Gears of War

[Rhydderch Hael]

I missed a golden opportunity to wave my copy of Gears of War in the faces of those in the PS3 waiting line forming in front of Circuit City yesterday, but I still have two days left to further torment and mock them. Right now, though, I'm trying to cover my sorry butt on the devastated world of Sera.

I squeezed in an hour or two of play last night (I was otherwise occupied with perfecting the facial features of a new Oblivion character). Ran through the tutorial twice in order to settle into the controls and get a feel for the battle mechanics. Fortunately, it only took two times before I got the hang of things and began pressing further into the first chapter.

It's not a first-person shooter. You're more like the angel watching Marcus Fenix's back (I say "angel" because your perspective is commonly over his right shoulder) but the sighting is smart enough for you to put your ordnance down precisely where you want it. Grenades even have their projected trajectory displayed before you lob the frag (which is important since grenades allow you to seal in the foxholes the enemy crawls out of).

While not powered nor pressurized, the battle armor worn by the characters is bulky and broken-in like that of the Terran Marines, which why it makes me think of a 3-D Starcraft shooter. Aside from the ubiquitous rifles and shotguns of the genre, you can also make use of a gun-type laser designator which calls down a satellite-borne particle beam attack (sort of like a Ghost painting for a Nuke attack).

Game literature and reviews all mention the use of cover during battle. There's a good reason for that: if you try to barrel recklessly into the fight because you think you'll be able to withstand the punishment, the game quickly reminds you that here, just like in real life, you don't have hero-level hitpoints! It takes just as much pepper to drop you as it takes you to drop any of the enemies you battle with. Offsetting this, however, is your regenerative health (enemies appear to have the same) and having lots of cover available (for all the tactical realism, I blink at the thought that a couch can effectively stop high-power bullets).

Reloading has its subtle touch. On the bottom of the ammo counter is a scrolling strip that marks how much time it takes to slam in a new mag (normally two or three seconds). This also opens up a mini-game where you can attempt to speed things up by hitting the reload button a second time: there's a small window of opportunity where, if you hit it, you can end the reload cycle early (say, in one second). But if you attempt and fail the mini-game, you pooch the lock and end up spending an extra second trying to clear a stuck cartridge.

The setting of the gave itself reminds me of the urban battlegrounds of Call of Duty. Imagine a beautiful southern European metropolis, styled with a 21st Century take on the Old World architecture of plazas, arcades and facades. Then carpet-bomb it a few times. There you have it, the city (which I presume is named Jacinto due to the plateau its situated on in backstory) where the last humans on the world are making their stand.

I'm of a mind to start calling the Locust footsoldiers I'm battling the "Krug", because these guys do look a lot like the baddies from Dungeon Siege. That is, if the Krug were equipped with ballistic armor and machine guns. I'm currently at the point in the story where the squad's trapped inside the Tomb of the Unknowns with a Locust Berserker stalking them.

[Alamara]

I've heard nothing but great reviews about this game, and I've heard that it will be to the X-Box 360 what Halo/H2 were for the original X-Box. Is it going to be purely 360, though? If there's no chance that it will be ported, and the game's popularity continues to grow, my focus on the Wii might waver a bit. =o

Not too much, though. I really want to play a "Versus" version of Duck Hunt. =D

[Rhydderch Hael]

From the graphics quality, it would have to be one hell of a PC video card to handle it. As little as I've seen, one moment that stays in my mind is when I'm standing in a plaza directly behind the House of Sovereigns (the parliament building) as a brisk breeze stretched curtains of dust off the rubble surrounding me.

The catch-phrase of the game's art direction is "Shattered Beauty". It fits.

I do want to shatter one myth, though: everyone fawns over the idea of an assault rifle with a chainsaw attached to it. Two things: first, it's not really a chainsaw— looks more like a serrated vibroblade (though it certainly sounds like a chainsaw); secondly, I have yet to actually carve up a Locust (or "Krug"?) with one. If one does get into melee range, it's only because I'm caught in the middle of a reload and am otherwise incapable to revving up the saw!

