Gears Of War Review

Well having played Gears of war round my mates house i can honestly say its one of the best games i've ever played right up there with Zelda Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64 etc... now having recently purchased a 360 last month, today i have finally brought Gears of War.

its a fast action paced 3rd person shooter with amazingly good graphics that still leaves me in awe everytime i boot it up.

You play as Marcus Fenix, a former COG soldier, who has been reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison. Dominic Santiago successfully extracts you from the prison, and takes you to meet Delta Squad. and i'll quit telling anymore of the story for those who havent yet played it.

the whole idea of Gears of War is to duck and cover from your foe's as well as blast their brains out, think Rainbow 6: vegas style cover meets Resistance fall of mans alien shooting .

This game does have a small set of weapons and a different style of reloading, instead of just pressing B to reload you have to hit the right bumper at the correct time to speed up your reload. There are three possibilities for the result of the second tap of the reload button: perfect, good, and fail. If timed perfectly, the reload takes less than a second and any bullets refilled will momentarily have an 8% increase in damage. If timed perfect you will reload fairly quickly but will not have a increase bullet damage and if u fail then the gun temporairly jams and you have to wait a couple of seconds longer to reload your gun.

what makes Gears of War different from other 3rd person shooters is Instead of the health bar found in many third and first-person shooters, Gears of War uses the Crimson Omen, a cog shaped icon that grows brighter (to simulate filling with blood) to indicate increased damage. If there is a faint appearance of the Omen on the screen, it indicates that the player has sustained minor wounds. When the Omen becomes more defined, it shows that the player has sustained severe wounds and should seek cover. When there is a skull inside of the symbol, the character is incapacitated; in the single-player mode, this represents player death and the player must restart from the last checkpoint.

the multiplayer aspect of the game is simple grab a mate and play either offline CO-OP story, player 1 beeing Fenix and player 2 beeing Dom or play online against real people. CO-OP is amazingly fun and when you or you buddy is down one must revive the other by finding them and pressing the X button whislt you or your buddy is dead you cant move, fire weapons or do anything you have to wait for your partner to come and help you. Unfortunatly i cant really review the multiplayer online as my 1 month free xbox live subscription has ended and i cant play online but im guessing on side plays as humans and the other plays as the enemies in the game the Locust.

overall this game is worth your money and if you have a 360 you need this game in your collection, is fun,fast and strategic all in one and is one of the best games i've ever played.

Presentation: 9.0
Good menu layout, easy to read and help you get straight into the action!

Graphics: 10.0
amazing, one of the best graphics that i ever seen, still amazes me evertime i boot the game up

Sound: 9.5
awesome stuff with all the gun fires , screams and dialouge it really does feel like your with these soldiers

Gameplay: 10.0
great fun to play alone and even better with mates, online will last a long time

Lasting Appeal: 9.0
im pretty sure playing the game on casual you will complete the game fairly quickly but playing on insane may prove a challenge,Online will last a while too

OVERALL: 9.9
(out of 10 / not an average)