This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

Gears of War! Gears of War! Gears of War!

It's the game that first got us excited about the Xbox 360 a few years ago; it's the game everybody's talking about; it's the game that could be the next Halo.

The game takes place in the future, where a breed of insect-like aliens known as Locusts have attacked Earth and mostly wiped out civilization. You play as Marcus Fenix, a member of the small- but well-armed resistance army trying to fight back.

Is it the next Halo? Probably not, but it's definitely one hell of a game. A game so polished that I feel slippery just thinking about it. If anyone has been waiting for a reason to buy an Xbox 360, this is it.



Very seldom there comes a game that not only pushes its genre forward, but the entire gaming world as well. Think of Mario 64, where the chains of dimensional-bondage were cut loose and we finally had full run of an environment; at long last you could go anywhere in a game world. Think also of Half-Life 2, a game that changed the way we think about level design, physics, immersion, and storytelling. I believe Gears of War will find its way to that short list, and all games released from now on will at some level be compared with this game in the arenas of gameplay, graphics, design, and just outright originality. Look past all the Holiday-release console war BS, this is a truly amazing game.

Does it have its problems? Of course, every game does, but the most amazing thing about Gears of War is how little you care about the nitpickery.

The game is a third-person tactical shooter in the vein of the overlooked PS2 game Kill.Switch, where instead of the run-and-gun action you get in a Halo-type shooter you're forced to be more skillful with your assault. Very heavy focus is placed on finding and maintaining cover -- be it walls, broken concrete, trash dumpsters, or boulders. Context-sensitive actions allow you to very fluidly move from cover to cover and fire while under cover. Enemies typically head for cover the same as you, and often very heavy gunfights take place with you and a small fleet of badguys trying to edge around eachother, looking for the best cover and trying to pop off the most shots while the other isn't looking.

This is an interesting premise, but that only goes so far. The problem with Kill.Switch is that once you got a hang of the "stop and pop" gameplay, that was it; just keep finding cover and shooting people around corners for hours until the game ends. This problem is common of most games, if you think about it, games are typically built around a gameplay element and once you've figured all the moves out there's nothing to do but repeat them over and over. Think of the first few Splinter Cell games, for another example, once you figured out everything Sam could do it seemed like you just kept repeating those moves over and over. Sneak around, hide in the dark, shoot some guys in the head, be real sneaky. This problem is so age-old that most people don't even consider it a "problem" anymore but rather just a component of videogames.

You must understand this in order to understand how truly unique Gears of War is. While some games try to spice up the gameplay by throwing in a puzzle here or there and a few boss battles, Gears of War somehow manages to surprise you at every turn. It's almost as if the gameplay itself changes continually, just as a matter of dealing with the environment.

Take, for example, a large section in the second of the game's five "Acts". You and a squadmate are out forging through enemy territory when the sun goes down and a new enemy emerges: small bat-like creatures called Kryll. The Kryll are harmed by light so they can only lurk in the shadows, but any creature who finds himself in the darkness will be instantly attacked and killed by the savage little beasts. This section is really what sold me on the game when it was demonstrated at E3 in 2005, and it's one of the most engaging of the whole game. To continue forward, you have to either find light or create it by shooting propane tanks until they explode. This might sound like a straightforward environmental puzzle, but it feels so organic nonetheless. One of the best parts is that the Kryll will attack even the enemy Locusts, so one of the coolest things you can do when you find yourself in a gunfight is to lure enemies into the dark so they'll be attacked. One section has you pinned down a long alleyway with enemies sniping you from buildings; you could just shoot at them and hope you hit, or you could just shoot out the lights in the room. There's even a very cool section where you have to help a squadmate cross a darkened street by tracking him with a large spotlight in order to keep him in the light.

Gameplay keeps changing like this, and hour after hour you never feel bored. Some areas are thrilling, some are downright scary, and all throughout you actually want to keep pressing forward just to see what else you'll get to do.

Combat feels very tightly-tuned as well. The guns, while unrealistic, are very satisfying. Unlike in many games where you start out with little pooter guns and continually trade up for newer and cooler weapons, the gun you start out with is probably the coolest. Nicknamed the "chainsaw gun", the heavy machine gun features a small spiked chainsaw for a bayonet, so while other guns allow you to smash attackers as a melee attack, the chainsaw gun allows you to saw them in half. This is a little hard to pull off, but it's so gruesome and sickly satisfying that it's worth the effort. You're allowed to carry three guns total (two heavy and one pistol), so as you do encounter other weapons like shotguns and sniper rifles you have to make some accounting decisions to decide which gun you want to keep and which to drop.

The only thing I need to say about the graphics is that they're perfect. Character models, vehicles, environments, weather, it's all spectacular but not overwhelming to the point of distraction. Whenever I just stopped and spun the camera around to take in the sights I was always pretty awestruck, especially anywhere with water or rain.

Multiplayer fans should already have the modes of this game memorized. Besides the very-cool co-opperative levels you can play either split-screen with a real friend or online with a virtual one, there are a handful of deathmatch style modes to keep people busy. While there's not a Halo 2-size library of modes and levels, Epic is reportedly working on adding new online features you'll be able to download.

If anyone cares, John DiMaggio (the voice of Bender from Futurama) does a pretty nice job providing the voice of not one but two main characters and several accessory characters.

There's so many good features here I could go on forever, I could list all the cool little things like how whatever guns you're carrying are visible strapped to your back or interesting quirks like "active reloading" where proper timing of hitting the reload button will not only double the reload speed but increase the damage done by that clip, or entire gameplay elements like different paths you can choose or the ability to command squadmates; alas, there's only so much time in a day. All that needs to be said is that this game is truly refreshing and good not based on simple elements like "awesome graphics" or "cool guns" which are often what make games good. This game is good on principle; the way it keeps evolving is just awe-inspiring.



There are a few problems here and there with connecting to online servers. This seems to be common with Xbox Live for some reason. Updates are probably on the way.

The only faults in single-player that really stick out are these:

1. The grenades. They take far too long to aim and are pretty weak. I usually don't even bother with grenades in videogames, but when they're done well like in Call of Duty they can be extremely useful. Gears of War seems to want you to use the grenades, but they're just too much work.

2. Using the chainsaw bayonet can be frustrating at times. While other weapons' melee attacks only require that you tap the B button, to use the chainsaw attack you have to be holding it and possibly pulling the right trigger, and even then it seems to be random whether or not it'll connect. In times when I really needed to rely on a melee attack (such as when Wretches, four legged creatures that charge at you, start attacking) I had to switch to another weapon because the chainsaw was too risky.

3. The location of checkpoint saves can be a bit brutal at time, occasionally making you see the same cutscenes and walk through the same halls in order to get back to the gunfight where you died the last time.

Three problems. That's it.



Unless you're some kind of compulsive run-and-gun gameplay freak and can't take any other kind of game, you probably should own this game already. It's almost a universal truth now that the games that really validate the purchase of a new game console come out at least a year after the system. Here we are now, a year after the Xbox 360 has launched, and the game that should sell systems is here.

Gears of War is the best game on the Xbox 360. There, I said it.

The game itself is a riot, the truly amazing thing is how it keeps getting better and better

If you thought GRAW was as good as it gets, prepare to eat crow.

Music comes and goes and is pretty effective, sound effects are spot-on.

Relentless fun

The multiplayer is good and will get better with updates

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