Gears of War (Xbox 360)

• Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 66 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 10 stars

  when i say perfect... i mean perfect

  by bhood16 on November 10, 2006

  Pros: absolutely gorgeous graphics, intense and well developed story line, great co-op off and online play, multiplayer rivals that of halo 1

  Cons: the gameplay is so amazing that you sometimes miss the beauty of the game

  Summary: All I have to say is WOW. When I gave this game a 10...it means it's a 10. I went into this game knowing the hype, knowing how ...

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  Summary: All I have to say is WOW. When I gave this game a 10...it means it's a 10. I went into this game knowing the hype, knowing how amazing it was supposed to be, but I never though it could be as good as it is when i play it. The campaign is great with a well developed story line, every time you die and restart a checkpoint you;re forced to play a different way due to enemy AI and different obstacles. If this gets to tough for you... check into XBL and play co=op with one of your friends.
  As for online multiplayer...it beats Halo 2 and rises up to the standards of Halo 1. This is what happens when companies take their time with games. Sniping someone and watching their head pop off, chainsawing their body in two, blasting off a chunk of their body with a shotgun at point blank, and the most over the top of all... stabbing a frag grenade into their body and watching as they unknowingly walk away just to explode 2 seconds later. The game is perfect...most fun I've had ever in a game. It so team based and Epic was right anything other than 4v4 doesnt feel right.
  In all the game is perfect, wouldn't change one thing about it.

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  6 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  Outstanding Xbox 360 Title

  by sulo28 on November 9, 2006

  Pros: Graphics, Unique Gameplay, Intelligent AI and Multiplayer Capabilities

  Cons: Diversity and longevity

  Summary: Gears of War is the newest edition to the Xbox 360 gaming portfolio that has been touted as being the first, truly next-gen title for the Xbox 360. Rightfully so, ...

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  Summary: Gears of War is the newest edition to the Xbox 360 gaming portfolio that has been touted as being the first, truly next-gen title for the Xbox 360. Rightfully so, Gears of War presents a graphical quality that has not been seen in a console game to date, including those games previewed for the PS3.
  
  As a participant at E3 2006, the latest Build of Gears of War looked as though it was ready to take on the graphical power of the PS3. Until now, skepticism remained prevalent amoung the Xbox 360 community as well as its competitors that Gears of War would be considered a true next-gen title. Games such as Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and Oblivion attempted to unleash the power of the 360 with marginal success. Developers were unaware of the 360's potential. That is, all developers except Epic.
  
  Epic was the studio that insisted that Microsoft include 512MB of video RAM for the 360, which is double that which was going to be included in the 360 at first and double of what is included in the PS3 (256MB). Epic insisted that the additional RAM would allow much more data to be buffered which would in turn allow developers to create true graphical masterpieces. None were able to do so, until Gears of War.
  
  Gears of War will set the standard for next-gen gaming on the 360. Having played through the campaign on the lowest setting, I am able to say without uncertainty that Gears of War represents what the Xbox 360 is truly capable of. Graphics set aside, the unique gameplay brought forth by Gears of War revolutionizes the 3rd person shooter genre. The "take cover" mentality truly creates a unique environment within which your character resides. However, the multiplayer aspects of this game should not be excluded.
  
  Gears of War allows the user to join the single player campaign of one of his/her friends so that they, as a team, can fight through the game with even more satisfaction than if they were on their own. The Xbox Live portion of Gears of War also translates the extraodinary unique gameplay from the single player missions to the multiplayer side which creates some astounding gaming scenarios.
  
  Though there are many great characteristics about this game, there are also a few drawbacks as well. The diversity of the enemies that you fight will not leave you breathless. It seems as though you are fighting the same 4 types of monsters throughout the entire game. However, this tends not to be a large concern because you become more worried about keeping behind cover than what type of enemy you are fighting. Also, the longevity of the game is also in question. Most FPS and TPS games do not endure. That is, actual game time is around 10 hours or so. However, this can be remedied in Gears of War by starting on the "Hardcore" setting rather than the "Casual" setting. This will leave your first experience with Gears of War much more satisfying and it will most certainly test your patience towards the end of the single player mission.
  
