Epic Games’ “Gears of War” finally, truly validates the existence of the Xbox 360. The insane amount of detail the system allows the game to put on screen underscores and enhances the atmosphere of desperation the game seeks to build, which is enhanced by the gameplay style it utilizes.

For those not nerdy enough to read about video games all day, “Gears” is the third-person shooter brainchild of “CliffyB,” an outspoken nickname enthusiast and game designer whose other main source of notoriety is designing the good “Unreal Tournament” from back in 1999. “Gears” is markedly different, obviously, since it is a single-player focused third-person game.

The game is set on a planet humanity colonized and built what appears to be a idyllic civilization, with many massive structures in classical Greek or Roman style, but one day a race of intelligent “locusts” bursts out of the ground and begins to attack the colonists. This sounds ridiculous as I type it, but the game presents it with much more skill. I will admit that the actual scripted story the player follows is often ridiculous, and nothing much happens, and the dialogue can be painful, but the world the game builds screams “desperation,” and it really feels like even if you win the next fire fight, you’re probably screwed in the long run anyway.

The game’s combat system underscores this. In “Gears,” you are not Gordon Freeman or Master Chief or the “Doom” guy. You can’t run in guns blazing and kill all the bad guys without as much of a scratch on you. In “Gears,” you have to hide behind pieces of rubble, and pillars, and furniture – pretty much whatever you can find–and then pop out and shoot at the bad guys and go back into hiding once they start shooting back. If you get shot you will die. The fact that you are so vulnerable underscores the feeling of desperation that pervades the game’s art direction.

One cool idea present here is that of “active reloading,” meaning that if you can perfectly execute a series of button presses during a reload, you can reload faster and possibly get a damage amplifier. It makes reloading a more tactile experience, and results in a more intense game with less player downtime. Another great feature is that the entire game is playable in co-op mode, even online. You can be playing the game alone, and one of your friends can see you playing and take control of one of your squadmates seamlessly.

The multiplayer mode is, well, there. It essentially boils down to a four-on-four riff on the “Counter-Strike” formula of one life per round. It’s just unremarkable, though extremely fun.

“Gears,” overall, is one of the best games to come out last year. It uses the Xbox 360 to its fullest realized potential to date, as well as making excellent use of Xbox Live. If you have dropped $400 on the system, pick it up without hesitation.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 at 9:32 am and is filed under games, reviews.