Gears of War Review

Overall Rating

- Stunning Graphics!
- Brilliant Music and Sound Effects!
- Excellent voice casting!
- Brilliant control system!

- Lack of colour.
- Maps look very similar.

Well my first thought was that this was going to be a huge lemon. And no I don't mean that I was expecting to find a squished up lemon inside the case! Usually hype and video games go hand in hand with divided opinions... On the one side people end up loving the game due to the hype and then get suckered in. And on the other side people get worked up with the hype and get massively disappointed. Well I am pleased to say that the hype with this game was well deserved because it is a true masterpiece!
The first piece of good news when I saw this game was that I saw it was made by Epic and published by Microsoft Game Studios... and before you "say no to corporation" neigh sayers out there start groaning bare this in mind... The xBox 360 is made by Microsoft right? Therefore who do you think would be able to get the most out of the console when making games? ... Got it? That's right it's Microsoft Game Studios! And I have the feeling that they definitely lent a hand in pushing the console to the limits with this beauty!
From the instant you start playing you will notice the textures on everything look superb! And everything from the gun battles to the simply wanderings of the map look brilliant! The music is great to really build up the suspense, the mini sequences that appear from time to time will make you jump!
The control system is brilliant! Picture ghost recon advanced warfighter... remember how complicated and involved the interface is? Well... good news is that this is nothing like that! Practically all of the duck and cover controls are used with one button! It's not complicated at all and I firmly believe that anyone can get the hang off it! One thing that they have done on this game is that they try and make everything satisfying, even reloading is fun, you have a little bar and if you stop the marker right (think golf games when you take a swing) you will get a perfect reload and get a power bonus! If you screw up your character will get annoyed and often swear! Good times! Id personally say the most satisfying part is when you pull off a chainsaw attack!
The story is cool enough to compel the player to continue, albeit a little thin!
Another really cool thing is that the main character Marcus Fenix is voiced by the same guy that does Benders voice in futurama!
Now I shall move on to the not so great aspects of the game! No game is completely perfect, this game is very grey scaled and lacking in colours, I assume it must have something to do with all the high textures but I'm no expert in these matters! The maps can also look similar but I am guessing this may have something to do with the fact that it's not very colourful. It's not very good for multiplayer either, to fully utilise this you would need two consoles because if you play a 2 player death match on one console, it's literally one on one, you cannot add any extra cannon fodder.
I am racking my brains to think of anything else but I cannot, this game is a MUST HAVE for the 360 owner, if you do not have it WHY NOT. If you do have it then good on you!