  Overall, Gears of War is by far the most brilliant game to come about for the Xbox 360. From its graphics to its unique gameplay, Gears of War will undoubtedly set the standard for next-gen gaming on the Xbox 360.

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  5 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  The promise of HD gaming finally realized

  by dddave40 on November 10, 2006

  Pros: Awesome graphics and lighting; intense fighting

  Cons: Even the easiest level kicks my ass; now I need a 71 in. HDTV

  Summary: Not that I was dissapointed with the Xbox 360 launch titles, but I was hoping for more in the graphics deapartment given all the early hype. Typically, game console companies (...

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  Summary: Not that I was dissapointed with the Xbox 360 launch titles, but I was hoping for more in the graphics deapartment given all the early hype. Typically, game console companies (ESPECIALLY SONY) blow out a lot of hot air about the capabilities of their new gen consoles. This has made me take the hype with a grain of salt and lower my expectations. However, now that GOW has been released, I can say that the early hype about the XBOX 360 capabilities has been fullfilled. Take a look at this game on a HDTV, and it becomes evident that you no longer need to go with a high end, $7000 PC gaming rig to get a superior gaming experience. Although I am typically not a big fan of Microsoft products (I hope and expect that the ZUNE will bomb), I have to give them kudos on finally delivering on the promise of true HD gaming on a console that rivals or exceeds that on a high end PC. Now where is the Sony President who stated at E3, qoute "..high def gaming has not arrived until we say it has..." He needs to pull his head out of his ass and play GOW on an XBox 360.

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  3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 10 stars

  Something new

  by Soulwolf on November 9, 2006

  Pros: Gorgeous and unique

  Cons: Haven't found anthything yet

  Summary: Gears of war is innovative in a way I have not seen in the shooter genre before. It?s truly something different. If you think all shooter?s are alike ...

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  Summary: Gears of war is innovative in a way I have not seen in the shooter genre before. It?s truly something different. If you think all shooter?s are alike you really need to have a look at this.

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  2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 10 stars

  got it yesterday. best video game ever played

  by krispydancing on November 8, 2006

  Pros: graphics, advanced gameplay options, chainsaws!!!

  Cons: none! cant think of any right now

  Summary: i have played tons of games in my lifetime, from counterstrike to halo. from rainbow six to fear. this kicks the ass of any first person shooter i have played ...

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  Summary: i have played tons of games in my lifetime, from counterstrike to halo. from rainbow six to fear. this kicks the ass of any first person shooter i have played to date. when i first got it i immediately started a coop campain with my buddy and we were constantly in awe. gears of war didnt cease to amaze us with its unique sinarios and stunning grafics. the online multiplayer from the few time i played it showed little or no lag. and was extremly pleasureable to play. voice communication adds the the excitement and realism of the gameplay. the enemies in gears of war are like that of no other video game. they seem to act differently every time. and they advance on you fast

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  4 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 7 stars

  The Truth is upon you: please step inside.

  by tangentstar on November 19, 2006

  Pros: Truly next-gen graphics. Nice main menu. Mostly good AI. Fairly legnthy campaign. Online Co-Op, and XBL support. Powerful closing cut-scene of game.

  Cons: Flat, repetitive Campaign. Hard to fallow, and hard to get into story line. AI imperfections

  Summary: Foreword:
  After going through and reading several user reviews on CNet I was disappointed. I don?t understand how some one can give a game a perfect score, when they
  ...

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  Summary: Foreword:
  After going through and reading several user reviews on CNet I was disappointed. I don?t understand how some one can give a game a perfect score, when they clearly sight flaws and things they dislike in their own review. Also a comparison keeps coming up to Halo 3; people don?t seem to understand what made the Halo series so successful. Could you imagine enjoying the Halo story lines if cortona just popped up and told you ?Chief, destroy all these enemies? and nothing more?
  
  Reviewed on: Sony SXRD 50? (1080p display, 1080i input ) & Sony 5.1 sound system.
  
