Epic brings us a nightmare of a war-torn world with flair and marvel
Gears is set during a world destroying confict between humans and the insidious Locust horde. In a desperated attempt to cleanse the planet of the threat, the human government used orbital bombardments that destroyed most of the surface. But this failed and left the planet a ruin and man power short, and so its down to a convict, formaly a 'Gear' (the human militarys grunt infantry) by the name of Marcus Fenix, to help the fight after he is busted out of jail by his friend and former colleague Dom.
The opening level sees you take control of Marcus and together with Dom you must fight your way out of the prison and into the conflict proper. It is here where you come across your first choice, a simple left or right. However one way is a direct fight with no tutorial and the other is the tutorial on the basics of fighting back the locust. This may seem like a simple choice and well it is, but it is the first clue that the developer really knows what they are doing and how they cater to hardcore shooter fans and the more casual gamer. However, those who dont take the tutorial and rush headlong into the fight may soon encounter a swift and brutal death and this is a game where run and gun simply dosent work and anyone trying to do this will find the grim reaper waiting nearby.
Epic have chosen to make this a 'pop and gun' game, where the key to success is to plant yourself behind cover and take quick shots at your enemy before moving to the next peice of cover and so on. While this mechanic is nothing new, the flair with which it is pulled off and the simply stunning visuals make this game nothing short of spectactular. With enemies using the same tactics and weapons, each firefight becomes almost a game of chess, with whoever can manover quickest and to the right place coming out on top. This is game of the 'easy to pick up, hard to master' variety, even with grenades as the excellent physics system allows you plot thier course so they bounce around cover and take out whoever is hiding just outside your gunsights. Mastering the pop and gun though is somewhat tough, even for seasoned shooter fans as it is very easy to forget this simple principle and charge into the fray, but this is never the games fault and will result in either a swift bullet to the head or arguably the games coolest feature. Gears of War is a viseral combat expercience like no other and epitomises that fact with just one weapon: the chainsaw bayonet. When used in close combat, this devastating weapon results in not only an instant kill, but one the most satisfying combat moves of all time. Blood splatters over the camra as you hear the saw rip through flesh and bone and literally slice an opponent to bits. This experience translates to multiplayer really well, giving players an excellent way to annihilate each other online, or play through the campaign co-operatively with a friend with not a hint of slow down throughout. It can be difficult to get into a match, but this was recently fixed with a patch. Gears of War has only two major problems and both are design choices. One is that the game is short, barely ten hours long and the other is that the story is not explained and instead focuses on that instant rather than the excellent back story the manual sets up. Neither of these complaints mar and excellent game and rightfully game of the year, all round excellent.