The saw may be fun, but you have to be deliberate about using it. I guess that little doohickey will save you if you run out of ammo, though.

Hammer of Dawn (the satellite laser) is cute in the few instances you're allowed to use it, because it gives me the impression that God is a giant 8-year old boy with a magnifying glass, and you're the toy soldier pointing out which ant he should fry next.;)

[Occhidiangela]

I missed a golden opportunity to wave my copy of Gears of War in the faces of those in the PS3 waiting line forming in front of Circuit City yesterday, but I still have two days left to further torment and mock them. Right now, though, I'm trying to cover my sorry butt on the devastated world of Sera.

I squeezed in an hour or two of play last night (I was otherwise occupied with perfecting the facial features of a new Oblivion character). Ran through the tutorial twice in order to settle into the controls and get a feel for the battle mechanics. Fortunately, it only took two times before I got the hang of things and began pressing further into the first chapter.

It's not a first-person shooter. You're more like the angel watching Marcus Fenix's back (I say "angel" because your perspective is commonly over his right shoulder) but the sighting is smart enough for you to put your ordnance down precisely where you want it. Grenades even have their projected trajectory displayed before you lob the frag (which is important since grenades allow you to seal in the foxholes the enemy crawls out of).

While not powered nor pressurized, the battle armor worn by the characters is bulky and broken-in like that of the Terran Marines, which why it makes me think of a 3-D Starcraft shooter. Aside from the ubiquitous rifles and shotguns of the genre, you can also make use of a gun-type laser designator which calls down a satellite-borne particle beam attack (sort of like a Ghost painting for a Nuke attack).

Game literature and reviews all mention the use of cover during battle. There's a good reason for that: if you try to barrel recklessly into the fight because you think you'll be able to withstand the punishment, the game quickly reminds you that here, just like in real life, you don't have hero-level hitpoints! It takes just as much pepper to drop you as it takes you to drop any of the enemies you battle with. Offsetting this, however, is your regenerative health (enemies appear to have the same) and having lots of cover available (for all the tactical realism, I blink at the thought that a couch can effectively stop high-power bullets).

Reloading has its subtle touch. On the bottom of the ammo counter is a scrolling strip that marks how much time it takes to slam in a new mag (normally two or three seconds). This also opens up a mini-game where you can attempt to speed things up by hitting the reload button a second time: there's a small window of opportunity where, if you hit it, you can end the reload cycle early (say, in one second). But if you attempt and fail the mini-game, you pooch the lock and end up spending an extra second trying to clear a stuck cartridge.

The setting of the gave itself reminds me of the urban battlegrounds of Call of Duty. Imagine a beautiful southern European metropolis, styled with a 21st Century take on the Old World architecture of plazas, arcades and facades. Then carpet-bomb it a few times. There you have it, the city (which I presume is named Jacinto due to the plateau its situated on in backstory) where the last humans on the world are making their stand.

I'm of a mind to start calling the Locust footsoldiers I'm battling the "Krug", because these guys do look a lot like the baddies from Dungeon Siege. That is, if the Krug were equipped with ballistic armor and machine guns. I'm currently at the point in the story where the squad's trapped inside the Tomb of the Unknowns with a Locust Berserker stalking them.

Great write up, Rhydd, but you made me cry inside when you mentioned Starcraft: Ghost, which is on the shelf, most likely never to come down. :( My son and I had soooo looked forward to that game.

Occhi

[Roland]

Game literature and reviews all mention the use of cover during battle. There's a good reason for that: if you try to barrel recklessly into the fight because you think you'll be able to withstand the punishment, the game quickly reminds you that here, just like in real life, you don't have hero-level hitpoints! It takes just as much pepper to drop you as it takes you to drop any of the enemies you battle with. Offsetting this, however, is your regenerative health (enemies appear to have the same) and having lots of cover available (for all the tactical realism, I blink at the thought that a couch can effectively stop high-power bullets).