  Right away I started up the campaign, after reading the notes on the difficulty setting I started off with it on ?hardcore.? The initial take on the graphics is above average; unfortunately you are started off in a level that isn?t very graphically impressive (when compared to the rest of the game). Since the main focus of almost all of the user reviews on this game focus on graphics I will start with that.
  
  GRAPHICS: Truly this game features next generation graphics, and the game is at least worth a rent just to see the achievement. In my review of Chromehounds, I mentioned how spectacular they are. This game blows Chromehounds away graphically, and probably most games to date. Several times I would just stop to admire the detail in the ground, or the plants or even in the gory bodies around. (Sometimes you will find human bodies with their intestines hanging out?) I cannot explain how well done and incredible the most graphics of this game are done. The animations (movements) are very realistic, lots of light and water effects. That said I did catch some minor flaws in the graphics. For example on several occasions shadows would flicker through textures and geometry (solid objects). This was not a big deal, but caught my attention since the graphics are at such a high level. Another thing that was unusual was how some areas and levels of the game could be so incredibly detailed while others where just above average. This applies to textures of objects to. Most things in the game have high resolution textures, but there where a few times when I would walk up to an object only to be disappointed as the textures were sub-par to the rest of the game. For example I saw this in a telephone pole? Also I would like to note that objects collision is very well done in this game, and rarely do you see solid object pass through each other. Most important all these graphical effect are executed perfectly (really!). I can?t think of one time when I noticed a slow frame rate!
  
  AUDIO: Audio in this game is just average, Surround sound is present but not breath-taking. It isn?t a downfall of the game; it just isn?t as advanced as the graphics. It does its job?and a little more. I noticed this when I was playing campaign online with a friend. He was on a turret behind me, and he was talking to me but I was having trouble understanding him because my rear-right speaker was blasting out his gun fire. Audio that blew me away was in the PREY demo from XBL. It was incredible to turn on the jukebox and listen to the audio effects as I moved around. The most notable audio effect in this game is the voice acting! Your guys say some funny stuff, while other times it?s powerful and emotional. This really adds a nice human element to the game.
  
  GAMEPLAY: Okay and here it is. This is exactly why this game did not score very high for me. Of course almost any video game will be fun when you first pick it up. The learning curve was a little steep, initially, but with the difficulty set on hardcore that should be expected. The A button almost carries to much work load. As there is several times when I want to sprint but ended up covering. Getting out of cover in the heat of battle can be trouble some, along with getting into cover sometimes you will run up to cover and have to move around a lot before you can actually cover.
  Starting the game most people will enjoy the detail in the carnage and learning the game, its weapons, and your opponents. But what happens after you learn these things? Honestly very little. The story is hard to follow, and isn?t that complex or interesting. About 2/3 way through the campaign I started to wonder why I was playing this. It?s not that it was boring because there was action and elegant game worlds, but more because it had become so repetitive. There was no mystery, no question of what would happen next. I just didn?t care anymore. So when I got pretty well stuck on Hardcore I loaded it up on casual. I was surprised how easy it was. It was like a walk in the park compared to hardcore. So I rushed through the rest of the game to find no real development of the story. After the closing of the game, the final cut-scene, I was dumb struck. How could such a basic story line end with such a powerful closing statement? The words of the unknown voice where so powerful. I truly wish that the effort of the closing scene had been put into the whole game. This cut scene made me wonder if I had missed things in the game that should compare to the final scene. But nope, I watched my brother play campaign, and saw about what I had experienced.
  
  Campaign was so disappointing for me; such a graphically advanced game had failed to entertain me in the most important category: entertainment.
  
  One cool thing in this game is the active reload. This feature allows you to reload faster, and if you have really good timing, you can power up your ammo. Although I will never understand the physics/chemistry behind this idea?it?s a ?sci-fi? so what ever.
  
