player for years.
To finally top it all, the multiplayer mode is once again a true joy. There are a healthy range of modes and maps, which have been lavished with the exact same attention to detail as the single player campaign. Experiencing this will leave you as exhilarated as playing through on your own or with a friend in the seamless full campaign co-op mode (in which your friend takes control of Dom upon joining across Xbox Live).
All in all, this game is a true masterpiece in every category; there are no limits to the praise and the commitment that it deserves from the gaming public once they purchase it. It truly is the bar-raiser which every game from now on, on any platform will have to be judged against in terms of sheer quality. |
Single Player Score: 10/10
Multiplayer Score: 10/10
Overall Score: 10/10 |
|
|
