An out of this world experience
User Rating: 9.4 | Gears of War X360
In the game you'll play as and soldier in a apocalyptic world named Marcus Fenix, a traitor who is pardoned from jail as a last resort at the begining of the game, fighting off hordes of humanoid monsters known as the Locust. The basic gameplay of this game consists of taking cover and picking off Locust scum. Theres also a lot of flanking and occasional close range combat, not to mention plenty of different kinds of Locust to fight. Taking cover is simple as pressing one button. Reloading adds an innovative feature called the active reload. When you hit the reload button a little bar appears below your hud with a white area somewhere on it and a little nudge running across it. You can either let it run across the whole bar (regular reload) or time it right and hit the reload button again once its over the white area getting an active reload, giving you a 40% faster reload and your next mag of ammo 10% more power, but if you attempt an active reload and land the nudge anywhere other then the white area then your gun gets jamed. The health just reheals after being left alone for a while so there are no need for medikits. The story is desent though not great and it was a bit of a unpleasing ending.On the graphical side Gears of War is probably the best looking game yet The lighting and character and weapon models look fantastic. The one problem with the graphics is that the enviorment looks a bit lacking in color and is sort of dark, but it is expected since it is a world that has been through 14 years of war.The game is about 8-10 hours, has 3 difficulty settings, co-op mode, and 30 COG tags you will need to collect. You will be finished with this in about a week or two but the missions are highly replayable. Online works very well and adds the "downed" feature found in other games such as BattleField 2. Weapons are really balanced and the maps vary in size and shape. There are 3 different types of online gameplay but are all generally variations of TDM. Teamwork is key as team mates revive the downed, give support fire, and flank the other team. The active reload seems to be much more crucial online. Overall the singleplayer is more interesting but the online is what will keep you comming back. Overall this is an awesome game that will definatly be remembered as one of the best Xbox 360 will have to offer. Epic's new series have become a multimillion selling hit and for good reason. This game is overall one of the best shooters to own on any platform and probably will be for years to come.
