Gears of War

In GEARS OF WAR you control Marcus Fenix, a disgraced squad leader of the forces of the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG). After his cohorts help him to escape from prison, he takes his squad to attempt to thwart the onslaught of the Locust Horde and to destroy their network of tunnels within Planet Sera. An optional second player can join in and control comrade Dominic.

In this third-person shooter, you must make judicious use of all available cover in order to succeed without being wiped out very quickly. When under cover you can shoot from behind it either by poking your head out to have a look at what you're shooting, or you can blind- fire (meaning that you can just poke your gun out without having to look, which is safer but lacks the accuracy of viewed firing). You can also roll to one side or the other to hopefully get to the next bit of cover quicker, if you are on one side of a door you can quickly spin to the other side, or you can jump over your cover (if it's low enough). There is even an option to run lower and more quickly towards the next bit of cover (provided that it's not too far away), which can be advisable if you are in the open too long as being lower and quicker makes you harder to hit.

You have a multitude of weapons at your disposal, most of which have limited ammunition (which can be picked up if it's lying on the ground, or you can top up a lot of weapons for which you do not have full ammo). There are various kinds of pistols and other handguns, although really these are only advisable if you don't have a bigger gun to use. Bigger guns come in a variety of sorts, with possibly the most well-known one being the Lancer, which has the much-talked-about chainsaw bayonet for close-quarters combat. Whereas with some of the other weapons you can strike with the butt of the gun, with the chainsaw bayonet you can rev it up and enjoy something of a guilty pleasure as your character swings the blade into the foe, ripping its skin apart and sending dark red blood jetting upwards, even spraying your screen! (Don't worry, you can still see through it and it does quickly fade). There is quite a bit of gore in GOW, but by far the chainsaw bayonet is among the goriest imagery in the game.

Other bigger guns include (but are not limited to) the shotgun and the sniper rifle, although its chamber can only accommodate one bullet, so you have to reload after every shot.

Reloading presents an extra facet which, when mastered, will allow quicker reloading and more powerful shots. When you start to reload a reload bar appears, with a meter running from left to right; when it reaches the right of the bar your gun will be reloaded. However, if you can stop the meter when it's within a small marked section of the bar which is about a third of the way across you will gain the aforementioned quicker reload and the accompanying benefits.

Also available are frag grenades, although you can only have up to four of these. When you use these you can either just throw them or you can aim using an on-screen arc that shows where your grenade will bounce and where it will explode.

There are also some other more powerful weapons, which I won't give away, but these should understandably be saved for the more troublesome foes.

When you take a hit you start to see a red cog appear on the screen; the more complete it is the closer you are to dying, so get under cover quickly! If it turns into a fully intact cog with a skull in the middle the screen goes bright red and you are dead (unless you're in multiplayer mode, where another player can go up to you and revive you).

Graphics are dark and moody, sometimes genuinely scary and very gory. There are bits later on where a small swarm of creatures known as Kryll will kill anyone who strays into shadowy areas for too long. Sound is equally cool, although some of the dialogue has voices that aren't quite up to the same standard.

Gameplay is simple enough to pick up, and all the various actions are well thought-out, with one button being a context-sensitive button, where your character might flick a switch, kick open a door or turn a valve. Before too long you will be ducking under cover and taking pot- shots at the foes like a seasoned COG war veteran.

If I did have one minor complaint, the scenes in rocky sections (e.g. caves) seem too artificial, almost as if they had been designed to contain cover (I know they have, but it still seems artificial). In the building-related scenes the cover is justified and logical (e.g. church pews in churches, fountains outside, pillars, bits of broken walls, windows etc), but when you see conveniently-placed rocky outcroppings to hide behind it somehow detracts slightly from the immersive experience that GOW otherwise offers. Another complaint involves the grenades in multiplayer mode; some details of the aiming arc can be off-screen if playing using two-player split-screen, which can make them harder to use than normal.

