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Gears of War is harrowing tale that pits humankind against the Locust Horde.

Marcus Fenix and his team battle nightmarish creatures. View larger.

In Gears of War, you must take cover to survive. View larger.

Gears of War presents a focused and well-paced cinematic experience. View larger.

The gameplay is focused on a fire team co-op so advanced that your A.I. teammates are indiscernible from human players. Voice recognition and real-time lip synching heighten the absorbing experience. The Unreal Engine 3 technology brings out the smallest details in the largest of battles. With GOW you're sure to experience a rich, dynamic world where characters spring to life. Speaking of life, the battlefield is a lethal place. To survive, you must suppress your enemy with blindfire, take cover in interactive environments, and use weapons and teammates to outwit your dreaded, inhuman foes. And with a title like GOW, it would be shame if you couldn't get online and challenge live gamers. With the next-generation of Xbox Live, you'll be able to experience individualized matchmaking, view player statistics, earn player achievements, customize games, and build personalized gamer profiles.

Gears of War shined bright at Microsoft's pre-E3 press briefing, but a deeper demo at Microsoft's E3 booth revealed many of the game's mechanics. GOW is built with both the hardcore and casual gamer in mind. But, instead of selecting a difficulty level at the start of the game, GOW offers a choice at the beginning of each level. In the vein of choose your own adventure, you can select between a difficult or easy path. And it's not just a simple choice of battling tougher enemies; each path (explained by a comrade) represents additional content that is crucial to the storyline. After easing your way into the experience of the gameplay with the simpler paths, you can go back and test your skills on the more difficult routes and never feel like you've played through the areas before.

Standing around in the open is likely to get you killed in GOW. You must use cover to survive. With a context sensitive A button function, you won't have to sweat memorizing cumbersome button combos. The A button will:

• Slam you into cover. As you approach cover in GOW simply tap the A button to slide and make immediate use of cover.
• Vault you over the cover. Once you're in cover, pressing up and A will vault you over your cover to engage the opponent or next cover opportunity.
• Evade enemy fire. When you're forced to be out in the open, tapping the A button will engage a roll maneuver to evade enemy fire.
• Activate a "Swat Turn." When taking cover on the side of a doorway, pressing the A button will spin your character from one side of the doorway to the other, helping avoid fire.

Gears of War presents a focused and well-paced cinematic experience, and nothing ruins that faster than a time-consuming exploration of every switch or button to find the elusive trigger to open a door. This game introduces a "point of interest" button that comes up on the screen so you can immediately interact with the necessary item to move forward in your gameplay. GOW certainly offers drool-worthy graphics, but the mechanics have also received equal attention. Keep your eyes and ears on high alert for a release date, as Microsoft hasn't let the cat out of the bag on when gamers will be able to tackle this great-looking and great-playing title.

Product Description Gears of War thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing story of humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. players live and breathe the role of Marcus Fenix. A disgraced former war hero, Marcus seeks personal redemption as he leads his fire team against an onslaught of merciless warrior fiends. Gamers immerse themselves in an experience so intensely emotional and gut-wrenching that playing will be like controlling a blockbuster action movie. Control Marcus Fenix and his fire team as they pit advanced human technology against the overwhelming and horrific Locust Horde. Gears of War unites next-generation technology with classic, emotional storytelling and a revolutionary tactical combat system, engrossing the gamer in a horrifying epic story of war and survival Unreal Engine 3 technology pushes high-definition visual designs and brings out the smallest details in the largest battle. Experience a rich dynamic world with an unprecedented level of detail



Customer Reviews

Too bad, it's really pretty Posted 17 March 2007
Gears of War threw in this whole movement system where you can hide behind stuff, and bounce to-and-fro like you're a member of the LAPD SWAT. It's a cool concept, but the problem is it's completely unnecessary.

Why? Because the hit detection is abosultely horrid. You can literally empty an entire clip with your machine gun into a running target and not kill it. I understand there will be some weapons more powerful than others but a whole clip? Give me a break.

If you actually want to get a kill during an online battle, learn to grenade tag, chainsaw, or shotgun. That's what everyone does. And the sad thing is, each of these methods is fundamentally the same exact thing (a close-quarter kill). Imagine, you're hiding behind a corner and see a guy run past and go to hide in front of you. He's about 30' away, so you decide to unload with everything your machine gun has to offer. Well, since this is Gears of War, he'll be startled but not killed by the first 20 bullets. During the barrage of hot lead, he'll turn around, run towards you, and kill you with one shotgun blast to the chest. The complete ineffectiveness of the guns is what has driven most my friends away from this game. It makes all your hard work seem like a waste of time when it can be shot to crap with just one cheesy blast.

I liked playing the story mode, but the online deathmatch is the main reason most people buy fps games, and Gears does NOT deliver.

Rent it. It's fun. But the online aspect blows.

