Gears of War is an exceptional Third-Person Shooter that no one should pass by.
Gears of War may look like your regular shooter, but it isn't. The gameplay in this game is much different than your regular action games. If your like me and played the game first time through on Hard Core, then using cover is a must. The game starts out fairly good, seeming like this is the right difficulty, but it gets very hard in some parts of the game, and may get frustrating. The gameplay revolved around the "A" button, when your playing you can get into cover using the "A" button, and back out of it. You can also dive and roll using it. When in cover, you can peak your head out with the Left-Trigger, and shoot with the Right-Trigger, or you can just pull the Right-Trigger when under cover and blind fire, which is inaccurate, but keeps you from taking damage. The most innovative thing with this game is the reloading, this is new in these kind of games, and probably will see them used for future shooting games. If you hit the Right-Bumper and hit it again timing it with the white bar, then you have bullets that cause more damage for a certain period of time, and a quicker reload. If you mess up it results you into jamming your gun. The chain-saw that is on your main weapon the "Lancer", also known as a chain-saw bayonet, is another cool feature with this game. If you go up to an enemy and hit the "B" button you will chain-saw the enemy in half. If a enemy shoots at you while having revving it up, then you can't use it for another few seconds. The boss battles in this game are fun, but there should of been more, and the games length and lack of detail in the story may disappoint people. But not a huge deal in my opinion.
Gears of War's graphics is probably the best there is out there right now. You can't find a game with better graphics. The detail of characters and environment's is just amazing. Cinematics in this game are Real-Time and not Renderd. Some times the game might slow down a bit, but it's usually barley noticeable. All-in-all it's probably the best graphics there is out there.
As you need great gameplay and great graphics, sound is also important, and Epic nails it. The music makes the game seem very cinematic, and makes the game flow. Gun fights and the sound of guns firing seems very realistic and just as good as Call of Duty's 2 sound. But the best part is revving your chain saw and slicing your enemy in half, it never gets old.
Overall Gears of War delivers in every way possible, and every Xbox 360 owner should own this game. Even if your not a big fan of shooters, Gears of War will probably impress you, and if you don't have a 360. Get one!