For the uninformed, Gears of War is a tactical action horror game. Players assume the role of Marcus Fenix, who is a disgraced war hero. Marcus is setting out for redemption by pitting himself against lots of enemies. It makes perfect sense! The game uses the Unreal Engine 3 and we think it’s one of the best looking games we’ve seen yet.
This guy ROCKS!
The lighting is great and the bloom effects keep the game looking good. Even with all the pretty effects in action, we didn’t encounter any frame rate problems, despite the fact that the game is still a little while off. The game revolves primarily around utilizing cover consistently. You can basically take cover behind anything and this is done by simply pressing A. If you press the right trigger it will automatically move the player to the closest point where you can shoot from behind cover.
There is no shooting receptacle on the game, except when you go to shoot. When you press the left trigger to aim the aiming receptacle is displayed. This helps to give an immersive feel to the game. We had the opportunity to play a 4 vs. 4 multiplayer game, which was set in a partly ruined street with debris and cars littered throughout the road. There were plenty of surrounding buildings which can provide decent cover.
A new feature incorporated into the game is the active reload feature. The active reload feature is similar to a power meter on a golf game. If you press a button at the right time you will reload fast and give extra damage, but if you fail then your gun will jam, which could cost you some damage in the process.
A red circle will appear if you're about to die.
The game will also feature melee combat. One of the guns actually has a chainsaw on the bottom. It’s possible to actually sneak up and use the chainsaw quickly to take out enemies, but we’re not sure how quiet this would be... If you press the A button then you can perform a rodeo run, which is essentially running fast while bending low for cover. You lose some control over your character when you do this though. Taking cover also allows you to regenerate health. If you’re low on health then a red circle will appear on the screen, so you will need to take cover for a few moments.
We only had a chance to play the multiplayer side of the game, but even so we were blown away. Not only were the graphics amazing (those screen shots you see in the media panel really do look like in-game footage), the cover orientated action worked very well and was great fun to play.
Microsoft need a really big title for the holiday season, but will Gears of War be that title? We think it’s definitely on the right track.
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