So many games come out each year, it’s easy to feel like you’ve already seen everything there is to see. It’s all too easy to go through the motions of playing the game, from beginning to end, and never really feel any connection to what’s going on. You’re very aware of the fact that you’re playing a game, but that is it. If that’s the kind of game you like to play, stay away from Gears of War.Gears of War is all about involvement. It takes everything that you take for granted in a standard shooter and makes it an interactive part of the game. Cover, melee combat, injuries, and reloading have all been amped up and made into an active part of the gameplay.
Gears of War is a team based, third person shooter. The camera is a standard over the shoulder view, but at the push of a button the camera pulls in tighter for a closer view and improved aiming. Your squad consists of yourself and three other team members. Your team members will accept instruction from you, but they will also make their own decisions as to how they want to react to external stimuli.
In Gears of War humanity stands on the brink of extinction. After almost wiping themselves out through years of internecine warfare, humanity is forced to unite. On “Emergence Day”, a race known as the Locust bursts up from the underground and nearly picks the remnants of humanity apart. The only hope for survival is for humanity to unite and drive the Locust back underground.
Cover is vitally important in Gears of War. Almost anything can be used for cover. The battlefields are littered with walls, debris, cars, and so on. With the press of a button your character will dive into cover, slamming his back up against it. From there you can shimmy back and forth down the length of the cover and even perform a quick SWAT turn to jump from one piece of cover to another. While hiding behind cover you can lean out to fire on your enemies or even blind fire from relative safety. This emphasis on cover really changes the way you play, and definitely for the better. It feels so much more engaging to run around and dive for cover. Slamming up against a wall and peering around the corner searching for enemies feels a lot better than just running back and forth around a corner.
Melee combat has been given an extra boost. While most weapons can be used for a quick strike the assault rifle has a chainsaw attachment on the end. By holding down the melee button you will fire up the chainsaw. At this point all you have to do is run forward and push into the enemy. You’ll automatically swing the blade on your gun into your enemy, taking him down in one easy shot. This is actually a ton of fun, and really makes getting up close and personal with your enemy a valid tactic. There’s no more clumsy swings at a running enemy, just an efficient finishing move that lets you get on with the matter at hand.
In a lot of games, if a teammate gets taken down he’s out for at least the rest of the match. Gears of War makes things a little more interesting. When one of your squad members is injured, he’ll fall to the ground and writhe around. If you can get to your teammate first you’ll be able to revive him and he’ll rejoin you at fighting strength. If an enemy can get to them first though, they’ll curb stomp them, putting them out of their misery. This is just one of the reasons why it’s important to play well with your teammates. If you’re not close enough to provide support for your team you’ll quickly find yourself outnumbered and outgunned.
By far the biggest change is to the reloading system. Reloading is almost an afterthought in most shooters. The only time you really think about it is when you run out of ammo in the middle of a serious firefight. Gears of War takes this afterthought and pushes it into the forefront. You can reload as normal, by pressing a button or waiting until you run out of ammo. Your character will pull out a clip, slam it into his gun, rack the slide, and he’ll be ready to go. Gears of War adds a mini-game into the process. If you time a second button press properly your character will hustle up, reloading faster. Time it perfectly and not only will he reload faster, but you’ll also get a number of bullets that will do extra damage. Of course, if you do it wrong your gun will jam, adding precious seconds to your reload time as your character slams his fist into the side of the gun trying to get it working again. This could make all the difference in multiplayer, when the split second of reloading or working out a jam could mean the difference between you or your opponent winning.
As expected, Gears of War looks fantastic, and the gameplay is poised to be even better than the graphics. With almost six months until “Emergence Day”, Gears of War looks to be the hottest thing on the Xbox 360 this November.
I’ve always loved video games. I don’t know why, but they’ve always fascinated me. When I was younger, if I visited someone who had an Atari, that was all I wanted to do. It was a glorious day when I finally got my very own Nintendo.
I like a wide variety of games. I’m great at action and rpg games. I tend to be too much of a perfectionist with first person shooters and stealth games. I’ll spend 20 minutes in a level, only to reset it the first time a guard sees me. Platformers aren’t really my thing, I think the technology has better things to offer than that now. And I don’t do sports games.
I love games with a good story. I’ll play for hours just trying to get to the next plot twist. In a perfect world, I’d be writing my own video games someday