It should be noted that, with enough bullets (and it doesn't take much), that couch will rapidly disintegrate into splinters, leaving you utterly exposed. Be wary of that. You can use that to your advantage, though, especially when you hit the Fenix Estate.

Reloading has its subtle touch. On the bottom of the ammo counter is a scrolling strip that marks how much time it takes to slam in a new mag (normally two or three seconds). This also opens up a mini-game where you can attempt to speed things up by hitting the reload button a second time: there's a small window of opportunity where, if you hit it, you can end the reload cycle early (say, in one second). But if you attempt and fail the mini-game, you pooch the lock and end up spending an extra second trying to clear a stuck cartridge.

Not to mention that if you time it JUST right, you get a small damage boost for a short duration. That really pays off.

I'm currently at the point in the story where the squad's trapped inside the Tomb of the Unknowns with a Locust Berserker stalking them.

One of the scariest "chapters" in the whole game. I left that one with my heart pounding and my palms sweating. I was holding my breath the whole time through. When it was finally all over, I had to sit back, breathe a sigh of relief, and let the moment sink in. Truly a riveting experience.

I will say this about the game (some spoilers):
1) The graphics are astounding. The immersion factor is stupendous in this game, and the environments are so crisp and realistic, it really looks like it could be our future. They did an exemplary job.
2) The musical score is great. It really adds something to the game, in the same way Diablo's music did. I love it.
3) The story throughout, while littered with humor, the occasional wit, and plenty of profanity, plays out like your average summer blockbuster action film. The backstory never gets into any greater detail, but going through the game is an experience (a positive one, IMHO).
4) The fast-paced action combined with the tactical gameplay (Doom 3 meets Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter with prettier graphics and better backgrounds) make for a superbly entertaining, riveting, pick-up-and-play shooter. 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.

Ok, now the gripes.
1) The game is short. I mean, 3-days of maybe 2 - 4 hours per day short. It's a 7-hour game, on Casual difficulty. This isn't entirely bad, and it's especially not so rough when you expect it, but don't expect a huge game like Oblivion. Even Doom 3 was longer, although probably the same amount of story. What makes it all palatable is that everything just lines up: it's short, but fast-paced; little story, but it flows quickly and smoothly. To sum it up: it's an action film that you play. I loved every second of the thrill ride, but just like a roller coaster, it's over too soon (just soon enough to make you want to rush back and do it all again, though).
2) 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

So, to sum my feelings up on the game, it's a GREAT tactical shooter that blends fast-paced action, tactical gameplay, and a strong enough story to suit the environment, wraps it all up in a pretty little graphical bow, and throws in some very good musical score that suits the game wonderfully. There's just enough of everything to make it a truly good game to play through, at least once. It's short, and so very, very sweet. Definitely a good fix for ANY shooter needs. I just wonder about the replayability factor, but it's way too early to tell at this point.

If you like FPS action, but prefer tactical gameplay to just run-and-gun, this is your game. If you love yourself a good old-school Wesley Snipes or Sylvester Stallone action flick, this is your game. If the idea of ripping through organic monstrosities with a CHAINSAW on the tip of your assault rifle, THIS IS YOUR GAME! It's a great game for what it delivers, and it delivers plenty, compared to the dearth of good games thus far. Just remember that it's short, but it's designed that way.

***SPOILERS***










































The ending practically came out of nowhere. One minute you're beating pavement, rushing to get the ever-important data to end the war, and the next you're on some random train with the Lightmass bomb that hasn't been mentioned since the first Act! It just struck me as disjointed a little. That, and the ending overall seemed... tacky. The whole game acts and plays like a great summer action flick, but the ending was just too over-the-top for my taste. It didn't jive with the rest of the game. Whereas the game flowed beautifully, and everything just "fit", the ending seemed... overdone, not as polished, just didn't fit as nicely as I would have thought it should. Maybe I'm being picky though.

