Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 478
 Gears of War is THE Killer ap that X-Box 360 owners have been dyin for! December 1, 2006
Scott Kozlowski (Tennessee)
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
Aside from a few really great games, I HATE first person shooters. The reason for this is that I grew up cutting my teeth on "real world" combat games like BB gun fights (way way back) and have about 12 years of Paintball under my belt.
One simply cannot run around in the open, circle strafing around your opponent while hopping like a jackrabbit on crank and hope to accomplish anything other than experiencing pain and a quick ticket to the dead zone.
That's why I was glad to hear that Cliffy B and the team at Epic were working on a more "real world" combat style for Gears of War.
There is nothing more annoying than logging into an online FPS game and witnessing players pressing and holding the jump button (bunny hopping) and searching for targets that they can circle around like a shark. It kills the experience and it makes for gimicky gameplay that eliminates the tactics needed in combat, and thus for me, most of the fun.
Gears of War is not that kind of game.
Gears is build around a "stop and pop" play mechanic and anyone who plays this game looking to "Run and gun" or "bunny hop" is going to be in for a world of hurt.
Gears forces you to take cover, think out plans of attack, and fight it out with your enemies in a much more realistic manner. There isn't even a jump button to press. There is a contextual button (very similar to the way Nintendo's latest Zelda games really only use one button to accomplish many feats. The context sensitive button will allow you to dive into cover, leap over barriers, get low and run for cover, get tight to the wall, roll out of the way, or jump from cover to cover. So no bunny hopping at all...
To compliment the realistic maneuvering there is realistic gun play. The developers have really emphasized real world combat in this game. It's all about your cover and knowing when to pop out and fire. They've thrown in shooting from the hip (firing in the direction your are facing and not very accurate), aimed fire (get a bead on your enemies and come out from behind cover to get accurate shots) and blind firing (sicking your gun over the top of your cover point and blindly firing rounds in the opponent's general direction). To make matters even more realistic, you have active reload which means that you can basically wait until the clip is empty and reload at a ordinary pace or you can wit until the clip is almost empty and actively reload your gun. Do it right and you reload faster and get a brief damage bonus to your rounds. Do it wrong and the gun jams and you have to clear the jam. AWESOME! It's about as close to real world combat as you can get in a computer game.
Gears of War is a masterpiece of graphics, game play and fun. While it seems that the concept of using cover and popping up to fire off a few rounds before taking cover again as your opponent opens up on you sounds like it could get repetitive, Gears keeps it all so fresh with different kinds of environments, places to sneak into that give you a tactical advantage, and fights where you will really have to fight to make it through alive.
Luckily the Developers didn't stop with realistic play mechanics and gorgeous high-definition graphics. They also saw fit to include AI opponents and team mates that are actually intelligent. Your squad mates will slug it out and move intelligently in battles. Sure, they aren't as smart as having a buddy play along side you, but the developers even threw in a Co-op mode for that. The enemies are very intelligent as well, constantly trying to move in on you or your team mates or flanking to your side and opening up angles on you. You can't just find cover and get comfortable. You have to know where your enemy is and move to cut them off or they'll end up right on top of you ready to take you down.
That's where the Chainsaw comes in handy... Or a frag grenade... :)
For all the realism of the actual combat in Gears of War, there are also the "over the top" moves... The Chainsaw, smacking an opponent with a frag grenade and having it stick in 'em, coming up on downed opponents and givin' 'em a curb stomp, and etc.
This is not your typical video game. This is truly meant to be enjoyed by adult gamers. The language is "real" and adult, the story line is complex enough, but not over the top, and gore can get excessive (what do you expect when you jam a frag grenade into your opponent's chest or drive a chainsaw through their torso?) but it never stops being a fun experience even for grizzled old gamers like me.
The control scheme takes a little getting used to, but it's not so complex that it intimidates you and the multi-player and co-op modes are worth the $60 price tag alone. If you own a 360, Gears of War should be on your game shelf right next to Dead Rising as the two great examples of Next Generation gaming at it's best. I cannot recommend this game enough.
 Just Me or Does This Game Suck?? April 6, 2007
Honus Wagner (New York, NY)
14 out of 61 found this review helpful
I don't get all the outstanding reviews here. The game is repetitive as hell and also annoying. I got so sick of constantly filling holes and annoying, annoying monster enemies that are always the same. Every room, every level on this game is the same. I did enjoy the Hammer of Dawn thing.. that was a cool concept, but overall I wouldn't buy this one.
