threevue

Mark:
The only thing worse than being forced to play as a big, burly man’s man that’s constantly spitting out stupid one-liners like, “SUCK PAVEMENT!,” is being forced to play alongside three other ones. There is so much testosterone in this game that it’s really hard to look past it and just enjoy the gameplay, but if you can get over it, the game is actually pretty fun.

There are some really great weapons, like the Hammer of Dawn, and the basic Lancer assault rifle (why did it take so long to figure out that machine guns + chainsaws = mass murder on the raddest of scales?) I also like the weight of GoW. Marcus Fenix is no Master Chief, in that gravity actually applies to him. He’s large, heavy, and hulking (like Russ), and moves around very realistically. Visually, it looks great, although it’s mainly grays and browns, but it definitely broke some new ground (2 years ago).

This game is like a summer blockbuster film: you know it’s not going to be the deepest thing ever made, but it’s fun to just sit back and enjoy it.

82/100

Russ:
It’s a threevue.com thing to make fun of Gears of War with its completely predictable characters and their Madden-esque physiques. But when it comes down to it, this is one hell of an action game. This game is dark, dirty and brutal. I really feel those hits, and can relate to my player as he slowly but surely pushes through a plague of Locusts. And I can complain about how I am controlling a 300-pound linebacker as he sludges through a swamp, but the fact that the developers were able to create that kind of aura is in itself an achievement.

I didn’t get much into the multiplayer, but that’s because everyone is so good online. I don’t like losing all the time. I did play through the single player campaign twice, and I still plan on tackling it on its hardest setting someday. It’s a good length, it has a fair amount of diversity, and looks great. And its online co-op is such a welcome feature that I don’t ever plan on trading this game in for some Gamestop bucks.

90/100

Tyler:
One word; overrated. Wait, one more word; graphics. That’s what comes to mind when I think of Gears of War. By now it’s safe to say that the hype/quality of the visuals in GOW have been put in to perspective with the help of games like COD4 and Crysis so that we can judge the game based on merits aside from how good it looks. Every criticism I have about the game (and there are many) is irrevocable countered by how beautiful the game looks. So I’m going to go one-for-one with this review, a good aspect for a bad one.

The dialogue, story and especially characters in this game are so trite, poorly written and cliché that they constitute a step backwards for video games as a medium / The level that takes place in the caverns looks really good.

Making practically every battle a ’stop & pop’, cover based shoot out isn’t innovative / killing a bad guy by no-look shooting is on par with a cross map headshot any day.

Emptying two (2!) magazines of ammo center-mass in to one of the weaker enemies without result really, really sucks / Chainsawing locusts = fun.

I could go on, there are plenty of good facets of the game ( the Berzerker, Hammer of Dawn, the Krill level) and there are an equal number of bad ones (Baird, Dom and Coletrain). Seeing as how the game is on an even keel of good and bad I want to just split the difference and give it a 50. But GOW gets points for casting Bender as the voice of Markus Fenix.

PS - “Look at all that Juice!”

60/100