Gears of War -- Final Opinion.

Magus and I have completed the five acts of Gears of War on the hardcore difficulty level. We're going to be going after the insane difficulty level, the thirty cogs, and the co-op achievements. So we're at least going through the game once more. The game is gorgeous in a truly shiny next generation sort of way. The rain effects in act three are nothing short of awesome. The enemies are also rather graphically impressive, especially the larger varieties. The star attraction of the game though has to be the co-op gameplay. It's really rather fun but it does come with a certain level of inherent frustration. Your character is responsive for the most part but occasionally it just doesn't do what you want it to do. It just happens to occur most in the heat of battle. The game has issues deciding if you want to roll or if you want to take cover. And breaking from cover with some sort of grace takes a little bit of skill. There are other little annoyances like not being able to jump over obstacles without crouching for cover beforehand and certain enemies getting far too lucky with splash damage. Another plus in Gears of War happens to be the story and characters that are

augmented with great over the top voice work. I'm not sure how intentional it all is, because it really could go either way, but Gears of War plays out as a wonderfully campy comedy. The banter between the squad members is just so silly that you have to laugh at it, and that works great for the game. The game is a graphic showcase, has a great comic flair, and features co-op combat that is fun and lag free. Gears of War is really good as a co-op experience. I don't think it's necessarily entirely filling though, it's more like Chinese food. Really good, but you're hungry again a couple hours later. I'm giving Gears of War a 9.