Multiplayer & Conclusion - Just buy it.
Multi-player
On Xbox live Gears of War is every bit as good as I’d expected. The Americans have had a head start getting the game a week earlier than us Europeans and already seem to have perfected the art of the sniper head shot. My first introduction to the live experience resulted in me being killed within the first few minutes of each game. I spent some time with a friend walking around the maps, familiarising myself with the environments, the places where you can pick up weapons and all any areas that would provide a tactical advantage. All of the maps are impeccably designed and offer multiple paths to the opposing teams spawn point. The maps on offer are fairly small so it’s normally only a matter of 30 seconds or so before you hear the first gun shot being fired, making Gears of War the quintessential pick up and play game.
There are three game modes on offer, all of which pit a team of four Locusts against four human COG soldiers. Warzone is a standard game of team elimination which, as I found out extremely quickly, relies on heavy communication with your team mates if you hope to come out on top, as do all the multiplayer modes. In Assassination each team has a leader that they need to protect and the goal is to kill the leader of the opposing team. The person who kills the leader becomes the leader of their team for the next round. Execution is similar to Warzone, but instead of dying once you've been knocked down, your opponent needs to kill you be executing a finishing manoeuvre. All of the game modes on offer are an exciting blend of action, strategy, aggression and pure bloodthirsty fun.
Click for larger imageYou’ll be barking out enemy positions, rushing to revive fallen team mates and frantically shouting for back-up as the enemy descend on your position. You can use the chainsaw attack from the single player campaign which is absolutely priceless. Listening to the laughter of your team mates as you all gang up on one person and use your chainsaws simultaneously to slice him into pieces is hilarious. Multi-player mode also allows you to execute an opponent using a curb stomp; injure the enemy and bring to his knees and then press ‘X’ to crush him, leaving him a pool of blood.
On each map you’ll find weapons to pick up, which always spawn in the same area, including a rocket launcher and sniper rifle, but it’s disappointing that you can’t restrict weapons in the lobby.
Click for larger imageThere are a severe lack of options which could have made the online experience even better, but Gears of War still gets away with it because of the excellent controls, level design, graphics, animations and superb gameplay on offer. It would have been nice to have more game modes instead of being restricted to Warzone, Assassination and Execution, but Gears of War is still the best multiplayer game this year.
Gears of War is a tactical third person shooter of the highest calibre. Apart from being slightly on the short side and having some problems with the friendly AI it does live up to the hype; I’ll be playing Gears of War right up until Halo 3 arrives. If you haven’t got it already, what are you thinking?
Pros
Intense gameplay
Stunning visuals
Great animation
Impressive enemy AI
Frightening creatures
The Chainsaw
Co-op mode
Cons
Friendly AI are a bit naff
Lack of multiplayer modes
Some more weapons would have been nice
A chance to drift off into the land of fairytales with loveable characters, a great look and an engrossing story-line
HEXUS Awards
Gears of War - Xbox 360
Gears of War - Xbox 360
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Gears of War is available now , click the following links to order:SCAN.co.uk
Play.com
