Gears of War 
is being touted by Microsoft as the “must-have” 360 game. Naturally then, I must have it, and have it I do. I played the online co-op mode for about an hour last night with a friend and came away with mixed feelings.
On the one hand, it’s simply gorgeous. The environments, in particular, are epic-feeling. The 5.1 surround sound is equally delightful. It’s easily one of the best-looking and sounding games ever made.
On the other hand, the gameplay is a bit awkward from my point of view. Gears is a third-person action game, meaning that your character takes up a significant amount of screen real-estate. Forget trying to effectively shoot while running. You need to switch to the ‘aim’ mode (switches to first-person) to be useful, and you can’t do that while moving. Using cover to your advantage is a big part of the game, but I don’t really find that to be a particularly interesting mechanic.
My biggest complaint is the enemies. So far, there has been exactly one kind of enemy to fight. I’ve SEEN other, big-looking insectoid enemies, but they’ve been non-interactive window-dressing thus far. Worse, the enemy there is looks close enough to your allies that I find myself occasionally firing at my allies. Once, I died because I thought the guy running up to me was an ally when in fact, it was one of the Locusts (enemies). I find this really, really annoying, and I’ve talked to a couple other people (including my co-op partner last night) who concur.
Anyone else having problems telling the allies apart from the Locusts? Are my eyes just incompetent?
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November 15th, 2006 at 10:31 am
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November 9th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Galleus
I played for a few hours last night, thought it was worth picking up, though I’m slightly underwhelmed. It would be a godsend to be able to just stay in first-person and have aim-mode either constant and controlled on a different axis or just have it enabled by holding a shoulder button down. I haven’t really had too much trouble identifying friend from foe, though I can absolutely see why that might be. The most telling thing I look for is the blue lights. It’s difficult to tell the difference in armor from a distance, but the allies always seem to have some lights flashing, while the Locusts are more or less dull.
As far as the cover mechanic, I guess it’s sort of a throwback to Time Crisis type games, only with a bit more involvement, but to be honest I’d rather that be a means to survival, rather than the only hope you’ve got. I don’t see how it’s too much to ask that you be able to run and fire competently at the same time. Look at those arms!
I’m hoping things will get a bit more interesting once I put in some more time. I haven’t had a chance to play any Co-Op on Live yet, I’ll have to see who else has it.
November 9th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Tony Walsh
I found the characters difficult to distinguish from each other and from the backgrounds. Everything seems to be washed over with a film of mud. Which is realistic, but not great for gameplay. It can be particularly tricky to discern friend from foe in multiplayer mode.
My first impressions of the game weren’t complimentary, but it has grown a bit on me in the sense that I no longer think it’s a bad title. I’m working my way through single-player but I am not finding it to be interesting enough, overall. It feels like House of the Dead: a shooter completely on rails.
November 10th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
Ben
I’m liking the cover system, mostly for multiplayer. I find it evens out the playing field and makes it a little more strategic, because in run and shoot games I always get destroyed by twelve year olds so buzzed up on Red Bull that their instincts can actually look several seconds into the future.
November 10th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Matt
I played it multiplayer last night with some friends. Wow. That was simply awesome I have to say. I’m going to have to post some more GoW impressions after I get some more controller time in on the game.
November 10th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
Marc/Richter
I’ve been impressed so far, and I’ve played eight hours of it in two days, getting through 3/5 acts. Haven’t touched multiplayer yet, but then again, I’ve always been more of a fan of the game itself than multiplayer (such as in Halo). The environments are gorgeous, and after getting used to which characters look like what, the initial trouble of distinguishing friend from foe has gone away.
I think tonight after poker, I’ll get the guys playing some GoW, and crank up the surround sound.
November 15th, 2006 at 10:25 am
gc
Its been known for at least an entire year that this was a 3rd person shooter. So, I don’t get the complaint about it not being 1st person. If you don’t like 3rd person shooters, don’t buy it and don’t complain about it.
There are several different enemies once you get into the game a bit, 1 hour certainly isn’t enough to get a good feel. I’ve played through what I’m guessing is about half the game at the most and have come across at least 6 different enemy characters.
Also, the cover system and the fact that you aren’t in aim mode the entire time are what make the game more realistic and challenging than 1st person shooters. In real life, you would be in cover almost 100% of the time. And when you were out of cover, you’d either be moving slowly while aiming or you’d be running around ready to shoot but not aiming. This is just how the game works.
Real life battle requires thought, strategy and defensive cover…so does Gears of War.
November 26th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
THE TRUTH
This game is sweet and the graphics and gameplay are fantastic.The only problem is it broke my 360!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Thats a 1,000 dollars down the drain.Of course all thanks to epic.You know we should give them a round of applause for succesfully braking peoples xbox 360 consoles wich everybody paid for.And there not even going to replace them.I really love epic.NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:37 am
L337
Ok, look on multiplayer it can at times be abit hard to tell friend from foe when ur entire team and their entire team are gunning it out close quarters but other wise the disstinction is farely great in the game (i am reffering to size). I mean no rude remarks intended but the locust dont have any bald or black guys on their team. Those are the characters i see most played. And for the other Cog their resemblance is pretty distinct from the Locust. The locust ethier have long capes and full body dress or nothing except pants and gun holsters. But the cog will always maintain their one blue body armor and blue lights.