However, GOW stands out as a brilliant game in its own right, and is probably the main reason for investing in an XBox 360, especially in multiplayer mode.

I am not a major gamer, but when I heard about Gears of War and that it is better than the Halo series, I bought it. The graphics were superb, the music was outstanding and matched the game-play. WOWOWOWOW the game-play! Freakin' amazing weapons.... the chainsaw gun..... the Hammer of Dawn! Gears of War is a game that will be a classic. The actual storyline is a bit too short, but the nice thing is that once you beat the game, you can play again on harder levels. Gears is the most addictive game i have ever played other than Guitar Hero II. Even if you die in the game, you'll want to jump back into the action.

I would give this game 9 1/5 out of 10 and if you would like more information or help please look at my comment board

Wow. Gears of War is an astounding game. Top to bottom, the game never ceases to amaze me. The single player, while the story wasn't exactly amazing, and the campaign wasn't exactly that long, the game play is amazing. AMAZING! "Stop and pop" is the way to play this game, as once said by Cliffy B.

The campaign is relatively easy on the lower difficulty, but when you ramp up the difficulty to Hardcore or Insane once you've unlocked it, this game will make you tear your hair out in frustration. I've beaten the game on Insane, it was difficult. Very difficult.

The multi-player is better. I don't even know how that's possible. But it is. The thrill of pulling off that head-shot with the sniper rifle or killing three people from the same blast from the Hammer of Dawn, it never gets old.

Oh, the Hammer of Dawn is a giant space laser.

The only complaint is that you can't break the chainsawing animation, so when you clearly could've dodged the blade in real life, you aren't allowed to move, unless it glitches, and even then, you die when they're not near you.

Overall this game will make you tear your hair out. In a good way. 10/10.

WOW. Just WOW.

This game caused so much hype for avid 360 gamers like myself...and boy did it live up to it's expectations! I bought the limited edition version and got an extra DVD with it and a small hard back book with pretty pictures and nice words. I haven't watched the DVD yet as I wanted to finish the game first.

I am so impressed with this game. The story is admittedley short, but if you play the story in INSANE mode, it's going to last A lot longer than if you play it in CASUAL mode. However, the story itself is really good...you're working towards getting something (A Resonator) to destroy like a second world. It keeps you involved, and I do think that if they made the sotry any longer than it is, it might start to get abit repetitive...so well done to Eipc Games. Even the online version is very good, very fun. Abit like Halo 2 online, in the sense that, EVERYONE wants either the sniper rifle or the grenade launcher. lol. There isn't any lag either! Well, I didn't experience any.

The co-op is awesome! I played the co-op with my boyfriend, and working together as a proper team is exciting! And I must say...The graphics are unbelievable!!! My dad has a Samsung HDTV and oh my god...talk about take your breath away! Every 360 owner should have this game...if not...WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU! :)

Gears Of War is the best game on xbox360 maybe even best game I've played all year.With the best graphics i have ever seen on any system.The environments and surrounding ruin of cities looks great like an actual bombed out city.The A.I. in G.O.W is decent not to great though they are kinda dumb all they do is attack and take cover.Sound is awesome on it the guns sound great and the voice acting is really good done by professionals.The story is great just too short for my liking but its well done and when the soldiers talk they talk like real soldiers would by making jokes and trying to keep the morale up.Its a little sad to say but the way the soldiers act in this fictional war game is more real than they act in a real war game(my friend in the army told me thats exactly the way him and his company act).Actual game play of G.O.W is very easy and simple to get into and the firefights you'll be having are amazing just intense fire fights with taking fire and returning fire a decent variety of weapons makes the games fire fights fun.Taking cover is crucial to game play but its not as bad as it may sound you don't have to take cover for minutes at a time there are plenty of chances to run out and gun the Locusts down.All in all this is a great game worth buying if your a shooter fan or want a fun game to play its a most own for any 360 owner if they like action games at all.