Gears of War (GoW) was released over a year ago for the Xbox 360 as a new entry in the tactical shooter genre which brings some interesting mechanics. It was without question the killer app for the second generation Xbox, and it has taken more than long enough to make it to the PC. I almost bought an Xbox 360 on the strength of the GoW reviews, but I held off and waited for the PC version instead. The question, I suppose, is whether the game remains compelling on the new platform a year after its initial release.
Had GoW been released for the PC at the same time as the console, it would easily have been the best looking PC game made. But these days GoW has to compete with Unreal Tournament 3 and Crysis. As such, it's not representative of the bleeding edge but does retain a cutting edge.
To be less vague, the modeling is first rate. The new Unreal 3 engine makes it possible to render characters in exquisite detail, right down to the scars on their face and detailed facial hair. The animation is no slouch either. The actors move believably, or as believably as possible for such bulked-up characters. The protagonist, Marcus Fenix looks bigger than any bodybuilder I've ever seen and some of his squad mates are still more massive. But of course that's normal for the Unreal series.
The special effects are great as well. Heated gun barrels cause a rippling in the atmosphere, fire is wonderfully done, bullet impacts are properly "chunky", the characters' armor has a nifty sheen, and the other effects go a long way toward giving everything in the world a certain weight and plausibility. The special effects add subtly to the look of the game without being distracting.
Perhaps the best thing I can say about the visuals, though, has nothing to do with the implementation. The art direction of the game is fabulous. GoW doesn't go for the realism to which so many games aspire, but it doesn't stray so far as to be cartoonish either. Most of the world has a gritty, desaturated look, which provides a fabulous contrast with the elements that do not share the look. The COG logo spray-painted here and there stands out nicely, and the blood splatters are downright artistic. And the over-the-top bulkiness of the characters makes them so much bigger than life in a grim-reaper-ish, super-soldier kind of way.
And that's to say nothing of the environments. The ruined surface of the planet manages to convey the horrors of war seemingly eternal. Everything looks as if it has been beaten down and ground underneath innumerable battles. But despite all the damage, the architecture is fantastic, hearkening back to a classicism gone wild. The world is so coherent down to the slightest detail that I can't help thinking there's a large amount of back story bubbling unseen beneath the surface.
In short, GoW isn't the best looking PC game on the market today, but it looks fantastic from stem to stern. In every category it gets the job done and goes far above and beyond in some cases, most notably the art direction.
The audio holds up almost as well in the visuals in my view. The music is appropriate to the game, the voice acting is decent if a bit overdone. Personally, I'm getting tired of game protagonists with gravelly voices so deep they rattle the windows in my office, but that's a stylistic matter. The sound effects, though, really get the job done. The roar of the Locust berserker, for example, is downright terrifying. The weapons sound great, the ambient noises are well done. There just isn't much to gripe about.
The only reason I think the audio falls a bit short is because it's all so compressed. There is very little dynamic range in the audio. It's a trend I've found painful in modern music, and it's just as unwelcome in gaming. If there were more dynamic range to the audio it would be all the more impressive. But of course that's a pretty minor complaint; I doubt most gamers will even notice it.
With a few caveats, the interface is as simple as it is functional. The typical first-person shooter (FPS) binds are used, so any gamer who has played a recent FPS will be at home moving, shooting, and using things in the environment. For the most part the interface is quite unremarkable; it just works, which is arguably the highest compliment one might pay it.
Yet all is not wine and roses. I ran into a few things with the game that seem less than elegant. First, and most obvious in my view, is the Windows Live integration. GoW features Windows Live integration, which in my experience means that its multi-player configuration and setup is far more painful than it needs to be. The first time I sat down to play the game I spent the entire hour that I had just trying to get a Windows Live profile created and logged in—which is necessary if you want to save your progress, believe it or not! The menu system desperately needs some kind of re-working, or the Windows Live service needs a separate installer to get all the setup details nailed down before you get into the game.
Second, the minimap isn't always as helpful as it needs to be. I found it particularly irritating that I couldn't easily find my teammate who had gone down when I was playing cooperatively with a friend. We were working on a particular sequence that we found easier if we split up, and if your partner is too far away he won't be visible on the minimap. That makes it pretty hard to get back to him to revive him and continue with the game. It would be nice if the game offered directional arrows or something when items of great importance are off the minimap.
Finally, I have to say that the multi-player menus are not at all intuitive. My friend and I were able to get connected pretty quickly, once we realized what the different options meant, but it seemed rather opaque to us compared to other games.