And again! The utter lack of backstory ties in directly with the ending, thus further complicating things. I just wish they had told us at least a little more.

[Roland]

Just wait until you tear your first Theron Guard, or Wretch, to little gobbly bits with that thing. You'll make it a point to kill at least one baddie that way during every firefight that you possibly can. I guarantee you.:D

Or maybe I'm just sick.:D

[Chesspiece_face]

I've heard nothing but great reviews about this game, and I've heard that it will be to the X-Box 360 what Halo/H2 were for the original X-Box. Is it going to be purely 360, though? If there's no chance that it will be ported, and the game's popularity continues to grow, my focus on the Wii might waver a bit. =o

Not too much, though. I really want to play a "Versus" version of Duck Hunt. =D

the chances for gears of war to be ported is close to zero. and it definately won't be ported to the Wii.

A couple things to add to the above review:

many of the reviews i've read have claimed the AI of your allied units to be wonderful. I think this is fairly misleading. throughout most of the game you have 4 team members following with you, with all the crossfire and tactical situations the game presents it really becomes imperative that each of your team members is working efficiently especially on the harder difficulties. i've found the AI of your team mates to be essentially the same as the AI of your opponents. Many times they will either stay too far back and not advance for positioning very well and other times they will just go balls to the wall and end up getting slaughtered. Either way you really cannot rely on your team members to assist you other than drawing fire for a few seconds while they get PWNED. The Enemy AI will offen do the same sort of moves and also tends to jump out in the open and proceed to run straight through patches of dark territory (which you do NOT want to do in this game.) leaving them as easy pickings. the difference between the enemies and your allies is that there are a hell of a lot more enemies.

Online Vs. is a lot of fun, but presently it is far far from where it needs to be. Many of my online teamates have openly admited to never playing the campaign. I suppose that could be one reason why 90% of the players on live just run and gun as if this was Halo. It is obvious that this game is not supposed to be played as a crazed frag-fest, but more short sweet tactical encounters. Unfortunately very few of the online maps encourage this type of play. more often than not players are encouraged to go crazy killing everything you see and are rewarded by being the first person to get to a certain map spot or by just getting lucky with a chainsaw rev.

the main thing that can rectify the above online issue is to release more map packs where the maps actually force players into confined areas where every gained inch actually can turn the tide. There is one map presently that does this but most of the other maps seem to be of the "large central area with lots of little debris and if you control one map point the other team is pretty much done for" mentality. this wouldn't be a problem if you were forced to fight for said map point but when it is just thrown in the center of the map, with each opponent spawning on opposite sides it just leads to an all out sprint by both teams to be the first one there. so much for tactics.

many of the other issues with the online battles can be resolved in higher level play by premade teams etc. With 4v4 battles in relatively small arenas it is obvious that they want to make every kill count. This is further amplified by the fact that it is not readily apparant many times if the individual you have in the crosshairs is an enemy or an ally. the models are distinct enough that given a second or two to look you will know, but in the heat of battle you rarely have this couple seconds, especially if that would mean taking a chainsaw through the face yourself if you were wrong. unfortunately the game offers the option to turn off friendly fire (which is what, of course, 90% of the games are set to. in fact i think it is the default setting.) This setting alone has the ability to amp up the depth of any given match and i think in higher level of play it will become a given to have friendly fire always turned on. but by having it turned off it just further devolves the game into a frag fest.

[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.";)

[Chesspiece_face]

the chances for gears of war to be ported is close to zero. and it definately won't be ported to the Wii.

Although i could be wrong:

Gears of War PC. Maybe.

[Rhydderch Hael]

Just wait until you tear your first Theron Guard, or Wretch, to little gobbly bits with that thing. You'll make it a point to kill at least one baddie that way during every firefight that you possibly can. I guarantee you.:D

Or maybe I'm just sick.:D

Well, I did my best Paul Bunyan impersonation on a few Grubs (that's Fenix's pet name for the Horde, apparently— and not that far off from mine).

