Review: Gears of War Judgement
Likewise with many people, I am a big fan of the Gears series, but for some reason I felt sort of half-hearted as the release date approached, however I bought it anyway (c'mon, it's Gears!).
The title is published by Microsoft and developed by Epic Games, as before, but this time co-developed with People Can Fly, so I wondered what changes would be made this time around. I ordered the game online and it arrived yesterday (a day early) so Mrs Sam retired with her book and I loaded up, ready for action.
First of all, I already had a taster of what was to come as I downloaded the multiplayer demo on Tuesday night. The multiplayer was for a mode called 'Over Run'; the Cogs have to guard a sort of man-hole cover that block the Locust holes, and the Locusts have to try and overcome the various barricades and turrets to get to these 'E-Covers' so that they can take them out. The Cogs stand their ground to make sure that they are protected. After the first round, the opposing teams swap over (Cogs become Locusts, Locusts become Cogs). Best out of three win the round.
What was 'interesting' about this was that each player -teams of five this time- are able to select a role (if you remember the 'Beast Mode' from Gears 3, you'll already be familiar with this for the Locusts) whereby you can select a character with different 'skill' sets to help your team. So for example, as a Locust, you can select a ticker, wretch or Kantus, and you can 'buy' more deadly characters (such as a Mauler or Serapede) within the round depending on the points you acquire. As a Cog, you can choose a soldier, engineer, medic or sniper. Every time your character dies in the round, you have the option to change roles, so it makes the player consider which role to select depending on what roles the surviving team mates currently have. As the player achieves certain objectives, they receive 'ribbons', for example, a ribbon for blowing up multiple enemies with one explosion, chainsawing three consecutive enemies, etc. and the players receive experience points during game play, which levels up the experience of the player.
Last night I loaded the game and was happy to see that the experience points and medals I had already achieved were transferred across to the new save. I decided to skip out on multiplayer and play through the campaign. The story starts off with a young 'Lieutenant' Baird being marched in handcuffs to a courtroom along with his unit 'Kilo Squad' which happens to consist of Sophia Hendrik, Garron Paduk and fresh-faced Augustus 'Cole Train' Cole. They are being tried for crimes of which yet we are left unaware of as the game takes on a playable narrative as to the events that are yet to be told.
The story is set before 'E-Day' during the 'Pendulum War', basically the day that all the Locusts came up from their holes and destroyed the world of Sera, hence the reason the characters are younger looking. As the game began, I familiarised myself with the controls, only to discover that they were slightly different. No longer does the player use the d-pad to select their weapon of choice; simply press the 'Y' button to select one of only two weapons this time, and use the L-bumper to deploy a grenade (hold the button down and press 'B' to tag walls and enemies).
As I played through, it become apparent that this game is much more 'arcade-y', in the sense that each section really does feels like a segregated 'section', with a 'star rating' system for each section...(?). Basically there are three stars that the player can achieve in each section, so depending on your playing style, this will change the outcome of your rating. The points can be increased by taking on and completing the section's 'Declassified' missions; you need to find the giant red skull icon to activate this mode and the details of the mode will be displayed, so for example, kill only using Locust weapons, complete the section in less than five minutes, etc. Points are awarded for executions, head shots and number of kills, and deducted for being 'downed'. When the each area is cleared, the player can make their way to the checkpoint and the option to replay or advance is available.
Personally, I prefer the format of the original games. The basics are there such as the cover third-person game play, collecting the COG tags, etc. with the addition of new weapons and enemies, but it feels slightly off. It is also strange that Marcus is not the lead protagonist but I am sure he will turn up at some point. Even though I am playing it on the Hardcore setting, it doesn't feel as challenging as its predecessors. I wouldn't condemn this game, but it's certainly not the best of the genre. I will play it through and unlock everything though, in true Gears-geek fashionMaybe it's too early for me to judge Judgement... but I don't think so.
I've also noticed that the 1600 microsoft points 'Season Pass' was out days before the release of the game tooKerching!!!!
Verdict:
Six out of ten frogs.
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