On the whole, the interface is pretty good, but I think it could have been improved non-trivially by streamlining the Windows Live integration and adding a bit more polish. Perhaps the developers will address my concerns in a future patch. We'll see.
As to game mechanics, GoW brings a cool new mode of gameplay to the FPS genre. It has been described by others as the "stop and pop" mechanic, and that description fits nicely. Other FPS games have encouraged the player to take cover, but I can't think of any prior game that makes it work quite like GoW.
You essentially have to juggle three modes of movement. By default you're running around in the world, standing upright and able to cut loose on any target of opportunity. The down side, of course, is that you're standing upright, which makes you an easy target. Should you find yourself caught out in the open, you can run for cover, which changes the camera to behave in a way that's reminiscent of certain documentary footage from real-world war zones. There is a subtle depth of field effect and change of placement that is very immersive. The down side is that you can't fire while you're running.
Which brings us to the third mode: cover. When you duck into cover, it limits your movement to the extents of the object behind which you're hiding, but it also makes it a blessedly simple thing to pop up and fire quickly before ducking back down. The game also features special moves to get from one piece of cover to another, to vault over a piece of cover, and so forth. The result is a beautifully implemented system that brings a tactical feeling unmatched by most other games. I expect it will become a de facto standard for a certain sub-strain of the FPS genre.
The one down side of the stop-and-pop approach, at least in my view, is the inability to vault objects when in a hurry. Running up to some object and hitting the key to vault over it doesn't result in a jump; rather, it results in the player hunkering down behind it. There's no way that I can see to jump over something without first taking cover behind it, which gets irritating. There are segments in the game where you're on a dead run from some horrible beasty, and all you want to do is jump over something, but you're forced to stop, hunker down, and then vault over it in two separate, maddeningly slow motions. Not like I'm bitter...
GoW also features a reloading minigame that's surprisingly satisfying. The whole premise is that every reload gives the player a chance to time a keypress just right. If you screw it up, then your reload will take even longer than normal, which can be deadly in the thick of combat. The normal reload takes long enough, though, so there's plenty of incentive to get it right. When you do manage to hit it, which becomes almost second nature after a while, your reload will complete far more quickly than normal, and if you nail it precisely you'll even get a worthwhile damage boost.
The result is that the otherwise uninteresting, or perhaps even tedious, process of reloading is rendered entertaining in GoW. I've played literally dozens of FPS games, and not one other game has ever managed to make reloading interesting. There are even achievements related to successful loads and verbal cues in game to reward the player. I'm surprised at myself for saying it, but it never got old; I genuinely enjoyed nailing a good reload throughout the entire game. I applaud the developers for taking a fresh look at such a basic mechanic and turning tedium into fun.
Moving on, the health mechanic is the increasingly popular we-don't-need-no-stinking-health-packs approach, such that the player heals up within a few seconds if only he can disengage from the fight. The aiming mechanic and weapon firing is pretty much what we've come to expect from an FPS game, save for the grenade aiming mechanism. It's a helpful idea, showing the player roughly where a thrown grenade will land, but I found it more than a bit wonky in practice. Otherwise, there aren't any big surprises in GoW, but the innovations in cover and reloading are more than enough to make it seem fresh and new.
On the one hand, GoW feels like it has a deep and engaging story. Marcus Fenix clearly has a history, but so little of it is revealed that he ends the game almost as mysterious as he begins it. He is yet another anti-hero in an age that seems to have no stomach for genuine heroes, and the overuse would be more forgivable were there more meat provided. As it is, the game leaves the player curious about so many things that it's hard to say what story there was, aside from the hackneyed kill-the-alien-invaders bit.
Why was Marcus in prison? Why is he so jaded and cynical, and why does he bother with even the bits of nobility we see in the game? Where did the locust horde come from? Is there any hope for defeating them, or should the survivors simply evacuate? Maybe these questions will get addressed in the inevitable sequels. GoW is clearly built to be a long-running piece of intellectual property, so perhaps a lack of development can be forgiven in the first game.
Whatever your literary leanings, you won't find the story distracting from the action. The game is still a fun game; it's just disappointing, to me at least, that so little was ultimately revealed.
The amount of content in GoW is relatively small in one sense, but everything that made it into the game is absolutely first-rate. Let me start with the negatives. There really isn't much variation in environments. Perhaps it's because the game's color palette is so washed out, but the gray skies above gray stone blur in my mind with the gray caverns beneath the surface. GoW doesn't feature the typical desert/forest/arctic trifecta that has brought a sense of variety to so many other shooters.
