Gears of War… is possibly the best game I’ve played. Ever. From any genre.
My quick review after an all-nighter with some friends:
The graphics are photorealistic. The level of detail and camera movements make you forget you’re holding a controller. You are the character and the world is your world.
The gameplay is fluid. The controls are very responsive. When you tell your hero to do something, he does it. This is rare in shooters. Everything is interactive. You can take cover almost anywhere and the cover system is more dynamic than Halo’s. It’s more than just moving behind a wall. When your character is in cover mode you can either aim and lose cover, or blind fire around corners, over a parapet, etc. Your vision control becomes very intuitive very fast. Aiming is easy but not too easy. This is the first shooter that lets me move around with the fluidity I’d have in real life. It’s not clunky or awkward like the majority of other shooters.
It’s a first person shooter with a third person twist. When you’re running, you can see your feet. When you’re aiming, you can’t. This finally fixes one of the biggest problems with the genre. I want to be able to see where I’m stepping.
The dialog is hilarious. Your hero is a big dumb soldier with a child’s vocabulary and a sailor’s affinity for cursing. He’s also ripped like nothing else. The monster cries are actually shrill. The sound effects are realistic and detailed. Everything that would make a sound in real life makes a sound in this game.
The setting is flawless. It drops the red-team blue-team color coded bullshit from Halo and thrusts your iron-clad warriors into a dilapidated, war-torn, semi-Gothic city. It makes me feel badass just looking at it.
If anyone has a 360, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this game to you.
First Person Shooters are all about settings. If you don’t set them to fit you then gameplay will be a real problem. Things like the sensitivity of the joysticks/mouse to the button placement are far more important than in other games because FPS’s are all about reflexes and quick reactions.
Why do you need to see where you’re stepping? I mean, technically you should always be able to see where you’re going if you shift your eyes (the ones in your head, not the game) down and watch the bottom half of the screen.
And why do you hate Halo? Granted, I don’t think it’s as great a game as everybody else but for a console shooter, it’s fluid and easy to play; which most of the time console shooters aren’t.
It was released when I was 11, and 11 year olds like good settings, action, and intuitive gameplay as much as 20 year olds.
Are you offended that an FPS based on low-action, low-quality 80s movies doesn’t make me hard?
Why do you need to see where you’re stepping?
Because many first person shooters involve jumping, and I like to know exactly where I’m taking off and landing, and where I’m standing. It’s the difference between thinking you have cover and actually having cover. It’s also a personal thing. It peeves me. There are basic body parts I like to know the location of.
And why do you hate Halo?
Because I’ve played Gears of War But seriously, some feelings just come from the gut. Halo is just not a game I enjoy. It’s hard to explain.
But seriously, some feelings just come from the gut. Halo is just not a game I enjoy. It’s hard to explain.