Now, before all you fanboys add your comments to my review, ask yourself why a game like Halo 1 or 2 was/were so popular? A: Because they had many different environments, enemies, etc. This game is the same dreary, boring stuff, colors, scenes, environments beginning to end. Plus.. if you knew these damn kryll (or whatever they're called) would kill you when you drive out...why drive a vehicle with no roof? Why not slap armour plates on the thing and let them bang into the roof all they want. What? Am I supposed to believe they can pierce armour? Dumb game.
 A False Epoch in Gaming History November 28, 2006
Mr. Paul J. Cowling (Nth. Carlton, Victoria Australia)
12 out of 20 found this review helpful
This game is criminally brief. It should be packaged as a multiplayer game that FEATURES a single player campaign - not vice versa. Because that is what the single player game is - a FEATURE at just several hours long. The bonus mission content on Resident Evil 4 PS2 plays longer than the GOW main campaign.
The campaign is basically a handfull of firefights. The cover feature is not as clean, exact and necessary as in Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, thereby making the gun battles less tense and realistic than in that game. The world in which the action takes place is exquisite, yet there is no tension, or foreboding at all between battles as you wander(unlike F.E.A.R, which escalates dramatic tension between encounters).
The boss fights in GOW are especially disappointing. While the bosses in GOW are as menacing in concept as those found in Ninja Gaiden and Resident Evil, there is no real strategy needed to beat them - usually only a single FATAL strategy that is easily discovered, and when discovered, dispatches the boss singularly. For example - the Bezerker. In the first two encounters, you need only lead the Bezerker into the open air, and under panes of glass, and then dispatch it with the Hammer of Dawn weapon. Simple. The last Bezerker, you need only lure it to a train carriage, and then release the carriage to jettison it. Even more simple. The Corpser, a giant spider thing, you need only shoot it in the abdomen and then the mouth, three times, sending it backward onto a collapsible floor - you then shoot out the floor supports and send it falling to its death. Brumak, the giant, armoured, formidably weaponized, dinosaur-like locust, you don't even get to fight. You just run away from it and race off in an APC. And the last boss, NAAM (who at least is majestic), you need only treat as an oversized Drone, and shoot it with standard weapons until dead. No strategy there either. And discovering the FATAL strategy is simply a matter of pressing the Y button - this pulls your gaze directly to "points of interest", like the supports on the collapsible floor, or the train carriage jettison button.
The multiplayer CO-OP on the campaign is the best of this feature. Mainly because it is a real team-building, friend-making exercise. I know I friend-requested whomever I battled the locust with. The versus mode is scant, both on variety, number of players, and maps.
GOW is not the epoch in gaming as the critics are drooling. It is a good enough game that does not warrant the outrageous critical lauding. I just hope this review presents a balanced, and objective enough point of view, at least to give you a more informed choice before spending the money on the game - as games are expensive. Thanks for reading.
OK WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE PEOPLE WHO GAVE THIS 5 STARS? March 18, 2007
Jonathan Providence (Delaware)
12 out of 44 found this review helpful
THIS IS POSSILBY THE MOST BORING GAME IVE PLAYED IN A WHILE. It sucks people, all you do basically is run and hide for cover while you use all of your ammo to kill one enemy (the locust horde) you shoot these things at least 50 times before they actually die. The night I bought this I played for and hour trying to get into it, but it was just boring, i was so excited to play it because everyone had been pumping it up and giving it great reviews, but to my dissapointment, it was really bad. What is wrong with these games now a days? They're all the same, nothing is stand out or extremely original. GRAW exceeds way above this game and Gear of War won game of the year? I have no idea how, the graphics are nice but overall the gameplay is dull and its just a boring game, after one night, i took it to the neighborhood eb games and traded it for store credit, that was the fastest ive ever gotten rid of a game, if your gonna buy it, wait until its 20 dollars then it might be worth it.
Mind blowing graphics and game! November 11, 2006
John Hillestad (Ft Lauderdale, FL USA)
11 out of 22 found this review helpful
Lived up to all the hype! Graphics are really sweet and so is the game play. The movement behind walls and obstacles in third person really work and feel right. The game sets new standards by which many games will now be judged.
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