I played through the casual difficulty level and found that the control scheme really became second nature, which is good, because it needs to be second nature to succeed at the higher difficulty levels.
Visually the game looks great, even when it is not being run on an HDTV, and the sound complemented the game nicely.
The game's biggest setback is the difficulty of General RAAM at the hardcore and insane levels. The battle becomes a combination of luck and frustration, and praying that you have mastered the quick reload to perfection.
Gears of War was good enough for me to immediately start a new campaign at the hardcore difficulty level after beating it on casual, and that level of replay value makes up for the fact that the single player game is a little short.
+ Game looks and sounds great
+ Good single player replay value
+ Control scheme becomes second nature
+ Good feel with teammates
- Difficulty of boss
- Single player game a little short