It was kind of hard discerning any kind of fine detail into their demise, however. You know, what with all the blood splattering up against the camera, the scenery got a little obscured. :huh::blink::o

I did manage to gib a Boomer, though. B)Took him out with a launcher just like the one he was shooting off. That is what we call payback, man.

[Roland]

Well, I did my best Paul Bunyan impersonation on a few Grubs (that's Fenix's pet name for the Horde, apparently— and not that far off from mine).

It was kind of hard discerning any kind of fine detail into their demise, however. You know, what with all the blood splattering up against the camera, the scenery got a little obscured. :huh::blink::o

I did manage to gib a Boomer, though. B)Took him out with a launcher just like the one he was shooting off. That is what we call payback, man.

I LIVE for that blood-covered screen. Gets my blood rushing everytime.

[Zippyy]

I've beaten Gears (hardcore difficulty) with a friend playing split-screen coop, and it was a blast. Planning on tackling Insane difficulty this weekend.

[Roland]

I've beaten Gears (hardcore difficulty) with a friend playing split-screen coop, and it was a blast. Planning on tackling Insane difficulty this weekend.

I can't get by the first Troika, the one with the "spotter" in the upper right. All my stupid AI teammates die, and I'm left alone to pick away at an impossible target. The thing turns too much to flank, and the bullets will kill you in about 4 hits.

I'm sure I'll figure this out sooner or later, but so far, it's biting me hard. I just can't get around it. And it takes too long to chuck a grenade, and they don't have enough radius to hit much anyway unless you're dead on.

Edit:
Ok, so I got by that part. Piece of cake, even if it took me about four tries.;)Just beat Act 1 on Hardcore, and I still have to say, that Berserker chase gets my adrenaline pumping every time. It's just so hair-raising. It's things like that that make me LOVE this game.

[Chesspiece_face]

I missed a golden opportunity to wave my copy of Gears of War in the faces of those in the PS3 waiting line forming in front of Circuit City yesterday, but I still have two days left to further torment and mock them.

The guys over at PA got your back covered:

Comic.

[Rhydderch Hael]

***SPOILERS***
The ending practically came out of nowhere. One minute you're beating pavement, rushing to get the ever-important data to end the war, and the next you're on some random train with the Lightmass bomb that hasn't been mentioned since the first Act! It just struck me as disjointed a little. That, and the ending overall seemed... tacky. The whole game acts and plays like a great summer action flick, but the ending was just too over-the-top for my taste. It didn't jive with the rest of the game. Whereas the game flowed beautifully, and everything just "fit", the ending seemed... overdone, not as polished, just didn't fit as nicely as I would have thought it should. Maybe I'm being picky though.

And again! The utter lack of backstory ties in directly with the ending, thus further complicating things. I just wish they had told us at least a little more.

The Single Player Campaign was either cut short or never was the strong focus of the game's development, I'm left to imagine. A filler mission or at least a cutscene indicating that the Lightmass train had just been commandeered by the Locust would have helped a bit. You're right— it was very disjointed. Once the data was recovered (and there's the matter of just why Marcus' father was in possession of such vital information without Command's knowledge), Delta Team suddenly had a train to catch— a train that inexplicably contains both the WMD of human salvation and a swarm of Locust being led by their field general.

That's akin to making a WWII shooter game where your platoon is dropped aboard the USS Indianapolis with the atomic bombs aboard, and finding the ship swarming with Japanese soldiers— with no plot development that justifies this.

Simple cutscene suggestion, Epic: we find COG High Command was actually playing it smart and held the train at the station (because only the heir to the Throne of Morons would actually send the train towards its target without first feeding the neccessary data into the weapon!) but the good ol' Locusts overran the station and captured the train, running up the engine to escape Coalition counterattack and prevent the weapon from being activated. Lieutenant Stroud radios Sergeant Fenix about the situation and Fenix decides to divert his team to a platform ahead of the train in order to intercept it. That's all you need in order to make some sense of what happened.

