War...

I had heard about it. People were saying that it was going to be amazing. People sometimes are wrong; and I didn’t feel like listening. Then one day, I went into work, and I saw it being played by a child.

I walked up to the display and asked, “What are you playing?”

“Gears of War,” the child replied.

There it was, in all of its high-definition glory, Gears of War. It was the most amazing game I had ever seen. The graphics were amazing, the controls superb, the AI tactful. It was then I realized that I had to have the 360. This was the future.

While a review shouldn’t be started with such bias, I think it important to know my reaction when I first saw Gears of War.

Gears of War is a 3rd-person action shooter. While it had been done before, this game reinvented the idea of taking cover and popping out to shoot. The first time this was seen was in the N64 action game WinBack which was about 40% good and 60% bad. Gears gives this ability a faster pace, and allows you to move in cover. When a firefight breaks out, you feel as though you are in the middle of combat and that you have to be smart and keep your head down. It is a lot of fun and very strategic.

The single-player is awesome gives you a lot of great challenges. There are 3 difficulty settings to beat the game on one of which is called Insane. It is.

The story isn’t extremely strong but it is very present and decent enough to get into and keep you entertained. The characters in the story are all well-done and each has his own personality. The voice-acting is awesome and really brings the characters to life.

The problem in single-player is the length of the game. It took me about 3 days or about 10 hours of play to beat this game. It was fun all the way through, just a little short. I immediately felt that I needed a sequel, which the ending sort-of alluded to.

The multi-player is a lot of fun. Whether chainsawing your buddy in half or blindfiring a shotgun over cover, multi-player gives a lot of replay value to this game. There about 3 different play modes all of which are a lot of fun. The maps are diverse and can give you a new experience every time.

Gears of War is definitely going into my book as an innovator and a master-piece. It truly is the first next-generation game of our time. Pick it up, you won’t regret it.