Gears of War (X360) (Gamespy)

- Gamespy -

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Gears of War is the best-looking game I have ever played. It's a truly stunning achievement in terms of visuals, presentation and sound. Never before have I been given so much to look and marvel at while actually playing an adrenalized shooter. It's a fantastic achievement, and it's also easily the best reason to own an Xbox 360 to date. Now that that's out of the way, I also need to hammer home that while the single-player game is a good amount of fun, Gears' real hook is the superb multiplayer game. You'll be all done with the main story after eight or so hours, and even though there are three difficulty levels to play through, the legs of Gears is certainly in abusing foes online.

GameSpy has given a lot of love to Gears over the last 18 months or so. Ever since we saw the first trailers, right up until the Hollywood red-carpet promo event a few weeks ago, we've been gagging for more. It says a lot about a game to have nearly the entire console staff (and some others besides) constantly talking and chattering away about it. I have no doubt that Gears of War is a very strong candidate for our upcoming Game of the Year awards, so without harping on too much, let's look at what makes the game a true winner.

Set in a bleak future on a planet named Sera, a dark figure sits in a jail cell. The figure is disgraced COG soldier Marcus Fenix -- who just happens to be harder than a coffin nail soaked in titanium. Things are not going too well on the planet's surface. After the human colonies were assaulted by a force of subterranean beasts known as the Locust, a raging war broke out and the humans pretty much had to destroy their entire civilization to stop the rampaging Locust. Fast forward some four years, and we find Fenix's COG partner, Dom, knocking on the jail cell door.

From here, an epic story unfolds and sees Fenix and a team of three other COGs take on a tidal wave of Locust in an effort to somehow decimate the underground colonies of creatures once and for all. All told, the story lasts about eight to 10 hours on the first stroll through, but crank up the difficulty from casual to hardcore or even insane, and you'll be looking at a little bit longer for subsequent completion runs. Gears rewards you with achievements throughout the single-player campaign for completing the various chapters in order and for secondary objectives like killing certain monsters or collecting COG tags from fallen allies.

It's in the single-player game (or the mighty fine two-player co-op split-screen or online mode) that you'll get to see and experience all of the monsters, weapons and gorgeous environments that the game has to offer. From war-torn courtyards, mansions and coliseums to underground networks of caverns and industrial processing plants, Gears ponies up possibly the best-looking environments I've ever seen. There are a few occasions where textures pop in, and the frame rate takes a little hit here and there, but on the whole, Gears moves along at a steady pace and rarely puts you in a position where you'll die due to technical glitches.

The core gameplay is as follows. It's a third-person shooter at its heart, but there's more of a cat-and-mouse or hide-and-seek theme going on here than I've seen in other games. The absolute key to success in Gears of War is to use cover -- and use it extensively. A context-sensitive system of hitting the A button to move to cover spots works like a charm. You'll soon be hitting the levels and shimmying stealthily around from pillar to car to wall to post like a pro. If you're out and about in the open, then the chances of you getting sniped or chainsawed or generally just gunned down are really quite high.

Combat comes in the form of ranged and melee attacks. As Fenix, you'll be able to take a few direct hits before you drop to the ground and start to "bleed out." A team member has a short amount of time to get to you and pump your dying body back up into action, and vice versa. This mechanic is really pretty sweet, but it's also a dangerous proposition, as you'll be exposing yourself to the enemy that just worked over your fallen comrade. It's a gamble for sure.

While the actual number of weapons in the game is relatively small and for the most part generic, there are some exceptions. The chainsaw mounted on your standard Lancer assault rifle is truly legendary and is responsible for some of the most gory, brutal close-combat fatalities ever seen. There are also smoke and frag grenades (the fraggers can actually be pinned to an enemy's torso, making for an extremely cool and amusing mobile human bomb) as well as a sniper rifle and various smaller firearms. The other really cool weapons are the Torque Bow (which comes with standard explosive-tipped arrows) and the godlike Hammer of Dawn -- this beast acts like a targeting device for a rather potent orbital satellite laser. Although the Hammer takes a little while to charge up and rain liquid death from the heavens, its brute power is near unstoppable and the charged beam from above can be guided around for a few seconds, making multiple enemies explode into little chunky parts.

