14 DAY TRIAL // 
An Xbox 360 launch title coming straight from the producers of the brilliant Unreal Tournament first person shooter couldn't be an average game, or a good game... it has to be a superb title. Well, that would be mostly because it uses the Unreal Engine 3.0 technology and shows what Microsoft's next-gen console can do, visually speaking. It's not all eye candy and a great engine at work, because Gears of War is a mixture of elements that grants its success. Decent story? Checked! Lots of eye candy? Checked! Ugly bugs and humongous beasts? Checked! Plenty of firepower? Checked! We've got all the ingredients that make a perfect game and Gears of War is not far from one, as you'll see in the following lines.
Story Welcome to the planet Sera, a once peaceful reign of humans, that became a living hell over night. For 100 years, men have dwelled amongst themselves destroying the planet and all because of the Imulsion, a strange fluid that can be used as fuel, producing cheap energy. Some countries had plenty of it, some didn't, but they had the firepower to go get some. So, the war raged on till the fatal day known as "The Emergence Day". All that tempering around with the planet's underground in search for Imulsion woke up a dangerous Locust species. On the "Emergence Day" the locusts burst out of the ground and attacked all the important settlements on Sera.
Billions were dead and mankind had to face extinction if things continued that way. However, outer space laser weapons were used to eradicate the "bugs", at least for a little while. This gave the survivors enough time to escape to the Jacinto Plateau, some sort of higher ground, that couldn't be penetrated by the locusts, because of its hard rocks. Locusts started their attack once more, but humans have had the time to make the Jacinto Plateau a true fortress. This is where you come in: you'll control Marcus Fenix, an imprisoned ex-war veteran who's been pulled out of jail to save the day. He had abandoned an important battle some time ago, in an attempt to save his father, but he was trialed and sentenced for leaving combat. Now, Marcus has become a free man, at least temporarily, because his help is needed in the fight against the locust hordes. The main character teams up with Dominic Santiago, the man who pulled him out of jail and his best friend. They and a couple of other soldiers form the Delta Squad, an essential unit in the locust eradication process.
Concept Gears of War can be introduced to the public as the ultimate tactical third person shooter and it wouldn't be a waste of words, specially that "tactical" part. From the over-the-shoulder perspective borrowed from Resident Evil 4 and using the cover system taken from kill.switch, you'll blast your way through the alien-infested Sera. If you're in for a mindless shooter, you won't like Gears of War for sure, because there are certain tactics to be used if you want to complete the campaign missions successfully. Also, you'd better use the members of your team wisely, because team work can save you more times than your luck would. Players can control Marcus Fenix, or Dominic, if they're playing on a second joystick in cooperative play mode. There are various other playable characters in the multiplayer mode, but I won't spoil the fun and let you try them.
At the game's start menu, you'll be prompted to choose between a campaign mode, a versus mode or a multiplayer mode. Campaigns can be done both in single player and co op modes, through the split screen option. Before starting the standard campaign, you'll have to set your difficulty level by choosing between casual and hardcore. As soon as the game starts, there's a short tutorial available and I advise you to check it out, especially if you've never played an Xbox 360 game before. The first thing that comes to mind when you first take control of Marcus is the obvious "Why can't I jump?" question. Well... you can jump, but it's rather a leap, than the proper hopping we were hoping for. It seems that Mister Fenix was made for strafes, rather than normal moves and that's quite nice considering the amount of bullets heading his way.
The most important mechanism of the game? That would have to be the cover. Always take cover! That's rule number 1 and you'll learn it the hard way, especially if you're the kind of gamer that goes on a shooting craze, without using a strategy. Any object around you can be used for cover, ranging from walls to boxes, stone blocks, cars or columns. Marcus will still be able to aim while he's taking cover and that's a very important feature throughout the title's gameplay. All this hiding behind objects can have negative effects, because the AI is pretty skilled, and the enemies will advance towards you if you're not firing at them from your cover. Aside from the standard weapons, you'll be able to take control of some awesome tools of destruction, like the troika turret, but you'll first have to "fire" the one that's using it against you.
It might be the decent crosshair combined with the perfect sensitivity, but I really must say that the game's aiming system is great, almost flawless. The only thing that can make your aim bad is the weapons' recoil, but that's a pretty realistic approach, so it can be considered a plus. Marcus will use assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, sniper rifles and grenades in his attempt to free Sera from the invading locust horde. There are few weapons to toy with in the single player mode, but their number increases while playing a multiplayer game. During the game you'll be forced to carry one main weapon, one type of grenade and two secondary weapons and you'll swap them with your directional pad buttons. Taking cover will not make you a sitting duck, because now you can leap from cover to cover, by pressing the A button, in a series of sequences that allow you to dodge hits and flank the enemy at all time.
Keep in mind that there's no such thing as a health meter and the only damage you'll see comes in the shape of a red skull indicator that appears on the screen once you get shot a few times in a row. Starting from a faint red, it can get dark red if you've really taken heavy fire, reaching the game over screen. Like in the famous Call of Duty series, avoiding the enemy fire for a few minutes rids you of the damage and makes the red meter disappear. Since I mentioned team work earlier, you should know that if a member of your squad dies, you can revive him by getting closer to the man and pressing the X button. That can happen to you too, if you collapse, but only in the multiplayer mode.
