A pure gem that shines on the 360 and is supported by the designers online with new free maps and game modes.
The multiplayer is truely what makes this game superb. Online battles consist of 4 v 4 matches that take place on perfectly sized maps. You start off with 4 weapons: the machine gun, shotgun, smoke gernade, and pistol. Other more valuable weapons like the gernade launcher, torque bow (bow that shoots explosive arrows), sniper rifle, and hammer of dawn (shoots a beam of light from the sky) are scattered throughout the rest of the map. Unfortunately, if you are looking to do ranked matches with your friends online look elsewhere since the developers not so long ago released an update that eliminated pre-arranged teams before the start of the game. So you can no longer invite your friends to ranked matches. There are 4 types of gameplays: Warzone (practically anything goes), Execution (once you get shot down the enemy must get in a certain range to kill you), Annex (King of the hill), and Assassination (Eliminate other teams leader and win).
While Gears is a great game there is only a few bad portions of the game. First off, whoever hosts the online matches gets advantages. Hosting a ranked match enables you to be faster than the other players and usually ends in a high number of kills for the host. Other than that ever since the newly released patch I have difficulty getting into online co-op games. No matter what I do I cannot connect to any games. Overall if you are in for a gorey, 3rd person tatical shooter then Gears Of War is definately a purchase.