The weapon selection is also pretty limited. You'll want to hang on to the basic assault weapon, if for no reason other than the underslung chainsaw—about which I have nothing but gushing praise (pun intended)—but beyond that it just doesn't matter much. The only weapon that you absolutely must have at times to advance past certain areas is a decent choice, but it can only be used outdoors which limits its use rather drastically. Honestly, I think I played 90% or more of the game with the basic assault rifle. There were a couple of weapons that were useful against the bigger enemies toward the end, but paradoxically enough they didn't seem to work against the final boss. Go figure.
The bestiary is also relatively small. You'll spend the vast bulk of your time facing three or four types of opponents. You'll run into a couple of other, larger types at various mini-boss confrontations and as you near the end of the game. And PC gamers can look forward to a new chapter, pitting Marcus and company against the biggest of all the locust foes. At the end of the day, though, the game doesn't feature much in the way of opponent variety, which seemed a bit strange to me given the insect-like nature of the locust horde.
Having said all that, the game manages to be more than the sum of a limited number of parts. Yes, the environments are all very similar, but they are incredibly detailed, chock full of good cover and tactically diverse. Yes, the opponents are pretty limited, but their AI is sophisticated enough to provide a host of different ways they face various situations. They use cover too. They will flank you. They will chuck grenades at you. In short, if you don't improvise, adapt, and overcome, you're going to get overrun and slaughtered. The enemies may not be numerous in kind, but they're deep and engaging.
Happily, the AI of your squad mates is just as good. They take cover and behave reasonably intelligently most of the time. I did run into a couple of situations where they got a bit suicidal—rushing a heavily fortified position in the open just isn't that bright—but those were few and far between. GoW isn't a game wherein your time will be spent baby-sitting your own troops. That's what really counts when it comes to squad AI.
Similarly, while there aren't a ton of weapons from which to choose, the weapons you do get are fun to use. I absolutely loved the underslung chainsaw on the assault rifle. It is a moment of pure gaming ecstasy to rip through some hapless locust with that thing. On more than one occasion I was probably a bit too eager to use it, taking downright foolish chances, but the brutality of it is just so satisfying that it was worth it every time. It really makes for a fun bit in multi-player too, as being carved up by a chainsaw takes "pwnage" to a new level.
The one remaining thing to be said about the content is Microsoft's painfully tyrannical, idiotic decision to tie GoW to the Windows Live service. I wouldn't complain if it were simply a match making thing, because that's no different than what plenty of other vendors do. Nor would I complain if it were a requirement for ladder games or something like that. But that's not what the jerks in Redmond did. They tied it to saving your progress! In other words, dear reader, you can't even play the single-player aspect of the game on your own machine and save your progress until you're signed in to a valid Windows Live account. That's pathetic.
When I buy a knife, I expect it to cut. I don't expect that I have to get the manufacturer's permission every time I want to cut something. When I buy a stereo, I expect it to play music. I don't expect that I have to get the manufacturer's permission to insert a CD and play it. It is a bloody unacceptable abridgement of basic property rights that I have to sign in to Microsoft's crappy online system in order to use the product I bought. Period.
The multi-player aspect of GoW is very solid. You can play the more traditional modes, but my favorite is co-op. The game is designed around a two-man fire team mechanic. If you're playing by yourself, then your support will be controlled by the AI. When a friend joins a co-op campaign game, however, he takes control of your support. It's a brilliant mechanic, and one that makes the game extremely fun to play with a friend. I managed to hook up with arguably my oldest "gaming buddy" and we had a ball making it through the game together. It's just so seamless.
The only down side to the whole thing, I think, is the Windows Live service. Maybe I wouldn't feel that way about it if I were playing the game on the Xbox. Maybe console gamers are accustomed to such screwy limitations, poor connectivity, and down time. When Windows Live was hurting over the holidays, I couldn't even play the game because Microsoft couldn't keep their crappy service up and running. Maybe console gamers are so used to tyranny that they don't know any better, but I could cheerfully throttle the dolt who decided I should have to rely upon Microsoft's craptacular service.
The game has some warts, but it's still a great FPS game. If you're a fan of the FPS genre, then take it from me: GoW is a must-buy. I cannot imagine any FPS enthusiast not enjoying the game. Frankly, even those who aren't normally fond of FPS games should give it a try; GoW is about as good as it gets.
03/06/2008