Gears of War (or should that be ‘Bore’?)
by matt @ 11:16 pm. Blogged under Gaming (Xbox 360)
Continuing with my reviews of newly acquired Xbox 360 games, tonight I put Gears of War on Ebay. That in itself about sums up how I feel about it after three evenings. I’m not sure why GamesMaster say ‘The best game we’ve ever seen’. Rated ‘Certificate 18′ with ‘Contains Strong Bloody Violence’ slapped on the back, the splattering blood is about all the game has got going for it. For some reason, in Xbox Live more than half of the competing players are Scottish (with strong Glaswegian dialect which sounded as foreign to me as French or German) upon discovering you’re English they boot you out… lovely.
Despite having some beautiful scenery the levels are quite small and restricting, especially compared to the likes of Perfect Dark Zero. The use of the ‘A’ button to hide behind walls, run, perform somersaults or climb over obstacles is irritating because it’s too broadly associated, many a time I found myself trying to escape one pillar only to land behind another and then somersault back again before I was blasted in the back of the head.
This is a game that will appeal to those interested only in very fast action shooting combined with flying limbs and gore. Personally I prefer a game where a bit more skill is needed to kill the opponent… where takes more than one shot to do it (unless it’s a headshot). If like me, you’re a fan of the occasional sniping session then forget about it; in Gears of War you’re constantly on the move, and generally carrying a shot gun. 90% of my kills were made with the machine gun’s built in chain saw which says a lot about the general proximity of the opponents.
At first it was a bit challenging to face a less escapable enemy - where attack is the only form of defence, but after three hours I was bored out of my mind. I’d liken it most to Grand Theft Auto with fat armed zombies instead of innocent bystanders - all taking place on one street full of wrecked cars. Roll on Halo 3!
Technorati Tags: gears of war, xbox 360, video games, epic games
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January 5th, 2007 at 12:01 am
Did you try playing the campaign in multiplayer with a split-screen? That rocked.
My only peeve with GoW was that it took two days of casual playing to finish it - doesn’t seem worth the fifty quid asking price.
January 5th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Jeez, I’ve been loving the online! Perhaps you just got some bad seeds on the online matches, frankly it’s been one of the most satisfying, fairly balanced team games I have ever had the priveledge of playing online! My first three matches were awesome, really good support from experienced players taking me through the sly tactics…
Match one I got 5 knock downs and 5 kills!
It’s wicked!
January 7th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
I didn’t try multi-player I must admit. I had high hopes, even played it at somebody else’s house before I bought it… but after two hours I was a bit bored in free play. Took 4 hours to get bored/frustrated on Xbox Live. Perfect Dark remains my favourite game. Can’t believe Halo 3 is another 11 months away!
October 15th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
The multiplayer is/was ok I found, but I had issues with people and connections. Compared to something like Halo 2, it’d take 2 or 3 times as long to get into a game.
I liked the story (what there was of it anyway) and actually found the whole ducking thing quite good fun. The campaign with a friend is as good as the Halo 3 campaign over live. Especially on the hardest difficulty. There’s something great about preparing and doing a tactical “1,2,3 go go go” taking different sides and covering each other.
Maybe my thing is that I generally hate phones, and so on live I’m not that keen on listening to idiots making random noises or various booming voices or immature children, so tend to stick to single player games (Halo 3 being the exception) - Being used to single player monotony, I found the campaign fitted into my tastes quite well.
As to GoW taking 2 days to finish with casual playing, Halo 3 took less!