  Some nice things in campaign where your team members, they bring a nice human element to campaign and help you to feel at home among them. Surprisingly, very rarely do you hear phrases repeated over and over again. And while we are on the topic of computers?.
  The AI?s in this game where actually pretty decent. While some people thought that your squad mates are worthless I thought they were actually very useful in combat. While both enemy and human AIs seemed to be a bit over aggressive, both were fairly well balanced. Your squad mates will go down quite a bit because of this. While enemy strategy is always the same, the AIs will execute it in a variety of ways. There was a couple times where I would have killed all but one enemy and he was just waiting for me to come and get him. It was a Theron Guard, which is a tougher enemy. One big problem with the AI is when they are ?in cover? they simply don?t care if you shoot them. For example when you are approaching the mansion, just as you exit the city, you fight a bunch of enemies that are on lower ground than you. If you stay up high, and duck behind the ledge enemies will run up to this wall and cover. At this point you can pop up and shoot down on them, and if they are still covering they will not respond. This is also true if you see part of their body exposed when they are covering.
  
  One thing I found pointless was the big ?bugs? that claw out of holes. These are the ones that you kill with the hammer of dawn. They seemed to be completely pointless in that they were never really that threatening.
  
  So after writing this, it seems I have found a reoccurring theme in this game: inconsistency. The story line is mostly bad, but the ending is just so powerful it?s out of place. The graphics are mostly incredible except for a couple places. The AI is very well done with the exception of the getting shot under cover bit.
  
  I didn?t play XBL so much, but from what I did play I experienced some lag, not bad, but it was there. Game play seemed heavily based on who could rush out and get the most powerful weapon first. This was usually the sniper rifle since, a head shot is an instant kill. The lag seemed to make shot guns pointless. Anytime you?re in shot gun range you?ll probably get chain sawed. The lag seemed to make your opponent be able to chainsaw you from a greater distance and in awkward positions.
  
  
  So? Well this game is definitely worth a rent just to see what a graphical achievement it is. While it seems the only strong point is the graphics. The game play just didn?t appeal to me. And because of this, the game is not worth sixty dollars to me.
  
  On a final note, I would like to point out that I have only rented this game for five days and there for this review is probably not as complete as it should be. Read the other reviews, but if they point out on thing they do not like, remember that it is no longer, truly perfect.

  Updated
  so after doing something, i wanted to clarify that the story of this game is not BAD, its just not at the level of Halo...
  
  Also after talking to many people online i heard that the online is very difficult to get into because it is so complex.

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  2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 10 stars

  One of Xbox 360's Best Title

  by Lyndon on November 11, 2006

  Pros: Awesome graphics, innovative gameplay, the cover system works well even in multiplayer. constant framerates, Intelligent AI,They don't just stand right in front of you and online coop multiplayer.

  Cons: Cartoonish blood, the effects is good but still not believable. And the "A" button be annoying especially when facing a berserker. No multiplayer bot especially from the same company who gave us UT

  Summary: If there's a Halo Killer, this should be it. The game is not a generic run and gun shooter, it's more like a Duck and Flank one. If ...

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  Summary: If there's a Halo Killer, this should be it. The game is not a generic run and gun shooter, it's more like a Duck and Flank one. If you like blood and gore just hold down the "B" button and you will get a plate full of carnage. And if you don't like your squad AI you can join/create a coop campaign online or off with your friends. Just like the old Xbox motto "It's good to play together".

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  2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 10 stars

  Amazing...Simply Amazing

  by Poison4Life on July 29, 2007

  Pros: great graphics, Awesome Gameplay, Comfy Controls, Satisfying co-op and Awesome Multiplayer

  Cons: Too short, Too much A button

  Summary: Only one year in, the Xbox 360 has its Killer App. And I mean killer. Gears is probably the best game out there right now here in 2006-07. The game ...