Great gameplay, unforgettable atmosphere— but the SP story was strung together like some mod a gamer wrote up using a construction set: get this item, then find this location, get another item, and get it to another location.

Definitely seeding for a sequel. One that would feature the Queen, further revelations into Marcus' father's past activities, and just whom Dominic is looking for among the Stranded.

[Roland]

The Single Player Campaign was either cut short or never was the strong focus of the game's development, I'm left to imagine. A filler mission or at least a cutscene indicating that the Lightmass train had just been commandeered by the Locust would have helped a bit. You're right— it was very disjointed. Once the data was recovered (and there's the matter of just why Marcus' father was in possession of such vital information without Command's knowledge), Delta Team suddenly had a train to catch— a train that inexplicably contains both the WMD of human salvation and a swarm of Locust being led by their field general.

That's akin to making a WWII shooter game where your platoon is dropped aboard the USS Indianapolis with the atomic bombs aboard, and finding the ship swarming with Japanese soldiers— with no plot development that justifies this.

Simple cutscene suggestion, Epic: we find COG High Command was actually playing it smart and held the train at the station (because only the heir to the Throne of Morons would actually send the train towards its target without first feeding the neccessary data into the weapon!) but the good ol' Locusts overran the station and captured the train, running up the engine to escape Coalition counterattack and prevent the weapon from being activated. Lieutenant Stroud radios Sergeant Fenix about the situation and Fenix decides to divert his team to a platform ahead of the train in order to intercept it. That's all you need in order to make some sense of what happened.

Great gameplay, unforgettable atmosphere— but the SP story was strung together like some mod a gamer wrote up using a construction set: get this item, then find this location, get another item, and get it to another location.

Definitely seeding for a sequel. One that would feature the Queen, further revelations into Marcus' father's past activities, and just whom Dominic is looking for among the Stranded.

Actually, I enjoyed the Single Player experience very thoroughly, right up until that last part. It was just so disjointed, it threw me off for a bit, and so going through the Train level, the whole time I was scratching my head going "Huh?" It was kind of distracting from the gameplay.

I still think it's a great game. The story is enough to satisfy, and it flows beautiful (until the end, anyway). I'm glad I bought it, and I think it's worthy of at least some of the hype. It IS a killer title for the 360, and the graphics on it really help stem the tide in the "hardware spec wars" between the 360 and the PS3.

Gears was delayed several times, pushed back to nearly coincide with the PS3 launch. Maybe that's why the ending is so disconnected from the rest of the game?

[Rhydderch Hael]

Playing the SP campaign is enjoyable, trying to link together the sequence of events as a whole is best left to the mantra of "pop some corn, sit back and enjoy the ride— philosophy lecture cancelled for today".

My favorite stage is nightfall in the city, in spite of (or is it because of?) it taking a page straight out of Pitch Black. Of course ("watch out— philosophy major in the house!") they could simply have Jack decloak and cast a light over them the whole time.

Or carry a torch.

[Roland]

Playing the SP campaign is enjoyable, trying to link together the sequence of events as a whole is best left to the mantra of "pop some corn, sit back and enjoy the ride— philosophy lecture cancelled for today".

My favorite stage is nightfall in the city, in spite of (or is it because of?) it taking a page straight out of Pitch Black. Of course ("watch out— philosophy major in the house!") they could simply have Jack decloak and cast a light over them the whole time.

Or carry a torch.

I don't know if I have a favorite yet. I just beat Act 2, and am into the mines of Act 3. The mines are certainly one of the creepiest areas in the game, with great ambience. It's just so fun, even replaying it almost immediately after beating it once. It's still so fresh and exciting. I think this game will have a bit more shelf-life than some other FPS titles out there.

