Gears of War is not your average game. It is, in fact, one of the sole reasons to own a 360, and an incredible shooter.
But graphics don't make a game, just like special effects don't make a movie. You are plunged into the fight from the beginning, and have to learn quick. Once you're up against the opposition, it really gets tasty. There are a variety of guns, the first and foremost is of course the lancer, aka chainsaw gun, which I'm sure you will have heard of by now, even if you don't own gears yet. This gun can be revved up (hold B) to activate a chainsaw, which is used as a melee weapon. It can be a little confusing at first, but once you have the hang of it, you'll never want to fire another bullet again.
The game backs up it's great weapons with a brilliant cover system, allowing you to hide behind pretty much everything in the game, from burnt out cars to old wardrobes and sofas. You can cling to walls, lurk in doorways and duck behind a wall of sandbags to avoid the enemy.
And what an enemy. The locust, as they are known, come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from the immense corpsers to the small (and incredibly annoying) wretches. One thing that must be said is that the larger beasts don't go down easily, and it can take a couple of reloads to take down a boomer. For the bigger ones, like berserkers and corpsers, you'll need a bigger weapon, like the hammer of dawn, and even then, they won't go give up easily.
But if there's one thing this game is not, it's easy. Even on casual difficulty it can take a while to complete, hardcore is tough, insane is just … insane. It's not a game you can breeze through in one afternoon, and in my opinion, that just makes it even better. The storyline of the game has been critisised often for being too complicated, and at times the game is just too fast paced to keep track of what's going on. But if you do understand, the game is filled with dozens of tiny details for the clued-up gamer, from tattered anti-war posters to snatches of dialogue and little hints that drop clues about the storyline.
The game ends with a cliffhanger – I won't spoil it – which leaves us all waiting for Gears 2 in november this year. But Gears doesn't end there. Oh no. Because there's a whole host of incredible multiplayer oppurtunities just waiting on the other end of your network connector. A number of team games, including Annex, where teams of 4 capture and defend bases, Assasination, where the leader must be killed, or Warzone, which is just a straightforward deathmatch. There are a number of great maps, each one different, and a vast arsenal of weapons, allowing for hours of online entertainment.
Gears of War is a must have for the 360, if you haven't got it, get it. I would give this game a 10, but I stick to my belief that no game is perfect, and no game deserves a 10. So 9.5. In other words, Gears isn't perfect, but it's as pretty damn close to perfect as a game can get.