Gears Of War Member Review for the Xbox360

Contrary to the rest of the world I wasn't subjected to the usual endless stream of hype and propagnada that comes with a game like gears... I hadn't even seen a single screenshot or trailer until after the game released and honestly I wasn't to enthusiastic... Far from it as a matter of fact... I was wholly disappointed with what I did see... It looked to me like killswitch on steroids... Well after playing the game through on hardcore and eventually beating it I can say that I was wrong... wrong in the way that Barney is wrong... This game had me hooked from the first stage... when the tutorial has you twitching like a squirrel on crack then what follows is going to be good...

I'd give the look of this game a 9.4 on a ten scale... It had some texture issues here and there... Not very noticeable but when you die repeatedly on a certain part of a stage you begin to notice things...

The feel was by and large the greatest achievement in this game... I lost control over my emotions while playing this game... While in the middle of a firefight I was anxious and fearful... when walking through the sewers I was disgusted and twitchy at what I could hear... After finally managing to take out a beserker after being turned into burger eight or nine times I was elated and managed a couple more colorful words for my finally beaten foe... I'd give it a 9.9... The only reason it hasn't scored a higher grade is because I felt that the lack of a save option when the action dies down was a drag... I can see the logic behind the checkpoints so no biggie...

Controls were intuitive and once comfortable with them I could chuck a grenade, laydown cover fire, advance to a better cover postition and mutilate the grub that thought he could defeat me... Haha I laugh at you!!! Eventually though I had a problem with the poor bastard leaning against a wall for cover when I wanted him to dive... Plus having to crouch to jump makes no sense at all... Control gets a 8.8...

The story was a little cookie cutter but it shows promise if the ending is sign of things to come so I reserve judgement... prehaps a graphic novel to flesh out the characters would be nice...

So averaged out this game gets a 9.3... Very respectable and very telling when measured against the PS3's current load of crap...