Gears of War XBOX 360 Exclusive Title
Box ArtThe guys in epic really did it this time. Creating Gears of War, one of the 360s premiere titles gave 360 gamers nothing but a great 3ps. The story starts off as Marcus Fenix (you) are in a jail on the planet Sera. A former COG in the Gears of War, Marcus was put in jail for inapropriate battle procedure. The gameplay begins as Dominic Santiago (a fellow COG, and Marcus' buddy) lets you out, suits you up, and gives you a weapon. Within the first minute of the game you realize how much control you have over your characters movements, practically using one button. Smoothly developed this system works perfectly as you can run, roll, lean against a wall, and even blindfire with one button. The story is somewhat freeform, as you can choose which directions you would like to procede through, however they both lead to the same place everytime.
Gameplay -
Gears of War has 3 different difficulties that you can play through: Normal, Hardcore, and Insane. each difficulty has 5 Acts, consisting of 30 chapters. The chapters vary for defending, driving, breaking and entering , and even chasing monsters. These monsters are called locusts, or greater known as The Horde. What makes GOW very different from Halo is that Locusts come out from under the ground in emergence holes. Throughout acts you can encounter many of these, luckily you can easily clog it with a simple toss from your grenade. Oh and another thing, instead of an energy sword or a plasma rifle you have a chainsaw

(Pic from IGN) the chainsaw could possibly be one of the coolest kills in video game history, youll think so too when the blood and guts go everywhere. The online gameplay, while extremely fun choosing from over 10 original maps, and 10 available in downloadable content with 2 teams (COG and LOCUST) consisting of 4 players each can sometimes be a pain. Have fun finding your friends. Thats right an older patch prohibits matchmaking with friends, to even up ranks. While it benefits ranking, what good is a video game if you cant share it with your buddies? Other than that GOW has great online achievements that will keep you playing for hours, always something to do.
9.5Graphics -
Fantastic graphics, however sometimes the textures dont show up right away, beautiful colors and atmosphere,
9.0Sounds -
The voice overs never get old, primarily because every act your character says something different to go along with the story. Taking phone calls, great sound effects (water rippling, wind, footsteps) The weapons sound fantastic and if you get sniped, youll definitely hear it, well before your head got shot off, literally.
10Positives -
One of the best story lines in a Third Person Shooter.
Great weapon selection
Great Controls
Fun online play
Hours of playback time
Great 360 achievements
Downloadable content
Negatives -
No Online Party System
No Online Rank Symbol, online a number
When you step down from a height, a horrible animation occurs as if bunny hopping down a single stair.
Overall Rating -
9.5 A must own for a 360, if you have not played this game be sure to buy a pre played copy from gamefly or your local eb games. worth every penny.
A great image from Gears of War, showing Marcus and excellent graphics, and the view of your Third person shooter. (IGN)