Gears also has some fixed weaponry, like the various Troika gun towers and the very cool Junker APC vehicle. But like any good COG worth his salt, you'll spend most of your time running -- gotta love the awesome-looking Roadie Run move -- and ducking and giving the Locust hell. Aimed firing is achieved by using the LT button, and regular run 'n' gun firing is done with the RT button. From behind cover, you can poke your weapons over the top and pull off blind fire, which is not as accurate but great for close shaves and oppressive/covering fire for teammates. Finally, you've got a few close-quarters attacks. Whapping someone with the butt of your gun should only really be a last resort, but the brutal chainsaw and curb-stomp finisher are tasty, tasty, tasty.

The single-player CPU AI leaves a little to be desired it seems. Your squaddies will think nothing of walking out in front of your torrent of bullets or acting like aimless robots from time to time. It can be annoying, but overall the team aspect of the offline game is decent. You'll be able to issue three basic commands to your AI team; Y orders them to regroup at your position, B makes them go on defensive stance for a short time, and A has them go aggressive for a little while.

The co-op game is also a great feature. You can play split-screen with a friend, or over Xbox Live or even system link. You'll play through the entire campaign, and online you'll be able to search for co-op games that are currently looking to play specific chapters and difficulty levels. Possibly the coolest feature, though, is that you'll be able to drag a friend into your single-player game if you see them pop online via Live.

But for my money, Gears' strongest selling point is the obscenely good online multiplayer gameplay. I've had a while to hone my skills on the beta code and at the various press events over the last year, but today, the game's mettle was put to the test with the retail version. After playing nonstop for the better part of the day, I never experienced any bugs, crashes or lag whatsoever. It was just me, seven other folks and a freaking bloodbath from one match to the next.

I'm a little sad at the perceived lack of different online game modes and the relatively small number of maps that ship with Gears, but what's in there is more than enough to keep gamers thrashing those chainsaws for months to come. It's not really known right now whether or not new downloadable content will be coming anytime soon, but I highly expect new maps, skins and other cool bits to arrive in the next few months.

There are three main game types for the online play, each of which can be played as either ranked matches or unranked matches. Each game type supports up to eight players over Live (or system link, which is of course offline). Ranked matches track all manner of stats and points, which are in turn shoveled into some nice online leaderboards. The unranked matches are just that -- they're a great place to hone your skills before joining the cutthroat world of ranked games.

The first and most basic game type is Warzone. This is essentially the same thing as team deathmatch and sees four COGs battle it out with four Locust. The winning team is the one that takes the other side out first. Up next is Assassination. This mode sees each side have a specific leader. For the COGs it's General Hoffman, and for the Locust it's General RAAM. Only these leaders can pick up the better weaponry in the levels, but they can then pass them on to other members of the team. If you kill the leader of a side, the game is over, and the assassin becomes the leader of his/her team in the next game.

Finally, there's Execution mode. This is really the same as Warzone, but the big difference is that once you're knocked down and you've sat through your bleed-out time, you'll be brought back into the game. Jamming rapidly on the A button helps you bleed out faster, meaning you'll be back on your feet quicker too. It's a nice subtle twist and makes for some excellent last-minute victories.

Gears brings 10 maps in total for the three game types. And I'm pretty damned happy with how they all turned out. A lot of careful testing has gone into making sure that the maps are well-balanced and just the right size for the four-on-four teams. Themes range from processing plants to train depots (including a deadly speeding bullet train) and each one has its own distinct pathways and visuals. There's one called Canals which sports some truly amazing flowing water effects, too. All of the maps are a sight to behold.

Gears does have its flaws, however. I found some of the single-player boss fights to be a little on the cheap side. I had to replay certain fights a dozen or so times before nailing them, and although I'll be the first to admit human error, these issues seemed to be more related to CPU AI craziness rather than anything else. The frame rate can take some hits too, but this mainly occurs in the in-game rendered cutscenes rather then in the actual game, so it's not a big deal. I guess the only other remark would be that I would have loved to have seen more game types and maps for the online game. Would it have been tough to slap in some CTF or straight-up deathmatch? Maybe that's something that'll get fixed with downloadable content later.

No matter. There's only one other game that I've got to play this year that I can imagine coming close to being this much fun -- and you'll see what that is in a few weeks. But for right now, I'm smitten with Gears of War and all its glorious, horrific violence, blood and anarchy. Move over Master Chief, 'cause Marcus Fenix will kick your bony ass all over town.