Gears of War

Developed by Epic Games, Gears of War is a 3rd person tactical shooter and represents a departure from the style of their previous Unreal Tournament games. Unlike the UT series, GoW is very much focused on cover. If you aren't in cover, then you are probably either dead or dying. However, unlike other tactical shooters, the game is very fast paced and plays out like an action movie. This game is easily one of the best action games ever made.

Story
GoW is set in the beautiful world of Sera. Unfortunately, Sera has been at war with the Locust, a race of subterranean creatures intent on the total annihilation of mankind, for the past 14 years. Humanity has not been faring well in this war and post-apocalyptic is probably the best description for what Sera now resembles.

You take on the role of Marcus Fenix - a Gear in the COG military (COG being the Coalition of Ordered Governments). Marcus starts the game in jail, having been court-martialed for deserting his post in a futile attempt to save his father. However, as mentioned above, humanity has really not been faring well and the COG needs all the help it can get - including from traitorous soldiers.

The games campaign starts as you are freed from prison by your old war buddy - Dominic Santiago.

The game itself focuses on the COGs desperate attempt to win the war against the Locust with some funky new missile technology. However, before the missiles can be used, the COG needs targeting data. Which is where you come in. Your job is to basically find and deploy the Resonator, which will map the Locust tunnels. Naturally, things aren't quite that simple.

All told, the storyline is nothing special. Its just serves as a backdrop for all the shooting action to follow. Story has always taken second fiddle in action games so I suppose its no surprise that GoW didn't buck the trend.

Gameplay
Although the storyline isn't much cop, the gameplay is superb. The basic mechanics are very much "stop and pop" and you spend most of your time running from cover to cover, occasionally popping out to shoot at the Locust. Although cover mechanics have been used in various games before, none of them (or at least, none of the ones I have played) have managed to pull it off quite so well.

The games AI is good enough that you really feel that you are taking your life into your own hands when you pop your head out to shoot. As such, you are constantly on edge when you play this game.

Unlike other shooters, GoW also makes the reload into a minigame. Pressing the reload button activates the Active Reload system. Basically, its a timing minigame - if you can stop the moving bar in the Active Reload zone, you end up reloadng faster (and your bullets can also do more damage if you get a perfect Active Reload). However, if you mistime your reload, you end up jamming the gun which means you take even longer to reload.

The Active Reload system is a great idea and adds even more adrenaline when you play. The Active Reload isn't difficult to pull off - however, when you are in the thick of combat, with bullets and explosions going off around you, it becomes very easy to screw up the reload. Which really makes you sweat as you are stuck with an empty gun until you can unjam it!

The game also offers multiplayer co-op. Basically, one of you takes on Marcus Fenix (the protagonist mentioned above) while your friend (either sitting next to you or playing over Xbox Live) takes the role of Santiago (the guy who busts Marcus out of prison). The co-op aspect really adds another dimension to the game where you can setup traps for the Locust - with 1 guy drawing the Locusts attention while the other guy runs and flanks them.

Graphics
The graphics in this game are superb. While I don't have any screenshots to show you, you can easily find lots of them online. Whats amazing is that the game looks even better when you see it in motion. I have no idea how they managed to get such detailed graphics to run in realtime - but it definitely raises the bar for other X360 games.

The graphics themselves are very visceral. One of the main weapons that you use throughout the game is the lancer - which has a chainsaw in place of the bayonet. After any battle involving the chainsaw, you can expect to see body parts lying all over the place (with some of them still pumping out blood!). The graphics showing the chainsaw in action are especially gory. As you cut the locust in half, blood sprays everywhere (including a nice big red splatter on your screen!) - the animation for this is superb and never gets old!

Sound
The sound, as in any shooter, is incredibly important. Luckily, GoW gets this spot on as well. When you fire your gun, or rev up your chainsaw, the accompanying sounds really make you believe that you are holding a lethal piece of weaponry.

In addition, other sounds are also done extremely well. Wander past a dead corpse and you can hear the flies buzzing around. Your teammates are constantly talking and giving feedback on either what they are up to or where the enemy Locust are. Similarly, the Locust are constantly hissing and doing the exact same thing your squad are - ie giving feedback on where we are!

Summary
Released in November 2006, the game has already won numerous awards from the mainstream gaming press - and with good reason. If you like action games and own an Xbox 360, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.