Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 26, 2008 13:23:03 GMT -5
Quickly: one of the best Co-op games I have played and rather good solo.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]The game drops you right into the middle of a war between the remnants of Humanity and an alien race identified as the Locusts. The locusts have created a hive under the crust of the earth and are slowly wiping out all of our civilization.
You take on the role of a massively buffed, super soldier who is part of the elite army known as the Gears. You and your squad follow orders 'given from above' and play an integral role in dealling a near killing blow the the Locusts. Along the way you travel through a jail, a capital city, various cities, a slum town where you have to stay in the light at night, a deep forest and eventually underground.
The gameplay is what they call a Tactical Third Person Shooter. The tactical part is the fact that you have to play it smart, you can't just rush in guns blasing or you will die. The main ways this works is the fact that you can fire without aiming, providing covering fire, you can take the time to aim a shoot, most of the scenery is destructable, and you have a context sensitive cover button that you use to move between cover on the battlefield. There is a small touch of squad based command system, but I found I barely used this.
In general this is a big guys with big guns killing bigger guys with even bigger guns kind of game, but a smart one, where you have to use strategy if you have any chance of living. The feel of the game is very balls to the walls gritty and pro, filled with action movie like one liners, vulgarity and squad relations.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]A damn good shooter. I loved the fact it was strategic. A lot of the time if you are stuck in this game it's not because you just aren't quick enough, it's because you haven't found the right strategy to get past the situation. There isn't just one strategy to use either, sometimes flanking is called for, sometimes covering fire while you squad mates do the work, sometimes sniping, someties just firing off in a corner to get someoen to turn around works. The graphics are some of the best I have seen on the Xbox 360, and the sound is even better. The story is engaging and the characters are suitibly over the top. The gameplay varries enough that you don't tend to get board. The best part is you can do it all with a friend, split screen or over Xbox live.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]You can only have one campaign game going at once, this sucks when you have a couple of different friends who want to play through the game co-op with you. I personally would have really liked more background. The game pretty much dumps you right in, which is great for getting the adrenaline pumping, but I wanted to know more about the war, who the stranded are, why the main characters Dad knew so much about the locusts, etc.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]The main bad guy, General RAAM is such an SOB. It took me well over 30 tries to beat him both with and without someone playing co-op with me. That was on the lowest difficulty. This can and is controller tossingly frustrating. Sometimes the check points are too far appart, this can mean you go through a tough area only to get killed by something at the end then have to do it all over again.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]This is a great game. If you are a fan of action or FPS games you will love this. Not only is it great, but it's the best co-op experience I have had in a game, so you can share the love. Unless you hate the genre I don't see any reason not to pick this one up. I'll be here eagerly awaing Gears 2 this Winter.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]The game drops you right into the middle of a war between the remnants of Humanity and an alien race identified as the Locusts. The locusts have created a hive under the crust of the earth and are slowly wiping out all of our civilization.
You take on the role of a massively buffed, super soldier who is part of the elite army known as the Gears. You and your squad follow orders 'given from above' and play an integral role in dealling a near killing blow the the Locusts. Along the way you travel through a jail, a capital city, various cities, a slum town where you have to stay in the light at night, a deep forest and eventually underground.
The gameplay is what they call a Tactical Third Person Shooter. The tactical part is the fact that you have to play it smart, you can't just rush in guns blasing or you will die. The main ways this works is the fact that you can fire without aiming, providing covering fire, you can take the time to aim a shoot, most of the scenery is destructable, and you have a context sensitive cover button that you use to move between cover on the battlefield. There is a small touch of squad based command system, but I found I barely used this.
In general this is a big guys with big guns killing bigger guys with even bigger guns kind of game, but a smart one, where you have to use strategy if you have any chance of living. The feel of the game is very balls to the walls gritty and pro, filled with action movie like one liners, vulgarity and squad relations.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]A damn good shooter. I loved the fact it was strategic. A lot of the time if you are stuck in this game it's not because you just aren't quick enough, it's because you haven't found the right strategy to get past the situation. There isn't just one strategy to use either, sometimes flanking is called for, sometimes covering fire while you squad mates do the work, sometimes sniping, someties just firing off in a corner to get someoen to turn around works. The graphics are some of the best I have seen on the Xbox 360, and the sound is even better. The story is engaging and the characters are suitibly over the top. The gameplay varries enough that you don't tend to get board. The best part is you can do it all with a friend, split screen or over Xbox live.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]You can only have one campaign game going at once, this sucks when you have a couple of different friends who want to play through the game co-op with you. I personally would have really liked more background. The game pretty much dumps you right in, which is great for getting the adrenaline pumping, but I wanted to know more about the war, who the stranded are, why the main characters Dad knew so much about the locusts, etc.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]The main bad guy, General RAAM is such an SOB. It took me well over 30 tries to beat him both with and without someone playing co-op with me. That was on the lowest difficulty. This can and is controller tossingly frustrating. Sometimes the check points are too far appart, this can mean you go through a tough area only to get killed by something at the end then have to do it all over again.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]This is a great game. If you are a fan of action or FPS games you will love this. Not only is it great, but it's the best co-op experience I have had in a game, so you can share the love. Unless you hate the genre I don't see any reason not to pick this one up. I'll be here eagerly awaing Gears 2 this Winter.