February 20, 2007 | In: Video Games, XBox 360
Gears of War – XBox 360 Review
In Gears of War, you play Marcus Fenix – a huge, heavily armored soldier called upon to defeat the Locust horde that is taking over the planet Earth. The Locusts are gigantic aliens monsters that have invaded the planet and are trying to annihilate the human race. You get to battle through various levels and use a nice array of weapons all in order to try and map the Locust tunnels that run throughout the core of the Earth. If you can map the tunnels then you can exterminate them.
I was not one of the first people to buy this game, but I have definitely made up for lost time. The campaign mode was so great that I didn’t go online for multiplayer action until several weeks after I first sat down with it. Cooperative mode for campaigns is a lot of fun, too. The game is a first-person shooter, but you really have to strategize in order to be successful. You can’t just run off half-cocked through the middle of the Locust and expect to last very long. One of the things I love most is the ability to take cover behind walls, barracades, cars, pretty much anything. Your character will crouch down, and you can maneuver very well from the various cover positions to spring out on an approaching enemy or get off a quick shot before ducking back into cover.
Of course, then I found online multiplayer. There are various styles of team vs team based play, and my favorite is execution. In all styles, one team plays as the COG (good guys) and one team plays as the Locust (bad guys). In execution, you can shoot a player until they fall down but they won’t necessarily die. You have to shoot them point blank or perform another final kill move in order to finish them off. Which brings me to my next favorite thing about the game – stomping people. There is nothing more satisfying than walking up and massively curb stomping someone. The effect is really dramatic and kind of gut-wrenching.
The only bad part about online play is you sometimes run into a team of players that do nothing but run amuck with a shotgun in bunches and try to gun everyone down at close range. I like the games where teams use strategy a lot better.
So go grab a copy of Gears of War and an XBox Live account and join in! You’ll find me online as C0ntr0lledCha0s.
Happy Stomping!
1 Response to Gears of War – XBox 360 Review
R3DR1V3R
September 2nd, 2007 at 3:13 pm
I could be mistaken, but if I am the countless hours of GoW have all gone to waste, but I think that the game is not based on earth. I think it’s another planet inhabited by humans. None the less GoW is by far the best game purchase that I have ever made. Let me be clear about this…I am a gamer…and I mean that. Just ask my lonely wife. I’ve played a lot of games and spent countless hours on countless games in front of the NES, Sega Genesis, Play Station 1 & 2, & the original XBOX. I’ve also been on LIVE since the beginning and no game has come close to the re-playability of GoW. The single player is great. Co-op is unbelievable. The online multi-player is downright addicting. It’s all very fast and extremely exciting. The Shotgun is one of two primary weapons in the multiplayer and there is nothing quite as satisfying as running across the map straight into an opposing player and unloading the shot gun to turn them into a dust ball of blood & body parts. Sounds graphic…well it is. This game is not a rent game. It shouldn’t even be available for rent. You MUST buy it. I own it already and I’m probably on right now. Come find me…R3DR1V3R is my gamer tag. One warning, if you are in the game with me then you should get to the Bom-Shot as soon as possible. If you didn’t go straight to it, it’s already too late. Happy gaming