The 360s finest hour Posted 16 March 2007
what can i say? This game is the best xbox 360 game to date. everything about it is great. From the rich exquisitely detailed enviorements to the over the top vieolonce and gore. to the excellent sound design which consists of a beautifally symphosised musical score and loud pounding sound effects. you start the single player campaign as marcus fenix a wartime soldier branded a traitor who is under arrest at the begining of the game. but is busted out by dom another soldier they pout their gear on and head out to fight the enemy known as the locust. the combat in gears is intense and challenging. the ai is solid and the weapons pack a huge punch. perhaps the best thing about gears is the amazing amount of care and attetion to detail that went into the core action itself. likewise the games weapons provide very satisfying and convincing results when you used in any fashion against a given foe. pistols will blow heads clean off necks and dismember chests in two halves. assault rifles will pumell and knock around enemies. s4niper rifles will disembowel enemies. and grenades cause enemies to blow up in spectacular ways. not to metion that gears of war has a great gimmick of having a chainsaw on its assault rifle. this weapon will chop enemies into bits while spraying immense amounts of blood. Yes it is all true gears of war is easily one of the best looking games ever made. the characthers have an extremely expressive appearance. Youll see scars and bruises and such on the characthers faces. The enviorements are all insanely detailed with enough various set peices to make you go bonkers. statues peices of rubbish couches and door frames all have an authentic feel. The blood effects are outstanding plus the textures are absoulutely top notch. plus the cutscenes are all animated movie qaulity. if youre looking for a game to show off the xboxs power this is it. The sound is also great but the voiceacting is pretty terrible. since you have an action oriented game you get an appropriately cinematic soundtrack. The music is stellar if youve played rachet and clank or halo however you probally already know what to expect of the game musically. but its a bit more orchestral a bit more frantically placed than halos bland soundtrack. And its a bit more cinematic and less colorful than rachet and clanks soundtrack. The sound effects are also sauperb especially the smattering of flesh with a chainsaw.

Great fun, but overrated Posted 16 March 2007
Let me start by saying that Gears of War is an outstanding game. It is very well polished with no major glitches and excellent graphics. I can say with a high degree of confidence that most people will find it to be worth their while. Please excuse my gratuitous comparisons to Halo in terms of quality.

That said, I was disappointed in several departments. The much flouted cover function can seem almost broken quite often; since the A-button is entirely context sensitive, most people will find themselves getting killed in horribly frustrating incidents. For example, (and this has happened to me) a player might try to roll away from an enemy only find their character slam himself behind a piece of cover and get killed. Other aspects of the gameplay, such as the chainsaw bayonet, can prove equally frustrating, since a single hit will stun your character while he is revving his chainsaw. At its best, the Gears single player campaign approaches the brilliance of Halo. Unfortunately, these types of moments have the player shouting at the screen and throwing his or her controller just as often as they have the player dropping their jaw in amazement.

Overall, however, the single player is tremendous. Unfortunately, and counter intuitively, it's no fun to play by oneself. The horrible ally AI limits the player to the lower difficulty levels, so unless you have either an XBOX Live account or a good friend to play with the campaign is no good. Once you add that second person, however, the game really takes off. I have finished this game once on the easiest difficulty setting, once on the medium difficulty setting, and am now almost done with it on the highest difficulty setting. This game entices the player to go back and try it on a harder difficulty, since (at least for me) it is a slow game to learn. I can honestly say that this is one of the most satisfying single player experiences on the market.

For me, the multiplayer is sub-par. It feels far less precise than Halo 2 did on XBL, and the matchmaking system in miles behind Halo 2. This is an often mentioned complaint, but i figure i might as well say it again. Now, I am terrible at Gears multiplayer, so please take my assessment of it with a grain of salt. Practically everyone I know who has played it enjoys it, so even if I don't recommend it I'm willing to wager that you will.

Overall, Gears of War is a solid game marred by some of the annoyances I mentioned here as well as myriad others that can simply drive a gamer crazy. I hate having to sit through dialogue every time I die in campaign without being able to skip it, and the one vehicle portion is a bit of a mess. These complaints don't make me regret owning it, however, and if I were to pick a list of the top five games for XBOX 360 there is no doubt that this would be on my list. I just wanted to warn prospective buyers that while Gears maintains a consistent level of excellence, it is the most constantly frustrating game I have ever played. So please, don't let this article dissuade you from buying it, and don't expect yourself to have the same complaints as I have. Just be warned, despite what many might be saying, this probably isn't the best game on XBOX 360.

The godfather thus far reigns number one for XBOX 360 Posted 14 March 2007
Gears of war is entertaining for a while, afterwards, it gets old and tiring. One of this games' biggest flaws (and others) is the controlling and handling of the gun and character. It's a task to aim and discharge your weapon, neither does it have an bull's eye to direct your weapon to shoot. I suppose this game and 'Call of Duty' could've been better made for the people whom just want to play it for a hour or so. It's just too technical.....

*On the plus side, the only superb quality of this game is it's graphics.

Overall I rate this game a 3.5 = B

Amazing graphics, story, sound, and gameplay Posted 12 March 2007
I wasn't a shooter fan before Gears Of War (GOW). I mostly play hack and slash or RPG games. GOW will likely be my gateway game to shooters.

I'm playing on a 1080P 50" DLP, and the graphics just blow me away. There is insane detail on the COGs faces, body armor, guns, locusts, etc. The facial expressions, head nodding, etc match the voice acting well. When you "roadie run" the screen tilts from left to right, as if a camera man was following you running. It's pretty lifelike! The landscapes are beautiful. GOW continues to deliver with many detailed zones throughout the game.

The cutscenes are exciting and the storyline is great! Even from an RPG fan (games that have very in depth stories). Playing GOW made me research the back story which I found very interesting.

The sound was done well. Hearing the deep voices of Locusts saying "Die Ground walker", boomers saying "Boom" before the blast you, Wretches performing their bone chilling screech, Theron Guards hissing in their creepy voices, etc...it's just great! There are plenty of instances in GOW where it's creepy to play alone in the dark with the volume cranked. Resident evil creepy. There are a couple areas where you can hear things crawling all around you, but you can't see them. You just have to wait for something to jump out and scare the **** out of you. It's great :)

The controls are perfect with the 360 controller. Once you learn how to shoot, active reload, hide, roadie run at the right times, and somersault your way out of imminent death...you will have a blast with GOW gameplay!

The co-op gameplay is unbelievable. It's one of the most enjoyable multiplayer games I've ever played. The replay value is great! You can start from any area you completed in the game. I really don't know what else to say. This game deserves 5 stars from me. GOW completely changed my view on shooters, and opened my mind to a whole different world of gaming.