Gears of War

[Rhydderch Hael]

... It's well worth a look, even if "normal" FPS games aren't quite your cup of tea. Oh, and the horror elements are very well-done, not too over-the-top, and certainly not as scripted as some points in Doom 3. It's what I imagine Resident Evil games to play like, although with more action, and less horror. ...

...If you like FPS action, but prefer tactical gameplay to just run-and-gun, this is your game. ...

The slower, more tactically-minded gameplay was the selling point for me. As far as I've gone, there have been several instances where I was able to flank a skirmish without being prompted to do so— the opportunity was simply there and I took it. Having a button that will direct your view to points-of-interest really helped to maintain situational awareness when something new emerged.

I'm not a hardcore shooter-gamer, and I was afraid that the latest generation of games would be over-tailored with an excessive amount of technical details into the notion of combat. Fighting is complex, but what I'm talking about is needing the fingers of a saxophone player in order to control a character, or the translation skills of an Egyptologist to decipher the hieroglyphics of a futuristic HUD. You need not be a saxophone-playing Egyptologist to get a kick out of Gears of War, which is definitely a good thing. Controls and situational awareness are simple, which allows you to exercise complexity in other, more productive fields in the game— like tactical positioning and movement.

...The story could have been fleshed out just a bit more. What's there is great, and it flows very smoothly. The character development, while "short and sweet", works beautifully. But I would have enjoyed more backstory, at least in the manual if nothing else. EVERY game these days has a pittance of a manual, with half a page of backstory, at best. We've gone from Contra to Diablo and back to Contra again.:P...

Actually, you can get a little more of a backstory, but only if you pay extra for the Special Edition— ahh, the sign of the times. Beautiful, ain't it? :mellow:

To make a short story— even shorter: humans of Sera discover Imulsion, a glowy liquid that no one knows what to do with until one scientist extracts energy (Lightmass) from it. Oil economy collapses in the face of all this cheap energy, buncha wars are fought for control of the resource, then things settle down— until Emergence Day.

The Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) takes power during the crisis, orders all humans to evacuate to the Jacinto Plateau, then razes 90% of the planet's surface in order to deny the Locusts access to the abandoned cities. Not all the humans escaped the scorched earth, unfortunately. Jacinto itself is turned into a military presidio in anticipation of the Horde's next offensive. Locusts eventually do break up through the plateau, and now you're in the middle of Jacinto's inevitable disintegration.


PS: Just found out that the voice actor for Fenix is the same guy who voices Bender the Robot from Futurama. As Marcus would say, "Sweet.";)