Gears of Joy
This past Saturday I picked up Gears of War for the XBOX 360 and had a gaming session that didn't end 'til I finished it early Sunday. I really haven't done that with a videogame since the weekend Halo 2 debuted a couple of years ago, since guilt kicks in whenever I spend over an hour or so on a game console. I had no such guilt during the play time of Gears, however, and felt oddly accomplished and relieved once I was done with it. I really have to allot more time to the playing of videogames as my game pile grows larger and larger as the days pass. There's just so much other stuff to get done... *sigh*I won't go too much into the tech aspects of the game as you can read about that on any online gaming site, other than to say it's probably the best looking game yet on the 360 and is a great showcase for my HDTV and 6.1 surround sound setup.
Yeah, the visuals and sound are amazing, but it's
the gameplay that kept me going hour after hour. Although it plays somewhat like a 1st person shooter, like Halo or Call of Duty, Gears is in 3rd person, where you can see Marcus, your futuristic soldier, in front of you at all times. As such, the camera hangs behind you, as was done in Resident Evil 4, and is very fluid - it bobs and sways with your movements, and tilts at a low perspective when you run, giving it an amazingly cool CNN War Coverage/Black Hawk Down effect. Also the 1st person "run and gun" mentality must be replaced with one of the "stop and pop" variety. Basically, if you go out guns blazing, you'll be mowed down by Locust (the baddies) fire soon after. No, you'll need to make use of every boulder, car husk, burned-out sofa and concrete slab you can take cover behind, and wait for a break in enemy fire before you can reveal yourself, take aim and blow some aliens away. Then dash out and gain ground to another bit of cover, pause, and more shooting, until the area's cleared. I found this "stop and pop" action to be a lot of fun, and it didn't bore me the way more traditional shooters do after awhile. It was a little more strategic, a little more methodical, and a little more dramatic.
One area this game doesn't touch Halo in, is the story. I'd listened to podcasts of the developer, Cliffy B., talk about how he was inspired for this game by non-typical movies such as Schindler's List, American History X and Se7en, rather than the expected Aliens and Terminator movies. I took this to mean that the story would be inspired by these movies as well, not just the visuals, and the awesome, epic, emotional nature of that "Mad World" trailer before the game's launch continued those expectations, but really, that inspiration really only pertains to the visuals, and mood, here and there. Not a bad thing, I suppose, but I was expecting more than a "B" 80s action movie plot, with dialog to match. I was pretty sick of big dudes swearing constantly and yelling, "Let's do this!!!" by the end of the game. Yeah, there is a little back story to be gleaned from the dialog in places, but not much. I'm glad I picked up the Limited Edition version of the game that comes with a tin case, since an included "making of" DVD and a pretty cool little book, "Destroyed Beauty" flesh out the story a bit more. Overall though, the narrative could've used a lot of work, and could've made a great game truly awesome. As it is, I'm not as interested in a Gears of War sequel as I should be.Other than the story and dialog though, the game gets just about everything else right. The gameplay, sound, visuals and atmosphere are just amazing and I recommend Gears highly to anyone who loves shooters and action games. The single player mode is on the short side (8-10 hours on the normal, "Casual" setting) but the game's good enough to make me want to go back and play it again on the "Hardcore" setting. I'll definitely play it co-op with friends in the near future, and I haven't really even touched the multiplayer yet. For me to want to go back and play a game again speaks highly of it, as that unplayed pile of gaming taunts me still...
9 Comments:
You're an advertiser's naughty dream come true.
well, as long as i dig the game, i can be all kinds of naughty.
I love the commercials for this game...they make it seem very untypical.
I just dived into HalfLife 2 with my new widescreen monitor.
Oh- you gamers! (Although I must admit, can't wait until my nephew opens up his guitar hero present that I got for me, ahem, cough, cough... I meant him.)
by the way, I'm attempting to blog somewhat regularly again. We'll see how long it lasts.
I can't wait to play with you online... yummy!
john: half-life. yum. the original was one of my favorite games ever.
the heat: rock on! anticipating more chapters about your tony robbins adventures.
anonymous: alright, sure. send me your gamertag and we'll get to some destruction.
Any commentary on Michael Richards tirade, one of your fellow thespians?
I didnt find thing that i need... :-(
msn
I can only imagine what it's like to be so popular...
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