I probably won't touch MP until I beat Insane. Oh, and I'm soloing this the whole way. I'll hit coop once I finish the game on all three difficulties. Until then, I want to experience the game itself, without distractions. I hear coop is a blast, though, so I'm excited to try it out in the future.

And yes, the story is simple, but it flows, it keeps you going, and it's never boring. I've truly come to appreciate it, actually, even more the second time through. For what it offers, they did a superb job. It's not a matter of setting your goals low, it's a matter of picking what you want to deliver, what your target audience is, and going at it 100%. They did just that, and I think they pulled it off beautifully. RPGmongers will certainly not find much to like about the game, but FPS gamers who enjoy a bit more than just your average shooter will certainly find much to like about this game. The dry humor is a nice touch, IMHO, and it truly fits the environment of the game. It's small things like that that just make it all come together. Even the foul language, which I usually don't approve of (it can be overused too easily, although in moderation it can add something positive to the experience, when appropriate; I'm not for censorship, though), I'm become accustomed to, and actually find more fitting than without. While originally the exchanges between Baird and Fenix seemed... irritating, as I'm sure Baird is supposed to be, this second time through I find them more comical and enjoyable. I found them amusing at first, but I'm finding them even more so this second time around. It truly is a game that gets better the more you play it, IMHO.

I didn't go into this game expecting much more than pretty graphics and a cool story, albeit a shallow one. I got both, and a whole lot more in the process, and I'm very happy with it. Chromehounds was fun, but it was a botched release, and so the fun eventually became tainted, not to mention repetitive. Gears SP so far has still remained quite fresh and enjoyable, even being so short, and I expect it to remain that way, even by my fifth or sixth replay. I can only guess at what MP has to offer, but I'm sure it will be enjoyable so long as technical hurdles do not become present.

[TaMeOlta]

I plan on spending some quality time over at my cousins house watching over his shoulder on a 56" screen , I don't need to play game itself to enjoy , plus I do not want to ruin my Elite World-of-Warcraft skills w/ the skills of another game ! :P

I'm looking forward to more video rame reviews from Rhydd -- some of his comments 'n descriptions make me laugh !! :w00t: (At work :whistling: )

[Rhydderch Hael]

Well, the game is rated 'M' for a very good reason, but the Options menu has a selection to turn on or off some 'extreme content'. Curious as to what happens, I did a quick run with this feature switched off.

All it does is reduce the blood splatter from a hit and prevent characters from being decapitated/dismembered in battle. All of the gore in scenery remains in place. So in truth this option does nothing to reduce the maturity rating— just reduces the fun factor. ;) (Though it is a mite embarrassing to watch your own character get turned into hamburger).

I mention this because early the Nightfall chapter you come to a point where you face a Troika machine-gun nest covering an overpass. You're supposed to use this rolling wreck of a car as a shield in order to close the gun and take it out with grenades or small-arms fire (this is well before you gain your first sniper rifle). Well, with me and my team pinned down on the far end of the bridge, I muttered "Screw that!" and instead broke out the Boomshot I procured from the remnants of a Locust Boomer earlier in the evening.

My first shot went high and exploded against the building behind the machine gun. My second Boomshot found the mark. The Locust who was manning the gun fell apart into a bunch of pieces: one small, round gib that I knew had to be the monster's head shot a good hundred feet straight up into the air before gravity overcame kinetic energy and brought it back down again.

In my mind's eye, Fenix stood up from cover and repeated a remark he made in Chapter 1: "That— was satisfying."


But when it comes to unconventional weapons deployment, nothing beats breaking out the laser designator atop the rooftop of Parliament and laying the Hammer of Dawn down on all the Locust in the street in front of the Tomb. Imagine what goes through the mind of a Locust footsoldier as he's being chased around by a bright yellow beam of energy that's streaking down from the sky. Ant under a magnifying glass, indeed.