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  Summary: Only one year in, the Xbox 360 has its Killer App. And I mean killer. Gears is probably the best game out there right now here in 2006-07. The game is so damn good that both my friends and I are trying not to hammer our way through to the credits. We've still clocked up over 15 hours of game time each, because we're milking this baby for all it's worth. The campaign is unusually short, but very entertaining if you start on the Hardcore level. Gears is one of those titles that arrives every couple of years and raises the bar so high that it almost spoils every game released in the following six months. Including the savoured Halo 3. Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying Gears is perfect. But its annoyances are so quickly overwhelmed by the sheer brilliance of everything that it does right, you'll soon forget all about them. The visuals in Gears that were made by Epic are absolutely fantastic! Each of the 360's three CPU cores must be screaming in agony as they display the startling scenery that Epic beats out of them. The armour worn by warriors is comprised of an intricate patchwork of three dimensional plating. Characters are animated with a cohesive grace rarely seen in a video game; there's none of the awkward gaps between two different animations that we've all had to put up with until now. The ontrol scheme is different, but new and very comfy. The problem witht his though, is the A button. "Context-sensitive" is the new lens flare of controls; we've seen it in the streamlined movement of the latest Splinter Cell outing, and Gears follows this trend. The A button is the door to context-sensitive heaven. This single button allows you to run, to dodge, to jump over obstacles and even to move into a cover position. That's one busy little button. Sometimes you might get a little pissed at the game though, becuase you'll try and sprint but instead you end up taking covering, and throwing you're 360 controller down yelling " **************!" It may be a little hard to get used to for the oldschool FPS players. But it probably will take you about half-an-hour to master the scheme.
  Now that we've covered the bad-stuff, lets head to the good. And there is lots of it.
  
  While the levels aren't quite Battlefield 2-big, they're not far off. Unlike Battlefield's sparse deserts, this wide open, apocalyptic Earth is chock full of scenic delights, with dilapidated buildings, burnt-out cars and bloody corpses sprawling as far as the eye can see. The unreal engine 3 is just as capable of rendering enclosed areas, decorated with so many intricate features that it would make the Doom III engine blush. Large areas, small areas; this engine handles them both with a panache that would make John Carmack proud. A fe critics didn't like the games drab colour scheme, but if they were expecting a technicoloured rainbow in this game's apocalyptic setting, perhaps they'd be better off playing Viva Pinata.
  
  This is where the gut-wrenching, cranium-exploding gameplay comes into its own. Gears is a pure-blooded shooter, so if you don't like these games, there's a good chance you won't like Gears. Hell, if you don't like shooters you're probably not even reading this review, so we can tease you about being the boring MMORPG nerd that you are, and tell you to go save some wood elves or some such. However, if you do like shooters, get ready for a serving of some of the most satisfying, bullet-riddled, epic gunplay you've ever had the joy of working your trigger finger out to.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 10 stars

  Wow Wow Wow

  by doggadogdog on November 15, 2006

  Pros: Everything

  Cons: Were gonna have to wait ages for Gears of war 2.

  Summary: If anyone is thinking of waiting until March for a PS3, in the UK then you must be mad. This game isn't even coming out on the Play station ...

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  Summary: If anyone is thinking of waiting until March for a PS3, in the UK then you must be mad. This game isn't even coming out on the Play station 3.
  
  Next Gen gaming is here, it is now. It doesn't cost you £400 or make you wait until March. If you like shooters then do your self a favour and go and buy this game. You will not regret it.
  
  The graphics and game play will blow you away. Halo looks like a kids game compared to this. The dark sombre atmosphere creates and ominous sense of danger and uncertainty, you never know what is going to jump out at you.
  
  Sure the game may be completed in a day or two but don't play on easy. If you play on hard then you're going to have your work cut out to complete it. The online co-op play will make sure you won't be putting this game down for a long time.
  
  GOW has certainly thrown down the gauntlet to the PS3 and other game manufacturers. Don't bother releasing another run of the mill shooter unless you compete with this.
  
  Sorry PS3 people next generation gaming is well and truly here.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 4 stars

  Overated?... Definetly!

  by zigfeld11 on March 17, 2007

  Pros: Graphics... storyline

  Cons: Gameplay, controls, graphics

  Summary: When I rented this game I was shocked at how washed out the graphics were. Everything is a basic color scheme of grey, beige and black with some orange hues. ...

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  Summary: When I rented this game I was shocked at how washed out the graphics were. Everything is a basic color scheme of grey, beige and black with some orange hues. It's very difficult to tell who the enemies are when they are in hand to hand combat with your squad.
  The controls are clunky, slow, and just plain tedious. The game play is very linear and predictable. It's pretty much an arcade game on steroids. I just don't get it.
  I have been playing 1st and 3rd person shooters since 1994 and this game just doesn't stack up to the hype.

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  2 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.

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