 Review By: Nick Arvites |
Developer: | Epic Games |
| Publisher: | Microsoft | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| ESRB: | Mature | |
| # Of Players: | 1-2 (2-8 online) | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | System Link, Xbox Live (online play, content DL, leaderboard), HDTV (480p, 720p, 1080i) |
Gears of War uses a 3rd person, behind the back viewpoint in the same style as Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. This approach seems almost exclusively designed for the cover system. The use of cover in Gears of War contributes heavily to the game’s success. Gears of War manages to perfectly blend the action of a traditional shooter like Halo or Half-Life with the unforgiving realism of something similar to the Tom Clancy shooters. Basically, if you run out in the open ala Halo 2’s run-and-gun style, you’re going to die very quickly. In order to survive in Gears of War, players have to learn to use cover.
While the cover system has been tried in many other games, Gears of War is the first title to get it right. In order to use cover, you simply press the A button and your character will get behind an object. Behind cover, you can pop up to target enemies by holding the left trigger or just spray covering fire blindly by holding the right trigger and aiming. Icons pop up on the screen for a variety of movement actions. You can hurdle short cover and move forward, quickly enter doorways, or shift to another piece of cover. When you’re between cover, holding down on the A button triggers the “roadie run.” While running, the camera drops low and you can only control movement. If you run up to cover, you’ll automatically get behind it.
In practice, the system is extremely smooth and feels natural. Almost all of the non-shooting action is mapped to the A button, and this allows the cover system to work seamlessly and flawlessly. Gears of War essentially changes the way you look at cover in games. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is one of the best tactical shooters available right now, and it pales in comparison. Ghost Recon requires you to essentially stand behind a wall and use the camera to see around, and then run out to shoot at an enemy. The system in Gears of War makes this system much more realistic. You’re flush against a wall, and peaking, hiding, and attacking all work much better in practice. After playing Gears of War, you’ll have a hard time going back to any other shooter simply because it won’t feel right without the cover system.
The cover system essentially puts Gears of War in the middle of the tactical shooter genre. Flanking is an effective tactic, and more often than not will be used to a great deal of success in both the campaign and multiplayer modes. However, Gears of War isn’t a fully realistic shooter in the same vein as the Tom Clancy titles. It’s almost a middle ground between Halo and Ghost Recon. While you can’t take too much fire, you do have the ability to regenerate your life (which appears as a red Gears of War logo in the middle of the screen) by staying behind cover. The balance between the two styles is excellent, and should appeal to people from both the Halo crowd and the Ghost Recon crowd.
Gears of War takes a realistic approach to handling your weapons as well. Unlike the standard one-man-arsenal approach, Gears of War only lets you take a pistol, grenades, and two other weapons. While many traditional shooter fans may balk at this approach, I enjoy the forced tradeoffs in your arsenal. I found myself sticking with the Lancer Rifle and alternating my second choice. The Lancer Rifle initially seems like a standard battle rifle, but it has a twist in the form of a chainsaw bayonet. By holding down the B button (melee attack) while holding the Lancer Rifle, you activate the chainsaw. While holding the B button, you can brutally dice anyone that gets in your way. Like everything else in Gears of War, the chainsaw bayonet is ineffective at head-on attacks (since it is deactivated when you get shot), but is extremely effective at catching an enemy from the side or rear. Other easy-to-find main weapons include a shotgun, submachine gun, and sniper rifle. I generally found myself switching between the shotgun and sniper rifle during the campaign.
There are also heavy weapons that are harder to find. The Torque Bow is exactly what it sounds like: a bow that shoots an arrow that sticks to cover (or an enemy) and explodes. It takes longer to aim, leaves you out in the open, and ammo can be hard to come by, so I didn’t like it in the campaign. Multiplayer, however, is a different story. The Torque Bow is great to use against a team that isn’t moving out from behind a particular piece of cover. Occasionally, you stumble across an RPG launcher. While the ammo is very limited, it works similarly to how rocket launches usually work in action games: very well if you can score a hit. The Hammer of Dawn is rarely used in the campaign, and with good reason. It calls down a strike from an orbital weapon that can take down some large enemies quickly. You can only use it outside, and can only use it while the satellite is above your position (which happens to be when you need it). It is present on multiplayer maps, and can wreck havoc on the opposing team easily. To use it, you hold down the right trigger while aiming at your target until it strikes.
Posted: 2006-11-28 19:31:25 PST