Gears of War

The Good
Gears of war is one of the most interesting games made in a long time. The Unreal Technology and the Epic team unite again giving birth to an action game in which you only have to kill monsters (or aliens) all the time, but they managed to make a different game.

Graphics are one of the most remarkable things on this game, they're perfect and just a few games can compare them. You'll see lots of details, huge stages, many different creatures and many other graphic things which make the game special.

The sound is brilliant too, the music is epic (no doubt, it's war music) and it involves you in the game. The characters talk all along the game, when they throw a grenade or need help they'll let you know.

Gameplay is good when you know how to take control of it, at the beginning you'll need your time. There are many weapons and lots of ammo. You don't have to worry about ammo because you can take the weapons from your enemies, so, feel free to shoot as long as you can.

What makes this game different is the action system. You'll have to take cover all the time, if you're out it's really difficult to survive, so, work as a team with your squad, cover yourself and try to stay alive and you'll win. You can't go on your own killing all the enemies without strategy because they're tough. The game is really difficult, it's strange because we're used to play easy games, with many checkpoints when you kill just one enemy or something like that. This game has checkpoints too, but to achieve them is something harder than other games. It has three difficulty levels, and the normal level is really hard, so, get prepared to face a hard challenge.

The Bad
Beside the bugs that this PC version has from the Microsoft servers, the game itself has many bugs too. They are minor bugs, but they will make you being frustrated many times. Your main character will get stuck when you're running and you'll be killed because of that. Sometimes it's impossible to take some weapons because there's something over it.

Graphics are perfect but physics aren't. There are physics in the game, but maybe you don't notice it because the game don't use it. Enemies looks really tough when you're fighting against them, but when they're dead you can move them as if they were made with rubber. Objects has physics too, but they're wasted.

The AI of your squad members is really poor. They'll kill many enemies, but they'll be killed many times too, and to make matters worse, they'll be bothering you all the game, they'll be in the middle and you'll really want to kill them by yourself. Sometimes they'll get stuck and its AI will be disconnected, maybe because they're just behind a door and they can't pas it through. When this happen, you can only finish a checkpoint, load the previous checkpoint or get killed to go back to the previous checkpoint. We shouldn't forget that this is a 3rd person team shooter, so, the AI of your partners is something really important.

The Bottom Line
Gears of war has a powerful technology and created a new world at war that (at least that's what it seems) will be exploited for many years. It's the rising of a new concept of action game. Be prepared to enjoy the magnificent graphics, the strategy of fighting with a squad covering yourself with many weapons and, sometimes, the frustration of seeing how stupid your partners could be.