Gameplay There's always something to do while playing Gears of War and Marcus will never have a moment of peace, specially during those fast-paced combat sequences. From time to time you'll enjoy a bit of gore, while using the chainsaw attached to your machine gun, to slice foes and spill some blood on the screen. Be sure to feel the feedback while you're being so cruel, as the joystick vibrates like there's no tomorrow. Marcus may be an important member of the Delta Squad, but it seemed kind of funny to me that all he had to do was flank the enemies. It's like the other team members are only diversions and you're a true Rambo, destroying Troika turrets and clearing the resistance. Taking a quick look at the way your team behaves and the things you'll have to do, you'll notice that strategy plays an important part in the game's progress. Waste too many bullets in one place or leave a dying man behind and you'll be stranded behind the enemy locust lines, without ammo and a chance of escaping.
Like in the famous Alien series, the "bugs" can come from everywhere; that includes attacks from underneath your feet, from above or from behind apparently thick walls. From time to time, grub holes will open up and you'll have to seal them by using grenades. However, this won't be an easy task, because those holes have the role of spawning pools for the enemy, so they'll keep coming and coming, till you throw a grenade in the proper place. Speaking of which, the whole grenade throwing system is nicely done, with a trajectory indicator and a beautiful animation, but I really didn't find the time to think my throws and they were pretty random. That certainly says something about the game's action: it's fast and one wrong step can cost you important minutes or your life.
Never ever hesitate to restore the life of a downed teammate, because they provide covering fire for you, mostly because you're always upfront without the possibility of battling the enemies that are left behind you. During the gameplay, certain events will happen in the background and they'll pretty much show you what's coming to get you. Even if you're not looking in the direction where such events take place, with a press of the Y button, you'll view all the important stuff, like possible ambushes, buildings crashing around you etc. The various machine guns you'll use after killing the enemy that operated them are not very useful, because they have a nasty recoil and a lousy aiming system. What's pretty cool about them is that they can overheat to the point of becoming unusable. Gears of War offers the player a little bonus if he's accurate enough to tap the reload button twice, when he's trying to load his weapon. It's called active reload and if you get the right timing, your shots will do a lot more damage to your foes. If you're into blood and gore, there are some enemies (specially in the multiplayer games) that you can finish off by hitting them in the head with your machine gun or splitting them apart with the chainsaw.
In the rewards section, there are about 49 achievements to be unlocked if you're a hardcore gamer and the credit goes to you if you got them all on the toughest difficulty level. For a game of this genre, the AI is pretty good, because they use cover almost as well as you do, with a slight offensive tendency that usually leads them to their untimely death. At first touch, the confusing controls and camera angles will seem a torment, but after you'll have mastered the tutorial and killed a couple of enemies, things will seem pretty basic. Don't get too cozy, though, because there are some huge locusts that can't wait to ruin your day throughout the five acts of the campaign mode.
Video "Eye candy" is not enough to describe what this title can provide in its graphical segment. Marcus can push the corpses of his dead foes around and he'll be able to interact with the splendid background quite a few times. The Unreal 3 engine pays off and it sometimes seems that locusts and men spoil the great looks of the backgrounds with their never-ending conflict. At certain points during gun fights, you'll see drops of blood splashed on the screen and you'll also see them after using the chainsaw on an enemy.
It's a nice touch, but not something to take our breath away, being too cartoonish for such a sci-fi almost realistic game. You'll surely be impressed by Sera's architecture, its vegetation or...my favorite part: the rain. I have never seen such well-done weather effects and there's practically no difference between the detailed in-door graphics and the outdoor scenery. On the downside, it seems that all the clich?s from all the sci-fi action films ever produced gathered in Gears of War and gave birth to a group of men we call the Delta Squad. They're all packed with muscles, tall and they have faces that would make a razorblade cry for its mommy.
Sound Aside from the orchestral score that's already a must for modern games, you'll hear almost all of the orders that a soldier can receive from his superior. From "Flank me!" to "Use that turret!" and from "Man down!" to "Sweet", every tough guy line has been implemented in the title's dialog. The enemies will make their own sounds, noises to be more precise, growls, howls and agonizing screams. The voices aren't impressive at all and I felt surround by Vin Diesels and Bruce Willis-es doing rehearsals for their upcoming movies. At least the music's good enough to keep you tense and wanting more combat.
Multiplayer Many will prefer to play Gears of War in multiplayer, specially after finishing the campaign mode. Epic Games' title supports a versus mode that has two players battling it out on the same console, with the aid of two joysticks. They can also go co-op and complete the campaign, in case one player was not enough to do the job. I'm not a big fan of the split-screen mode, but if you have a TV that's big enough to satisfy your need for graphical details, I guess it's a pretty neat experience.
In the multiplayer mode you can select one of the following game types: assassination (you'll have to kill the leader of the enemy team to win the match), execution (execute enemies and gain points) and warzone (competitive team-based deathmatch). There's a variety of maps to play on and new ones are coming soon, so you won't get bored, I'll tell you that. Before the battle begins, you will have the option of setting the number of rounds, the bleed out duration, activate friendly fire and the swapping of weapons between rounds. All in all it's a must-play experience that adds to the total package of the game and it's nice to see the human intelligence at work in Sera's beautiful world.
Conclusion Many people compare Gears of War with Lost Planet: Extreme Condition and yes, they are similar, but I can't really tell which game is better. Gears of War is a launch title, packed with goodies and adored by the fans because it brought something new to the bored console fans. Lost Planet used the same recipe as this game did, so it didn't get all the credit it deserved. Graphically speaking, Gears of War is better than Lost Planet, but in terms of gameplay, I have to say that the second is more fun to play, while GOW targets the serious gamers, more focused on in-game achievements than fun.
